69 Days In

The photo on the left was taken July 30, 2010 when I was my heaviest (158 lbs). The photo on the right was taken today (I'm 133.6 lbs).

Today I'm 69 days into my weight loss goal and 80 days since starting Nutrisystem (it took a few days for me to decide what my wieght loss goals would be). I'm pretty much right on track with where I projected I would be. See, the first few days I was tracking my loss then I had enough information to predict how much I was likely to lose each week and I ran a projection based on the infromation from the first few days before I officially set my goals.

Some days I gain some weight and other days I lose some. Overall I'm on a downward weight trend and keeping up with my projection so that is really good. It is sort of odd and refreshing to look back and the numbers from the previous weeks and think about how far I've come.

I told myself that when I hit 130 lbs I will get my naval pierced. I projected that would happen around day 91. I'm 133.4 lbs today and I'm on track to get the piercing on day 92 (day 91 is a Sunday). We are going on vacation that week so I figure getting my belly button pierced at the end of the week then spending a few days driving (in a modern car then in the Speedster) would give me quite a few days without much activity and would likely help the piercing start healing. I'm very excitted about this. I don't know how I will do when it actually comes time to layin the chair and have the needle jabbed through me but I figure I was able to donate the kidney to Dad so I can handle a hollow needle being jabbed through my belly button.

Sourdough Starter Day 3

 Day 3 of the sourdough starter. The first picture is before I fed the starter. The second picture is after I fed the starter. The starter smelled sour and sort of like poop. It tasted tart too. I read if it had pink liquid on to it means the starter went bad. There was no pink liquid and plenty of bubbles. So, based on everything I've read, I think this starter is doing well.

Sourdough Starter Day 2

 Here is the sourdough starter after the Day 2 feeding. I'm happy to see those bubbles on top.

Sourdough Starter and Water Kefir Soda

Last night I decided to try my hand at making sourdough starter the good old fashioned way. So, I mixed 1/2 cup white four with 1/2 cup tap water (that I boiled for 10 minutes then let cool to get rid of the chlorine) in a glass bowl. This evening I added another 1/2 cut white flour and 1/2 water (prepared the same way as last night). Before I added the water and flour this evening I noticed bubbles in the mixture and a thin layer of clear liquid on top of the mixture. I've read these are good signs. I look forward to trying to make rosemary artisan bread using this starter instead of store bought yeast. I read about water kefir soda on the Mother Earth News web site the other day and decided I want to give it a try. So, I ordered some water kefir grains from Amazon. They haven't arrived yet. I look forward to brewing my first batch of water kefir and seeing how it tastes. I am afraid the water kefir will taste a bit like beer (being that it is fermented). I can't stand the taste of beer. However, I was interested in trying it because I read it is a decent replacement for commercial soda (and I'm definitely addicted to commercial soda).