Life changes

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I've had elevated cholesterol levels for the past couple of years. This year, I finally decided to make a very conscious effort to reduce my *saturated* fat intake to 20g or less per day. This meant giving up ice cream, and watching nutrition labels very carefully. (Though I started exercising regularly three to four times per week almost two years ago, this alone was not enough to lower my cholesterol.)

I just received the results of my most recent blood tests. My total cholesterol decreased from 244 to 176 (target less than 200), and LDL ("lousy" cholesterol) was down from 151 to 92.6 (target less than 100).

So, the "good news" is that giving up ice cream has made a very POSITIVE IMPACT.

The "bad news" is that GIVING UP ICE CREAM has made a very positive impact.

Overall, I have to say that this has taken me two years of experimenting, so I'm happy to now be at a point in which my new habits have resulted in better "numbers."

Tomorrow I'm driving over to my former high school for a 50th anniversary band/choir reunion. Since it spans such a large range of graduating classes, there are only a handful of people I'll remember from my days of walking those halls, but my band and choir directors will both be back, and I'm very happy I'll have a chance to talk with them for a bit. (It's been, ahem, 25 years since I last saw them.) My brother and his kids will also be there, and both of his daughters had birthdays recently, so it was time to get these little bags finished:It took me until this morning to actually (finally) sew on the buttons. Each has a Target gift card inside.

After this weekend, my life changes drastically. I've been a stay at home mom for the past eight years, and it has been everything like, and nothing like, I imagined it would be. Beginning on Monday, however, my identity will be completely different. I've been quietly grieving the past few days as this chapter of my life closes, though I know it has to in order to make room for the growth and exciting challenges waiting for me, and for my kids as they will both be in school full time next fall. Still, I've always been one who gets very attached and comfortable with how things are, even if it's for a week, a month, a semester, or years, and it's difficult for me to leave people and/or routines behind. Okay, I suppose that is enough blathering on about sentimental things.

I finished cleaning out the garage (a more difficult task than I originally anticipated once I discovered a messy oil spill that leaked to multiple shelves, etc), and did several other things I wanted to finish up before school starts. I had some crazy notion that I would get "everything" done and then I'd truly be "ready," though as I should have realized from my life experiences, "ready" is a work in progress, and often things require a "leap of faith" more than they require "readiness." ...Oops -- I jumped off the philosophical deep end again.

I'll ponder all of this during the weekend, but once things really get rolling on Monday, I'm confident I'll be just thrilled to be a student again. I've really missed school this past semester, and am chomping at the bit to start grad school.

I promise less blathering in my next post. Have a great weekend!

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)