The Stress Factor Diet

Although it's been quite a few years since I had issues with my weight, I will always recall the difficulty involved in losing weight and keeping it off.  Shortly after giving birth I found myself with about 60 pounds to lose, which I managed to do without the assistance of weight loss pills or fad diets of anykind.  Thanks to a combination of youth, being a nursing mother, and having a 15 pound baby to tote around, I dropped the first 40 pretty effortlessly. The last 20 pounds disappeared as a result of one my most reliable diet methods.  No, and I haven't discovered the best weight loss pills in existence.  My diet secret is quite simple.

Stress.

I lost 10 pounds during my parents (horrifying) divorce.

I lost another 10 pounds when I was helping nurse my grandmother during her final illness.

Unlike many people, when I'm emotionally stressed I cannot eat. Literally -the food just simply sticks in my throat.  There's usually one or two foods I can choke down, so I rely on them as my steady diet until the stress period is over. When my grandmother was ill, my meal of choice was scrambled eggs. I ate so many eggs during that six month period that my cholesterol level still hasn't recovered - and that was 20 years ago.

During my parents divorce, the only food I could stomach was tuna fish sandwiches.  It's a tad bit healthier, as long as you don't go for the Subway version, which I love, but which has about 60 grams of fat.

I've dropped about 10 pounds over the past year, when I've been exercising regularly and following my husband's metabolic syndrome eating plan.  Again, no weight loss pills of any kind. However, the majority of that 10 pounds came off during the past three months when I was so stressed out at work and trying to make a decision about my future.

This time my staple food has been spinach and feta cheese omelets -but accompanied by an oat bran muffin to help keep the cholesterol in check.

I won't say it's the most pleasant diet in the world, but the stress factor diet works every time.

Money Matters

Yesterday I attended a memorial service for my friend's mother, who had been living in specialized facility Alzheimer's and dementia patients for the past five years.  Unless you've had a family member in this situation, you might not realize the extreme cost of long term debilitating diseases like this one.  Of course, the emotional price is staggering, but when you add the monetary cost into the equation, it's an astronomical sum. At her memorial service, it was mentioned that she had been interested in investments since the 1960's, and had taken the initiative to learn about investing and stock trading.  It's probably fortuitous that she did, because the cost of her care was about $5000 per month for the last five years.  That's a hefty chunk of change for the average middle classe octogenarian with nothing more than a passbook savings account.

I recall my dad belonging to a stock club in those days, and becoming a very savvy investor.  We all reaped the benefits of his knowledge back in the days when the market was booming and more reliable.  Nowadays, of course, it's all about online trading.  I don't pretend to know anything about investments, and I'm lucky to have a very skilled and reliable broker to help me with my 401K's, my IRA accounts, and my emerging market mutual funds.

But I had to admire the spunk of this woman who took an interest in money matters back in they day when most women weren't encouraged to do anything more challenging with their brains than tally up the bridge scores.

Be My Guest

Last week, Angie Mizzell, one of my favorite bloggers/writers/internet buddies e-mailed me with a very flattering request. "I'm trying to line up guest bloggers to post on my site once a week," she wrote.  "I'm looking for people I admire and who have stories that relate to similar themes in my book and blog.  You were the first person I thought of."

I love Angie's stories and the way she tells them, and I'm super excited to read the book she's writing about her experiences in television and her decision to leave that all behind to fulfill other dreams.  In fact, her story is one that inspired me to make some of the changes I've recently made in my own life.

So I'm extremely honored to have written the  first in a series of guest posts at Angie Mizzell.com.  Visit me over there today, and then go back and visit Angie everyday - you'll be glad you did.

Seriously Fun

Today was a seriously fun day.  An outsider looking in would undoubtedly say "What's so fun about walking the dogs or running errands or going to the library?"   "What's fun about cooking dinner and pulling weeds in the flower patch?" You'll just have to trust me on this.  I had fun.

I literally feel about 100 pounds lighter since I quit my job.  Even though I'm still technically working and training my replacement, there's this huge sense of freedom in knowing I'll no longer be shuffling papers and messing about with Excel spreadsheets and postage meters and copy machines.  No more checking and double checking to make sure that one attorney got their copy of the report e-mailed, and another got hers regular mail, and who was it that won't pay for postage, and which one only wanted medical records after the treatment was completed?  And don't forget to print the invoice on gray paper, and make sure you send a complete client history to this new doctor we have an appointment with, and if you can get that out today that would be greaaaat.

Whew.

The more I think about being done with all that, the happier I feel.  I could float on air, I'm so happy about it. What the heck took me so long?

So today was a laid back, do nothing but putter around sort of day.  Added to that, the sun was shining and it actually felt almost like spring for the first time in 2011. I picked up some new library books and hauled my lawn chair into the middle of the yard where I actually lay in the sun reading  napping for about an hour.   I'd probably still be there if Magic hadn't roused me by chasing a rabbit across the lawn.  I've got some nice things coming up this weekend- and next.   And I've just learned some very, very exciting news, which I'll tell you more about in a couple of days.

I guess I wouldn't want a steady diet of days like this - I probably need a little more structure for the long haul - it was seriously fun to just chill out for once.

I could definitely get used to it.

How about you?  Did you do anything seriously fun today? 

An Apple for the Teacher

My primary role during these last few days of work turns out to be that of teacher, a role which I usually attempt to shy away from.  As a child, my main ambition was to be a teacher, and it was one of the games I most often played - using my dolls and stuffed animals for students.  Of course they were the perfect subjects, being completely attentive and receptive to all the knowledge I imparted so eagerly.  My dog Ginger presented the only behavior  problem in the classroom, but she was easily pacified with a Milk Bone so we could get on with the lesson. When I got to college and did a little practice teaching in a real live classroom, I was quickly disabused of my idealism. Nobody sat raptly awaiting my pearls of wisdom. I decided I didn't have the patience or the confidence for teaching. Of course, I've ended up working a good part of my life in classrooms, but I was never the one in charge, and that suited me just fine.

But the past couple of weeks, I've been teaching my replacement all the ins and outs of this job I've been doing for the past 10 years.  It's a detail intensive position, and it's a daunting task to articulate all the parts of this process.  But I've finally been granted a student who is nearly as receptive as those stuffed animals lined up on the sofa. The young woman who was hired to replace me is bright, personable, and interested in the job.  She's a quick study, a fast worker, and an absolute joy to teach.

"Ohhh, I get it!"  she'll say with a big smile.

"Now it makes sense!" she exclaims.

Music to a teacher's ears.

Even better, she's already looking for ways to improve things.

"Would it be alright if I tried something?" she'll ask, and start whisking away at my messy Excel spreadsheet, improving it tenfold in the space of five minutes.  Even though I've told her to streamline and reorganize as she sees fit, she's careful not to overstep and is always sensitive to my feelings about the process I've used for so long.

I still think I made the right decision when I transferred out of the school of elementary education in college.  But it's fun having a "dream student" at least once in my life - especially one I don't have to ply with Milk Bones.