How's that working for you?

I don't watch Dr. Phil (is he even on television any more?), but I used to catch the program occasionally, and it didn't take long to figure out that his five most important words were these:

How's that working for you?

This week I have:

• Downed more than 7 gallons of water. A gallon a day is my minimum and I've been managing it really well. I find room-temperature water goes down more easily than cold, so I keep the pitcher on the counter or just drink tap water. I start early in the morning and, in fact, have a tall glass (16 oz.) before I have my first cup of coffee. Drinking so much water so early in the day was, um, problematic earlier in the week, because I also like to walk early in the day. You figure it out. Heh. But my system has adapted already. So. Water? Check.

• Eaten 19 healthful, home-cooked meals – 5 breakfasts, 2 brunches, 5 lunches, 7 dinners – and one snack. There were a couple days where breakfast turned into brunch, and on one of those days I really needed to eat something mid-afternoon. The difference between eating that snack and eating all the previous snacks in the past few months is that this one was in response to physical hunger (as well as lightheadedness). I've experienced hunger more in the past week than I have in a year, maybe even years. And it's okay to be hungry. I didn't die because I didn't get to eat right now. The sensation of hunger goes away if you don't eat, especially if you're busy doing something else. So. Meals? I'll say check. 

• Done an upper- or lower-body weight-training session every day. Because these sessions are relatively easy (tricep dips using my own bodyweight are the most difficult), I haven't felt it necessary to take a day off. I also have been doing them daily to reinforce the routine and turn it into a habit. If I were lifting heavy, I would probably skip a day in between. But if I were skipping a day in between, I would talk myself into skipping two days or three, and then I wouldn't be lifting anything. Because that's how I roll with the weight training. So. Weight-training? Check.

• Walked 30 miles in nine hours and 36 minutes. Approximately. There was never a day when I didn't want to go for a walk. We're having some lovely weather – the leaves are bright and beautiful, the temperatures have been in the low 70s, some days there's been a light breeze but no heavy winds at all – which makes it easy to get out the door on a daily basis. I did four miles five days and five miles two days and enjoyed every step I took. Seriously. Walking? Check.

I wish I could say that all I wanted to do was accomplish those four things. But I really wanted those four things to result in a pound or – dare I wish for it? – two of weight loss. Alas, I weigh, this morning, precisely what I weighed a week ago, and that was a very scary number. To say I'm disappointed is a HUGE understatement.

HUGE

I didn't write down what I ate every meal, but I've been tracking meals more than half my life. At this stage, I eat more healthfully and more nutritiously and more reasonably than I ever have. I didn't (and don't) think it necessary to record it in a program or write it in a journal. 

However, I could certainly be wrong about that. It appears that I'm going to have to count some effing calories in order to make the kind of progress that shows up on a bathroom scale. I have the tools to do that, it doesn't take much extra effort and it will give me more information to work with.

It's all about the information. And the exercise. And the water. And the metabolism. And the motivation. Oh, hell, it's all about everything.

Moving on.

Knitting: I know you're dying to know how Jujuba is coming along. You're not here just for my weight-loss progress reports, are you? Football weekends mean lots o' knitting time. I have two more rows to go for the first half to be done. I'm putting the live stitches on a spare needle, in case I have to go back and add a couple more rows. I won't really know if it will span the circumference of my body until I'm ready to assemble it.

The way things are going, I might need to add more rows by then.

SIGH

The Pantry: Plan B

Well my brilliant brick-and-board idea didn't work because the bricks were too long to allow the inner door to close on the back shelves. Pictures say a thousand words, or so I've heard, so I'll throw a couple up and see if they can tell the story better than I.

This is what the pantry looks like when you open the outer doors. This shot is the right side of the pantry, the left was identical, except that behind the shelves of canned tomatoes there were no shelves, just storage space. (Probably should have taken a "before" photo of the propped-up ironing board that used to be in there.)

This is the view of the new shelves, in place and stocked. I ended up having to use traditional hardware to install the shelves. It looks much nicer, there's more usable space and the interior door closes.

After I put all that food on the new shelves, I decided I'll probably – soon – take everything out and organize it more efficiently. The interior door shelves are deep enough to hold one can, while the new shelves can handle two. Or, better yet, the wider items I've had trouble finding space for, lo these many years.

At least one of you should be pleased that I actually got a weight-training workout done yesterday. I moved 42 bricks, three or four at a time, from behind my garage to my back patio, a distance of 30 feet or so. After I rinsed them and they were dry, I moved most of them into the pantry, another 18 feet or so. (Incidentally, this is the kind of workout I really love: using my muscles to actually complete a task,  rather than simply repetitively lifting heavy pieces of metal. And yes, I realize that there is a goal in mind with weight training, but I haven't made the mental leap I need to make to accept that I'm the task that needs to be complete. Hmmm.)

I didn't try to close the inner shelf until I'd put every brick and board in place. CALL ME STUPID! So I then had to move all the bricks back to their starting place behind the garage.

Fortunately the local (12 miles away) hardware store had the materials I needed to finish the job. If you were looking for me yesterday afternoon I was stuffed into the inner recesses of the dark pantry cupboard installing shelf rails.

I'm much happier with Plan B. It looks very professional, it matches the other side of the pantry and there's more storage room than there would have been with the [free] bricks. To sum up:

One long Aspen board, cut into five pieces: $23
Four shelf rails, 24 sheet-metal screws, 24 shelf clips: $21
New storage space in kitchen pantry: Priceless!