The last weigh-in of 2025 ends on a high note -- literally.
Waist = 44.75"Height = 5' 7"
References:
- Wikipedia BMI page
- Balance Body Composition Bath Scale
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The last weigh-in of 2025 ends on a high note -- literally.
Waist = 44.75"This book targets married couples or couples in a committed relationship, one of whom has a chronic illness. However, it seems as far as this book is concerned, the term “relationship” can be expanded to include filial, such as between father and son, for example. Close friendships, too.
The book is very well-structured. The first ten chapters are organized according to the five stages of grieving. Odd-numbered chapters describe the situation and emotions in each stage, while the even-numbered suggest tools to cope. In the latter there’s a tool for the patient and another for the partner.
Chapter 2 (tools and activities for the Denial phase) lacks the important suggestion to maintain medical records, apply for disability immediately, and get a good attorney to handle the appeal. The denial portion of chronic illness might make you think it’s not necessary. But if you wait until you realize you need it, it might be too late and you’ll regret it.
The final, eleventh chapter wraps up the book, but it also discusses what to do if the partner doesn’t want to follow the process. Guidance is undergirded by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT.
Throughout the book, we follow the experiences of two couples, one of which experienced a sudden setback; the other, a food-loving diabetic whose life-style must altered to accommodate the illness.
The author is well-qualified to write on this topic. She is both a mental health professional and a patient with chronic illness. And she has “a very patient and selfless partner.” In the introduction, she writes briefly about an eleven year search to find a reason for her malaise, during which she was misdiagnosed or told there was nothing wrong.
Although I haven’t read the entire book, the parts I did read are very well-written. The Resources section provides links to helpful websites and podcasts; References, a list of books. Any sources are cited in-line with the text. There is no index.
Every rehabilitation group should have some on hand to give out to newly-diagnosed patients. I wish I had this book 15 years ago.
I'm outside at a sort of Dude Ranch / Farm / Park area. I notice that there is a hawk caught in a barbed wire about ten yards away from me. My urge is to free the bird. But instead I point out the situation to a girl nearby, and she goes and frees the hawk.
I’m relieved to see that the hawk is unharmed. It flies away in the opposite direction a bit low to the ground. But then it turns and comes toward me. I turn away and crouch down. It lands on my neck and head, and it pinches my right ear with its beak, gently, not drawing blood, but just holding it. I remain very still so as not to alarm it, and to prevent it from acting more aggressively. I stay like this for a minute or two. I’m not sure what to do. Maybe someone will notice and remove it.
I’m reminded of a time when I played with a cat and it suddenly grabbed my hand with its claws. Whenever I tried to pull away, it would dig its claws in deeper to hold on tighter.
My partner has started with a new Pain Management doctor. Unfortunately, he's acting more as an arm of the DEA than as a clinician. Apparently there are stricter rules and more oversight regarding the use of opioids. This is why the previous doctor retired. So my thoughts are scattered due to overwhelming concerns about my partner's future. And recently I scored higher on the depression screening test, so the dose of my antidepressant was doubled.
Waist = 44.75"My ideal meal is one that
As well, the meal’s ingredients would last for decades without spoiling. Alas, no such meal exists. But lately I’ve been focused on reducing the prep time of my delicious, low-cost, easy-to-make, nutritious meals, and I’d like to share with you.
Notice that I didn’t claim that my meals would be “healthy.” I’m not a researcher in this area, and ideas about what’s healthy and what’s not healthy vary over time or by consumer.
For example, there was a time when all fats were bad, or all saturated fats were bad, so folks thought margarine was healthier than butter. But now we’re advised to avoid trans-fats and consume good fats. Grains form the base of that dreaded food pyramid; I gain weight from them (and rice constipates me), so I avoid them.
Expect to see recipes or advice on how to overcome obstacles to home cooking. The idea is to adapt them to your liking, adding and omitting to suit your lifestyle.
As well, if you have a favorite recipe, please share it.
I shared my recipe for turkey thighs back in 2023. 1 I made that again today, but this time I took photos as I layered the ingredients.
I loaded the vegetables into the oiled pan in this order:
Brussels sprouts, sliced four timesSet into an oven that's been pre-heated to 375°F (190°C). Your kitchen will start to smell wonderful in just five minutes.
Meanwhile, take the vegetable trimmings out to the compost, or take out the garbage and perhaps stroll through the woods looking for mushrooms. When you get indoors after about 15 minutes, you'll really enjoy the aroma.
After about 55 minutes, test each thigh with a meat thermometer. The overall cooking time should be 60 to 65 minutes, so when you first test it, it might be at 145°F (63°C). If so, leave it in for about ten more minutes. Remove from the oven when the temperature reaches 165°F (74°C), and tent it with aluminum foil (shiny side down) for about twenty minutes.
Last night I mashed two small rutabagas (after peeling, cutting into cubes and boiling in salt water). So while I let the turkey rest, I cleaned up a bit and then I reheated the mashed rutabagas. I served all of this about 90 minutes after putting the turkey into the oven.
I hope you had a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving!
1 https://square--peg.blogspot.com/2023/11/thanksgiving-2023.html
I've added chia seeds and oat bran to my diet. It seems that the extra fiber keeps me from wanting too many sweets. Except right now I'm munching on milk chocolate chips.
Waist = 44.25"Many years ago I studied spiritual practices of indigenous cultures. One aspect was to pay attention to the presence and movements of animals. If an animal were to appear often, it might be a message from the spirit world. 1
Back then I would look for "cool" animals: bear, coyote, fox, deer. I've certainly seen them from time to time. But not all animals are mammals. We're more likely to encounter insects and arachnids and dismiss them.
Yesterday and today, for example, I'm seeing a fruit fly hover in front of my face. Its behavior was annoying - certainly "swat-worthy." But I think annoying behavior often helps to attract someone's attention. And you need to attract someone's attention before conveying a message.
So what is Fruit Fly's message?
In general, flies indicate the presence of garbage, refuse, waste 2. But there is so much more to this creature than just its desire to lay eggs on a food source. Here's what "Aunty Flo" has to say about Fruit Fly as a spiritual communicator 3:
"Fruit flies are tiny and annoying but to me, they hold lessons. They appear when we ignore neglect. They teach us about life's cycles and they remind us to clear all that rubbish in the spare room that we leave for another day. To see them is to reflect on neglect, what is messy in your life right now?"
Also I find this encouraging (being unemployed):
"Fruit flies are adept survivors. They can utilize most of anything they feed on, even though it may be only a scrap of food. As a guide, they can show us how to make the most of what is accessible to us, to be frugal and use what we have sparingly in order to survive. They are also quite mobile and fast, able to fly from one spot to another. This shows us how we too must be able to adapt and move from one environment to another, looking for what we need."
Do I truly believe Fruit Fly came here to give me a message? Not really. I think it came into my home because I bought a bunch of bananas that had its eggs on it. But it is odd that it's flying in front of my face and not hanging out with the food. And there's not just one fly because I found a fly in my oat bran earlier.
Is your attention interrupted by an annoying animal? Find out what the spirit world may be trying to tell you. The best way I found to look up an animal's message is to use the Search feature at the AuntyFlo site. If there are multiple results, choose the link that includes the word "magic/" in front of the animal.
What message did you receive?
I've been unemployed. Unfortunately my weekly benefit ran out, so I have zero income. I'm very stressed. My neck muscles are spasming.
Waist = 44.5"My after-supper strategy for snack management is Substitution. Grapes satisfy the desire for Sweets; bland, whole-grain rye crackers (perhaps with almond butter) provide Crunch. These foods are high in carbohydrates, but they're higher in fiber than M&Ms and potato chips, so they don't trigger an even more urgent craving for snacks.
Waist = 44.5"I eat snacks after supper (which I finish eating at about 8pm). Apparently it's a great way to gain weight. Folks who want to avoid adding fat are advised to exercise after eating. But I just plop into a cushy chair and read.
Waist = 45.0"I’m in an apartment building; maybe I live there, or maybe I’m touring it to perhaps live there.
I enter a stairwell, expecting that I can get out on an upper level (higher level). However, the only way out is on the ground floor where I entered it. I express a dislike of the stairwell.
I leave the building, holding a 32 ounce box container of soup and pulling a piece of carry-on luggage on wheels. The ground has patches of ice due to snow left over from earlier in the year. I decide to walk from this city to my town that’s two towns to the West. The luggage is a bit difficult to pull, and the box of soup is leaking slightly.
Now I’m in the backyard of the place where I grew up. There are wolves and wild dogs that are injured, so I’m not concerned that they’d attack me. Instead I see one climb a large bush, while another climbs to the very top of a medium-sized, dead pine tree. It has draped its body over the trunk that has broken off. How can it tolerate the pressure of that broken wood on its stomach / chest, I wonder.
I turn to face the back of the house and start to walk toward it. However there are large snakes in the branches of other trees that I have to walk under. Again, I’m not concerned that the snakes will attack me. They’re watching me but not moving. It’s almost as if they’re movie props. And these are not the biting venomous kind; rather they are a large, constricting type of snake, like a python.
I’ve been hiking my usual wooded hiking area that’s also slightly hilly. There is a pond in the center that’s iced over and snow-covered. I was with a group of people, including my wife, but now I’m leaving the area alone. My cellphone distracts me with live coverage of this area, showing that someone or a dog was on the ice, which has broken, so the person or dog is in the water. My impulse is to run back to the area. But I hesitate because I don’t think the story is true. If it were true, my wife would call me on the phone and tell me to come back.
Today is Wonderful Weirdos Day.
According to National Today, “Wonderful Weirdos Day is celebrated across America on September 9.” 1
Why is it celebrated during an ordinary unit of time such as a day. Isn’t that boring and totally not weird? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to designate it as Wonderful Weirdos Nychthemeron? 2, 3
1 https://nationaltoday.com/wonderful-weirdos-day/
“The crow is the only bird that dares to peck at the hawk, he sits on the hawk's back and bites it on its neck, but the hawk does not respond, nor does it fight the crow nor waste time on the crow. He just opens his wings and starts to rise high in the sky, the higher the flight, the harder it is to breathe up [sic] and then the crows fall due to lack of oxygen! Stop wasting your time with crows, just go to the heights yourself and they will disappear like that!!”
This is a review of "My Bully, My Aunt, & Her Final Gift," by Harold Phifer.
This is a humorous account of the funeral of Aunt Kathy, the woman who raised the author.
The cast also includes the author’s older brother Jerry, who (unfairly) always got his aunt’s preferential treatment; the much younger brother, Thomas; and the mentally ill mother, with colorful and predictable ravings.
The story of the funeral itself is book-ended by the author’s recollections of his difficult childhood. He’s treated unfairly by his Aunt Kathy, and I commiserated with him each time. Yet the tone of the narration is more upbeat than bitter. And the storytelling is smooth, fast-paced and laugh out loud funny in spots.
I was dismayed at first when I read the author’s bio, which says that he “bust tables.” But then I decided to be less of a snob and just enjoy the book. Which I did.
After Thursday’s surgery, I was advised to avoid making any important or legal decisions within 24 hours of the operation. Is this because the anesthesia can cause cognitive impairment? Or is it because the patient can be easily manipulated?
I think both are true.
I’m old and recently laid off, so naturally I wonder if I can get a good-paying job in my technology-dense field. So I began to fall victim to my negative self-talk. On the second day after the surgery, I felt hopeless and despondent about ever recovering financially or cognitively. It’s as if my darker side began to take advantage of my vulnerable state. Fortunately I’m climbing out of that well of despair. And as an added boost I just came across this Psychology Today article, which should help: “Rewire Your Brain and Create a Kinder Inner Dialogue”1.
I’ve been taking an online course, but I haven’t noticed any degradation in my thought process. Then again, my thought process wasn’t so great to start with!
I went through outpatient surgery yesterday to repair a double inguinal hernia.
I was surprised by my doctor's advice about lifting heavy objects. I expected the weight limit to be 16 ounces (or 12 ounces as my cousin said while pretending to quaff a beer). But no, my limit was 15 lbs! That's a good surprise.
Another good surprise was that I didn't have any trouble lifting my legs or taking a deep breath. I was especially concerned about the latter.
Another surprise, not so good, was that the Percocet caused hiccups. The first episode began about 90 minutes after the first dose. The experience was so disturbing that I decided not to take anymore. Hiccups recurred about seven and a half hours after, waking me and keeping me awake from about 1:30 to 4:30 this morning. Sometimes I'd have a "double hic" -- two in quick succession. I found a paper online that said a 5mg dose of baclofen helped get rid of hiccups in a 64 year old patient.1 I cut one of my wife's 10mg pills in half, took it, and was able to get to sleep about 20 minutes later. So I found that to be true in my case, too.
The surgery involved a robotic laparoscopic device, and the procedure required inflating my abdomen with air. Unfortunately, someone left the air inside! My waist measures one inch more, but it's so firm that I walk around with my pants wide open and the belt loosened three inches. I wear a hoodie to cover the indecency.
But aside from the bloating, I get pretty good pain control by alternating 1000mg Tylenol and 600mg Ibuprofen every 4 to 6 hours. So I'm getting by without an opioid.
