Good morning. It’s been a very interesting week for me.

You all know I signed up with CalorieKing.com on Monday, so I’m 5 days into it. The program they have me on is a daily calorie target of 1690 calories a day, plus however many calories I burn in exercise. I’m supposed to exercise 150 minutes a week. They suggest 5, 30 minutes sessions. Once a week I record my weight and measurements.

There’s a place to record exercise, water, and food. They break it down into different nutritional elements. One day, although I was well within my recommended percentage of fat, a little tag popped up telling me that I’d had too much saturated fat. I was surprised and looked at what I’d eaten, and the breakdown they do as to what’s in it. It was the dairy. I’d had butter on bread a couple times for a snack, and a cup of 1% milk, and cheese. The butter was the main culprit, but all the saturated fat in the dairy added up.

It’s been fascinating to see how foods add up during the day, and what meals have what calories, and that I seem to eat higher calorie lunches and smaller dinners.

What’s been really weird is to see that I have to work at eating enough. I’ve heard of overweight people that hardly ate a thing, but I didn’t think I was one of them, probably because of the days when I eat a ton. But that’s not my norm. My metabolism must be totally screwed up. I know now that on a normal day, I don’t get enough calories, and then periodically, I’ll go nuts and eat a ton, mainly when desserts or snacks are available. So I’m guessing that my body hangs on to all of it.

The first two days I ate a lot of carbs. I noticed at the end of Monday that I was way shy of my recommended calories and carbs, so I made a huge bowl of pasta and still fell short by 331 calories. (The website of course didn’t believe that I hadn’t eaten enough, so it’s automatically generated comment the next day was to make sure I remembered to record all of my meals).

I was extremely tired in the afternoons on Monday and Tuesday, I assume from the jump in carbs and blood sugar levels, but since then, I’ve felt great. Another thing I’ve noticed is that I’m feeling hunger more. Considering I’m eating more, this wouldn’t make much sense except that I’ve already experienced something similar with water.

I used to live extremely dehydrated without even knowing it, years ago. (I haven’t been very good to my body, apparently). Once I realized, and started drinking water, I was suddenly thirsty ALL THE TIME. The more I drank, the more thirsty I felt. 16 glasses of water a day, and I’d go to bed thirsty. After awhile, it died down but I’d still feel thirsty a lot. If I ignore the thirst and don’t drink, after a little bit, the thirst goes away, too.

I’m experiencing the same thing with hunger this week, in that I feel it a lot more. I feel hungry when I wake up in the morning (this never, ever happens). I’m hungry halfway between breakfast and lunch, so I eat a little snack. I’m hungry at lunch. I’m hungry between lunch and dinner. Hungry at dinner, then I’m good for the night.

So I’m eating. More than I normally do. And I’m content. I’m not craving anything. I’m snacking on good things, watching my percentages on the website, recording everything….

It’s very labor intensive, and the first half of Monday, it was a total pain in the butt. But then it became fascinating, and now I feel like I’m learning a lot about my body and how to take care of it.

It feels weird being on a diet and eating pretty much whatever I want. The best part is that I’m not afraid of food. I don’t have to feel guilty for eating. As long as I keep track of it, I know where I am in my daily allotment. In the afternoon, I can look at my percentages and see what I should focus on for dinner (ie more carbs or more protein). It’s completely awesome.

So, I’ve lost 2.8 pounds since Monday.

And I’m eating more.

I had two soft bean burritos from Taco Time for lunch on Tuesday. How is this possible?

After a couple obsessive days of reading, emailing, calling, thinking, and talking it over, I think I’m leaning towards a Majacraft Suzie Pro.

One of the biggest advantages to this wheel is that the wheel itself, like on my Clemes, is solid as opposed to spoked. So little Clark can play with it (which he’s going to do anyway) and not pinch his hands or fingers when the wheel turns. Plus, as Nate pointed out, it’s a much more subtle wheel than most of the others, and isn’t going to be as much of a draw to kids, ours or otherwise, as much as a larger, fancier wheel would be.

So now I have to spin on a Majacraft to see if I even like it. (And figure out how to pay for it. Birthday or not, it’s a lot of money). I expect to like it, and certainly hope to like it, but you never know. It’s kind of silly to have made up my mind before even spinning on one. But what can I say?

Last night, the mess in the house was getting to me, so I spent between 3-4 hours cleaning it. This morning I woke up and felt so completely free… like the day was open to me and I could do whatever I wanted with it.

So I dug out 4 gallons of paint from the garage and started priming touch up spots.

That’s so pathetic.

I’m excited for Health Group tomorrow. So excited. Be sure to stop by.

Hayden was over last night, and I got another inch done on the shawl. She has a much smaller frame than I do (like my mother-in-law) so I had her try it on, and I think I’m almost done! I’m shooting for 1 1/2 more repeats, and then an edging. I’m not quite sure which edging I’m going to use, as I don’t really like the one in the pattern. It seems a bit heavy.

I’m anxious to get back to the uptown boot socks, and thinking about it, I have no idea where they are. Crap.

I don’t know what to do. I’m hoping to buy a spinning wheel for myself for my birthday in just under a month, and I’m overwhelmed by the options. I was leaning towards the Kromskis because they’re economical, pretty, and spin really nice. But they’re clackity. I think that’d bug me. There are things I could try to do to minimize the clack, and if it works, it’d be great.

However, I think I would really enjoy spinning on something more along the lines of a “precision” instrument. So the majacrafts (rose and suzie pro) hold some appeal. The Schacht Matchless also. And the Lendrum saxony of course.

BUT, I don’t particularly like the look of the majacrafts. At least not as my home wheel. And the Schacht is a honking, heavy beastie. Plus, I think I’d like a saxony style wheel to spin on at the house, and something more portable to take to Madrona in the future, and Village Yarn and Tea every month for the spinning group, plus the guild meeting, plus anywhere else I might take it, if it were easily portable.

Which would lead me back to the Kromskis, but I’m much more drawn to the soft whirr of a wheel and flyer over the

clackety, clackety, clackety, clackety, clackety, clackety, clackety, clackety, clackety, clackety, clackety, clackety, clackety, clackety

of a rattling bobbin.

But, if a little circle of felt would help……

So I go in circles. Over, and over, and over again. It’s making me crazy, to say nothing of what poor Nate is going through when I ask him what I should do, and he makes a suggestion, and I argue it, so he makes another suggestion, and I argue that, and he gives up in exasperation.

All the while, my birthday gets closer. There’s nowhere I can go to try them all out side by side. I don’t even know where I could try a Suzie Pro at all.

I’d be perfectly happy with my Clemes if someone could make me another whorl or two and compatible set of bobbins to give a faster ratio. Then I’d just get me a pretty saxony for the house, and it’d be ok. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

On the plus side, I think I’m getting a new spinning wheel in the near future! Isn’t that exciting? No clue what it’s going to be, but I’m excited!

Yesterday was my first day of Calorie King. I was supposed to eat 1690 calories, plus whatever calories I burned exercising (295 I think, depends on where you look). I couldn’t do it, and it felt stupid to eat something sweet just to meet my calories, so I ended up being 331 calories shy of my target.

That is just so weird to me.

We’ll see how today goes. I added 2 oz of banana to my shake this morning to give me a little more calories. I like that the program tracks water consumption. That’s something I like to do anyway, so it’s nice to keep it all in one place.

On the faroese shawl, I’m about done with skein #5. Two left, but I’m thinking I’m going to need more skeins.

It’s so pretty. I can’t wait to see it blocked.

Sorry I missed Saturday again. BUT, April is essentially over! At least in my mind, so I can relax. The wedding was wonderful. The reception was wonderful. We won the softball game on Saturday. The baptism was wonderful. The huge family gathering afterwards was wonderful. The visit with my family has been wonderful.

It’s all good.

In sad news, my neighbor died, so I wasn’t able to give her the shawl as I was hoping to. Lesson learned, next time (if this kind of situation comes up again), I’ll make a pair of socks. I’m actually quite irritated at myself for thinking too big and not going with socks in the first place. It didn’t occur to me until I was well into the shawl. Considering the time I’ve put in, I so could have finished a pair of socks in time to gift them and express the love I was hoping to. Dangit.

Health Group-

I’m joining Calorie King today. Now that the craziness of April is over, I feel like I can actually devote some time and energy to my health again. I’m very excited about it.

How was your week?

There’s this art event I want to go to, but it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to. It’s at Cannon Beach, and the artist I’ve started collecting is going to be there to unveil an originals show. It looks like there’s a whole lot of cool stuff going on that weekend. It’ll be awesome. Is anyone planning to go?

I did some organizing and cleaning in my room today, and I cleared off the bookshelf next to my side of the bed, and made it pretty.

Now I wish I had taken a “before” shot. There was a towering pile of books that extended above the view you have in the picture. And papers and garbage and dust and stuff. Now it’s pretty! And I get to see my Koigu.

I knit a few rows on the faroese shawl last night. I don’t know when in the world I’ll be able to finish it. I didn’t think it’d take this long. I was aiming for one week, hoping it didn’t take two. Two is almost gone, and here we are.

I so appreciate all the comments and emails yesterday. Thank you. It helped both in the suggestions, and the caring.

I’m not angry anymore. I have a headache, and I can’t think very straight, and I’m oh-so-tired, but Clark woke up at 1 am and 5:40 and then up for good at 7. So that’s contributing.

Today is Liv’s birthday. She asked for black bottom cupcakes, so I’ve been making them all morning, and I’ll take them to her class at around noon.

As for Bloglines- It looks like I have a new feed or something. I don’t know how it works, but I think if you want Bloglines to update, re-subscribe by hitting the button in the sidebar. Thanks.

I haven’t had much time to knit or spin this week. But I have another lovely violet in bloom right now.

I realize this is the second post of the day, but I’m PMS-ing really bad. I’m angry, impatient, irrational, depressed, sad, blame throwing (I’m managing to keep that internal for the most part). Really, really angry. For no reason at all.

I’m not usually like this, but I have had these emotions the last three cycles, so when it showed up yesterday, I kind of knew what it was. It’s worse today, and is getting worse rapidly.

I know there are things to do, stuff to eat/take that helps but I’ve never paid much attention to those conversations, because it wasn’t an issue for me. But I have a very big week ahead of me, and I’d like to not make an idiot of myself in social situations…..

So, what works for you? What do you do to avoid biting everyone’s head off the week before your cycle? Step up, I need help. I’m going to Google after posting this, but I much prefer the tried and true advice from people I know (or pseudo know, or at least that know me :-).