This morning we started our Rifting a little later than we’d planned – my favourite eldest daughter rang me with an Optifast problem. She’s a lot more overweight than I was when I stated this diet last August, and she’s (finally!) accepted the fact that if she doesn’t do something about her weight, she might not be around much longer. She’s already been getting some chest pains (though after a grueling series of tests, heart disease has been ruled out, thank heavens!) and she has quite a bit of trouble with her joints – she gets exhausted walking more than a house block. Her husband was recently diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, which he’s holding in check with a healthier diet, and there’s the worry that she might develop Diabetes too (it runs on both sides of both sides of our family) Anyway, she’s decided to take a leaf out of my book and use Optifast to kick-start her weight loss – but because people (including her husband, who should know better!) gave her real chocolate Easter Eggs over Easter, instead of prettily dyed hard-boiled ones, of course they had to be “disposed of” before she could start dieting. She ate her last chocolate Easter Egg this morning – the diet starts “officially” with tomorrow’s breakfast. The problem that she rang me about this morning was that she couldn’t work out the Optifast site’s menu planner – it didn’t seem to work properly. I had pretty much the same problem, when I started getting everything set up for my diet last year. Besides, I didn’t like the way that they had what I considered to be “silly” things, or badly thought out meals, like a big bowl of stir fried vegetables for morning tea, or a curried something-or-other for afternoon tea. I just felt it was all wrong. So what I did (and which I will explain to her in greater detail tomorrow morning when she comes over) – what I did was count the calories that Optifast allocated to each meal and snack, and then worked out from their fruit and vegetable chart, what I could substitute for those weird choices for so-called “snacks” (and from the pictures provided, didn’t even look vaguely appetizing!) In the end, the “personalised” menu that I made up had quite a few calories less than the more “official” (and gross sounding!) Optifast one, but was still balanced and nutritious – I took it along to my doctor to see what she thought of it, and she OK’d it as “sensible and well thought out”. I can see though why the Optifast site recommends that you follow their diet under the supervision of a Medical Practitioner – it would be too easy to “mix and match” your own version (like I did, but without the moderation of Medical advice) but overdo the Milkshakes and Desserts, and neglect things like fibre and vitamins. I see my doctor about once every two months, for a chat, a catch-up, and a blood pressure check. She also makes sure I get regular blood tests, too, and as she’s also Lee’s doctor, I know Dr. B. will pull Lee up if she’s not doing things properly – as will I! 🙂
So, we entered Dusken a little later than we’d planned, and when Julian grizzled a bit, I said “Well, we’ll just have to fight faster!” I don’t know if we fought any faster, but I know we sure fought harder! At one stage we came across one of my most hated types of Rift – Hell Bugs, with lots of (terribly phallic looking) tower thingies – I think they’re called ‘Blast Pods’, or something, which keep stunning you. Himself had the bright idea of “Hey! Let’s close this Rift, shall we?” – to which I think I muttered something along the lies of “*sob* we’re all going to die! *sob*” – and in we plunged! Well, miraculously, we didn’t die! Not even once! We came very close to dying though, and we both had to use Feign Death a fair bit – I ran away a lot, too, and came back again when the Bugs stopped chasing me. In the end, we did manage to close the wretched Rift, on our own, too – but we left Hell Bug Rifts and Invasions strictly alone after that! 🙂 They’re tough sods, those Hell Bugs… (*shakes head grimly*) We actually finished Pelladane, the first (more-or-less baby and training) area in Dusken, today – and have moved into the next area along, Seratos. It’s quite a large area and will probably take us a couple of weeks to complete (well, we very seldom play during the week – we mainly only play on Sundays!) We were both very pleased with our progress so far – we actually went up two whole levels! Which is really quite remarkable, seeing that when you get to about level 48 or so, leveling up really starts to s-l-o-w d-o-w-n a whole lot! And when you’re handing in completed quests, but can hardly see the experience bar move – well, it can be very discouraging, leveling up so slowly, so it’s not surprising that we’re so pleased that we went up two levels! 🙂 We’re both level 52 now… Only 13 more levels to go! 😉
Weigh-in this morning. Was boring! I stayed the same – 94.5kg …again! Well, at least it wasn’t up, which is something – I suppose that’ll happen tomorrow morning (*glum look*) I’d better not go up too much though – I’m out of “dates” room on the (graph) page before, and I haven’t allowed for anything higher (heavier) than a “.5kg” on the current page. If the worst comes to the worst (and let’s face it – this is me we’re talking about – and my weight is likely to skyrocket on me, just to be mean, and to make me feel miserable!) I’ll just have to tear the page out and make another chart, allowing for heavier weights… 
Is it dinner time already?! – just as well I’ve already done my evening Stair Walk! 🙂 Back later… (tick-tock, tick-tock) It’s now later, and I’m back! 🙂 We’ve just finished watching Game of Thrones, Season 4, Episode 2 – Thank goodness! Nasty little King Joffrey is finally… no more 🙂 Great books, extremely well done series by HBO – I just hope I don’t die of old age before George R. R. Martin finishes the damn series! (I hope he doesn’t die of old age before he finishes the damn series!) And so another day draws slowly towards a close… Tomorrow my favourite eldest daughter will be coming over – little does she know that she’s going to have to assist me in purchasing something… suitable… for this (very scary) photo shoot on Tuesday… I wonder if I should do my nails? They’re still a little bit too short to look good though… What sort of top should I be looking for? (forget dresses! I don’t wear dresses, my ankles are too deformed…) I’m not looking forward to Tuesday, I can tell you! Oh, I know! I might wake up with a migraine on Tuesday morning, mightn’t I?! What a shame! I’d have to miss the photo shoot! Wouldn’t that be awful! Just kidding, but I’m really not looking forward to it… Tomorrow after lunch will probably be taken up with watching episodes of either “Person of Interest”, and/or “The 100” – it shouldn’t take me too long to find a “smart casual” or “evening” top for Tuesday – if I go with Julian to pick Lee up, we can stop at The Glen on the way home – there’s a My Size as well as an Autograph there – I reckon we should be home before lunch time. And so… that’s about it from me for tonight – I’ll let you know tomorrow night what I manage to procure in the way of a semi-glamorous top 🙂 and if you happen to hear what sounds like a cave full of bats fluttering around, don’t worry, it’ll only the kaleidoscope* of butterflies in my stomach, at the thought of the photo shoot. I’ll also fill you in on the major events of the day, and what we watched in the afternoon – I’ll probably even let you all know what my weight did, or didn’t do to me! So until this time tomorrow night – bee good, make sure you mend the hole in the butterfly net, and above all… stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
*I didn’t know what a large number of butterflies was called, so I looked it up: What is a group of butterflies called? a Kaleidoscope. Also known as a swarm, rabble or flutter.
My Word! 