Summer Brought the Heat

Summer is officially here!

I’ve never been much for weather temp extremes. I don’t really like it bitterly cold and I hate sweating just by opening a door and walking outside. Blah. But, no sooner did the seasons officially flip from Spring to Summer than the temps shifted from the pleasant 70s to the 90s. Oh boy.

My rose bushes are in full bloom now. Super pretty! I was inspecting the back ones a bit because they look pretty haggard. Sure enough, the rabbits got to those too. Who would have thought they’d want to munch on prickly rose branches where there is so much other stuff to eat? They have a big woods to prance through, after all!

We didn’t catch any more critters over the weekend. Well, at least not any that we needed to transplant. I woke up Sunday morning and the local birds were going absolutely nuts. Tons of squawking and chirping, the way you’d expect if a predator was in the area. I went outside to investigate and saw the cage literally bouncing up and down. Well… I caught a bird! I didn’t go back inside for the camera. The bird looked so traumatized I just wanted to get him out of there ASAP. No idea why he’d go there in the first place either!

Saturday was Ben’s birthday and as the sweet fiance that I am, I booked a spa day (for me) that day. Ha! One of my girlfriends called me a few weeks before and since we’d had trouble finding a date to get ourselves pampered, we decided on Saturday. I wasn’t totally evil though, I bought Ben an hour-long massage and so when my friend Mel swung by to pick me up, Ben was heading out the door for his own hour of pampering.

We started with pedicures at our usual place and swung by the smoothie shop for Mel to get some lunch. I had packed a water and a protein bar so I wouldn’t have to miss lunch. The spa also gives you lots of water in between treatments which was great because I worried I would get really thirsty being gone from home between 10 and 4.

Here we are after our facials, massages, steam showers, and blow-outs! Woo 🙂

The plan was that Ben would get his massage and then head to the bar to meet his brother for lunch and wind up back home before me. So imagine my surprise when I get home, discover he’s not there, AND realize I didn’t bring my house keys thinking he’d be home. Whoops! Luckily I had a book and could sit on the front porch and read until he came home.

Ben had wound up at his parents’ house and was getting ready to leave anyway when I called and told him I was locked out. He brought home a tool box and some new lifting gloves from his folks. I’m sure he’ll get plenty of use out of both!

It was dinner time and per tradition, I was taking Ben out for a nice dinner. But before we went, we took the usual birthday picture. I don’t know why we do this but I like to do it. Maybe it’s because as kids we always had pictures taken of us on our birthdays. I like that. 🙂

There’s a funny story about Ben’s shorts. I’ve been dying to get him to wear something more trendy than the usual baggy jean or cargo shorts and he always balks (as if I’m a fashionista – hardly!) but I bought him those striped ones and they are much lighter/cooler and now he wears them all the time. Also funny is how flat and dead my hair looks not even 2 hours after my blow-out and style. Argh 🙂

It’s definitely a challenge to eat out on this new diet. Since sugar is so commonplace, it makes things tricky. Plus, I’m supposed to have no butter and only 1-2t of oil a day. It’s not impossible to find options but you do have to be diligent. We went to our favorite supper club and since we personally know the chef (he’s Ben’s brother!) I was able to get a few alterations done without any trouble.

I asked him to strike a silly pose with his drink for everyone. 🙂

We started out with salad – and I had no dressing, just s sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Total fail on the dinner picture but it was a 10oz filet so I chopped a chunk off and gave that to Ben to get down to my 8oz approved portion size, along with a bowl of mushrooms, and a mix of diet-approved veggies: broccoli, cauliflower, and zucchini.

I totally passed on the bread basket – even though the warm rolls were calling my name!

Since the plan was for me to make treats for Ben to bring into work, I was going to pass on making a cake. Instead, I had him pick a dessert from the menu.

The waitress talked up the strawberry torte so Ben chose that – only to learn it had ice cream. He’s not really an ice cream fan. But that was OK. He still ate the berries and meringue and declared himself stuffed.

It was a terrific day!

The plan for tonight is to put the finishing touches on my brother’s wedding cross-stitch so I can take it to the framers. I got it done just in time. 🙂 I also talked to my diet coach about my extreme thirst. Get this: not enough sodium. I was surprised at first because usually you hear so much about cutting salt from your diet but remember, sodium is an essential mineral for your body to function. Since most people get severe excess from packaged foods and restaurant entrees, the average person gets way more than they need. However, since I’ve been eating the pre-packaged diet foods and my own dinners, my sodium has been very limited. I upped my salt a bit and *poof* the ridiculous thirst went right away. Let this be a lesson to you all, some salt is necessary!

Other than that, I’m doing OK on the diet. We’re working on getting into a pattern for meals. It’s a definite change but I’m committed and hanging in there. Hope you all had a great weekend!