The Further Adventures of Deluzy: Ash Wednesday

Health and Wellness

The Google 15
An excellent weight-tracking tool that keeps track of your moving weight average over time so that no single weigh-in is a cause for ecstacy or despair.
Understanding Your Tests
A good preliminary resource for understanding your lab work (though of course it's no substitution for discussing results with your doctor)
FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal
An essential tool for me during my first 6 post-op months -- and a good reality check for anyone keeping track of daily food intake (e.g., calories, fats, carbohydrates, etc.) and activity levels
Gmaps Pedometer
A wonderful tool that allows one to map exercise routes and calculate miles covered and calories burned

Products I Like

Spanx
A line of comfortable foundation garments (and even easy-to-pack clothing) that comes in handy post-op to corrale that wayward, formerly obese flesh and make you feel comfortable. Available online, at Lane Bryant in larger sizes, at Nordstrom in smaller sizes, and sometimes at outlets for less.
Pure Protein RTD shakes
At an average of 35 grams of protein, 3 grams of carbs, and 160 calories, these ready-to-drink shakes work for me because I can chill them, grab them, pack them, and go. Available from a variety of online sources or at GNC stores.
Perfectly Sweet
Expensive but excellent source for sugar-free and no-sugar-added bakery and candy items.
Low Carb Corner
As near as I can tell, this site sells nothing but two kinds of breakfast cereal -- but as one who's avoided cereal since my DS surgery because it contains virtually no protein and far too many carbs, Protein Crunch is a wonderful option (i.e., 27 grams protein, 2 net grams carbs). It's horrifyingly expensive but for WLS cereal lovers, it's worth the occasional splurge.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Ash Wednesday

(Wow. Hillary and Obama are neck and neck after Super Tuesday. Ultimately, I will happily vote for either in a national election -- but I'm still pulling for Obama.)

I wrote about Lent in this blog a year ago and my relationship to it then, so I won't go into now -- except to say once again I'm going to do my best to give something up for it. For me Lent is a symbolic reminder of both plenitude and need, an occasion to express gratitude for all that I have as well as my awareness of how that gratitude needs to translate into action on behalf of others who have less.

Pass it on. Otherwise, it does no good.

Now, remember, this is a purely symbolic gesture on my part and its practicality is virtually nil. It just isn't going to change the world, and it's definitely the thinking of a western person of privilege in the early 21st century. Nevertheless, for the next 40 days, I'm going to forego my trips to Starbucks and/or Peet's for my daily latte and, come Easter, calculate what I would have spent there and put it toward a Kivo micro-loan. The frequency with which I go to either store will remind me of the larger point behind this on a daily basis, and the money, however little a drop in the bucket it will amount to in the Scheme of Things, will do somebody some good somewhere.

Home-brewed lattes are still fine, and according to my particular Lenten scheme this year, trips to either store to buy coffee in bean or ground form for that purpose are also okay. But the daily stops en route to work or while I'm out and about running errands? I can give those up and create however brief a daily opportunity to think and work toward something better as I go about my days.

Posted at 05:32 AM in Holidays, Politics, This and that | Permalink