I’ve been hanging out at this liminal point weight-wise for quite a while.  Part of me would like to be “done” and on maintenance (scare quotes around done because are we every done?), but part of me thinks that’s an insult to the person I was, and there was nothing wrong with her, or with who I am now, for that matter.  I don’t expect an easy resolution here!

What I’m focusing on instead are attitudes and behaviors I want to try to be happier and more satisfied with my life.  So, for my birthday, I’m trying out yoga.

I’ve been feeling anxious and irritated, and using food to try to medicate those feelings away.  I was trying to use regular exercise (elliptical, walk/jogs, classes) to help mitigate those feelings, but that exercise was feeling mechanical, something to get through.  Music was something to motivate me to move faster and to distract me from what I was doing with my body.

All well and good, and I’m sure it was good for me, but it wasn’t doing anything for my irritation and my cravings.  I decided to try yoga.  My understanding was that yoga wouldn’t do much for calorie burning, but my goal was to quiet the mind, not burn the fat.

I’ve tried three classes so far, and I’m shocked–I think it’s helping in quelling the cravings.  I’m a total skeptic when it comes to what I consider woo woo stuff, and yoga is the ultimate in woo woo in my book.

But yesterday, there was a chocolate cake in the office kitchen.  I was very hungry, as I was eating lunch late.  Instead of eating the cake, I really wanted to eat my lunch (my kabocha lentil tagine-yum!).  I told myself after I ate that, if there was something left I could think about it then.  Sure enough, there was one piece left when I returned to wash my bowl. I passed it by.  It was still there later, and I still didn’t go for it.

I have NEVER passed up on cake in my entire life.  I was the kid who swiped frosting flowers off of my sister’s birthday cake before we sang happy birthday.  It wasn’t hard; it just wasn’t what I wanted.  The power of yoga, or new mental perspective?  I don’t know.

The other thing I’m trying is a pressure cooker!  My DH got it for me for my bday.  It’s sitting on my counter, all shiny with its sticker still on it.  I’m so excited!  I’m reading all these cookbooks to figure it out.

I ordered two pressure cooker cookbooks from Barnes and Noble, which I’ve grown to like better than Amazon.  The prices are close, same free shipping after $25, but it’s FAST-I got my books the next day, whereas Amazon takes a week just to ship my stuff.  Well, one of them.  The other one, mysteriously, was a book about Hawaii.  Is Barnes and Noble trying to tell me something?

So I’ll try something in my new cooker soon… gulp!

What new things are you trying?

My husband Joel has lost 75 lbs, and this has generally been a Very Good Thing.  He loves wearing smaller clothes and playing golf better than before. But recently, he had an episode where we thought he may have had a heart attack. It turned out that his blood pressure medicine was depressing his heart rate so low that when he was in a crowded, stuffy room he passed out.

He’s doing better, now.  His black eye is turning colors like the fall leaves (a lovely shade of red-yellow at the moment).  He’s monitoring his blood pressure and pulse, and thankfully the latter is staying higher than 50.  But if you’re losing weight and if you’re taking medicines, be sure you monitor them carefully! Joel was seeing his Dr regularly and still had this scary episode.

Joel, feeling better

The bigger they are, the harder they fall.  But fortunately, when my DH Joel fell yesterday he wasn’t nearly as big, and didn’t fall nearly as hard as he could have.

He’s back from the hospital now, but we’ve had a scary two days. He was covering an assignment at the hospital when he collapsed there.  The medical staff couldn’t find a pulse or see whether he was breathing, so called a code blue on him and performed CPR on him for less than a minute.

He is ok.  He was admitted to the hospital, but didn’t have a heart attack.  They scanned his brain (he has one, without blood clots), and took Xrays of his spine (he has one of those, too, intact).  He has two cuts over his eye they stitched up and a black eye so he looks like a boxer.

We don’t know why he passed out, but we’re happy that he’s home. I’m happy that he’s been taking such good care of himself that when I got the call to come I didn’t think he had a heart attack, but passed out from seeing the procedure.  I’m glad that he weighed less and exercised more so perhaps that’s what protected his back. And it was certainly easier for the staff at the hospital to care for him.

Welcome home, hon.