A Quilt Finish, Garden Pix and a Weight Loss Tale

Oh, there’s so much to share with you this week! But first I want to thank you all for the kind comments and personal emails on my International Sisters quilt that I shared last week. I appreciate your kindness and support more than you could know. 

In this post, I’m going to start with my quilting and Rainbow Scrap progress for the week, continue with a few fun happenings from the week, some pictures from the garden, and finish with a relatively long (for a blog post) narration of my weight loss journey to date. Each section will be separated by ******** lines, so if you don’t want to read about them, you can choose to skip along. No hurt feelings on my part, LOL.

I finished sewing my red scraps for July for the RSC, and will link up as usual to Scrappy Saturday. Here are 10 crumb blocks that will finish at 6” each.

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Eight Split Nines blocks that will also finish at 6”. 

Additionally, I finished quilting Red Ribbons, but it still needs its binding, so that reveal will be next week.

I also basted five kid-sized community (group) quilts and have begun quilting those. These tops are donated to me through Jo’s Country Junction Community Quilts program. I provide the backing and quilting/binding, and get to donate them to my local Quilts for Kids chapter. Here’s a sneak peek of the pile I intend to finish and reveal in my next post.

But I did have one actual quilt finish this week. It’s the light blue scrap quilt from last month. Better late than never!

It finished at 44x58”, so it’s more of a youth size than a little kid size. The backing also helped me use up a lot of scraps and chunks, a double win.

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This week we had the opportunity to join my son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter, plus her boyfriend  and a couple family friends to attend a Beatles tribute band (Rain) concert in downtown Salt Lake City. 

They were very good, and one could *almost* believe we had time traveled back to the Sixties, 

L-R: Granddaughter Lauren, boyfriend Graham, 2 family friends R and R, Daughter-in-law Kim, my son Ryan, me, Bruce 

The next day, my friend Ruby and I went to see Oppenheimer, the movie. The movie was long (3 hours), and I have to admit I felt a bit lost at first. But the story is tight and masterful, and the various pieces are skillfully woven together as it progresses and things become clear. The acting was a master class of talent. If Oppenheimer doesn’t win all the awards for acting, screen writing, directing, producing and sound editing/engineering, there is no justice in the world! 

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In the garden, the blackberries have started ripening. They are monsters, but very sweet ones! I’ve been freezing them and see a batch of blackberry jam and lots of yummy fruit salad in our future.

And here are a few photos from the front flower beds at the end of July. Yes, you’ll see weeds in the flower beds. Just keeping it real. I limit my weeding to once per week. 

Front planter under living room window

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My Weight Loss Journey to Date

Last September 2022, early in the month, I had my first-ever bout of sciatica. At the time, I had gained back 20+ of my 35-pound pre-Covid weight loss. I was miserable physically and disgusted with myself overall. In the emergency room (the sciatica was that bad), they x-rayed my hip because I was sure that’s what it was - my bum hip. Well, it did show that I had extreme osteoarthritis in my left hip, but the pain itself radiated from the spine on the right side and was diagnosed as sciatica. 

I was determined that I was too young to feel that old, and embraced the physical therapy sessions with such gusto that I was released from physical therapy after three visits feeling much improved. Side note: I continue to do those core-strengthening exercises regularly. At the same time late last summer, I determined that it was now or never to get healthy. No more excuses; my health was and is too important. While I have been a Weight Watchers member on and off for most of my life (and continuously for the last 7-8 years), I re-dedicated myself to really working the program this time. It’s basically just healthy, common-sense eating. The workshops teach us everything from nutrition, to coping skills for various dining and family situations, and mindset adjustments. I’ll get into that more below. 

So, I was off and running, and by the end of the year had dropped another 15 pounds, in addition to the few I had previously managed to keep off, bringing me to approximately -25 pounds down at the start of 2023. I was fiercely determined to keep it going. 
Losing weight the right way is not fast. But think about it - we don’t gain it fast either. It usually just creeps on over the years. Good things take time, especially if your aim is to make it a lifestyle change. The time this journey is going to take me, whether weeks or months or years, is going to pass regardless of what goes in my mouth. So why not just take it slowly and steadily. I’ll get there. The weight loss wasn’t going to happen if I threw in the towel, so I just decided to keep going.

In February I shrunk out of most of my “jumbo” sizes and had to go shopping for some new things. I bought new season-spanning jeans and a couple tops. I reasoned that I was in interim sizing, so I didn’t want to invest a lot of money. So, Old Navy and Amazon to the rescue! I also started watching some select and carefully-screened fashion influencer You-Tube channels for women over 40 or 50. After being out of the workplace fashion loop for over a decade, and being retired, obese, frumpy and not really giving a hoot, it was fun to learn again how to dress to flatter my newly-emerging figure, put on makeup, and take care of myself with moisturizers, SPF, and other skin-care basics. I started taking an interest in ME, and it was eye-opening.

As moms and wives (and grandmas or caretakers - pick your hat) women are typically the last in line for our own attention. That was changing for me. It reminds me of the flight attendant admonitions on every flight to put your own mask on before you help others. Common sense. Self-care. To be sure, having a husband with an amputated arm who had to work hard to get his driver’s license back (independence, autonomy), to say nothing of all the adaptive things that go into everyday living, it was still very much on my to-do list to assist him. But he’s done it and is now independent again.

Throughout the winter, my mantra had been that I went into the winter as a caterpillar spinning a cocoon, and would emerge in the spring as a butterfly. Cute, eh? Screeeeetch!  First of all, here it is, mid-summer and I’m still metamorphosing. Thank goodness!

The analogy of my journey is better described not as a butterfly, but as an old space capsule re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. I picture myself as a passenger inside the capsule, being tossed and heaved by unseen forces, flames on the exterior, with a very hard splash landing in the ocean at the end. So much more apropos! I’ve had night sweats from Hell. Women store estrogen in fat, so as the fat melts off, the Days of Wine and Menopause return. Cue the estrogen therapy again. Previously plump skin is now looking decidedly crepe-ier. I moisturize, from the inside with loads of water-drinking and on the outside with 163 different moisturizers and skin care products (only a slight exaggeration, LOL). My taste buds have changed. I can barely stand artificial sweeteners now. And all of a sudden I like the taste of watermelon. But tea and cucumbers still make me gag.

Health-wise, my doctor is really pleased with me, too. He is totally an enthusiastic supporter of WW. I used to have to get cortisone shots in my knees every 4 1/2 -5 months, depending on how long I could tough out the pain. My most recent shots were at the beginning of July, fully ten (almost eleven) months from the last round. That’s progress. To date I’ve lost 57.6 pounds. Six more to goal, and then another 12 for good measure and to bring my total loss to 75 pounds. I’ll be in a healthy weight range and BMI, with all the attendant health benefits. My CPAP needs to be adjusted and serviced as it tends to overwhelm my smaller person. Sometimes I even sleep without it.

I’ve learned to like and respect myself and sometimes do a double take when I see my reflection in a window. I’m in in a position now to put my own needs first moving forward. I can do hard things, and I am strong physically, mentally and emotionally.  I will not go back. I feel some major changes coming in my life and I am so excited. Stay tuned. (And if you made it through this post, congrats and thank you!)