Thursday Morning

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. - Buddha

        I am up a pound today.  I want to follow my doctors instructions but I don't want to gain any weight.  What a dilema.   I am going back to my old eating habits.  It works for me and my lab work was perfect.  Everything was in normal limits when I had it done pre-op.  That must mean that what I am doing is working for me.  Going over 2000 calories is not something I can do right now.  Maybe when I get all my weight off I could go up but right now and especially with my exercise being so restricted I just can't do.  I takes me twice as long to lose that pound then to gain it.  Now why is that?

   I found another great meditation site on line yesterday.  There is lots to read on it but I have lots of time on my hands.   Meditation for Weight Control, Weight Control, Weight Loss, Strategies for Weiy

Meditation, Home, what is meditation, types of meditation, meditation and alte

   I have already done my meditation today and feel focused and peaceful.  I will be successful on my eating plan today and get closer to my goal of 10,000 steps.

   Breakfast is going to be oatmeal.  I am hungry for something hot.  I have some frozen blueberries I am going to sprinkle on top.  I use organic no fat milk which for some reason tastes better to me then the non-organic.  Maybe it is just the brand.  I am disappointed in the grapes I bought, sour.  They always leave the bags open in the market.  It is OK to eat a grape and taste it before buying?  Is that why they do it or is that stealing.  I am tired of buying bags and having sour ones.  When they are good they are really good but not when they are sour.  The deer will get a little fruit in their winter diets.  I have a couple of apples and some bread to throw them and the big doe really liked the grapes I gave her last time.

                                        

   My wonderful dog is at my feet.  I think about how much joy this throw-away dog has given us and think about how close she came to being put down.  We adopted her from the humane society.  Everyone should get their pets from there to help get rid of puppy mills but that is another rant.  Everyone should spay and neuter their pets also.  Anyway 7 years ago I was going to adopt a St. Bernard at the shelter and it had been put down to make room for some puppy mill dogs and cats.  I did not want a puppy.  As I was leaving I saw this single puppy in its pen.  Alone and so cute.  She was only 9 weeks old and I was to be her 3rd owner already.  She was very smart, very cute, only had 3 accidents ever and has been a constant companion since.  Until people can do right by their pets and get them fixed so we don't have so many unwanted animals, please adopt.  I really feel Zoey knows we saved her life that day.

Zoey making herself very comfortable as a puppy, she really likes a pillow to lay her head on.

  Nothing made her happier then a stuffed toy to rip apart.

                 Even today she loves her stuffed toys and greenies.

   Well I spent the day today trying to get my short term disability straightened out.  They changed it this month and now the check doesn't go straight to my bank but comes here.  Great.  I am suppose to be recovering but now I have to drive to work, pay my health insurance and dental insurance which would have been deducted from my check.  Then I have to go to the band and deposit my check and put money in my Christmas Club, Vacation Club, IRA,  house payment, checking and savings, not that much ever stays there.  Now who thought of this wonderful new way to recover from surgery!  Also now we have to use a weeks vacation before our short term kicks in.  It used to be 2 days.  I asked them, so we have had our benefits reduced?  Why didn't they mention that in our benefit packet or why didn't our union rep mention that?  They kept trying to tell my my benefits hadn't been reduced.  Well Duh.  Yes they have!  How did they sneak that one past our less then great union.  Not to mention our health insurance has gotten so bad that we can't afford to go to the doctor now unless we are near death.  Now at the doctors office we have to pay our co-pay plus a deductible so it is impossible to get out of the office for under $100.00.  Have I mentioned before how the INSURANCE COMPANIES HAVE RUINED HEALTH CARE IN THIS COUNTRY!   I don't believe in socialized medicine as I have seem what health care is like in other countries and that is what we have now.  Before the insurance companies took over management of your health care most people could afford to get medical care, even the poorest.  Now only the rich can get the care they need and they are over charged every step of the way as the Doctors group try to figure out how to get the most money out of the insurance company.  It stinks.  Oh to go back even 25 years ago.

   Oh well I will stop ranting about the rotten insurance companies.  I ended up eating shredding wheat and bran for breakfast.  Easy and fast.  I had a slim fast for lunch with a rice cake as I had all that running around to do.  For supper we had hamburgers with sauted peppers and mushrooms on them.  I had mine minus the bun.  I had about 8 steak fries and a big pile of Brussels sprouts and carrots.  I also have been drinking V8 smoothes.  I had mango and peach mix today whichis really good.  I also had one cookie, oatmeal and may have some light popcorn for a snack.  Not the best eating day but I did get my 3 meals in plus I drank a ton of water.  So far I have only done 6358 steps as I spent so much time in the car.  I didn't feel up to the gym but hope to go tomorrow.