Today was my weigh-in and I figured I’d keep you all “in the loop” and let you know that I’ve successfully lost 15 pounds now since the middle of April.  And I’m not really exercising much yet (because I’m LAZY) and I’m still doing the diet thing with about 80% compliance or a little less, but I’m trying to stick to it as much as possible.

What that looks like is this:  Today I’ve had unsweetened applesauce, a Cobb salad, an apple, carrots, a sugar-free Peppermint Patty, and sunflower seeds.  For dinner we’re having Manwich, which I’ll put over squash.  And then I’ll have a sugar-free ice cream bar.  Yesterday’s dinner was a huge salad with a hard boiled egg, strawberry, sunflower seeds, and dressing.  But Monday’s dinner was pizza, boneless wings, and a bread stick, which I enjoyed completely – and was the reason why I ate mostly vegetables all Tuesday.

It’s a process.  Some days are easier than others.  But it’s working, as evidenced by the -15 pounds, and I can feel it when my body doesn’t like what I’ve been eating – mostly by the twitching in my legs when I’ve got too much sugar in my system.  It’s really annoying.

Anyway, we’re pretty sure we can get phone service in the house most of the time now, so feel free to call if you’d like.  That’s a really random transition, but it was the topic of the last couple posts here, so I figured I should follow up on that item, too.

In other news, it’s hot.  And the weather keeps saying that it’s going to rain.  Every day, the little icon for thundershowers shows up on my calendar.  But every day I go home on bone dry roads, leaving my umbrella in my office in case I need it tomorrow.  We need the rain.  The backyard is brown and crunchy.  Vines in a pot that I ignored have completely dried up and died.  I think even the bugs have given up on finding anything alive in our backyard.  Justin and I look out at it and say, “We should really water that,” but we don’t do it very often because it’s such a waste of water.  And besides, the weather says it’s going to rain tomorrow.  I’ll be sure to have my umbrella ready.

Justin and I went to the beach last Saturday afternoon and spent several hours enjoying that.  It’s a long process to initiate, so we have to enjoy it for several hours to make it worth it.  After all, there’s packing the car and making sure we have everything we need; there’s the 90 minute or so drive; there’s the pulling everything from the car, walking to a place on the beach, and setting everything up; and then there’s the thorough application of sunscreen.  In the end, our encampment involves 2 umbrellas, 2 lounge chairs, towels, sunscreen, a couple books, possibly some food, definitely something to drink, 2 boogie boards, and a wrap for me if/when I get cold.  And after we’ve enjoyed the beach, we have to take it all apart, walk it back to the car, drive all the way back home, unpack the car, and then shower all the sand out of our hair.  It takes time, so the time in between had better be worth all the trouble.

And it usually is.  Saturday was definitely no exception.  We got there as the tide was coming in, so we set up really far back on the sand so we wouldn’t have to worry about the water.  Because the tide was incoming, the waves were fantastic (for this part of the coast) and we spent a good amount of time splashing around in the water.  It takes a while for me to get over my anxiety of the water — I worry about getting out too far and not being able to make it back in and I worry about not being able to touch the bottom and I worry about getting attacked by jellyfish or other sea creatures.  But Justin is patient and eventually I relax and we have a blast.  Saturday, I got tired more quickly than he did (plus, I had to take a break after I get a lot of water up my nose) so I spent time in the shade while he kept on playing. Which is why he ended up with an impressive sunburn while I didn’t.

So we spent a chunk of time in the water and then a chunk of time on shore, reading in the shade of our umbrellas, and then more time in the water.  And the whole time, the tide was coming in.  The crowds started thinning out as there was less and less beach above water level.  And the people who were staying had to keep a close eye on their things to make sure that they didn’t lose anything to the waves.  Every now and then there’d be a cry of “Oh, no!” as someone’s towel got soaked by a far-reaching wave.  Justin eventually moved all our stuff to the grassy bank behind us — the sand where we were sitting runs up to a part of the beach that’s suddenly about 2 feet higher and covered in marsh grass.  So he put everything up on that so it’d be sure to stay dry.  And then we just sat there as the waves came closer and closer to our chairs and then under our chairs and then sunk the chairs in the sand several inches as the water washed past.  It was so cool!  And really relaxing.  And Justin packed up the car while I sat there enjoying it and then we dug my chair out of the sand and went home.  Where we covered his upper torso with lots and lots of aloe.

It was a great day!