Our neighborhood was not exempt from Hurricane Michael, although it was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit us last week. My parents had driven up that Thursday for an extended weekend visit and they arrived just in time to get drenched. We woke up the next morning to find that one of our lovely old beech trees had fallen during the night. We were all very thankful that it didn’t shift to either side and hit our house or our neighbors’ house. My dad and Chris got to work and many of the kids on our street helped with picking up debris.
Naturally, the boys have had a blast playing on the branches and have been building a fort with their friends. Much of the excess limbs have been trimmed back, but I’m still waiting on Chris to finish chopping up a large part of it and turn it into firewood!
Despite the downed tree, we never lost power and were able to “enjoy” the after-effects of the storm in relative comfort. Later that day (Saturday), we took my parents on the ferry to visit the Surry Seafood Company. The boys were so happy to have their grandparents here for a visit.
In other news, I’m still waiting on all of my licenses to be processed so that I can start work. It’s been a lesson in patience, having to wait on other agencies to complete their reviews and grant me the necessary authority to practice as an NP. While I’m waiting, I’ve been trying to be thankful for the downtime and take advantage of it. I’ve sorted through the boys’ clothes and given a lot of them away to neighbors and to charity.
I’ve also been focusing on my health and working on losing weight, which I’m happy to report has been pretty successful. I’m down a total of 37 pounds in the last 2 months. This is the first diet that I’ve ever been on where it hasn’t felt like a diet…. or at least it mostly doesn’t feel like a diet. I’ve been using the Lose It! app to track everything that I eat and to give me information on my total carb, fat, and protein intake. My diet has essentially revolved around 2 things: (1) stay within my recommended calorie count for weight loss, and (2) cut way back on carbs. I try to keep my total carb intake to around 20-25 grams per day, although this last week I’ve experimented with increasing that amount up to 50 grams per day. That’s total carbs, not net carbs. I’ve been making a lot of different foods, have been using a spiralizer for zucchini noodles, and have paid attention to the role that fat intake has in terms of satiety. I’d like to lose another 35 pounds, so I’m still plugging away. I’ll let you know how it’s going.
