by Tish MacWebber | May 15, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
*Please Note: This is being published before I have all the photos in. It will be edited again after I have all the pics and the group photo to add, and this note will be removed*
This weekend was busy already. It is Sunday afternoon. I am getting ready to head into my kitchen and do some prep cooking. Before I do that I have to find the kitchen again. I have been sick with a sinus infection, and things are really falling behind. So today I plan to do the dishes, clear off the kitchen table, island, and countertops. I have 1 cupboard that I have decided will be a goal to spring clean inside of it today. I want to reorganize it and find homes for a couple of pantry items underneath the island. That is what I am up to today in my kitchen. If I don’t get it all done, I am going to work on this before next weekend, so I can move on with the Kitchen Spring Cleaning project and get into the rest of my home.
I missed a few days of work at the day job this week, because of being sick. I am starting to feel a little better, and I had made plans a few weeks ago for a couple of things I did yesterday. I started the day off at a craft supplies sale. The idea behind it was to have a “yard sale” for excess craft supplies from the vendor’s stash. I went shopping, and I picked up some beads.
I also decided to take a leap of faith and submit a written piece for a paid publication. It is a story, and I have sent it in. The deadline is tomorrow. I asked a writer friend to do a basic edit for me, and she did. Now I wait.
I had also planned to attend my first Paint & Sip event. It was last night, and it was a lot of fun! I have been wanting to attend one of these for a while, and I am so glad I went!
It was organized by a friend, and six people attended, including me. It was hosted by Buddy Art Paint & Sip. The group had looked at some other painting ideas, and took one they liked and changed it from a night sky background to a sunset sky background. When they settled on a picture to paint, it was planned for last night.
Paint & Sip events are becoming very popular. People are going to them for fun, and to do something different. Other people are also using them as a way to raise funds for their favourite charity. Whether it is a night out with friends or a fundraiser, it is a fun way to spend a few hours. Have a glass of wine, or two, share some snacks, and create your own work of art, that you can take home and hang on your wall.
The host painted a demo piece, and he also painted along with us at the event. This is what we were painting. The one on the wall was his demo, and the one in the easel was the one he painted along with us.
The Demo piece is on the left, and the painting on the right was the one done during class by the Artist.
We arrived at about the same time. We found our canvases, and they were all blank. We each started with yellow and a circle for the sun. We listened to Bruno Mars, Sia, and Rod Stewart while we painted the sky.
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Two mountains, another pretty sky and birds
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Another version
Next is a progress picture of some of our group.
Paint & Sip Smiles and Sunset Skies
Shortly after this, we had a snack break. There was a nice spread of finger foods. The wine glasses magically refilled. It was also time for new paint colours.
Paint and Sip Snack time!
I made a musical request for the next part. We were going to be painting the bottom part and the trees in black. On came The Rolling Stones with Paint it Black by special request! I was a little startled when I realized there were two paint colours on the next palette. The white was hard to see. The host then surprised us with some ’90’s tunes, and some of us were singing along while we painted.
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Paint & Sip Smiles and Sunset Skies
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Still painting and smiling!
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Still painting and smiling!
In the end, we had a lot of fun. There are 6 finished pieces of individual art, and we all look forward to planning another event. I am going to share them without revealing the artist at this time. When the group photo is available, I will add it in and edit this sentence out. Until then, you can try to guess which one is mine! I can’t wait to share the horizon of the 6 setting suns!
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Vibrant Sky and one squirrelly tree
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Pretty Sky and evenly placed trees
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Still painting and smiling!
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Our cheat for the sun
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Well blended sky, beautiful lighting around the trees, and birds
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A Family of Trees
When I polish this story off after the first published “draft”, when the rest of the pics are added, I will also share the comment from the host that really surprised me! Keep an eye out for an update to this story, it will have more pictures and be more complete.
If you live in Fredericton and want to plan your own event with Buddy Art Paint & Sip, here is a link to their facebook page:
Buddy Art Paint & Sip
Shared with permission from Buddy Art Paint & Sip. This is their logo.
by Tish MacWebber | May 11, 2017 | Trust Your Gut
The names here may or may not reflect the person’s real name. If someone wants to remain unknown, we will choose a different name for that person’s story. The goal is to help people, and anonymity is a valid personal choice for contributors. I will use a person’s name only if they give permission to do so.
This week I am pleased to share another of my own stories.
Here is Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 12
Sometimes I am scared to eat. I know; a morbidly obese person is not expected to write those words. I am so overweight that it could kill me, and I certainly didn’t end up weighing this much by not eating, that is for sure. But there is this thing I have called type 2 diabetes.
Let’s get it straight. I am a person that has type 2 diabetes. The same way I am a person that has thyroid disease. The same way I am morbidly obese. The same way I have allergies. All of these descriptive phrases contribute to different parts of me, but they do not define me. I think that it is the time that we all take a look at that and really think about it. Because saying that someone is a diabetic is almost the same as saying they are not a person, because of how you say it. I am a person that has diabetes. I am a woman that has blue eyes. The colour of my eyes does not define me, but it is a part of many things that contribute to me, the person as a whole. In a world where people are way too quick to label people and judge them, I think it is time to stop doing this. The world is changing all the time, and people are trying to be more politically correct. If we all think of each other as people that have many adjectives to describe them, it is a good place to start. We all have our good qualities and we all have our issues. Mine are not the same as yours, but we all have issues and good qualities. That is the common ground we all have together.
Back to being scared to eat. I am learning how to treat blood sugar lows. I have learned to drink a juice box, and have a sucker or a candy, and wait. I then check my sugars again. If they are responding to the treatment, I stop panicking and move on with my day. If they don’t, I may go overboard and eat too much candy to get my sugars up, and then I have to figure out what to do to bring them down again. If I overreact and they are high, it means I am not panicking about them being too low anymore, but that means they are too high. This is one scenario similar to what I am writing about, except there is another time when I am really scared to eat. When my blood sugars are high, and I don’t know why.
I am starting to learn what I should eat to bring my blood sugars down. It is not an easy thing to figure out. I take insulin, and if you take too much, it is possible to die from an overdose. I am very scared that this could happen to me. So I am careful if I have to take more insulin than a regular dose when my sugars are higher than normal. But how much is too much? Some days I don’t even know how much I should take. On those days I either play it safe by not taking too much which is usually not enough, or I check my sugars every couple of hours to make sure I am not dropping if I take that larger than normal dose.
If my sugars are high and I am not able to get them to a normal level with insulin, that is uncharted territory. I am fighting with them a lot this week. I am worried that there is a reason behind them being so high, and for why it seems so hard to get them back under control. It can be a sign that something else is going on in my body like it is fighting an infection. I will be honest here, I have never seen them as high as they were this past Sunday night. I took insulin. Got up the next morning, and they were down, but still high. I took 2 doses of insulin that were quite high when I added them together, because of how close the doses were taken. Only after the second dose did I see a change, and it wasn’t drastic, and I didn’t crash with a blood sugar low. I went to Zumba Monday night, and they were almost within normal range. I have not had a spike in high blood sugar like that today, but I am STILL fighting to get them under control and keep them within normal range. (I am writing this on Tuesday evening).
When this is happening, I am scared to eat. I am scared that anything I put into my mouth will cause my sugars to go even higher. It is not a weight thing. I am worried that my blood sugars will just keep climbing and I won’t be able to get them back under control. I know I need to eat. I know that if I make healthy choices, things will have to change, it is just a matter of time. But delaying that meal can be detrimental to what could happen.
Let’s say I just don’t eat. My sugars might spike as my body tries to keep sugar in my bloodstream without the addition of food. Eventually, the sugars will drop. I then become a little desperate, hangry, and indecisive. That combination will eventually lead to my blood sugars dropping. This is not productive and does lead to a panic when I realize that my sugars are starting to drop. It is at that time that I reach for an easy meal or snack that may not be the healthiest thing for me to eat, and the roller coaster has fuel to continue.
What I have learned is that if I wake up with a pattern of high blood sugars, I do need to increase my long-acting insulin dose. A little at a time, until I have normal fasting blood sugars in the morning. Then I can ease it off. Protein is supposed to help with this also, and I am trying to find a bedtime snack that does more good than harm. Throughout the day I have to test frequently, to help sort out what is causing the blood sugars to be high and not normal. This may cause me to skip a snack because of the level I see when I test. It also may cause me to delay eating because I am scared that it is only going to make things worse.
And then it happens. The insulin starts working again, and I am not having blood sugar highs anymore because I am now fighting blood sugar lows. This is a byproduct of getting them back under control. When my body decides to accept the insulin, it does it suddenly, and I am scrambling again to get my sugars within normal levels. If I am not monitoring them constantly during this time, I risk them staying too high if I am not taking enough insulin, or having to lower my doses because my body is responding and I am taking too much insulin. It is difficult at times to try and outsmart this diabetes that I have, and that is why I am scared to eat sometimes.
by Tish MacWebber | May 7, 2017 | Weekend Warrior
Yesterday was busier than I had planned it to be. Also, I was still fighting an almost week long migraine and was still not feeling so good yesterday. So I took a nap in the middle of that busy day, and it ran longer than I had planned. When you fall back to sleep on a Saturday after you woke up and turned off the alarm, obviously the nap was a necessary thing.
In the morning, I attended the #BUTTBLITZ2017. You can read all about it here: Butt Picking in the Rain It was my third year volunteering at this event, and I stayed dry by working at the event table and running the numbers.
Insert lunch and a nap here.
Then I woke up to the phone ringing. I had an invitation to join some friends to play Cards Against Humanity. They have mixed in 4 booster decks and a Kinderperfect deck. Hilarity, Margarita Moments, and the consumption of adult beverages were just what I needed to kick the migraine out of my head. I am glad I decided to join in for a night of fun!
Today, I must scramble to resume the kitchen to its shape of last weekend. When the dishwasher is running, I will also be prep cooking. That is probably going to fill up my Sunday. I need to be ready for the upcoming week, and today is when I have the time, and more importantly, I feel like doing it. Soon after I publish this story, I will be making something to eat and heading into my kitchen. Coffee will be consumed with the meal.
I think it stopped raining! That sentence has an exclamation point because there is a flood watch here this weekend. It happens every year, and they were not expecting it to be too bad this year. It is bad for some areas, there have been evacuations and roads are blocked also. I am staying home today, and my house and street are still OK. If I get a chance, I may go take some pictures of the flooded areas, but that will be another day and another story.
What are you up to this weekend?
by Tish MacWebber | May 4, 2017 | Trust Your Gut
The names here may or may not reflect the person’s real name. If someone wants to remain unknown, we will choose a different name for that person’s story. The goal is to help people, and anonymity is a valid personal choice for contributors. I will use a person’s name only if they give permission to do so.
This week I am pleased to share another of my own stories.
Here is Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 11
I bought my first tankini. I went to one store and tried on the one piece swimsuits. I was disappointed. So I had to go outside of my comfort zone. The people working there were helpful. They told me that the best thing about a 2 piece was that if you had to go to the bathroom, it was a lot easier. I thought about that and decided to try on a tankini.
The style I chose has a tank top and shorts. Everything is still covered. Just like a normal bathing suit. The shorts are comfortable. The top was a challenge. I need support, but didn’t find the right kind in the first few tops I tried on. Support in a swimsuit = constrictive. It felt too tight. So I kept trying on different tops until I found one that fit right in that area.
Then it was the wrong style. Of course. So the search continued. I settled on a striped one that looks just like a tank top. Then I went swimming. The top floats! I didn’t want one that did that, and I was assured that they don’t do that now. That was my main reason for wanting a one piece. I was a little paranoid at first. There is a built-in bikini support in the top. So I just fussed with it a lot but had a good time swimming. It will be OK for Aquacise, I think. It will take some getting used to but I think it will work better than my old swimsuits. It actually fits and was a size smaller than the other ones I tried. Yay me!
While travelling this past weekend, I let the plan slide a little. I didn’t overeat. I ate healthy choices when I could. I ate, and I didn’t worry too much about it. Sometimes life takes priority. You do what you can, and let it slide a little. Then you have to get back on track. For me, prep cooking helps me to stay on track. I have to do the work so that when I want to take the easy way out, the easy way IS to stay on plan. I have learned this while on THM, and I am the only person that can make those choices for me, so ultimately, it is up to me.
A friend introduced me to spaghetti squash. I was reluctant to try it. I do like squash as a side dish, but I had never tried spaghetti squash before.
It sat in my kitchen for a week before I bit the bullet and tried it.
I was pleasantly surprised! I now eat spaghetti squash a couple of times a month. It is good with spaghetti sauce. It is good in spaghetti pie. It is good in casseroles. The verdict is that I like it.
When we have spaghetti, I have spaghetti squash instead of the pasta. I load the sauce on it, and the parmesan cheese and eat until I am full. Without the tired feeling that I get when I eat pasta. I call it SPAGHETTI SALAD! What a wonderful gift my friend gave me when she told me to take that spaghetti squash home to try it. If you haven’t tried spaghetti squash, try it with an open mind. It really is worth it for me, and if you like it, you can thank me for the tip after you try it.
If you don’t know how to cook it, I didn’t either. Here is a link for cooking it in the microwave or the oven:
How to cook a spaghetti squash in the microwave or the oven
I found this link and the one below in my own internet searches, all credit goes to the authors of the instructional pages. The other method I can recommend is the slow cooker. You can find the instructions for that here:
How to cook spaghetti squash in a slow cooker aka crock pot.
So my tip for you this week is to try spaghetti squash if you have never tried it before. If you already love it, maybe try it in a new recipe, or try another healthy recipe that you have been hesitant to cook for whatever reason. Just go for it! And comment below if you did. Let me know how it turns out!
Do you have a favourite way to cook spaghetti squash or a favourite recipe for making spaghetti squash?
by Tish MacWebber | Apr 27, 2017 | Trust Your Gut
The names here may or may not reflect the person’s real name. If someone wants to remain unknown, we will choose a different name for that person’s story. The goal is to help people, and anonymity is a valid personal choice for contributors. I will use a person’s name only if they give permission to do so.
This week I am pleased to share another of my own stories.
Here is Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 10
Today is the day I have picked to start shopping for a new bathing suit. Wish me luck! I need it in terms of my requirements, but I am also looking for a sale and not hours of searching!
The good news this week is that I am hovering within two pounds of that twoville goal, still. The bad news is that I have not crushed that goal yet.
Which means that this is a perfect week to write about another THM concept. I really like this one. It is called NSV. That translates into a Non Scale Victory. So what is an NSV? It is anything you can celebrate OTHER than the successes you fight to see on the scale. The weight on the scale is a number, and it can be depressing if you obsess about it especially if it is not moving in the right direction or moving at the speed you want it to change at.
I wrote about twoville, and it is looming on my horizon again. It is a Scale Victory when you have a happy dance on the floor after you weigh yourself and see a good number. Don’t think too hard about that. Yes, that would be me, first thing in the morning, after a trip to the washroom, in my birthday suit, having a happy dance. Not the thing you want to focus on here.
The NSV is something that doesn’t relate to the scale, directly. I have set my first official NSV as a small one. The blog will help, for sure with this. I want to be able to comfortably wear both my wedding band and engagement ring together on my finger. I have the engagement ring on a lovely gold chain, that I wear from time to time, but it belongs on my ring finger. I have fluid built up in my fingers, and you may think this is funny, but when I had a cashier job in the past, I noticed that my fingers were less puffy when I had that job. I was using my hands a lot when I was a cashier, and it helped my fingers to lose weight. Not that there is a lot of extra weight in my fingers, but it was a really good experience to look at slimmer hands and fingers. As I blog, I am exercising my fingers. It might not seem like a big thing to other people, but it matters to me.
When there is fluid built up in my fingers, wearing my ring causes an indentation. I have short fingers, and the fluid doesn’t stop me from wearing the rings together, but it is painful to wear them both at the same time. I can get them both on, but it does block circulation in the finger, and it is painful to take it back off, because of this. So I am working on my health, and trying the rings on together from time to time.
It doesn’t have to be about the number on the scale only. It can be about fitting back into an old pair of jeans, having to buy new clothes because the ones you have don’t fit, changing the size of clothing you wear, or measuring your inches and seeing that the shape of you…r body (Shout out to Ed Sheeran, love that song!) is changing when the numbers on the scale are not.
As we all struggle with weight together, whatever our issues are, we all have them. It is good to set reasonable goals to go along with making changes to live a healthier lifestyle. I know it helps me to check in from time to time with a measuring tape and my rings. It can even be as simple as the clothing you wear fitting better, or that you can climb that annoying flight of stairs without needing to take a break, or losing your breath.
Pedometers are wonderful because they can help you increase your daily step count by challenging yourself. I will write a Zumba post about this soon, we are talking about steps at Zumba class since I am sharing my steps after each class. I am also involved with a group 100 Coffees, and they are challenging members to start healthier habits. Drinking water is necessary for life. In this group, one of the admins is asking us about how much water we drink each day, as a way to hold those who choose to do this accountable for drinking enough water every day. It is great to have a support system for healthier lifestyles, and encouragement is a wonderful thing. 100 Coffees is a group of women entrepreneurs, so if you fit that description, go check it out!
I am looking forward to the day that I can wear both of my rings comfortably at the same time as my first official NSV. What is your NSV? Any comments might help you figure out what small goal you need to work on, give you a place for your own accountability, or help someone else find a reasonable NSV to start working on. I look forward to seeing what other people are setting as their own goals.
