I shoulda been a plumber

My husband told me a joke yesterday.

The neurosurgeon was shocked when he got his plumber's bill for a simple sink repair. "That's more than I make for an hour in the operating room!" he cried. The plumber replied, "That's more than I made when I was a neurosurgeon, too."

For the past few days I've been handwashing the dishes, thinking the garbage disposal was in need of repair or replacement. I found the problem – and solved it – thanks to the internets. I love Google.

Since I thought it was the disposal, I started there, first hitting the reset switch (all disposals have them and I've had to reset mine in the past), then using an allen wrench to clear any potential jam.

All of that resulted in a still-slow drain. A little more sleuthing suggested I probably had a clog in the line leading from the disposal to the septic system. That was easily fixed by applying a plunger to the sink drain.

Like I said up top: I shoulda been a plumber.

And I shoulda worked on this problem Saturday instead of Sunday, since we had friends over for a Chinese feast Saturday night, and I was handwashing dishes long after the sun set.

Instead of fixing the plumbing Saturday morning, though, I took a walk. Yeah, me! Unless things completely fall apart, I'm definitely going to meet the walking goal for February. I'll hit 80+ miles today; with a week to go at five miles/day, I'll exceed the 110-mile goal for the month. I'll be out of town next weekend, but I'll be at the beach, and the forecast looks pretty good for long walks along the ocean.

I'm still maintaining my weight, and eating quite well. And I'm still okay with this. I thought I surely would have gained many pounds eating 1700-1800 (and sometimes more, see Chinese feast above) calories per day, after so many years of keeping it below 1500 and, usually, at or below 1200. As I understand it from Jeff and Russ, this is the normal course when you increase calories after a long period of deprivation. I just need to trust the process.

In my occasional spot-checks, I've been up or down a pound or two, but no more, for the past couple of months. The fact that I can eat this well and maintain my weight is simply amazing. At some point my body will trust that I've given up starving it and I should begin losing. It's a fact that I wasn't losing at 1200 calories/day. I just need to be patient and trust the process.

I'm not quite ready to take a look at "what if I never lose weight."

Spring is coming, I know it is. The tulip and daffodil bulbs I planted last fall are poking through the dirt, as is the garlic! Frankly, I'm more excited about the garlic than I am the flowers. I bought a horseradish root to plant, as well as a bag of seed-starting mixure and some seeds (mostly herbs). Before you can Reap or Eat, you have to Knit Sow. Heh.