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| Jazmine (l) & Arceli hold the cake while Dad blows out the candles. |
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| Marissa does a hula for Dad. Later she gave him the white ginger lei that she is wearing. |
Because we were delayed in getting upstairs for the celebration & Arceli didn't want to spoil the residents' lunches by giving them dessert before lunch, we distributed the cake & ice cream to the residents during the middle of lunch. I took some down to the Orchid Dining Room where Dad was having lunch with his fellow 2nd floor residents.
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| Birthday Boy at lunch. |
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| Cake & ice cream for the 2nd floor residents. |
It was blustery and drizzly again this morning. I saw no one on my drive up and only Roger, Cody, & Rollie during my sunrise walk. Even the birds were hiding; for the entire walk around the circle, which takes about 15 minutes, I did not hear a single bird! It was kinda like being in the Twilight Zone. Or at a backyard bird feeder when a hawk is sitting nearby; FYI there are no hawks on this island. Even during my cool down stretches I saw no regulars.
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| Sixteen minutes before sunrise on Maunalani. |
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| One minute before sunrise on Sierra. |
The Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow bloomed this morning! Here is the Day 1 photo when the flowers are at their darkest purple. Mom would have loved this plant!
Dad was eating breakfast in the Orchid Dining Room when I arrived; he was sharing a table with Mrs. Keliikipi. Dad ate half of his fried egg sandwich and all of his papaya. He drank 120 ml apple juice but no water. After breakfast he went back to bed for a nap so he would be ready for the birthday celebration later. But before he did, he wheeled himself over to the dresser while waiting for the CNAs and helped himself to a madeleine!
I started my mid-morning walk earlier so that I could be back before we had to get Dad in to the wheelchair to go upstairs for his birthday celebration. Although the weather was much nicer than during my sunrise walk, I only saw Melissa with Karpo & Lily heading up the hill by the park. And Adam & Kira were in the park looking for Bailey; later I saw them at home, Bailey was getting a bath. I got back half an hour before Dad's birthday celebration was scheduled to start.
Lunch today was Chicken afritada, Steamed rice, Tossed salad, Assorted pies, and Thai chicken curry & rice soup; my tray was missing the soup. I discovered too late that chicken afritada has 34 g carbs! I really need to get my act together and research all the lunches & write down how many grams of carbs the main entree & the soup have. Dad ate all his 1/2 peanut butter & jelly sandwich; there were no bananas today. He also ate the birthday cake & ice cream plus one slice of apple pie. He drank 120 ml apple juice but no water.
I should have done my afternoon walk to burn off some of those carbs from lunch but I also needed to get to Longs to buy more ketone test strips. Since I have been testing multiple times a day to get an idea of how things change during the day depending on my eating habits, I have used the test strips faster than most people. This afternoon my level was 5 mg/dL.
I made another Fathead Pizza tonight. This time I used vegan bacon as one of the toppings along with some sun-dried tomatoes. I like tomatoes and have been pleased to get tomato slices as a replacement for carbs at some restaurants. So my original intent was to liberally sprinkle sun dried tomato chunks on the pizza but I found out 2 half-tomato chunks had 3 g carbs! Aue! I didn't really consider that the carbs in 1 slice were considerably less than there would be in half a tomato. It also might be that the variety used to make sun-dried tomatoes has a higher sugar content than the usual varieties used fresh in burgers and salads. So I just chopped up 4 sun-dried tomato halves & sprinkled them on top so I would get a bit of flavor but add only 1.5 g carbs per serving. I also added 1 teaspoon garlic salt to the crust to increase the flavor as well as my salt intake; I've been having some cramps in my calves in the early morning even though I have been taking 141 mg magnesium malate on most evenings. The pizza was delicious!
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| Vegan Bacon. |
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| Sun-dried tomatoes; each pile is half a tomato. |
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| Vegan bacon on top of the pizza; not sure why I didn't get a photo of the finished product. |
I finished moving the low cabinet in the study away from the east window. I also moved the rolling drawers away from the window wall. Then I ran the Roomba. I don't have any photos since I need to move the rolling cabinets out of the room but that won't be able to happen until the furniture in the living room has been moved away from those windows. The 2nd bed in my bedroom will also be moved in to the living room so there is enough space for the window installers to move around in my bedroom.
I finally weighed myself this morning, 29 days after my last weigh-in; I was 108.9 pounds. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had lost 3.3 pounds over that period or about 0.8 pounds per week; my goal is 0.5 pounds per week so its slightly more than what I aim for. So my attempts to keep to around 20 g carbs per day but fluctuating up to 50 g about half the time and about once a week going totally overboard with the carbs has still been able to make a difference. I suppose if I was fanatical about keeping to no more than 20 g carbs per day, I would have seen an even larger weight loss. But, like I said, my goal is 0.5 pounds a week, so I am fine with my level of progress. The thing I am more pleased with is that I have gotten past the plateau I was on for the past year or so where I was hovering around 113 pounds and going back & forth, gaining or losing about a pound or so. This is why some of my shorts are feeling a little loose!
I hope to continue with this rate of weight loss until I get to my optimum training weight which used to be 90 pounds; I have about 19 pounds to go to reach that weight. Previously, if I got up to around 5 pounds or more over 90 pounds, I would feel sluggish & lethargic (like I do now). If I dropped around 5 pounds or more, I would feel weak. I am pretty sure my body will still tell me when I am close to my best training weight now. While I was at 90 pounds I was able to do Aikido 5 to 7 times a week, wallyball 3 times a week, and ride my bike about 10 miles a day for aerobic exercise. Plus work in the field about 3 to 5 days a week. And keep up with a rambunctious middle school kid!
My initial weight gain was not brought on by a change in metabolism but started after I herniated a disc between L4 & L5 while at work. Before I was able to fully recover, I began having fibromyalgia attacks and was sleeping about 18 hours a day and gained more weight. Although I was essentially unable to do any activity, including work, for several years, getting to a point where I was able to stay awake for more than 12 hours a day stopped the weight gain. It took about 5 years before I was finally cleared to work a 40 hour week; but I did not have enough energy to do much more which did not allow for me to begin working off the extra weight. I moved back a few years later so this is all part of my recovery from the herniated disc and fibromyalgia.
Hauʻoli la Hānau to Lani! She and Dad share the same birthday!
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