Category: Uncategorized

Weight Watchers 2012

As many of you know “New. Improved.” are not some of my favorite words. I dislike it when someone takes something I regularly use and makes something different of it. So I was a little concerned when Weight Watchers announced they were “improving” their Points Plus system.

So far, it has not been as bad as I feared. The main thing they changed in week one of this rollout is the number of points I’m supposed to use when deciding what to eat. My daily points goal dropped from 29 to 27. In explanation of this the leader of this week’s meeting told us that when WW started the Points Plus system they did they best they could to determine the right number of points for most people. They also debuted eTools which lets people track their food and weight on-line.

What never occurred to me is that they are watching on-line entries to see what people are doing with the program. That gives them information as to how people’s bodies are responding to what level of points. Never mind that some of us don’t always enter the zero points food we eat. Their analysis led them to discover that many of us can eat less. In fact. we can eat as little as 26 points and still stay healthy as long as we choose from a variety of foods. 29 points is no longer the lowest they encourage you to go. So they dropped their recommendations for many of us.

The result of being assigned 27 points is I lost 2.4 pounds in one week. If you’ve been reading this blog for long you know that when I lose more than 2 pounds a week for two weeks in a row they scold me for loosing too fast.

But, another feature of this new program is you can go into eTools and change your points target.

So I boosted mine back up to 29 points. Yes, I want to lose my excess weight. But I want to do it at a healthful rate. 29 points works for me. I don’t need “New. Improved.”

TTYL,

Linda

ps. I also won an award at the meeting for having lost 10% of my starting weight. That feels good.

Xfinity

“Xfinity”  That’s what it said on the side of the truck.

Hmmm. Infinity means forever. Affinity means a natural liking. So does Xfinity mean never liking?

When I asked Dave he said, “Yes.”

It seems Xfinity is part of Comcast, our local cable TV provider. When we moved into the apartment and our router started flaking out  Dave checked out Comcast since we had one of their cable modems before going on the road. After reading about them he decided to get a DSL modem from the local phone company instead.

Enough said?

TTYL,

Linda

Not Going

“Oh, the weather outside is

 

But the

is so delightful.

And since we’ve no place to go…”

Why do we have no place to go? Because we found

.

So all week long we add things to our on-line grocery list from whichever internet enabled device happens to be the most handy at the moment.

Then on Monday we close it out and on Tuesday someone not us goes and picks out all our groceries and they show up at our apartment door that afternoon where the driver unloads his bins right into our kitchen.

All this for $5 each time. Which they are refunding every trip for the first 90 days.

I’m loving it.

Except! The image I gave Dave of having to push a grocery cart through the snow and slush every week has ceased to be a threat so I may have a harder time persuading him he doesn’t really want to stay here forever. Oops!

TTYL,

Linda

ps. Yes, that fireplace is in our living room.

Official

We made our move official today. We applied for new drivers’ licenses.

Minnesota keeps the records active for your license for five years. Since we were only gone 3 1/2 years, we were still in the system. Dave renewed his in January of ’08. Mine was due in July of ’08 but since we left in June, I didn’t renew mine. That meant I timed out of the renewal window. Dave got to just renew his. I had to take the knowledge test. (They no longer call it the written test since I got to take it on a computer.)

I recently read all the Minnesota Driver’s Manual except the part about DUI since I don’t drink. Yup, there were at least three questions about alcohol and driving. I guessed right on two of them. So, I got a score of 94% right (missed one other one that I felt had trick wording then guessed wrong as to what they were really after). Still I felt pretty good about doing so well.

And the line was shorter for those taking the test so I actually got done before Dave did which amazed me.

At least we didn’t have to take the behind-the-wheel test which is good because I know some of our driving habits have gotten a little sloppy over the years. Plus they changed some guidelines. For instance, I was taught to hold my hands at the 10 and 2 positions to have the best control of the wheel. With the standard installation of airbags, they changed that rule but I didn’t know that until reading the manual. How do I learn to hold the wheel differently after all these years? And two-lane roundabouts? Didn’t have those in the US back when I was a teenager but now I know what I’m supposed to do in those–at least in Minnesota. 🙂

Unfortunately, Minnesota doesn’t just hand you a license right then and there like South Dakota does. They cut a corner off your old license to invalidate it then hand it back to you to use as ID. They also give you a huge piece of paper to act as your temporary license. If you get stopped, you are supposed to give both to the cop. The paper does NOT fit well in the ID pocket of my card case. But the new ones will eventually come in the mail and we’ll be all set again.

Tomorrow license plates and an attempt to get my handicapped placard without having to visit the doctor again. I’m hoping the fact that my SD application was signed by a Minnesota doctor will be adequate. Or maybe I can just pay to replace a lost placard since I don’t think mine here actually expired. Wish me luck.

TTYL,

Linda