TOP HatS

At TOPS we are having a team contest.  My group got together and decided our team name is TOP HatS.

We did very well today!  We are off to a great start.  I personally lost 3/4 pound. Not much for over two weeks, but slow and steady wins the race.

This is my TOP HatS Team.

I'm a Little Teapot...

Once again, as I described my sore throat and stuffy congested feeling, a new doctor suggested the dreaded sinus rinse with a Neti-Pot.  I told her I hate that thing. It stings and makes me feel like you do when you jump into a pool feet first and the water jams up your nose.  The idea of deliberately pouring water into my nose is not thrilling. Who came up with that idea?

My last doctor said, "Oh, well, then, let's try something else."  (I like her.)  This doctor just looked at me like I was nuts and said she suggests I give it a good try for a few days before she prescribes anything.  Deep sigh on my part.

I told my husband about it, and I said, "Okay, but if I'm going to, I'm going to go get the real thing.  I'm going to try it with the purchased pot and saline and see if I can stand it.  It turns out they have come down a lot in price, probably because they are now cheap plastic,

instead of ceramic like the ones I've seen before,

so it was only about $12 and came with 50 saline packets.  

And there's a $4 rebate, which will make the pot basically free.  So I decided to try it.  And guess what?  

Yep, you guessed it, it's not bad after all.  It didn't even sting.  So if you need to get over sinus stuffiness, I would actually recommend it. It kind of feels good, and I am sleeping better.

I learned one thing. Homemade is not always better.  Before, I had used a homemade solution which I found at several internet sites.  The problem is, table salt or baking soda is not the right kind of saline for your tender nasal tissues.  So if you are thinking, "Well, I'll just go on Pinterest and find a recipe for it,"  Don't do it. 

NeilMed did not pay me to write this review. Nobody is paying me but my happy nose.  And my sinuses say thank you too.

No TOPS today.

A blessing in a way, because I'm pretty sure that scale went up.  I keep resisting the next level of commitment.  I have walked a lot this week, but I haven't committed to doing nothing else while I eat.
A post for another day.

The reason for no TOPS is sad.  Everyone else was going to the funeral for the husband of one of our members.  I suppose I should have gone, but I hardly know her yet, so it seemed a bit like gate-crashing.   I feel bad for being non-supportive of a member though.  What is the proper protocol for such a situation?

Easter Parade

Just for fun, our TOPS club has an Easter Bonnet contest each year.  There are five categories:

Prettiest

Pat C had birds and butterflies
tucked in among the flowers and feathers. 

Silliest                             Funniest    

Yes, Pat H won both categories.

She got a lot of  votes to win both!

Most Original

Marie said she found the hat in a
grandchild's "toy box" and the
children helped her make the flowers.

Most Seasonal

I was trying for silliest!
I could not compete with the
adorably funny witch.

Snow Exercise

The state I live in is finally getting what it's famous for. Snow!

Today I woke up to the sound of tires swishing on the street outside, followed by the snowplow scraping. I was happy to hear it.  Since my husband works evenings, he usually goes out and shovels the walk and cleans off the cars.

Today he was nowhere to be found, so I went out and cleaned off my car (about 4 inches of snow) and around it.  20 minutes of that was about all I could take, but it was enough to get to my car without getting snow in my shoes, which I needed to do later.

I came in and did a ten-minute yoga session, much of which was upper body. With the stretching, I don't hurt much. I suspect tomorrow I will feel it more.

Anyway, 20 minutes = 1 mile, so I was happy to be able to mark a sticker on my chart.  It was also enough to finish off the O in "commitment."  M is going to take 6 days, I think.

25 MILES!

I got off track for a few weeks, but I am back at it. 

I reached my next goal, 25 miles, yesterday.  I'm going to put $5 in my hot air balloon fund.

I started a new goal, another 25 miles. I made a cute little chart to put stickers on to keep track of my miles. On the bottom of the chart I put the word:

COMMITMENT 

spelled out in block white letters with a black outline.  I put two lines over the letters, so each is divided into three sections.  Each day that I walk, no matter how long, I will fill in one section of the letter with a bright color..

The little chart on the right, with the doggie, will show how many letters I have filled in. I don't know why stickers and charts work so well for me, but they do.  So here I go.

By the way, I did today's walk before writing this post. 

Emotional Eating

I always think of emotional eating as what you do when you are stressed, but for me it's more likely to be either boredom or happy times.

Once or twice in my childhood, my dad took me to the movies and bought Jordan Almonds.  They are those pastel candy coated almonds that are sometimes served at weddings.

I liked them pretty well, but I hardly ever buy them.  When I do, I think of my dad.  I eat one or two and then save the rest for another day, and stretch out the memory of Dad holding out the box of candy and offering me some. That's a happy memory.  Minor, but happy.