Whew...today was a crazy busy day. In fact, the whole weekend was crazy and busy.
Also, I finished![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
smillaraaq's mask. It's going in the mail tomorrow but first, pictures must be taken because it is SOOO cute. :-)
As I was closing the garage door on Friday I heard a huge "SPAAANGGG!" from inside, followed by crashing noises & general mayhem. Then, I couldn't get the damn door open. I had to wait for Greg and we lifted it together...it weighed a ton. Turns out the cable to the pulley broke, which screwed up one of the springs and the upshot of the whole thing is that our garage door is toast. A guy came out and temporarily rigged it until the new door gets here. Could be Tuesday, could be two weeks. 700.00.
In other news, we have FINALLY committed to getting my dining room re-decorated. The Ugly Wallpaper From Hell has GOT to go. Unfortunately, it's a pain in the ass. See, thejerks people who used to live here did EVERY home repair in the most half-assed way imaginable.
Some examples:
*The dishwasher was hooked up to our water source with a cheap garden hose. So naturally it leaked & cost a fortune to replace correctly.
*The dryer wasn't vented outside...it vented into the basement, into a small container of water.
*The pipes under the bathroom sink were all galvanized & too much draino had turned them into something roughly akin to wet cardboard.
*No fan in the small bathroom = years & years accumulation of mold, cleverly scraped & painted over just days before the house went on the market. I'm still battling mold in there (but the big fan I installed has helped).
*wallpapering job in dining area looks like DRUNKEN DIZZY PEOPLE WITH BAD TASTE did it.
So yeah, no surprise that the wallpaper was not only half-assed, crooked and ugly but also applied to an unsealed wall. Pretty much guaranteeing it can never be removed...not without taking some plaster with it. Plus, it has an awful half-way line running through it...to simulate World's Ugliest Wainscoting.
The solution? Cover that crap right up! I had wanted to do a treatment with tissue paper & paint...turned out removal of any wallpaper was key to that technique. So, we just decided to paper OVER the ugly. With grass cloth wallpaper. I LOOOOVE grass cloth...it looks like anything from a grass tatami matt to fine burlap to plaited crosshatched hemp fabric. It hides any old seams and it's textured and LOVELY and usually expensive (but I found a great local supplier). We ordered a beautiful sage grass cloth with golden undertones (all the other sages tended towards blue). We also picked out some nice paint to use as trim and to re-do the ceiling (which of course was spotty & half-assed).
So today we painted the trim & the ceiling. I got some "before" pictures, which I'm saving for the Big Reveal once the room is done. We also sealed the walls, just because we wanted to do the job right. The sealer is a thin white that not quite covers the wallpaper, but it looks better in there already. I got a pale yellow/cream satin paint for the trim, and it looks AWESOME on the ceiling too. We also had to remove an old thermostat (those lazy bums had a new digital thermostat installed but never bothered to remove the old one)...we capped the wires just in case. You never know...it's better to buy four dollar's-worth of caps & tape than to have an electrical fire in the wall. :-/ I got a patch kit & covered up the hole...you can hardly see where it was. Once the new paper is up, you won't be able to tell where it was at all. *proud*
The paper is on order & won't get here for a couple weeks, but I like what we've done so far. Once it gets here, we'll only have the glueing & hanging to do. *excited* I'll finally have the dining room I've always wanted.
In other news, we have FINALLY committed to getting my dining room re-decorated. The Ugly Wallpaper From Hell has GOT to go. Unfortunately, it's a pain in the ass. See, the
Some examples:
*The dishwasher was hooked up to our water source with a cheap garden hose. So naturally it leaked & cost a fortune to replace correctly.
*The dryer wasn't vented outside...it vented into the basement, into a small container of water.
*The pipes under the bathroom sink were all galvanized & too much draino had turned them into something roughly akin to wet cardboard.
*No fan in the small bathroom = years & years accumulation of mold, cleverly scraped & painted over just days before the house went on the market. I'm still battling mold in there (but the big fan I installed has helped).
*wallpapering job in dining area looks like DRUNKEN DIZZY PEOPLE WITH BAD TASTE did it.
So yeah, no surprise that the wallpaper was not only half-assed, crooked and ugly but also applied to an unsealed wall. Pretty much guaranteeing it can never be removed...not without taking some plaster with it. Plus, it has an awful half-way line running through it...to simulate World's Ugliest Wainscoting.
The solution? Cover that crap right up! I had wanted to do a treatment with tissue paper & paint...turned out removal of any wallpaper was key to that technique. So, we just decided to paper OVER the ugly. With grass cloth wallpaper. I LOOOOVE grass cloth...it looks like anything from a grass tatami matt to fine burlap to plaited crosshatched hemp fabric. It hides any old seams and it's textured and LOVELY and usually expensive (but I found a great local supplier). We ordered a beautiful sage grass cloth with golden undertones (all the other sages tended towards blue). We also picked out some nice paint to use as trim and to re-do the ceiling (which of course was spotty & half-assed).
So today we painted the trim & the ceiling. I got some "before" pictures, which I'm saving for the Big Reveal once the room is done. We also sealed the walls, just because we wanted to do the job right. The sealer is a thin white that not quite covers the wallpaper, but it looks better in there already. I got a pale yellow/cream satin paint for the trim, and it looks AWESOME on the ceiling too. We also had to remove an old thermostat (those lazy bums had a new digital thermostat installed but never bothered to remove the old one)...we capped the wires just in case. You never know...it's better to buy four dollar's-worth of caps & tape than to have an electrical fire in the wall. :-/ I got a patch kit & covered up the hole...you can hardly see where it was. Once the new paper is up, you won't be able to tell where it was at all. *proud*
The paper is on order & won't get here for a couple weeks, but I like what we've done so far. Once it gets here, we'll only have the glueing & hanging to do. *excited* I'll finally have the dining room I've always wanted.
Speaking of dining...I am SO on my diet again. No matter how much I excercise I can't lose weight. My metabolism is super-slow. It's something I've had to deal with my whole life. Well...going to Vegas and seeing those shows with all those beautiful people did it for me. So, I'm doing what I did about twelve years ago & eating like a bird. It works because I used to weigh a LOT more than I do now...I've just done some backsliding over the last decade. Which makes me sad.
But! I know how to fix me & I've done it before so I can do it again. Basically, I eat between 800 to 1200 calories a day. I try for at least six servings of vegetables, as little refined sugar as I can bear (I still have to have my vanilla Coffee Mate in the morning 'cause life is short), NO chocolate (wahh!), no fried anything (not that I like fried stuff anyway...except the occasional tempura BUT NONE OF THAT NOW!), no cheese, no red meat, very little meat of any kind in fact (one serving once a day...no bigger than what can fit in the palm of my hand), no refined wheat (only one serving of whole wheat bread a day) and yeah that just about does it. I have as much vegetables as I want (assuming they're raw or steamed, no butter or fried or sauce on 'em) and as much fresh fruit as I want (no sugar added...usually I'm having hard nectarines 'cause I like 'em that way!).
I started pretty much while I was in Vegas and I'm already down 14 lbs. Most of that is water weight...the first week or so I lose rapidly & then it levels off to about 3 lbs a week. I have plenty of energy...in fact I'm actually starting to feel MORE energetic. The first few days are a little rough, but I'm back in the groove now. I carry a nectarine with me on my bike rides, just in case I "crash", but I haven't yet. In fact, tonight I did my usual eight miles in almost half the time. Plus, today I put on the CUTEST white cropped denim pants that I could hardly wear last week, and they're loose enough to exercise in. :-D
I just have to fight my urge to self-medicate with food and I'll be ok. I ate like this for years and I looked GREAT, but as soon as the cheese & chocolate & stress crept back into my life, so did the pounds. *sigh* No more. I'm too cute to be fat.
But! I know how to fix me & I've done it before so I can do it again. Basically, I eat between 800 to 1200 calories a day. I try for at least six servings of vegetables, as little refined sugar as I can bear (I still have to have my vanilla Coffee Mate in the morning 'cause life is short), NO chocolate (wahh!), no fried anything (not that I like fried stuff anyway...except the occasional tempura BUT NONE OF THAT NOW!), no cheese, no red meat, very little meat of any kind in fact (one serving once a day...no bigger than what can fit in the palm of my hand), no refined wheat (only one serving of whole wheat bread a day) and yeah that just about does it. I have as much vegetables as I want (assuming they're raw or steamed, no butter or fried or sauce on 'em) and as much fresh fruit as I want (no sugar added...usually I'm having hard nectarines 'cause I like 'em that way!).
I started pretty much while I was in Vegas and I'm already down 14 lbs. Most of that is water weight...the first week or so I lose rapidly & then it levels off to about 3 lbs a week. I have plenty of energy...in fact I'm actually starting to feel MORE energetic. The first few days are a little rough, but I'm back in the groove now. I carry a nectarine with me on my bike rides, just in case I "crash", but I haven't yet. In fact, tonight I did my usual eight miles in almost half the time. Plus, today I put on the CUTEST white cropped denim pants that I could hardly wear last week, and they're loose enough to exercise in. :-D
I just have to fight my urge to self-medicate with food and I'll be ok. I ate like this for years and I looked GREAT, but as soon as the cheese & chocolate & stress crept back into my life, so did the pounds. *sigh* No more. I'm too cute to be fat.
Also, I finished
smillaraaq's mask. It's going in the mail tomorrow but first, pictures must be taken because it is SOOO cute. :-)
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Whoo hoo. House work. It's torture and it's like therapy all at once.
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Fixing up the house is daunting & scary, but it feels so good every time we rectify some mistake the past homeowner made. This dining room has been a very ugly thorn in my side for almost a decade...it's time to make it pretty!
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This is the greatest sentiment ever, and I think I may adopt it as my own personal mantra. ^_^
And home work is hard, but the best feeling EVER when it's done. I think I put a solid two weeks into painting my room earlier this year, but I'm so happy with the results. It makes such a difference, having a beautiful space you can be comfortable in, instead of the slipshod work someone else did.
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I really wanted to try one of the new painting treatments...there are SO many awesome techniques lately that look amazing. The faux parchment look is something I'd initially wanted to do in that room, but grass wallpaper was a close second anyway.
So what did you do to your room? I'm assuming it was a fancy multi-layer painting job.
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Btw, you could eat chocolate all day and still lose weight as long as you ate only your 800-1200 calories of it...but you'd be damn hungry, since 800 calories of chocolate is about 2.5 bars. Bleh.
ARGH ARGH ARGH. I'm really mad about my stupid weight climbing up for no good reason and not being able to drive it back down! I want to lose a minimum of 10 lbs so that my muscles really SHOW in my arms and back (they already really show in my legs, more might be kinda scary). I don't NEED to but I WAAAAANT to and it makes me super mad that even the doc and dietician are completely baffled as to why I can't do it on the diet/exercise I'm on now. AAAARRRRRGH!
Ok, it makes me a little frustrated and I never get to vent about it. I'm the thinnest in my family so they just give me a look and say "You're PLENTY thin." But I don't want to be thin, people, I want to be DEFINED. Totally ripped, girl-wise.
Oh, be careful on 800 calories, you can shoot yourself in the foot that way as it can slow your metabolism down further. Anything under 1000 calories is considered a 'starvation' diet and generally the body responds by slowing the metabolism down to conserve fat because it's stupid and thinks it still needs it. Plus you CANNOT get the nutrients you need in less than 1000 calories. (You might wanna up your vitamin-supplement intake.)
I am not a realistic person, not with myself. I'm not one of those people who thinks they're exercising when they go for a walk. (You have to be pretty out of shape for a walk to count for much unless you're just starting out or have a mixed program...or you're a very FAST walker...or in a very hilly area!) I make SURE my heart rate is at about 70-80% of the maximum. I'm already fitter than most of the people I know. But this is NOT ENOUGH. Peel off ten or fifteen lbs of fat and I'd look like a panther or some other sleek, ripply animal, and I WANNAWANNAWANNAWANNA!
Anyway, good luck Meri. :) I am SO jealous of people who can actually lose weight by reducing their calories, since even my docs can't suggest why *I* can't do the same, with all th exercise I get. SO FRUSTRATING.
Good thing I'm already 'thin enough'. Bleah.
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I just have to be careful not to go overboard. I tend to be a little control-freaky about some things & last time I got a bit obsessive about what I'd eat. It became a situation where I was borderline anorexic and I frightened myself...so I don't want to go there.
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-- Dagonell
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It sounds like you've got a good plan for dealing with the wallpaper. I was lucky that all of my wallboard had been primed before the ugly colonial wallpaper was applied. They used 1/8" of glue, but they DID prime.
I self-medicate with sweets when I'm stressed, and any food when I'm bored. Given how stressy life in general and work in particular have been for the past year, it's been bad. I'm trying to get pounds off to get my blood pressure down, but I HATE exercise. Most days it's a toss up if I hate exercising or being fat more, and my super skinny husband doesn't help the mental processes!
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*sigh* The weight gets me down. I know I can do better...it just takes so much effort (and I actually like to ride my bike & walk my dog so exercise isn't an issue). It's just amazing to me, how little food I have to eat in order to lose weight.
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The weight gets me down too. I was doing so well, and then I gave in to all the stress. Then while we were moving and doing all the big redecorating work we started eating like CRAP, and while Bob is immune to that, I'm not. I can cut as many calories as I want, but unless I get up and MOVE I don't lose weight. We've resolved to reintroduce veggies into our lives, so that's a good start. Working on the house isn't aerobic exercise, but I'm up off my butt, and toting around 5 gallon paint buckets should count for something! As the unpacking/purging continues to reveal more floor space, I'm thinking about asking for a treadmill for a combination anniversary/Christmas/birthday present. You just can't safely get outside around here in the winter, and that might keep me moving.
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You should look into one. With some music, it's actually a pretty bearable half-hour a day thing to do.
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The house stuff is ridiculous. *sigh* What were the previous owners thinking? Oh, wait; they weren't.
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Oh house...how you frustrate me! If I had about twenty thousand dollars I could do EVERYTHING I want to do, but it'd be dumb to put that much money into a little house like this.
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Eating lots of fruit and veg sure is great for the teeth, though...you hardly have to brush 'em when you're eating mass quantities of fresh fruit/veg. Um, not that I'm saying you should stop brushing your teeth. You know if you worry about the calories in toothpaste that you are in serious trouble. :)
I always go a little nuts when people talk about nutrition/diet/exercise as it occupies such a giant amount of my time for seven years now, and I find a lot of people shoot themselves in the foot for later by starting out wrong. I know *I* did...I'd tell anyone who was trying it for the first time and starting off heavy (this doesn't actually apply to you since you're already an exerciser) do NOT fail to weight-train RIGHT FROM THE START of your diet. If you're fat, you are also VERY STRONG from carrying around all that fat, and if you weight train you can keep a lot more of it. Losing weight...a startlingly high portion of the pounds you lose are not fat at all, and not even water, but MUSCLE, and the more muscle you lose, the less calories you can eat even when you go back off the diet.
Oops, blah blah blah. Told ya, obsessed. But you HAVE to be to stay slim if you ever had a weight problem. Almost 100% of people gain back most of the weight they lost within five or ten years of losing it. I'm one of about .05 percent of people who have kept off over fifty pounds, and just to do that I have to think about it all the time and constantly watch the scale and fume if I gain weight, because once it is gained, somehow it WILL NOT come off again.
Why would that be dumb? Are you planning to move from that house someday and wouldn't get your money back if you sold it?
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Yeah...the house is small and we aren't staying here forever, so if we put too much money into this place, when we sell it we won't get our money back out. Some things we've done (like adding the room upstairs or putting in the tankless water heater) add a ton of resale value. Cosmetic stuff, though, rarely pays off...though in the case of this UGLY dining room, re-modeling is neccessary because it's SO bad it'd scare buyers off!
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Because it is actually fairly tasty (for a protein drink) and is NOT that weird tasting milky stuff, and it has no added calories from carbs/sugar/etc. I am not sure about the iron though...I don't think it's fortified. But it has 21 grams of protein per scoop, and that is 90 calories (it might be 22 grams actually) which means that 84-88 of the calories are pure protein. (Being that protein is 4 calories per gram.)
Some cereals are iron fortified, btw. And you can get multis with more iron too. For calcium, which can be lacking on a diet, I personally like Jamieson's Coral Calcium which is SUPER absorbable and very potent...my nails were even stronger within a matter of days: http://www.turnerdrugs.com/item754.htm
Um, I'll stop now. :)
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Those DIY-gone-wrong tales are eerily familiar. I wonder if that's where the previous owners of my old place used to live?
(And I can't wait to see the mask...oooh tenterhooks!)
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Hee! The mask is pretty cute. I'm not sure if it's exactly doing what I want it to do, but it's pretty close (and it's really damn adorable anyway). ;-)
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And yeah :)
In regards to the veggie thing, I tend to eat a lot of soup when I need to cleanse, as it's the easiest way for me to eat clean and leave out the fat. This is really good *down below*, and *easy* to make, if you're into stuff this healthy. It doesn't look that appealing, I'll be honest, but it's good, healthy, and uhm, cleansing :)
When I'm doing the heavy veggie thing I actually have a harder time in the *toilet* cause I need more carbs than I realized to move things around. Also I read somewhere that the junk gets cleared out of our systems, by being "whole." In other words, if one needs nutrients A, B, C (one of which could be fibre) and we only put A and B into our bodies, and not C, the extra calories from A and B will stay in our bodies until we get enough of the C to flush the whole shebang out. So it gets stored as fat until then.
I tend to stay off the scale, cause the more I work out, the more muscle that I gain, since muscle weighs more than fat. I actually weigh more than I ever have in my life, but except for my double chin *which is soooo not fair in someone my size* ;) I also look better and feel better than I ever have before. The veggies help to keep my tummy flat, and that's the only thing I really care about *except for the chin, but that didn't go down until I hit 104lbs, so uhm, it is now apparently going to stay*
Personally I find skim milk to be quite filling too. And yeah, for me it's so much easier if I give up sugar, caffeine, fried and meat all at once. Otherwise one addiction leads to a craving of the other. Weird how meat and cheese can get included in there, but whappity, there it is!
Veggie stock
1 chopped up onion
1/2 of one head of cauliflower, cut up small
1 can of lentils
1 chopped up tomato
Saute onion in small bit of oil until soft. Add veggie stock, the small bits of cauliflower *tastes better that way* and one can of lentils. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 20 min with the lid on. Serve garnished ith fresh tomato.
Simple, and it keeps, so it's great for easy leftovers for lunch. It's one of my staples. :)
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I meant down below as in, *at the end of this comment* but uhm, if it has aprodisiacal qualities, that could work too!!!!!!! lol
And you're a very pretty girl, and you're right! You are too pretty and wonderful to be living your life in any way that does not serve you! XDDDDD
*LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!!!!!!! :))))) <--- the Angel's double chin!!!!! lol
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Thankya hon. I still feel pretty most of the time & that's the important part...I like myself. I can always lose weight...but you can't just diet your way to being a good person or having an interesting personality (so I take comfort there because I know I have those things already).
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gotta love my unique method for getting out of chores eh :D
Ah, fat, our natural enemy. I know of no good way to shuck off the pounds other then get lots of exercise and get a balanced set of meals. I do part of that, the meals part. Good luck with yours though, and keep that willpower up!
From: (Anonymous)
ITS YOUR MOMINLAW AND I WANT A NAME AND A PIX LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE PLEASE