bunsofaluminum's journal

[sksamboots]

You have a lot going on. Have a good one

[bunsofaluminum]

It's looking like a beautiful day. Might be hot later, but the early morning is so perfect. Sun coming in bran-new that makes the leaves of the trees go golden, cool air, clear sky. The occasional bird but I think the mating calls and territorial singing are pretty much over now.

I did see a cedar wax wing with its fledgling. The daddy had a berry in his mouth, and the baby was fluttering all around, begging. He finally handed the berry over and flew off. LOL boy, do I know how THAT feels.
Not much happening in my day to day life right now. I got away for an overnighter to a friend's property in Idaho. Haven't seen her for a few years, and it's always wonderful to hang with her. The kids and I actually put in several hours of work to get the property ready to sell, then we floated down the river on tubes which was hilarious fun.

Barbecued one night (I had a piece of salmon on bun w/a load of red leaf lettuce and a sliced tomato...I know, salmon...I am calling my first visit in four years, with a dear friend, An Occasion for Feasting.

Other than that, I ate sanely: oatmeal, salad, black bean salsa, carrots, spinach (instead of chips )

Yesterday I ate a sliver of birthday cake My only transgression of the day. Not to mention, I'm supposed to be not eating sugar AT ALL in July.

today: 100% Compliance yah! (please, Lord, let the bday cake be all gone at work)

B: oatmeal cooked w/banana and cinnamon
L: salsa wraps
D: minestrone soup (found some vegan soup by progresso at the discount store: Open, heat, and eat. yah! )

that's another thing I'm trying to do is keep it simple in July so I can focus my energies elsewhere.

[sksamboots]

great on the 100% today!!

[mtns]

It's so good to have you back, I have missed seeing your posts. Sounds like you are doing great and have a good attitude to keep on pushing on. I always have a problem with sugar. Once I eat some I start craving it and it's hard to get over that craving. I am praying for you today.
Kathy

[bunsofaluminum]

GRRRRREAT day today. Hot as anything, but i did get my front room deep cleaned, and managed to clean the kitchen sink before I melted.

Eating, I did terrific. Brekkie was oatmeal w/bananas cooked in. Lunch was minestrone which I doubled by putting cooked rice and a can of tomatoes in. (I had Second Lunch at about three)

Dinner is/has been baby carrots and a can of garbanzo beans which I seasoned with garlic powder and ground cumin. I like it, cuz I can munch and play computer at the same time

Ooh, I went shopping. Well, it's so hot, I went to Staples just to be in some air conditioned area, and Ross is next door to Staples, so I went there, too. At Staples, I bought notebooks (three...three different journals) and pens. Oh! and a very cool new water jug by Thermos.

At Ross I shopped like ANYTHING. Tried on a dozen or so tops (all of them, just a wee bit off. A few of them actually pretty trashy looking.) I mean, I have lost a lot of weight and feel pretty good about myself, but it still looks icky to have my bulges and rolls fully exposed by wearing a very snug tee, you know? If I take all of my weight off and have a truly slim figure, I still don't think I would choose super form fitting, tight t-shirts, but while i still have rolls and bulges around my bra and jeans waist? Not a CHANCE. And the tops that weren't super form fitting were too scoop necked, and my bra straps had to be pushed off my shoulders in order not to show...nah. Too bad. there were a couple of cute ones.

So I ended up putting them all back, and bought a new lunch box, a pair of shoes for me, and a pair of hi-tops and a bright, fuzzy, huge pillow for my girl's 16th bday coming up.

Gonna hit the hay real soon. That's one thing I'd like to see improve: better sleep. I love the energy that eating this way provides, but when I don't get enough sleep, I'm still wiped out regardless of my diet. It's menopause for sure. And the heat. Thanking God I sleep in teh basement!

[bunsofaluminum]

Today's Eating Plan:

B: five grain cereal w/banana cooked in
L: refritos on whole wheat tortilla
D: pulled jackfruit bbq on wh wh roll, coleslaw, watermelon

It's Cousin Day, where we get together with our cousins. KFC is the only food, which I only had one small piece last year when I wasn't McDougalling...there's no way I am eating any of it, these days. It sort of nauseates me. I'm making a double batch of the bbq jackfruit, and taking a dozen good rolls. My sister doesn't like KFC, either, so she'll have some of mine.

I pray it isn't steaming, roasting, oven hot, as it has been the last week or so. Ugh! But I'll wow em, as I've lost 40 lbs since the last time we met! yay!

[Birdy]

Hi Buns,
Your last two posts I have to say are so cute! It sounds like you're having fun in the heat (or despite the heat). And congratulations on the 40 pound weight loss! That's a LOT of weight you've lost.

Just checking in. I'm not posting much anymore these days.

All the best!

[bunsofaluminum]

Whew. What a day yesterday was. A client attacked me, a client's knee collapsed, sending him down the last three or so of a set of stairs, and a client scratched (gouged) the inner arm of another client. Three incident reports on one shift. All was quiet at Junk Food Client's house, and then I had Cousin Day which was fun, but kept me up past 10:30.

It was all pretty quiet at work until about noonish, when a client attacked me. He has several things going on here.

First, he has had brain surgery, which means he is brain injured, and has lost some impulse control (Brain injured people often have major outbursts of anger over nothing.)

Secondly, he lost his eyesight a couple of years ago and is now in the "anger" phase of grief over that loss.

Third, he is a big guy who has somewhat of a history of using his size to threaten people, even before the brain stuff and blindness.

So, he was calling another client names and flipping him and a staff member off. Staff prompted him about that, and went to get his regular staff. I was there, and I have known this guy for three years since I started with the company, so I said "Maybe it's time for a break. Let's find a quiet side room so you can calm down in private" and he said no, and then hit me with his cane and backed me up against a wall, shouting in my face with all his might, and putting his elbow literally in my face, against my cheek. SCARY!

The program director, another big guy, had to take him down literally to the floor to get him under control. It was shaky, but there was work to be done and I finished my shift, and then cried when I got out of there. Last night, too. Couldn't sleep until I'd written it all out in my journal...which meant after midnight for sleeping.

As we were dealing with Mr J Of The Temper, Mr K fell down the stairs and then laid there for a long time, just absorbing all our attention and solicitations and sympathy. Ugh. And then I saw the deep scratches on Ms H's inner arm, from where Ms T had reached over and grabbed her. Neither Ms H nor Ms T is verbal, so no one knew Ms H was hurt. whew. We sent Ms T home with instructions to her daddy to trim her dang fingernails.

Cousin Day was fun. I've lost enough weight, my ankle doesn't hurt any more, and I participated in the kick ball game! yahoo! It was fun! I like having enough energy and health to do stuff like that. there is always KFC at these things, but I brought the pulled jackfruit BBQ and my sis brought a salad, and there was a salad there that was SO YUMMY made with many fresh herbs all throughout. YUM. And I had a biscuit with gravy on it

ah. what a day. I'm praying for the angry client. I will move away from his vicinity if he gets freaky again. Which he will.

oh, at my work, if a client harms another client or a staff ON PURPOSE (the girl who scratched the other client has the mentality of an eight month old baby, so...) the staff involved decides the consequences. in this case, the young feller lost his cane at my discretion. He gets to maneuver in his world for a few days without his blind stick. I'm the third person he has hit with it. If he's going to use it as a weapon, he is going to lose it. Period.

here's praying for a calm day. Amen.

[bunsofaluminum]

God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.

Today is Lake Day at work, where we all go up, with clients, and have a bbq: ribs, burgers, hot dogs. I'm taking bbq pulled jackfruit samwiches, baby carrots, cauliflower. Will probably have a handful of tortilla chips and for sure some watermelon.

Fasting brekkie.

dinner will be something simple, plus beets that I pulled up this morning. That's the last of the beets from my garden. Speaking of gardens, I am beginning to see ripe grape tomatoes. I actually ate two yesterday. From the vine to my mouth!

and, I am learning about gardening as I go. for instance, when it says tomato plants must be planted so many feet apart...take it seriously. I planted four within about a five foot radius (not in rows, in a group) and now I have a tomato jungle! I hope I will be able to see them when they ripen. AND I'm going to have a TON of tomatoes, when they do ripen. But that's okay. I know I can eat a ton of fresh garden tomatoes. No problemo.

I'm enjoying the simplicity of my menus these days. If I have to cook it, I generally don't go for it. If I can open a can of it and eat it YAY. For instance, yesterday's lunch was a can of garbanzo beans with garlic powder, ground cumin and lemon juice, and some steamed broccoli left over from breakfast. Huh. Brekkie was steamed broccoli w/lemon pepper! ha! It was pretty delicious. And dinner was a bean burrito: whole wheat tortilla w/canned refritos, salsa verde, and chipotle Tabasco, and a plate of veggie sticks and grape tomatoes that I bought and took to Cousin Day but no one ate em. Except ME! I ate em all gone for dinner w/my burrito.

kay gotta go. I drank a cup of tea, and took three excedrin because of a headache and I'm sorta buzzing now. caffeine. caPOW!

[Birdy]

Wow Buns, your post from Tuesday made me feel for you. Your job sounds really hard at times or even all the time given the clients' potential behaviors. I'm so glad that the McDougall diet is helping you feel better and be able to pariticipate in things like kick ball and gardening. Hugs, hugs, hugs!

[Anna Green]

Buns, I so like your journal and you! I like your attitude about what happens with your clients. Really kind and pragmatic.

[kirstykay]

Buns,
You are doing so great!!! I love having you back here on the boards. Keep up the awesome work! You inspire me.
K

[bunsofaluminum]

Hey,, everyone! thanks for visiting!

It has been a long week. Seems a year ago, mr J was trying to over power me...only six days. From Monday, where that happened, to Friday where I started at work at 8:30 and didn't get back until 7:00 pm...long, long LONG week. Every single day started early, and ended late, with constant activity from morning til night.

In between Client Berserk Monday and Eleven Hour Friday, we had a day long outing to the pool, dr appointments, 45 minute drives to a new client's house, a client became homeless and moved into the facility. Every day of the week, I had something big after work that kept me out and about until after 8:00 pm EVERY SINGLE NIGHT...

Yeah. Long week.

A major blessing this week was meeting the new client, Mr E. He has CP and is in a wheelchair, but he is normal, mentally. Intelligent, witty, good conversationalist. A very neat guy, who is fun to hang with. I'm glad he signed on with us

I have discovered frozen grapes. Since I don't have AC, I have to find other ways to get cool and keep cool. Frozen grapes is a WONDERFUL solution. I tossed two bags of them in the freezer a few nights ago. Let me recommend: have some after they've been in about two hours...they're frozen on the edges,but still juicy inside...oh MAN that's good. But they're good, even frozen solid. And eating them does cool me down, without adding much calories. And zero effort. You pop one or two in your mouth and suck on them for a minute...this splits the skin and softens it just a bit, then you can munch...yum! Very delicious, and very cooling.

doing okay food-wise. I am probably eating too much flour based stuff, though. Pasta, bread, etc. And I ate boca burger yesterday for dinner. A "burger with the works"...so, not MWL, not really super compliant even w/the regular plan. At least, not 100% and that's for sure. But I am staying away from sugar completely, and choosing low fat, no fat, for 80% of my choices.

Today:
B: corn meal pancakes, plain (ooh, i coulda put applesauce on those!)
L: hm...minestrone soup?
D: rice, steamed beets w/tops, big salad. ??? maybe. Hm, maybe I'll go get corn on the cob. I live in an area with scads of roadside produce stands...oooh...the berries are out, too. Oooh.

gonna do the usual housework. maybe a little de-jungle-izing out back. maybe watch a movie and eat frozen grapes! ha!

[sksamboots]

I've always wanted to try the grapes. Do they ever get too hard to eat? Should you take them out after 2hours? Hmm, sounds interesting. Hope your day is relaxing

[bunsofaluminum]

I've always wanted to try the grapes. Do they ever get too hard to eat? Should you take them out after 2hours? Hmm, sounds interesting. Hope your day is relaxing

Hi boots

I didn't used to like them, as they are very cold and I have sensitive teeth. But popping one in my mouth and holding it for a few minutes softens it to a biting point, where I can munch without hurting. They don't freeze solid like an ice cube, but are softish not crunchy but gooshy. And good!