It's A Girl!

Well, I’m finally getting around to posting about the new addition to our family - a new German Shepherd puppy.
We figured she needed a good German name, so we decided on Greta. Greta was born on April 1 in Albert Lea and came home with us around mid/late May. It just took this long for SH to get his pics loaded from his digital camera for me to post anything because how can you post about a puppy without including pics?

Here we are in the yard. She’s very tired as you can see. It’s so very hard being a puppy, you know.

Shilo seems to be very happy now that he has a little sister to play fight with. He likes to eat her head, as we call it. Seriously, he puts her whole head in his mouth and… gnaws on it – that seems to be the best description. Lena could tell you. They both, actually, like to chew on each other’s head. Doesn’t look very fun to me, but whatever…

A couple weeks ago we were shopping and in the pet section I found the cutest “costume” – that’s what the tag said. It was a pink beret with the Eiffel tower on it and the text “J’adore Paris”. Naturally, I had to get it! So, here is Greta with her first ensemble.

Since I can’t do this stuff to Shilo, I’ll do it to Greta! Hee hee!

Yup, Shilo loves his sister…

Tas, on the other hand (in background), not so sure...

Yay Me!

It appears I am down 3 lbs now. Not a whole lot, but 3 in 1 1/2 weeks works out to be an average of 2 lbs a week. Not too bad. Hopefully I can continue this for the next 3 months or so.

Also, Lena and I are slowly working back into the weekend gym routine; which is very good, and much needed.

I seem to be doing quite well with my restricted calorie plan. To review the past week I come up with:

6 days under my allowed 1500 calories (under by roughly 100)
6 days under my allowed fat intake
still keeping up with my food tracking (obviously)
keeping on track with daily weigh-ins

I'll have to post something non-food/weight loss related. I've been meaning to for the last few days but things have just been kind of crazy - mostly at work. That's right, I still haven't won the lottery and quit my job. ...oh well, there's always next time... ;)

Mmmm... I'm sitting here checking blogs, waiting for it to be time where I'm forced to get dressed to go over to mom's for a visit, and watching the fat squirrels run around and playing games in my backyard. Whilst doing so, I figured what the hell, I'll have a little bit of coffee since I've done so well abstaining in the last 6 months for the sake of my gametes. I didn't want to brew a pot and saw there was some leftover in the maker so figured I'd just heat that up and drink it. Now, as I drink it I find myself thinking that I really can't remember when the last time sweet hubby had coffee was. Did he brew this coffee yesterday (hopefully), or was it Friday? Or Thursday? ...Wednesday???

Apparently all this treatment crap and hard work to try to stay balanced both emotionally and physically and, well, sane, has taken a toll on my memory. I was mentioning to sweet hubby this morning that the thing I thought I needed at Target last night (and couldn't remember) must have been a refill on my thyoid med and figured I better call it in so I could pick it up today since I'm down to 3 pills and that was weird that I never got a call on this to let me know it's ready. Well, apparently the pharmacy's automated phone line called 3 days in a row about a week ago, according to hubby.

"It did?" I inquire, confused.
"Yeah, I told you about it. Don't you remember?" He responds, somewhat incredulously.
"Huh, no. That doesn't ring a bell." More confusion as I wrack my brain trying to remember.
"Yeah, I told you a couple times." He confirms.

I guess it's to be expected with the kind of strain I've been under these last couple/few years with the IF struggle and dealing with the mom-grandma situation (I'll have to post about that later - long story). It's probably nothing to be too concerned about - well, unless it expands to forgetting that dish soap is not to be used as a salad topper and goo gone is not a good source of citrus-based vitamin C...

Progress Check

All in all, I'd have to say that I've gotten off to a pretty decent start as far as this nutrition/calorie monitoring thing started.

Here's where I'm at so far:

Target daily calories - 1500
Fat intake recommended limit - 47g

Tues 1/22/08
1506 cal consumed
6 cal over goal
45.5g fat
1.5g fat under

Wed 1/23/08
1439 cal consumed
61 cal under goal
45.5g fat
1.5g fat under

Thurs 1/24/08
1866 cal consumed
366 cal over goal
55g fat
8g fat over

Fri 1/25/08
1577 cal consumed
77 cal over goal
65.5g fat
18.5g fat over

Sat 1/26/08
1991 cal consumed
491 cal over goal
85g fat
38g fat over

Despite being so over yesterday (Sat), I'm still rather proud of myself considering that it was girl's night as Jessica's place. She of course HAD to have a yummy spread with caprese snacks (Roma tomato with a blob of one of those marinated mozzarella balls and a spritz of balsamic viniagrette), homemade guacamole with tortilla chips, hummus with pita chips, pesto pasta with chicken, artichoke hearts, great & sundried tomatoes. Oh, and of course a variety of wine and mixed drinks, including key lime martinis (I didn't have any because of the cream) and caramel appletinis (I had two). So all things considered, I did pretty well. I figure the fact that I still stayed 9 calories under what I should consume to maintain my weight is something to be pleased about. Yay me! :)

Now starts the first whole week of monitoring. I hope I can keep this up and don't lose interest and drop it. That seems to be my problem with these things. I get bored and stop doing what I was doing and that's how I fall off the wagon...

Oh, another stat to add, in the last week I seem to have dropped 5 lbs. Actually I think it's more like 3 or 4 and I was just really bloated the initial day I weighed myself and/or weighed at the wrong time - not sure. I am currently trying to get in the habit of hopping on the scale everyday before showering so that I can enter my weight in the Live Healthy America daily journal (and keep tabs on myself). Hope I can keep up with all of this! ;)

Numbers - Oh, My Head Hurts

I've now done some online research (and factored in Dom's two cents) and have come up with the following:

According to the Mayo Clinic website, I need to consume 2000 calories daily to maintain my current weight. To maintain a weight of 140/135, I would need to consume 1850 calories daily.

According to caloriesperhour.com, a healthy calorie deficit for weight loss would be 300 to 400 at my current weight. By their numbers a deficit of 400 will take 9 months to lose 31 lbs, 6 months to lose 20 - a bit slow. But, a deficit of only 100 more calories supposedly will bring me to 30 lbs in 7 months and 20 lbs. in 5, at 1500 calories daily a little better. But now that isn't even factoring in weekend workouts and an increased walking schedule, or increased calorie burn. I'm not sure how accurate averaging is, but I figured if I average my previous typical weekend workouts, daily home exercises and walking (figuring walking 5 days per week for 1 hour) I supposedly will burn approx. 500 calories a day... ?? I'm thinking then that I should be able to drop close to 1000 calories daily (or at least 800 or so anyway) between cutting back on food and exercising, which would definitely keep me out of the extreme calorie deficit Dom mentioned. I have also read before that extremely low caloric intake will affect other bodily systems that are not reqired for survival, like the reproductive system, which we definitely don't want.

I hope I'm figuring correctly, or even close to correctly. I just hate working all these numbers! Too much math! Argh!

Anyway, I think my plan is to a) get back to my previous weekend gym workouts b) be sure to get 5 1hr walks in per week c) force myself to count calories and keep it at 1500 - and see how it goes.

Oh, but what about the fat and fiber...? Mmmm... Do I just say screw that and shoot for just the calories? Maybe to start out anyway, to keep things less confusing. This calorie monitoring will be trying enough for me. I usually last a few days or even a week before just dumping it altogether. I'll have to try to find a way to make it fun - or like a competition with myself. ...something.

Versailles

Time for more Paris pics. This time it's our day at Versailles. Here is a view of the gigantic mansion from waaaay down in the gardens. I'd hate to be the one that has to clean those windows...


This is a very interesting sculpture that is outside the back of the shack. If you look closely you may be able to see the horns/sirens in the animals' mouths. Dad figured it must have been to signal setting out for a hunt. Or perhaps it was to signal danger. You know, like if an entire city is in search of someone in the building and is looking to ransack the place and behead someone.

This is a side garden (to the right as looking at the first pic above). Notice the palm trees and extremely manicured and decorative grassy areas? What a dump, huh?

I thought this was an interesting planter (which was on the giant patio area outside the back, near the fountain). Is that a naked elf pooping on a goat's head? I think the elf may be crowning. I'm not sure. What I am sure of is I NEED one of these.

This is just a cool shot of one of the walkways leading to the gardens. The trees are actually trimmed into rectangular shapes, like a hedge.

This would be the doorway to the hall of mirrors.

One of the many ceiling frescos.

A view of more ceiling frescos, ornate columns, many architectural details in the chapel. That's right, they had their very own chapel!

More of the chapel.

Some of the stained glass as well as more architectural details. Could you imaging living in a place like this? It was completely massive. They also had their own opera house, but unfortunately that was not part of the tour.

Close-up of the building. It looked like the entire building was lined with the statues visible on the upper level, which all appeared to be of different people.

Here is one of the beds (and some annoying person who was in my way). All the beds had the high canopy with the gold leaf detailing and the feathers. Again, what a dump!

I have some more b&w pics too that I'll have to post but this is all I have time for at the moment. If you want to see more pictures of our trip, check out this site my dad made - http://www.ce-h.us/paris/paris.html. Be sure to go into Paris life > art everywhere. Look at the second pic of the sculpture that was in a shop around the corner from out hotel. Dad was fascinated with this piece. He kept talking about it and pointing it out when we walked by it. He was also fascinated with the scooters that were all over the place and the dogs that were also all over the place, and pooping on the sidewalks. He took pictures of both. Yeah, he's a goofy guy. I guess that's where I get it from...