I hope I get remembered

We had a guy here at work die last week unexpectedly and it's my sad duty to post the e-mails people have been sending in with thoughts, stories and memories of him. I read through many of them as I'm formatting the HTML and the sentiment often causes me to tear up. It was only last year that I even really understood for myself why we have funerals (since I've still yet to have a human close to me die). I used to think I didn't want anyone to make a fuss when I'm gone but I guess what I want is for the impact of my loss to be keenly felt and to have made such an impact in this life that people pause to reflect on what I gave back. I'm not sure I'm there yet...

Donation for Mr. Cat

Today marks the six-month anniversary of the death of my wonderful "Mr. Cat" Ziegen. I still miss him very much and keep this picture of him in the living room.

My Cat Ziegen

He's the second cat I've lost to feline leukemia (FeLV) only his illness came on very suddenly and he was gone within a week. His initial test for the virus when he was a kitten came back as a false negative. As with the first cat I lost, the lovely Cobalt in April of 2005, I decided to make a donation to the Cornell Feline Health Center at Cornell University where they do research on cat-related diseases. I hope one day they are able to cure this horrible form of cancer in cats.

We've started the Body-for-LIFE program

Today we finally started the Body-for-LIFE program after months of saying we would; today is day 1 of 84. My starting weight was 209.5 pounds. I was really planning on posting my "before" pictures but after seeing them, I decided I am honestly too embarrassed. Particularly with my "behind" photo, I didn't realize I looked that bad. I knew I felt bad but it's easy to cover up in clothes and ignore the reality. It's not so easy to ignore the fat bulging over your underwear against the glare of a white wall and camera flash!

We're simplifying the eating portion as much as possible, eating the same first five meals each day:

1. 3 egg whites; 1 slice whole wheat toast; 1 apple
2. protein shake; non-fat yogurt cup
3. fat-free turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread; 1/2 tomato; spinach leaves
4. protein bar
5. 1 apple; 2 low-fat string cheese sticks

Meal 6 (dinner) will vary each day and those recipes are coming out of a book complementary to this program called Eating-for-LIFE. As someone who has never regularly cooked in her entire life, this is the most intimidating part for me. But the recipes seem easy enough and we did all the shopping for the week yesterday. Costs for food on this plan for two people for one week is around $120. I will post a real breakdown of everything we purchase for a week and associated costs when that gets all worked out after a few weeks.

Only 83 days to go! :)