Later today for what I have done.

It is much later today and I still have not gotten a thing done to the clip board.  I have spent most of the day in the living room watching Smallville with my daughter.  Now it was not a total waste.  I did get a square done.  And I got all of the supplies that I need for tomorrow sorted out for me to paint then pack.  Guess I am going to be up really late tonight. 

One of the things that I wanted to show you was the square that I did.  I took pictures of each step for making it. 

1.        As you can see from the pattern it is a design made in 4 quadrants.  I start in the middle and stitch the lower right quadrant.

2.    Then I turn it over and sew the quadrant next to it which now makes it the top right quadrant.

3.    The last step is I then sew the whole lower half of it.

PATTERN

As you see it is a design that is made up of one design put in four times to make a square.  The center lines up and down are done once in the design and then the design is the same in all of the corners just turned around ¼ turn.  There is a term for it but I do not know what it is.  All of the designs that I have are the same size.  21 x 21.  So that makes each quadrant is 9 x9 squares counting the middle lines with two over for the frame.  I have about 20 different patterns and I am making more so no two blocks will be the same.  Looking at the pattern you will see that I made a mistake in one of the quadrants.  By the time I noticed it, it was to late.  I did some of these on the computer with a program that I do not have any more cause the computer I used has died.  And a couple of them I got off the internet, but when I try to find any thing like them, I can not.  So if any one knows any of these and the web site let me know.

What Has Happen Up Until Now

January 9, 2015                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Weight  355                                   Pounds Lost   002

As of today when I got up this morning I weighed myself.  I was at 353.  That made me happy. 

Now I know I should not weigh myself every day.  Your weight is all over the place from day to day.  You should pick a day and a time and that is the only time you should weigh yourself.  But I do not know a single person who does that including me.  Now I do weight myself at the same time every day.  For me it is at 6:30am.    I felt good to see that I was two pounds lighter.  And I was going to walk, (the best that I can walk) around my home.  I have a pedometer and my goal is to reach 500 steps a day. Hopefully as time goes by I will be able to add more steps.  Before when I was losing weight I use to walked 10,000 steps a day.  I use to walk to and from work.  Take the long way to go to the break room and back.  Plus when walking to work, I would have to walk through a parking lot and I would walk up and down the aisles.  Yes, I did take longer to walk to and from work but it help me with losing my weight.  Plus I would stop at the store on the way home and get just what I needed for my dinner that day and for lunch the next day.  Sigh    I miss those days.  I do miss working.

Plus when I emailed a friend about my weight, she tells me I should have lost more than two pounds.  That is a pound a day and I do not have the ability to move around as much as I want to.  I should tell you she is very skinny and has never had a weight problem.  But her husband has lost over 150 pounds with surgery.  He looks great, but that route is not for me.  I love to eat and you can not eat very big meals.  I mean I can eat a whole bag of salad with add ins.  I use a salad dressing that only has 20 calories per serving.  So for what I eat in salad it is only about 100 calories and that is a lot of food.  My daughter says I should not eat so much but she is not a salad eater.  She eats cereal or one of those package noodle soups when she is not cooking for hubby.

Now one of the other things that I am doing to keep from grazing in the kitchen is to get some of my craft projects done.  I spent a couple of hours stitching a square for the cross stitch quilt.  This is a project that is going to take me a long time to finish.  Each square is two inches across, five cross stitch squares per block with four squares of fabric.  This makes a six inch block.  Plus I am going to put a black sashing in between each block.  The quilt I am making is going to be a little bit bigger than a twin size quilt.  As you can see this is going to be a while before this is finished.  But it will keep me busy.  I am trying to make a block a week.  That means I have to stitch five squares a week and then sew the block together.  So far I have these four squares done for this week.  I just have one more to do.  Each block is a different fabric with a matching back.  Yea, Lot of work but it will be so worth it when done.

Another project that I have to work on today is the clip board project.  I belong to a painting group and this month we are doing a clip board with these three silly pencils on it.  I will post the picture when I come home Saturday.  Hopefully I will be done and not have to finish it here at home.  I have to paint the background and then draw on the picture and do all of the base coating.  This needs to get done along with a couple of other things before I go tomorrow.  So this is going to keep me in my room for most of the day.  No time to graze.

GETTING STARTED WITH MY JOURNEY.......again

Every year I make the same New Year’s Resolution to lose weight.  And every year I never seem to lose the weight I need to lose.  I mean when I first realized I was going to be a grandma for the first time in 2003, I weighed 475lbs.  I did not have a lap for my new grandbaby to sit on when they got to this world so I decided to lose some weight.  I was walking, eating less food, trying to cut out bad food.  This did work for a bit.  I got down to 350lbs in about two years. 

Then I seem to hit a stale mate.  Could not seem to lose any more weight, got depress, and got to where I did not care.  I did not gain any weight, but I did not seem to lose any weight either.  I stayed this way for almost six years.  Just got to where I did not care either way.  By this time it was around March of 2011.  I was living with my youngest daughter and her husband to help take care of my 2 grandbabies. (Two girls.) and one on the way.  (Another girl)  Because of my health and other things going on, I had decided I wanted to live on my own in my own place.  I also got to where I needed help with my every day needs.  So I hired a caregiver to come in and help with my needs.  .

The person who came to work for me was fantastic.  Her name was Lydia.  She was a little older than I was but we had a lot of things in common.  Both of love to craft and we got along great.  When I told her I use to weigh 475 and I was down to 350, she asked me how I did it.  I told her and she was surprised to find out I was not using any special diet.  I was telling her, I knew what I needed to do to lose weight, but did not know how to make or cook any kinds of veggies.  Lydia told me she knew a lot of different ways to fix veggies that was not fatting.  She also introduce a lot of new veggies to me.  So with her help I got back on track and started to lose weight again.  I was doing so well, I got down to 255.  I even went out and got me some new clothes. 

But at this time I had some health problems that had been on going for some time.  So in the year of 2010 I had surgery on my left shoulder, a left knee replacement, and 2011, planters factious, and set back with my kidneys and my blood disorder.   And to make matter worse, I fell February 6, 2014 and broke my knee replacement and shattered my femur.  And I mean shattered.  I now have a long rod and 6 pins in my left femur.  I am still in physical therapy just to learn to use my left leg again.  Can not walk very well.  For a long time was in a wheel chair, and could not walk more than 10 steps before I had to sit down.  Plus I have a bladder problem where I have to go to the bathroom all the time and can not always make it.  So I have to teach my bladder again.  And because of all of this, I kind of lost my way and started to gain my weight back.  Seems like it came back on faster than I lost it.  Plus I moved back to California a couple of years ago to live with my oldest daughter and her husband.  It is not easy being here, but it is better than being on my own since I really do not have the money to live on my own.  I miss my grandkids in Idaho, but I do get to see my grandkids here in CA.  My grandson and granddaughter from my son.

Soooooooooo……………………January 6, 2015.   As of this morning I weighed 355 pounds.  (Yep, I gain it all back from when I started a few years ago.)   And I can not do the kind of exercises I use to do cause I can not stand on my left leg much less walk on it.  Plus I notice when I get bored, I want to eat.  Not good when you want to lose weight.  And to make matters worse, I really do not have the money to eat the way I want to eat.  So I have to eat what my daughter fixes me and she does not understand what it is to eat healthy.  I mean she thinks eating rice, or potatoes every night with dinner is healthy.  She does not want to learn about proper eating habits.  She always uses her husband as an excuse cause he does not have any teeth so he has to eat soft food.  YUCK!!!!!!

So tomorrow I am going to try to do my best to eat the best I can.  I need to keep busy so as not to go hunting looking for something to eat.  I have a lot of craft projects to do and if I can keep busy I will not be so tempted t0 g0 eat something.  I need to stitch a square for the quilt, scan a book, and paint my clip board for my painting group that I will go to on Saturday. 

So  I am inviting you to go on this journey with me of losing my weight, get all of my projects done, and learn to quit procrastinating.  And if any one as any suggestions or has any questions please add it in the remarks and will see what happens.