Skip to main content

I Needed New Pants after Thanksgiving

When you have steak, salad, fermented apple/cranberry treat and keto brownies for Thanksgiving, your pants aren't uncomfortable later...unless you've been losing weight and they're starting to fall off. After several months of lifting weights a couple of times a week, I've had to start wearing a belt and cinch it two or three notches to keep some of my pants on. My other pants are just wearing out. 

Lettuce and arugula in my garden in late November--can you believe it?

So I made a rare Black Friday shopping trip this year. I couldn't just order my old pants in smaller size since my shape had changed--my waist got smaller but my hips stayed about the same. A nearby Ross didn't have any jeans that fit; everything at the Salvation Army store had more wear than what I was wearing. A young woman who seemed to be having a conversation with herself followed me around the racks. I left and headed for the outlet mall in Edinburgh 36 miles away. 

If the crowds there were any indication, reports about dying brick and mortar stores are exaggerated. Max & Erma's next door was busy from 1-2 while I was having a grilled chicken salad. Police officers directed long lines of cars into and out of the mall parking lot. It took ten or fifteen minutes to creep through the traffic from the restaurant to a parking spot next door at the mall, where customers were waiting out in the cold to get into Coach and Michael Kors. 

Last summer when I made a pair of pants, I learned I had an unusual shape. The "amazing fit" pants pattern I bought had instructions to take waist, hip and crotch measurements to find your size. My three measurements were three very different pants sizes--and for all the "amazing fit" hype, they fit so badly I threw them away. I knew from watching What Not to Wear that I'd just have to try on a lot of pants. 

A little frazzled from trying on clothes. 

It paid off: I found corduroys, jeggings, and bootcut jeans that I didn't even have to hem. 

Back home with Biggs.

For benefit of anyone with a figure like mine (short-waisted, rectangle shape), I got mid-rise leggings and straight mid-rise corduroys from LOFT outlet and high rise skinny flare jeans in a short size from White House Black Market outlet. (I'm not an affiliate.) 

I'd thought about going to a restaurant on Thanksgiving, but decided to stay the course eating healthy food. (Full disclosure--I'm not crazy about restaurant food.) It meant I was alone with Biggs that day, but being alone seems to get easier with age. I may do the same for Christmas. Even if I indulge in a special Christmas dinner, I'm not going to let myself go for the holidays. Looking and feeling good is more important.

Comments

That's a great picture of you with Biggs.
Belated good wishes for Thanksgiving.

All the best Jan
Lori Miller said…
Thanks, Jan!

Popular posts from this blog

Battered Cod and my Eclipse Pictures of my Colander

If you miss battered cod on a low-carb, grain-free diet, here's a recipe that'll satisfy your craving. It's based on a Dr. Davis recipe. Battered cod and cole slaw Ingredients 1 pound cod fillets 2 eggs 2 tablespoons butter, melted 1/2 cup ground golden flaxseeds 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese 1/2 teaspoon onion powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon garlic powder Instructions Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice the cod into 1-1/2 to 2 inch pieces. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and butter. Beat continuously--don't let the butter cook the eggs. In a shallow bowl, combine the flaxseeds, cheese, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Coat each piece of cod in the egg mixture and then roll in the in the flaxseed mixture. Place on the baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes, turning once. Eclipse Crescent Shadows Today was the total solar eclipse, and my house was in the "path of totality."

My New Diet: How it's Going

Saturday I started a new diet to heal my cavities. It involves eating mostly foods high in vitamins A, D and K (fat-soluble vitamins) and calcium and phosphorus. I'm eating zero grains, but still eating a few chocolate candies (as in, three or so dark chocolate kisses per day) at work. To that end, on Saturday I bought a quart each of half-and-half and cream, two dozen eggs, liver, several tins of sardines on sale, and a bunch of salad ingredients. It's Monday and I'm already down to eight eggs and I've gone through half the cream and half-and-half. (I still have three-fourths of a pie dish of low-carb flan I made tonight with the dairy and eggs, and I fed a few of the eggs to my dog.) There's liver thawing in the refrigerator for tomorrow night and a can of sardines in my lunch (I already ate one can of sardines Saturday when I wanted a quick, easy snack). In other words, it's been incredibly easy to eat this food. I also changed my toothpaste to Xyliwhite(TM)

An Objective Book about Other Childhood Vaccines

Today's decision by the CDC to add COVID shots to the schedule of childhood vaccines has some people concerned about the rest of the vaccines on the schedule. Contrary to fact-checker claims, adding COVID shots to the schedule means children will be required in about a dozen states to get a COVID shot to attend public school. Indiana isn't one of them--our childhood vaccination law doesn't mention the CDC and such a requirement could run afoul of our ban on COVID vaccine passports. But even freewheeling Indiana has some vaccine requirements and this kerfuffle has people wondering how safe those vaccines are.  There's a book called Vaccines: Truth, Lies and Controversy  by Peter C. Gotzsche, DrMedSci and co-founder of the Cochrane Collaboration, about the safety and efficacy of all those vaccines, including COVID and others. Cochrane was founded to "to organise medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving healt

Finding Relief from Muscle Strain

I love working in my garden, but lately it's left me feeling like I've been run over. Pruning an eight-foot-tall rose down to two feet to extract a trellis that the rose grew up through and pulled out of the ground, after I'd lifted weights the night before, forced me to take a day of rest.  Aspirin helped, but chronic use of it can lead to ulcers. I wondered if there was still Bacillus coagulans in the yogurt I make, since one of the other strains in the yogurt could have crowded it out. B. coagulans is a bacteria that helps with muscle recovery. I took some packets of it and added a packet to my next yogurt batch, but bacteria don't work like drugs--it can take more time to feel any effects. What helped a lot were some videos from SpineCare Decompression , a YouTube channel run by Dr. Michael Rowe, a chiropractor who makes 10-15 minute videos showing how to use stretching exercises to relieve pain at home. Repeating the stretches every day has given me a lot more flex

Lousy Mood? It Could be the Food

Here's a funny AMV(1) on what it's like to be depressed, apathetic and overly sensitive. Note: explicit (but funny) lyrics in the video. Hearing this song brought a startling realization: I used to be emo, but with normal clothes. Sulking, sobbing and writing poetry were my hobbies. When I was a kid, my mother said that she wouldn't know what to do to punish me if I had done something wrong. And yet things got worse. Over a two-week period in 1996, my best friend moved away, I lost my job and broke up with my boyfriend. I lost my appetite and lived on a daily bagel, cream cheese and a Coke for the next few months. I had tried counseling, and didn't find it helpful; in fact, I found reviving painful memories was pointless. Not thinking about them, on the other hand, worked wonders. Later on, so did studying philosophy and learning to think through emotions instead of just riding through them. But what's blown away all the techniques is diet. Since I s