Sugar. It’s strange stuff.

I’m still off of it, though I did a little fudging (not actual fudge, though that would have been nice, just a little more sugar than I should. Like a few graham crackers. That sort of thing) yesterday and today. Then tonight, at a dinner with friends, I did eat an official dessert. So I’m going back on the wagon tomorrow. Yesterday was circumstantially necessary, and today was carryover. But I’m done with all that. I have all of October and most of November to go with the sugar purge.

Anyway, (and I know I’m totally rambling), I’ve learned a few things. I’ve started craving milk. So I’ve been drinking it, and while I did notice it tasted extremely sweet, it took a few days for me to read the label and realize that regular, 1% milkfat dairy milk has more grams of sugars in it than my sweetner added soymilk.

What?

Seriously?

My body obviously knew that “there be sugar there”, because I’ve been craving milk. My brain didn’t know though. That’s so lame. So I’m curbing but not eliminating my milk consumption. I’ll still have it occasionally, as I did previously, but I’m NOT going to artificially up my drinking of milk to make up for the lack of sugar. To feed the addicted beastie. Not going to do it.

We’re trying to KILL the addict. That’s the whole point. I’m glad I’m not an alcoholic. Sheesh. I feel pathetic.

I’ve managed to exercise 4 times a week for three weeks now. That’s 2x on weights and strengthening exercises for a total of 30 minutes on those days, and 2x on the treadmill, alternating between jogging and walking, for a total of 20 minutes and 30 minutes respectively. 50 minutes per treadmill day.

I WANT to be exercising 5-6 times a week, but I’m still happy with what I’ve done. I’ve been working hard. Still haven’t lost a single pound, or shrunk out of any clothes. When I’m sweating my guts out on the treadmill, I feel very empowered, and optimistic, because there’s NO FREAKING WAY that it isn’t affecting my body in a positive way.

But when I’m not immediately involved in the act of exercise, I tend to feel frustrated, and like a big, fat cow.

On the plus side, this makes exercising a pleasant experience, feeling strong and productive as opposed to my frequent gripe of “the same. Always the same…”

So there we are. I will. not. give. up.

Ooh, ooh, and my resting heart rate was 51 beats this morning! I think it would have been in the high 40’s to be honest, which sounds kind of creepy, but it always accelerates when I’m timing it.

How was your week? Are any of our “10 pounds by December’ers” having any success?

I finished Abby’s sweater, finally.

I’ll try to get a model shot soon.

It turned out better than I was thinking it would, towards the end. As I was seaming it together, the fronts were overlapping considerably, so I decided that instead of tying the tops together with icord as originally intended, I’d just trim out the neck and let her pin it closed with a brooch. As it turns out, once I knit the icord onto the neck, it tightened up nicely, and I could have continued to knit the ties, but Abby was excited about the pinning option, so that’s what she’s going to do.

(Unfortunately, the pin that looks best on it is my Lord of the Rings Butterfly Brooch. And she’s totally not getting that).

Something I hadn’t anticipated was that she finds the sweater itchy.

Lame.

Hopefully, she’ll still wear it with a long sleeved shirt underneath. Veronica’s sweater is going to be knit with Lamb’s Pride also. I wonder if she’ll find it itchy as well.

I’ve had a hard time getting motivated to pick up the needles again. I’ve swatched a few things, but nothing is grabbing me. Nothing is calling to me. There are so many other things to do. Plus, Clark is being difficult again. He wants to be held all the time, he’s not sleeping well, or predictably, so when he does take a long nap, I’m still waiting for the moment he wakes up, rather than making good use of the time.

And we aren’t even going to talk about nights. I’ll just say that I’m really, really tired. So much so that I couldn’t get myself to exercise yesterday. I have to make up for it today, and I’m hoping I can.

If I do end up having time for an extra project, what I really need to do is finish the bedroom curtains. It’s making me crazy having them half done.

It was a good week. I didn’t eat any sugar. I still want some. I’ve had a mild headache for most of the past week and a half since quitting sugar, and I’ve been really, really tired. I’m not tired during the day, but at night, I crash hard. I fell asleep before 10 a couple nights ago. That’s unheard of.

My weight is fluctuating quite a bit, so I’m trying to ignore it. My measurements are mostly the same. I went up a little in the waist, and down a little in the chest, so I’m trying to ignore that, too. It’s only been 11 days since my rededication. I can be patient.

I’m extremely disappointed that I wasn’t able to exercise Thursday and Friday. Clark didn’t give me the opportunity, and I couldn’t work it in. The rest of the week, though, I did great. I’m still doing weights and treadmill, and I’m still pushing myself. It feels so good. I’m hoping to do both today, which will be about an hour and a half of exercise.

How was your week?

It is gorgeous there! I can’t think of a more beautiful place.

I had a fabulous weekend in southern Utah. The funeral was emotional and difficult, but sweet. He was a multiple-ly decorated bomber pilot in WW2, so there was a lineup of servicemen in uniform at the cemetery.

They shot their guns three times, and folded a flag over his casket before presenting it to my grandma. I know there are official names for these ceremonies, but I don’t know what they are called. I’d never seen it before. It was really cool. Very formal and respectful.

The reunion was fantastic. A tremendous party. I hadn’t seen one of my cousins and aunts in 15 years. Most of the rest of them I hadn’t seen in 8 years. We all decided that it was unacceptable to wait that long, so we’re going to try to get together every few years. Some of us (not me) are musicians, and so it was a sort of improv rock concert.

I got to sing Sweet Child of Mine. My mom tried her hand at bass guitar.

Upstairs, there was dancing

People in St. George must be really nice, because we were incredibly loud at my uncle’s house, which is in a neighborhood, and didn’t leave ’til after midnight. Nobody gave us any trouble.

Backing up a little bit, my sister and I arrived in Vegas within 30 minutes of each other, so she was waiting for me at the gate as I got off the plane. We rented a Prius (a surprisingly nice car) and drove north to Utah, stopping once to eat at a diner in the middle of nowhere, and once to tramp through the brush to photograph ourselves with a joshua tree.

When we arrived, we visited awhile and practiced the musical numbers for the service (I ended up in an unexpected duet) before heading to our accommodations. My uncle had arranged for my mom, sister and I to stay in a fantastic house on a golf course.

This is a view from the back.

When we arrived, I walked into the first bedroom door I found and called, “dibs!”

I heard my sister gasp and frantically hurry through the entryway of the house. She opened a bathroom door, through which she could see the bed of the room I was standing in (though she couldn’t see me), and yelled, “DIBS!” while sprinting through the bathroom, at which point she launched herself into the air, flying through the bedroom onto the bed in front of me. We bantered a little bit ’til mom came in, laid claim, and threw us both out. I could hear my sister arguing with her for several minutes as I hauled my stuff downstairs to investigate the remaining rooms.

I got down there first, but somehow ended up getting the only room without a connecting bathroom, which contained metal framed bunkbeds. Not that there was anything wrong with the room, I’m totally not complaining. I even still had my own bathroom… it was just so funny, the way the whole thing happened. I’m clearly the most accommodating of the three of us :-).

So Anne and I were downstairs together, and we ended up both sleeping in the king-sized bed in her room. It was so much fun, rooming together.

I tried to knit over the weekend. It didn’t really work out. I had brought my dark green Frog Tree alpaca that I bought last year for legwarmers, some stitch pattern books, and a stitch pattern I’ve wanted to try. Star Stitch from the Stitch Calendar (August 28th I think). Well, it was too dark/fuzzy/something to see any stars, so I ditched it, and spent the airplane time reading New Moon again.

(While I am still devoted to Edward, I’m really starting to dig Jacob. Like Bella, there’s the Jacob I like, and the one that totally bugs me. But in New Moon, he’s great. I like that Jacob a lot).

So there’s a brief rundown of my weekend.

I’m still tired.

Oh, and one final thing… Grandma has the BEST gray hair! I’ve been eyeing gray heads for a few months, now that I’m getting more silver hairs myself, and have seen some truly lovely shades. I was pleased as could be to see her hair. I sincerely hope that mine will gray like hers, but at least I now know it’s in my genes. So it’s possible.

Well, I’m extremely pleased with this week. I even did good while out of town, as far as not eating sugar or snacking, though meals themselves were high in fat and calories.

I’ve been exercising. Tuesday and Thursday I did weights and strengthening exercises, and Wednesday and Friday I worked on the treadmill, alternating between jogging and walking in 5 minutes intervals. It feels fantastic, and I’m so excited that I can do it! (It is helped greatly by a new sports bra that is working out very well). Hopefully, I’ll be able to increase my endurance and jog longer, but right now, I am thrilled with 5 minutes. I jogged a total of 20 minutes on Wednesday, less on Friday because I was short on time before going to the airport.

Except for a brief, forgetful moment last night when I spooned some jam on my roll at dinner, I haven’t had anything sugary since last Monday. No desserts, soda, etc. I’m not reading labels to avoid all sugar, but I’m not eating anything sweet outside of fresh fruit.

I’m up to 218 today, but I think my measurements have gone down a little bit. My jeans are certainly looser.

And I’m incredibly motivated. I can’t wait to put Clark down for a nap so I can hit the treadmill and/or weights again today.

I’ll be back Monday with Health Group and knitting!

… when I looked out the window and saw this.

It’s beautiful.

I suppressed the ecstatic urge to run to my hats and scarves boxes, knowing that it’d soon burn off into a warm day. And when I went outside to photograph the lovely fog, it was warm outside. I didn’t know that was possible. I thought that scientifically, fog required cold to exist, but apparently not.

That being said. It’s coming. Fall is coming. Sweater, hat, scarf, and glove weather is coming. Candle, herbal tea, and felted clogs season is coming. Cozy season. Rainy season.

(Crap. We need to have our gutters cleaned so the garage doesn’t flood).

Spiders are everywhere. I know a lot of you hate them, but so long as they’re not on my body and I’m not walking face-first into their webs, I really like spiders. Even the huge, hairy, wolfy-guys that seem to love Nate’s office in our basement. Them, and the stripey, garden spiders that build webs right outside of windows are my favorite.

Nate’s been smashing the wolf spiders, (something I do not approve of), but when he recounts the tale, and how BIG the offending arachnid was, I remind him that it GOT that big by eating bugs. We don’t like bugs.

I had to laugh though when he said he threw a book at one last night because at the moment it startled him, he thought it was a mouse.

That’s a big spider.

Anyway, the fog made me happy. Enough to surprise me. We didn’t get much of a summer this year. August was mostly cloudy, which is very odd. And yet, the unexpected fog makes me sing. The only thing I don’t like about fall is that all of the beautiful trees behind our house lose their leaves. I love the mass of green right outside my windows. Well, the treebound green, anyway. The blackberries, morning glory, and stinging nettle that keep the kids from playing in the trees behind our house could all go away with my blessing.

Today is going to suck. I have many things to do away from home, and I need to get ready to fly out for the funeral tomorrow morning. I’m really excited to see everyone. It’s been a long time.

Yesterday, I finished the knitting of Abby’s sweater. (About freaking time). It’s blocking now.

So, provided the sleeve caps fit in their holes and I don’t have to rip and re-knit anything, it’s just a matter of seaming her up and knitting an attached i-cord edging with ties around the neckline.

Thank you all so much for your kind comments Monday and Tuesday. I truly appreciate all of them.

My kind Grandpa Arnold died yesterday morning. He is missed.

This is one of my favorite pictures of him.

For a time reference, the sleeping girl slung over his shoulder is me. And I’m about 4. That would put this around 1979.

Grandma reads my blog, and I’m sure would appreciate any kind words.

I’m flying to St. George this week for his funeral. I haven’t been to St. George in 8 years, when we all flew in for Grandpa’s surprise 70th birthday party, and what a wild party it was!

It’s a gorgeous place, St. George. I’m looking forward to seeing it again. Pomegranates grow, like, in backyards. I know they have to grow somewhere, but it still amazed me to see them in backyards. If I ever had to live in a hot climate (please no. But if I did…), I would grow pomegranates.