2:30 am and awake
I went to sleep at 8 pm tonight - after a no nap day, tyvm. Normally, this would not be an issue. I would just sleep through until 7:30 and all would be well. However, tonight I woke up around 12:30 and haven't been able to get back to sleep. Whether it's discomfort from my current cold/sinus infection/ear infection (the latter two have yet to be diagnosed by a professional, but damn, it feels that way), or if it's built up energy, I don't know. Regardless, I'm awake and can't make too much noise, so no cleaning. Blogging it is. Get ready for a big ol' batch o' random.
Smooth
Several times, Avery has worn a dress D bought her for Christmas. It wasn't until yesterday, as I was putting it away after laundering it, that I realized she's been wearing it with bloomers that have been hanging from a plastic fastener inside the dress all that time (not sure if bloomers is the right word - is that what the diaper/underwear covers are called?) Nice. We're observant parents here at CdT.
Soap
I bought a soap dispenser that is motion activated for our bathroom on the main level. It was an impulse buy, but I'm actually quite pleased with it. You can adjust the volume of soap that comes out with each dispense. And it means Avery can easily get soap on her hands. Yes, she can do a pump, but our sink is such that it's actually very difficult for someone of her height to do it. I took Stacey's route of thinking, "Is she going to go off to college and not know how to pump soap normally? No. It's OK to have this convenience." It also means that Avery loves to wash her hands now.
RAD
As I've mentioned before, I find reading about kids with RAD (reactive attachment disorder) to be absolutely fascinating. The idea that a child's brain forms differently when needs are not met during the early years in life is something that had never occurred to me before I started reading about it. Of course, it would affect the child, but that the brain would truly form differently wasn't the way I'd thought about it. In hindsight, that's like a "duh" realization, but there you go. There are three simple charts here that show it in very simplistic terms.
One of the blogs I'm now reading is by a mother to a girl who has RAD. The little girl had 28 mothers before the age of five. If that's not a recipe for disaster, what is? She's now with her final mother, the blogger, and is doing amazingly well. Amazingly well with lots of therapy, and trying all sorts of various things to help the girl deal with her RAD. I can't imagine doing all this if you had more than one child (hell, I can't imagine it with just one child), but knowing the challenges some kids, and their parent(s), face because of their early years makes me far less judgmental of children and parents whose background I don't know anything about. Less judgment is almost always a good thing.
Weight and diet
So I lost five pounds very quickly before I even started the diet since I started eating more healthfully the week before I officially started. Those were my fluffy pounds. The ones that are easy to lose. Since my goal with the diet had nothing to do with my weight and everything to do with feeling better, I decided not to get on the scale very often. I don't weigh myself often anyway, but given a change in eating habits, I knew I would do it more often. I weighed myself the other day. I am still hovering at the same weight I was when I started the diet, give or take 4 pounds on any given day. What is different is that everything has shifted. The extra fat around my upper arms is disappearing rapidly. The upper back fat, which was the worst for me in terms of self-consciousness, is to a point where it doesn't bother me or seem out of whack to the rest of my body. My waist is smaller and my stomach is flatter. The fat around my thighs is less. My body fat percentage has dropped by about 5% points, so I guess I'm gaining muscle while losing fat. I can also fit into my old jeans comfortably.
I assumed I'd lose weight and/or my body would change; I didn't think I'd gain so much muscle when I'm not working out. I have been walking the dogs much more consistently, but many days it's not a trail walk (i.e. it's not strenuous), so I don't think I can even count that. I am surprised what diet alone can do. Any of my past attempts to lose weight have involved working out. I'm also surprised because I am confident (without actually crunching the numbers) my calorie intake is still fairly high relative to where it should be. It's just that where the calories are coming from is different. 1 avocado + brown rice ≅ 500 calories vs. 10 fruit rollups = 520. Clearly, this all makes logical sense, but as with a lot of things, my perspective is changed when I analyze based on real-life experience vs knowledge without experience.
Anyway, the thing that still kind of makes me smile is that the whole time I've been on this elimination diet, I have rarely been hungry. Hunger is my enemy. I just don't let myself get to the point where I'm hungry. I also haven't thought twice about eating chicken skin if I want it, or eating a whole avocado, or eating another huge serving of brown rice with my veggies. If I want more food, I eat it.
I guess my lesson of the day, from this experience, is that I can definitely lose weight and not be hungry. If I were working out in conjunction with my eating changes, I'm sure the weight number would be adjusting downward just as my body fat percentage is doing. For now, since my true goal remains simply better health and energy, and I want to focus solely on those goals. I'm not going to add the lifestyle change of working out until I'm more confident in my ability to truly make an eating lifestyle change (i.e. after reintroduction of The Good Stuff and being on my own in terms of rules). I do want to do that at some point, but not now. One huge change at a time. It's taken me 35 years to learn that lesson, but I think I've finally got it. Baby steps, people, baby steps.
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