Whew! I just finished a marathon weeding session out in the garden. While I'm out there in that heat, I like to envision my fat melting off like a rasher of bacon on a skillet. It really the only way I can find it bearable to be out there for hours on end.
Speaking of fat, the doctor told my mother that she needed to lose weight. My mother is 87. Does there ever come a time in our lives when we can stop worrying about our weight?
On the subject of weight, either baseball players must lie about their weight or baseball uniforms are very unflattering.
Tomorrow I have to have some blood work done. The phlebotomist always feels that she must tell me that she has difficulty finding a vein. To be honest, I'd really rather not now this. And it makes me very self conscious of my forearms. Are the veins are buried deep under layers fat? I'm probably the only woman that even thinks about her forearms.
Everyone says they want to lose weight for their health. I'll admit I want to lose weight for vanity. If I could weigh five hundred pounds and be healthy and didn't care how I looked I would weigh five hundred pounds. But unfortunately, I do care about how I look and I like for my husband to find me attractive.
Tomorrow is the first of August. Hurray! I'll be glad to show this summer the back of the door. Been receiving all the fall catalogs. Can't wait to slip on a sweater again. If for no other reason than to wear long sleeves. Doughy arms are not meant for silly little fluffs like cap sleeves and we won't even bring up sleeveless tops. I wonder why manufactures make so many summer clothes with these sleeves? I've noticed that there aren't too many wonderful looking arms out there.
So now you are thinking, "What was the old girl thinking when she wrote this post?". Maybe it's the heat. Just wanted to stop in and tell you all the little shallow thoughts that were running through my mind today!
I did major weeding in the rain this morning. It was wonderful! Angela
ReplyDeleteI won't go as far as to say it was wonderful here, Angela, but it was very nice to see a weed free orderly garden again. But now, if it had rained while I was doing it, I probably would have thought it was wonderful too!
DeleteHi Jane! Your sunflower is a beaut! Thanks about liking my header...I thought I would change it with each post.....until I run out of pictures, or change my mind :)
ReplyDeleteI love your post with your random thoughts! I just pulled out my petunias today. All of the sudden they look bad...this is the longest they ever lasted. I, too, am excited for the next season. August is exciting for that. When I was young, I loved school time...when my kids were young...I loved school time..as they were driving me crazy by that time! (I did homeschool one year, 2 of my kids....I was a meanie though and not a relaxed teacher!)
I could care less what I weigh. But I need to fit into my clothes and I don't want to admit defeat and buy larger clothes. My grandma was skinny, and when she got ill, it was dangerous. I suppose hospitals get around that now with feeding tubes. I am so tired of doctors wanting us to be thin. And the rest of the world...I think it must be the new vanity.
I agree w/sleeveless. It is very hard to find nice clothes with sleeves. I have a sleeveless on right now, but I wear an airy sweater (one crocheted with large openings) when I go out. I am tired of seeing people's arms and other parts. Even when I was skinny (and young) I felt I shouldn't show my arms so much. So I don't feel that way now just because I am heavier.
I will probably be too careful making soap with lye (won't do it for a couple weeks...) and splash it or something in my nervousness! love,andrea
P.S...I bet your canning shelves are really perking up! I think last year you showed us them, maybe. Next year I am definitely going to can spaghetti sauce. I made a batch to eat yesterday and we all loved it. And..they always have trouble finding my vein also for bloodtests...when I was skinny, and now. So it just is that type of veins. love,andrea
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reassurance, Andrea! Isn't it funny that the rest of the garden struggled, but the sunflowers weren't bothered by the weather at all. There one tough flower! I'm tired of seeing people's body parts also. Why are so many woman running around in such low cut tops these days? Especially older women. And there's not too many good looking knees out there either! Ha!
DeleteI know! The low-cut dresses/blouses, especially on t.v., are offensive. My mom was like the Dugger's mom, she used to make us cover it on the t.v. screen if one popped up on a show we were watching! Sunflower roots sure are tough! I have to just push them over when they are done, break them off, and after the roots die off, then I try to remove them. This a.m. I just planted some small chrysanthemums and pulled out the annuals that are finished. I know it is too early for chrysanthemums, but they were cheap. love,andrea
DeleteHi! My daughter and I just did our moral duty and ate at Chick fil A!
DeleteWe had a line, that was constantly filling up, but they were super-fast today and had extra workers.
I agree about the family shows...I'd rather see a normal family and see how they stretch their budget. There were a couple of shows made of at least 2 families (a couple of years ago) who were more normal. (Not the NJ family...I thought they were boring). I think one lived in Maryland, and the husband was Irish, and in one episode they came to a to local Octoberfest by my house, and the other lived in England (they ate fish n' chips!) These only had a couple of episodes, and I found them interesting. They ate and lived simple (neither home-schooled) and it was just interesting. I think that since they only did a couple of episodes, they were able to catch a more realistic picture of their lives, instead of staging things for us to watch them doing! love,andrea
Hi Jane..yes the old saying "money talks". I felt happy to spend money at chick fil A. And you are right about news today. My dad used to always say, "Don't believe anything you hear, and only half what you see"!. love,andrea
DeleteThanks Jane (about my father's saying):)
DeleteI saw what you wrote to Mara...your mother is wiser then the dr.!
They lack common sense.
Hope your meds are ok. Sometimes I think I should just stop taking thyroid medicine. But I do feel normal and I guess that is good.
love,andrea
Fun bunch of random thoughts. :) Your sunflower is beautiful, I love watching bees on flowers. It is nice to hear about all of your canning and drying, I think jars of canned foods are so nice to look at, and I love to fill up the pantry, one of these days I will hopefully can my own as well.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your blood work tomorrow, I have anemia, so I am constantly having blood work done, luckily I have one rather nice cooperative vein, and I always point it out to any new nurses so they don't have to spend time poking around for a good one. Hope your appointment goes well.
I so know what you mean about the sleeves, I always look forward to fall when I can start wearing my favorite three-quarter sleeves again, much more becoming for me. I always enjoy fall catalogs too, it gets me excited to start planning the holidays and see all the pretty fall decor. Happy first of August!
I'm sure one day you will have a pantry full of canned goods, April. It looks like this year you had a pretty good crop. I like three-quarter sleeves also. I always end up rolling up long sleeves, so it's nice they make them that way. I always point out my "good" vein but they never take my word on it. Guess they like a challenge. :)
DeleteSleeveless is good for INSIDE THE HOUSE ONLY when it's 87 to 90 degrees inside your house because you are "too poor" to run the a/c. However, when I'm out in the public, I try to keep most of my flappy triceps covered.
ReplyDeleteI don't like blood tests, but since I get them regularly, I have grown quite used to them. I have small veins so sometimes, they have a hard time finding a good one, but they seem to manage, thank goodness! I don't think I could stand to get poked more than once with one of those needles.
As for weight, it's something I struggle with daily. If only I could be satisfied with "just being healthy," but no, I think I'm a little "vain" in this regard too. I'm very ashamed to admit that, but I must be honest. I lost 65 -68 pounds and gained about 20 pounds of it back. I've been trying to loose a measly 10 pounds, but nothing doing. My hard work is "for naught" and I'm about to throw in the towel!
Anyway, and you thought your "sad story" for your post was bad. Well, look at mine. It's not any better, and this is not even my blog, ha, ha! :)
Blessings my friend! :)
P.S. I wasn't even "late to the party" this time. How bout' that one? :)
Hi Mara! Losing that much weight was an awesome accomplishment! I can tell from reading your blog that you are very good at being disciplined and having self-control. Wish I could say the same here! When my last son was born, the doctor told me to lose 15 pounds. I tried but the weight just wasn't coming off and I ended up gaining more weight. Now I could just kick myself for giving up. Even if I would have lost a measly pound a month, I would have reached my goal a lot sooner than now! Now that my thyroid has gone kaput, it is almost an insurmountable challenge to lose that weight. So don't give up!
DeleteThank you for your kind words. Just to let you know, I also have a thyroid issue, so it's much harder to loose weight. I didn't have one when I lost the bulk of my weight, so it was easier then.
DeleteI just remembered you mentioning that a doctor was telling your 87 year old mother to loose weight. Good grief! What was your mom's response to that?
Hi Mara! I just had my thyroid checked today and they need to up my medications. Sometimes I wonder what's the point. My mother just laughed. At 87 you aught to be able to live your life how you want. Sometimes you have to wonder about these doctors. They gave my father hours to a few days to live, but prescribed vitamin C for him. I think it was a little late to be worrying about any vitamin deficiencies!
DeleteJane what an awesome flower! Those sunflowers surely can get big. Usually I do not like the color of yellow, but sometimes, the brillance of that color is truly awesome. Blessings.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't wear this bright of a color, but outside in nature it is certainly cheerful. Something about sunflowers that just makes you smile!
DeleteYour post was very topical in our house! My husband and I lost a lot of weight between us over the past couple of years following the WeightWatchers plan. We followed it to the letter and hence the losses,me: 56 lbs and him: 21 lbs. (Neither of us can exercise much due to disabilities.) However, we were nearly always hungry and always obssessing over our food. We refused so many invitations to friends' houses because we couldn't fit the WW plan in with socialising. In fact, I suppose we became anti-social. The diet was instigated by my need for a major operation and my husband joined me to improve his overall health. However, I have since put about 21 lbs back on. Just living normally - not overeating. Today I read an article in the British Daily Mail about ladies in their 50s/60s who develop anorexia. I think this is because the media is bombarding us with false images using airbrushing/photoshopping. I am now 53 and when I think of my lovely, late grandmother, I remember her as being soft, kind, colourful, cuddly, caring and with a sweet face. Looking back, yes she was 'big', but that's not what I remember about her.
ReplyDeleteSo, I'm in the process of trying to erase mental images of what I think I should look like, and start trying to accept what I am. Yes, my husband and I are going to try and be sensible and cut out the snacks inbetween meals. And we will try to choose healthier options. But there will be times when we do decide to have dessert or have a homemade Cornish pasty (our local delicacy here in Cornwall, UK) and we'll try not to feel bad about it.
As for the doctor advising your 87 year old mother to lose weight - I'm almost speechless!!! We are of the opinion that one of the few advantages of old-age is NOT worrying about weight anymore - and trust me, WE won't.
Thankyou for this post. It's helped me along the way to accept my self-image today.
Kay
Hi Kay! Wasn't that doctor just silly? It seems that all doctors do these days is tell you to lose weight and prescribe pills. If you were to look at the average elderly housing, you'd see that almost all the older people are heavy, so I don't understand where they get this idea that you must be a certain weight to be long lived. I too, have passed up too many slices of birthday and wedding cakes in the crazy never ending chase to be slim. And one year one I was a teenager, only ate 1/2 an individual carton of non-fat yogurt per day just to maintain a weight that really wasn't even healthy. My friend G. and I did all sorts of silly things like that. She died in her 30s from anorexia.
DeleteNope, from now on I'm going to enjoy my holiday meals with out mentally tabulating the calorie count of every bite. I'm 53 too. I figure I have at least 20 more years in me and any more is just a bonus! (Man that's a scary thought!)
BTW, Cornish Pasties were very popular where I grew up. As a matter of fact my cousin has a stand in St. Ignace, Michigan that sells them exclusively. A lot of your countrymen settled in the area to mine the copper.
Dear Jane,
ReplyDeleteI love your random posts! Your thoughts on baseball uniforms are hilarious (and true!). I hope that your vein was easily located, and that the test went well. All that sweating cleans out lots of toxins! :)
Love,
Marqueta
p.s. Hooray for having enough food to can; we've been resorting to buying from the farmer's market, and pretending its homemade. ;)
Hi Marqueta! All the baseball players claim to be 6'5" and weigh 180 lbs. That would be a stringbean, but they sure look pretty sturdy. Especially when the manager comes out to talk to them and you can compare them to normal people. Would hate to have a job where it showed my weight, height and age everyday! So I can understand them fudging on the statistics.
DeleteI should be toxin free! Ha!
My garden isn't doing all that well either. But the tomatoes are doing ok and I have more peppers than I'll ever need. Didn't get any beans and while the squash vines have plenty of blossoms, there's very few fruits on them. Everything is on the small side. Oh dear! I do worry how all this drought will effect the cost of food this fall. Stock up now!
Dear Jane,
ReplyDeletelove your sunflower......
have a nice time,
love and hugs,
regina
Hello Regina! I hope all is well with you and your blogging break is for something fun. I'm sending you a hug. Did you catch it?
DeleteHoi Jane, thank you for your nice, sweet blog that I love to read. My mother is also worried about her weight :-) and she is nearly eighty. haha ... But she has a problem. As a child she is suffered from hunger in Holland. (WWII) Afterwards she does so extreme with food. It were the American airmen, who threw down Swedish white bread for these poor, hungry people. Boost for the generation before you. So my mother was alive in 1945 and don't starve from the hunger.
ReplyDeleteOh, and sunflower is really nice. So big ( large?), it seems the sun herself. When the sun is not shining, look often to that beautiful flower. Jane, do you have a facebook account?
Hello Jedidja! Do you know that I can now spell your name without checking on the spelling? Small victory for this spelling-impaired person.
DeleteI would love to sit and talk to your mother. I love history and especially the history of just your average people. One thing you can rarely find in books is how did they survive those rough times? I remember reading in a biography of Audrey Hepburn that they ate tulip bulbs to survive during the German occupation. What a lovely lady your country produced there! I'm glad that it was Americans that helped your mother. I wonder if the America of today would do the same? I'm not to happy with the direction our country is going in for the last few decades.
I don't have a facebook account any longer, unfortunately. Now I wish I did so I could visit with you more often!
Hi Jane - I love your comment about the fat melting off you! One of my previous doctors always used to make snide comments about my veins and weight and I wasn't that overweight. He was just rude. Little son took a picture of me waving flags at the Olympic Torch relay and I was mortified how my arms looked but then he said he had put the camera on 'stretch' mode. STRETCH for pity's sake! Why couldn't it have been long and thin mode! I like summer less than all the other seasons. Its too harsh for me, although this year in the UK we haven't really had much other than rain and cold (so at least I'm happy!) Lily. xxx
ReplyDeleteOh Lily! How I would hate to see myself in stretch mode! I'd probably have to take to my bed to recover from it. Summer is my least favorite season also. Although the one good thing is that my feet finally warm up. Are you enjoying the Olympics? What an exciting time for your country. It must be fun to be so near the action. Maybe you'll have a nice mild winter, since you had such a miserable summer.
DeleteHi Jane! I was just thinking the other day about my biceps. They have gotten a bit "doughy" as well the last couple of years. My mother had a really effective way of exercising her arms as she got older. She would take a soup can and keep it by her chair and when she would think about it when she was watching TV ,she would exercise with it. Then after awhile she would get a can of tomatoes, or a jar of preserves, something slightly heavier. It was amazing how much it helped her to retain her muscle tone. But she was always so soft and I loved that about her.
ReplyDeleteI think sometimes the media gives us unreal and unreasonable expectations of how women of a "certain" age should look. I don't think we are suppose to be as toned at 50 as we were at 25. I think there is beauty to our bodies at any age. I remember complaining about my body to my Mom when I was about 18. She said, "just wait till you are 28, you will wish you were 18 again and when you are 38 you will wish you had your 28 year old body again...ect... How true that was. So I try to imagine myself ten years from now, wishing that I was, who am I am today! :) haha.
I find that I have to be careful about the kind of shirts I wear too. If they have a band around the bicep area, it can feel really tight and uncomfortable. Oh, I am dreaming of fall! I can't wait until the first cold sweater day. I am so tired of all this humidity here in the south, as my Mom used to say "I feel like a limp dish rag!" :) Have a great weekend my friend! With Love, Delisa :)
Hello Delisa! Thank you for your kind encouragement below! No, I'll never be an arm model, that's for sure. Ha! You'd think they'd be quite toned from all the digging, lugging and lifting I do, but no, they are just as jiggly as jello. Oh well! Only one more month of summer and I can wear long sleeves again. I guess I should count my blessings. For an old dame I have rather nice legs and a small-ish waist. BTW, I love your haircut. I need to do something with my hair soon. Seeing how nice you look might just give me the courage to visit the hairdresser.
DeleteHi Jane! Me again, with regards to the comments from your phlebotomist, I am not a nurse but when I was studying to get my pharmacy technician license (I used to work at a hospital making I.V.'s) I don't remember weight being discussed as a major issue. They talked about some people having rolling veins or thick veins, scar tissue ect... It just happens sometimes. She may also just have a lack of skill or experience in dealing with tricky veins. Also some blood tests such as an arterial blood gas, will dig in deeper and go past the veins because they need to draw blood directly from the artery itself. So don't feel subconscious! Although I have never seen your arms, I think they must be very beautiful from all your years of hard work and creativity! With Love, Delisa :)
ReplyDeleteYour sunflower is gorgeous! My sunflowers have not bloomed yet ... I hope they do soon, because I have a recipe for sunflower jelly I want to try :) So ... how do you store sweet potatoes to last all year? I'm hoping my potatoes do good this year and I have that problem!! I go back and forth between worrying about my weight and not caring ... I hope when I am in my 80s that is the last thing on my mind!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Jane! I dig the sweet potatoes then let them sit outside in the sun for a few days to cure up. Then I put them in some bags that are especially made to keep potatoes from sprouting. I think I purchased them from the Current catalog. And the final step is to store them someplace cold, dark and dry. We have a closet that is almost as cold as a refrigerator on the north east side of our house. I suppose you could store them in the fridge. Anyway, they were still as firm as the day they were dug in October.
DeleteI hope when I'm 80 my weight's the last thing I worry about also. But I doubt it. When I was your age, I thought I wouldn't care anymore about what I looked like when I reached 50. But here I've arrived at the ripe old age of 53 and it still matters to me. There was an old commercial that said "I don't intend to grow old gracefully, I'm going to fight it every step of the way." Guess that's how I feel about it. I do draw the line at being 80 and having dyed hair however! Besides, I think it would be fun to have that lavender rinse that they put in white hair. Lavender is my favorite color. Wouldn't it be fun to have lavender hair?
¸.•♫°`♡彡
ReplyDeleteBom fim de semana!
Beijinhos.
Brasil
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Olá meu amigo maravilhoso pouco? Como está a fotografia que vem?
Deletenice post thanks for sharing i found you thrue other follower..looking for to visit more...blessings
ReplyDeleteHello and welcome! You'll find I ave some silly posts like the one above and then some serious ones. Just like life!
DeleteI have been practically starving myself to get going on some much-needed weight loss, and I dropped about 25 pounds. Unfortunately, I'm traveling and visiting my in-laws this week, and can practically feel my waistband growing tighter. I honestly can't wait to get back home and back to eating a little healthier, but I WILL have some fried chicken from time to time, regardless of the need to continue losing weight. I'm dying from the heat, can't wait for fall, I'm hoping to be down enough to actually feel like exercising once it cools off a little.
ReplyDeleteLove your "randomness", as always!
Charlene
Oh Charlene that's wonderful (the weight loss, not the starving yourself, Ha!) I'm so thrilled for you. Seems like every time I start to get serious about dieting something comes up like a birthday or celebration or someone buys me some caramels. One day of any of those can wipe out several weeks of dieting for me. I've given up meat, but oh how fried chicken does tempt me! Shara posted a picture of her fried chicken and I practically licked the computer screen. Fried fish too. I hope my cholesterol appreciates all I do to keep it low!
DeleteHello, my dear Jane!
ReplyDeleteToo long since I visited, but I have enjoyed catching up today! You are so busy! I love the post about weight... especially as I was eating Italian cream cheese cake from my Sissie's birthday... and just bought a few closeouts for the rest of the summer... in sizes that just don't matter, really! I want to be fluffy because who loves a boney Grandma??
Cut your hair? What are you thinking?? The thought does pass through my mind once in a great while, but usually, I like the long because, well, it will sweep up...it will tumble down... it will curl on a non-humid day.... and be straight as a stick when it is humid. Can short hair do all that? I think not! LOL
Sending hugs your way!
M
I will never have to worry about being a boney grandma, Matty! Is that a hint, BTW, do you have some news that you'd like to share? Hmmm?
DeleteLong hair is fine if you do not live in a wind tunnel. Today I really had it, but Ran talked me out of it. For some reason he likes it long, but I feel somewhat like Sea Hag from the old Popeye comics with it. You know where Popeye flirts with the hot young chicky he sees from behind, then she turns around and gets a fright from her old face. Oh never mind! I'm just going through a middle age identity crisis. Guess I'll just keep it in a French twist like all nice old ladies should.
Hi Jane! We got a little rain but have more storm warnings....I hope we get more rain. My youngest daughter named our pets! She is a bit silly.
ReplyDeleteI was working on my blog and I removed her picture because I didn't want to keep it up for long, to protect her privacy from the internet! I have to laugh when I hear your dog's name, because I have a brother (and my dad) whose name is George..ha..and my grandma called my dad Georgie. love,andrea
ha...that is so funny what you said about names....and most likely will come true! She is already thinking of her first daughter's name...Penelope. I should jot down her ideas and show them to her later on...or better yet, show her future children!
ReplyDeleteFelix sounds nice. Isn't that from the odd couple show/movie? I named my first son Andrew, thinking I would bring back a traditional name....and when he went to kindergarten.....there were alot of andrews in his class! Funny how people think the same. love,andrea
I love your posts!
DeleteWhen do we stop worrying about how we look? Not just about weight. In this country old age is to be avoided at all costs. Just silly. You will either be another year older or you won't! Love that about short/sleeveless blouses. I'm getting to the point where I'm not too fond of wearing them. Don't like the jiggle thing going on when I wave! Oh well..
Hugs))