counting down

It's not been quite a week since I last wrote but it's been busy! Each day we've gotten a little more prepared for winter, even though we've been lured into a false sense that winter won't arrive with the record breaking warm weather we've had on some days. Today is cold and rainy which is what I'd expect for the beginning of November.

On Friday afternoon we had Mary & Gary, friends that we met camping in 2018, over for coffee. We had a great time getting to know them better! Saturday Jo Ellen, Don, Deirdre, and Chris came for a leisurely lunch (beef stew w yorkshire pudding). We hadn't all been together for YEARS which is crazy as we used to spend a lot of time together at work. We had a daily coffee ritual that lasted for decades before we started retiring. I think I was the first to go. It's crazy how we let time go by without getting together, but that will change! 

Sunday we were meant to meet up with Ken and Francine, but he woke up feeling ill, so we'll reschedule - don't want to take chances on getting sick with just ELEVEN days till we leave on our trip! I WILL NOT GET SICK THIS CRUISE. Louder for those in the back! I WILL NOT GET SICK THIS CRUISE!

The piles of clothes in the spare room have been shifted and re-arranged, tried on and some discarded. I have a huge pile of 'no go' and a smaller pile of 'maybe but most likely not'. And heaps of clothes that will make outfits for 10 dress up dinners, and 10 days in the sun. I think I'm bringing 4 bathing suits!

Our cabin is on the same deck as the pool so I foresee having a dip in the pool a few times a day. And there'll be a few beaches to visit as well :-) Need to get sandy in places you shouldn't!

Our medallions arrived yesterday!

Yesterday, Lupa endured 45 minutes of clipping - she was reasonably cooperative  😀 Adia gets off lightly with just a bit of time in her crate to keep her from tracking the hair that is flying every which way. Carm was pretty cooperative for his bout with the clipper blades - he's coiffed and ready for our vacation :-)

Today I met with Mom & Kirsten for some retail therapy :-) and some lunch. 

I've been feeling fantastic since the fast last week. I don't know why, but it seems to have bumped me back from feeling exhausted and unmotivated, to having energy to spare. I'm not hypomanic - I can sit down with a book and actually focus, which I can't do at all if I'm spiralling up, but I'm also not lying exhausted on the sofa all day 😅 It's great! I'm curious to try a fast again next time my mood drops to see if it actually helps or was just a coincidence. Yesterday I walked for 90 minutes (over 8km!) and still had enough energy to happily putter around the house :-)

I did a bit of reading about fasting and bipolar but there isn't a lot out there. What I did read was heartening though. I'm hoping that I have another way to keep in the centre! If you run across anything counter-fasting for bipolar please share it!

Awesome!

"friends together"

"getting to know new friends"

"leftover yorkshire pudding at 1am"

"the f'ing cranberry cake that I can't stop eating"

medallion

It's not been quite a week since I last wrote but it's been busy! Each day we've gotten a little more prepared for winter, even though we've been lured into a false sense that winter won't arrive with the record breaking warm weather we've had on some days. Today is cold and rainy which is what I'd expect for the beginning of November.

On Friday afternoon we had Mary & Gary, friends that we met camping in 2018, over for coffee. We had a great time getting to know them better! Saturday Jo Ellen, Don, Deirdre, and Chris came for a leisurely lunch (beef stew w yorkshire pudding). We hadn't all been together for YEARS which is crazy as we used to spend a lot of time together at work. We had a daily coffee ritual that lasted for decades before we started retiring. I think I was the first to go. It's crazy how we let time go by without getting together, but that will change! 

Sunday we were meant to meet up with Ken and Francine, but he woke up feeling ill, so we'll reschedule - don't want to take chances on getting sick with just ELEVEN days till we leave on our trip! I WILL NOT GET SICK THIS CRUISE. Louder for those in the back! I WILL NOT GET SICK THIS CRUISE!

The piles of clothes in the spare room have been shifted and re-arranged, tried on and some discarded. I have a huge pile of 'no go' and a smaller pile of 'maybe but most likely not'. And heaps of clothes that will make outfits for 10 dress up dinners, and 10 days in the sun. I think I'm bringing 4 bathing suits!

Our cabin is on the same deck as the pool so I foresee having a dip in the pool a few times a day. And there'll be a few beaches to visit as well :-) Need to get sandy in places you shouldn't!

Our medallions arrived today!

Today Lupa endured 45 minutes of clipping - she was reasonably cooperative today  😀 Adia gets off lightly with just a bit of time in her crate to keep her from tracking the hair that is flying every which way. Carm was pretty cooperative for his bout with the clipper blades - he's coiffed and ready for our vacation :-)

I've been feeling fantastic since the fast last week. I don't know why, but it seems to have bumped me back from feeling exhausted and unmotivated, to having energy to spare. I'm not hypomanic - I can sit down with a book and actually focus, which I can't do at all if I'm spiralling up, but I'm also not lying exhausted on the sofa all day 😅 It's great! I'm curious to try a fast again next time my mood drops to see if it actually helps or was just a coincidence. Yesterday I walked for 90 minutes (over 8km!) and still had enough energy to happily putter around the house :-)

I did a bit of reading about fasting and bipolar but there isn't a lot out there. What I did read was heartening though. I'm hoping that I have another way to keep in the centre! If you run across anything counter-fasting for bipolar please share it!

Awesome!

"friends together"

"getting to know new friends"

"leftover yorkshire pudding at 1am"

"the f'ing cranberry cake that I can't stop eating"

Fast or slow

I almost made the entire 60 hours but this morning at the 55 hour mark, I caved and broke my fast. My last fast was 44 hours so I feel that I exceeded! Honestly, I felt great until I woke up in the middle of the night feeling hungry and a bit sick… luckily I had prepared a jar of chia pudding with blueberries before I went to bed. I could have powered through the next few hours, but I was in a weakened mental state in the middle of the night… I ate half of it and crawled back into bed. 

I think my body likes these longer fasts as I felt fantastic and had more energy than I've had for a while. My mood was also good. I didn't feel deprived and honestly, for the most part it was very easy. I drank tons of coffee, tea, and water which kept me well hydrated and staved off the hunger. Oh sure, there were times that I was starving, but that usually only lasted several minutes and then I'd be fine. It wasn't much worse than a normal day when I'm trying to eat healthily.

This morning I ate the rest of the chia pudding, chased down with a protein drink, then a bit later I had a banana with peanut butter. For lunch I had broccoli, soy beans, roasted mushrooms, pumpkin seeds and tofu - I'm eating to rebuild my microbiome :-)

Fingers crossed that I got the health benefits from this longer fast! It is supposed to be excellent for my immune system and overall health - my hope is that it will prepare me for the onslaught of germs on the cruise!

The weather has blessed us with another few days of temps in the double digits - today's record setting high is 21C! Carm managed to eek in another round of golf which is a blessing as he hasn't been able to for 3 weeks…

Countdown to cruise! We dragged the suitcases upstairs yesterday so I can see what's what. I've started trying on outfits - I'm happy with some, but others, well, they'll be okay I guess, but they are strongly in the 'middle aged' woman on a cruise vibe. The purple 'sausage' dress actually looks a lot better than it did and so does the black cocktail dress. I re-tried on the sequin dress and gold silk gown and they are good too, so a win all around!

Awesome!

"55 hours!"

"chia pudding with blueberries - oh so delightful"

"crazy late October weather"

"dresses fitting"