Friday afternoon Beers For Good went down to the local am radio station to record an ad for our brew fest. When I get the finished product, I’ll see if I can post it. It was a lot of fun, and made us (me, at least) feel very professional.

Tomorrow starts my week of cancer treatment at Mass General in Boston. Tomorrow and Tuesday I have to go into Boston to get a shot in the butt (insert inappropriate joke here).
I have to go into Boston just to get a shot! One tomorrow and one Tuesday. The shots each cost $2,000, so they are *special* cancer shots.

This week consists of:
Monday - Shot in the butt
Tuesday - Shot in the other cheek
Wednesday - Drink small amount of radiation. Meet with ladies from Hospice center in Waltham to confirm internship!
Thursday - No Boston! Two meetings in Fitchburg, both at Destare (I can’t get awayf rom that place!)
Friday - Whole Body Scan (WBS) which tests to see if there are any thyroid cells still in my body

Friday night - Fancy dinner to celebrate being done with my diet! (unless there ARE thyroid cells, then that’s a whole other story)

Wish me luck! Anyone in Boston wanna hang out any day? Let me know!

I weighed myself this morning, and I’m exactly at 130.  I haven’t lost nor gained any weight.

I’ve been eating TONS of carbs, and also a lot of beef (both burgers and sloppy joes).  It’s weird to go from a month and a half of eating no meat to eating meat every single day.  As soon as I’m done this diet, I will be back to eating no meat.  Sure, I like hamburgers.  Veggie burgers are just as good as long as the condiments are loaded up.  Veggie burgers aren’t juicy, but that’s ok.  I also can’t have anything made of soy, so that keeps me away from my usual vegetarian stuff.

I’m surprised with all the carbs that I actually haven’t gained any weight.  But this diet is very good at keeping me away from chocolate and other sweet or salty snacks.

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day because it doesn’t require any thinking on my part.  I have delicious toast with raspberry jam.  It is delicious.  I have two slices, and if I’m feeling extra crazy, then I also have egg whites for a little protein.

Other meals I’ve had:

French toast (for lunch, not breakfast - too much sugar for breakfast)
Pasta with garlic, basil, and cherry tomatoes
Pasta with Chicken Scampi and garlic bread
Pasta with cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and summer squash
Pasta y Fagioli soup (it was bad - I don’t want to talk about it)
Sloppy Joes
Hamburgers
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
Egg sandwich (toast with margarine, with broccoli and egg whites)
Frosted Mini Wheats with almond milk (that Jay made me!)

I got to eat chocolate for dessert tonight.  I had a Chocolate Brownie bar from Pure.

I was able to eat it because the ingredients are:  Organic Dates, Organic Walnuts, Organic Agave Nectar, Organic Almonds, Organic Cashews, Organic Brown Rice Protein, Organic Cocoa.

There’s no dairy, so the bar is completely vegan.

Very happy that someone told me about these.  It was nice to have a little chocolate treat, and I didn’t even eat the whole thing!

I haven’t been blogging a lot lately and that’s because I haven’t been at my computer lately.  I’ve been out and about doing things!

Memorial Day weekend was fantastic, and I did a lot of fun things.  Saturday morning Jay and I headed out to Amherst because his sister was graduating.  We went to the UMASS AMherst graduation, and it was crazy.  There were thousands of people there, and it was amazing.  Unfortunately for the graduates, they don’t get their names read, or get to walk across the stage.  They just announce “Social and Behavioral Sciences” and those students stand up, and then some professor from their department says “Chancelor, these students are ready to graduate” (or something along those lines), and then they sit.  Then, at the very end, the entire glass graduates as a whole, and they all turn their tassles.  It was very different from my graduation, where I got my name called and I walked across the stage and shook hands and actually received my diploma.  While at this graduation, I couldn’t believe that I graduated three years ago.  How time flies!

After the graduation (where my back got burnt - d’oh!), we walked back to his sister’s apartment where they were having a pig roast!  Because of my low iodine diet (LID), I had to have a plain burger and unsalted chips and unsalted ketchup and homemade bread.  I had to explain to Jay’s mom while I had to eat special things, and doofus Jay never told him mom I have cancer.  He said that he didn’t want to tell her because it’s my business or something, but if he had cancer and I was in a relationship with him, I would probably be telling my parents.  Most definitely.  Unless, that is, he specifically told me not to.

After dinner, we left for the Cape.  It was a three hour drive, and we got there a bit after 8.  We were staying at Jay’s roommates house, and it just so happened that they had another friend who lived about a mile down the road. Some of the other guys were out mountain biking, so we waited for them to come home to have dinner.  We ended the night with some drinks and some games (I LOVE friends who enjoy playing games).

Sunday we had breakfast and hung about the house before going to the beach.  It was a chilly day at the beach, and it was on and off raining.  I hadn’t prepared, and had to borrow both a blanket and a jacket from other people.  I sat covered up on the beach while reading.  Once it got a bit nicer, I had a glass of wine and went for a nice walk.  Sunday night we went to  Bob’s house (the friend down the road), and had dinner.  I had a hamburger (I think I’d had one hamburger a day for the past four days at this point).  With my unsalted chips and salad, I was fine with this.  They had shrimp cocktail and grilled shrimp, and I made Jay describe to me how it tasted since I couldn’t have any.  I had been getting upset when I saw him eating something that I couldn’t have, so to fix that, I just started asking him how things tasted.  That way I made a bit of a joke out of it, rather than getting myself all worked up over food.  With a week and a half more of the diet, I have a lot left to do.  With my parents, they don’t eat food around me that I’m tempted to eat.  That way, I don’t have a problem.  If they want to have pie, then they make a kind of pie that I can eat.  Jason, however, isn’t as sensitive.  It’s hard on me and I’ve been a bit bitchy about everything.  I did give him fair warning about me being bitchy during this diet, so there’s that.

Monday we had a gorgeous day at the beach.  It was sunny and beautiful, and we were on the beach for six hours.  We all got way too much sun, and my sunburn still hurts!  I put on sunblock, but missed a spot on my hip!  I didn’t get burnt on my face or any part of my front, only on parts that were hard to reach.  We drove home after dinner, and it was a great weekend.  It was nice to have a mini vacation.

It’s May, so high 80 degree weather sounds just about right.

I’m going to the Cape for Memorial Day weekend, and it’s going to be about 15 degrees cooler. I’m thinking I just want to stay here to soak up some sun. But as my dad says when he sees me sun bathing, “What, was one kind of cancer not good enough for you?”

To prepare for my diet, I brought one of our bread machines to Jay’s house (we own two thanks to FreeCycle). I made bread for day 1 of my diet, and then we made shrimp scampi as my last meal (I can’t have sea food). It needed more flavor, so it’s a recipe we will have to work on.

This morning, I put a piece of bread in the toaster and burnt it and set the fire detector off. Not a great way to start my diet.

Reading other people’s experience on their low iodine diets, it seems that there is a constant theme of weight loss.  From what I’ve read, the least someone commented on losing was 4-5 pounds, and the most was around 15.

This is a diet that I’m going to be on for three weeks.

I’m allowed to have:

•Fruits
• Vegetables
• Unsalted nuts and unsalted nut butters.
• Whites of eggs.
• Fresh meats up to 6 ounces a day.
• Grain and cereal products up to 4 servings per day
• Pasta, provided it has no high-iodine ingredients.
• Sugar, jelly, jam, honey, maple syrup.
• Black pepper, fresh or dried herbs and spices.
• Oils. All vegetable oils, including soy oil.
• Sodas, non-instant coffee, non-instant tea
• Beer, wine, other alcoholic beverages, lemonade, fruit juices.

Basically, I can eat fresh (not canned) fruits and vegetables, pasta, homemade bread, and egg whites.  That’s about it.  No wonder I’m going to lose weight!

Last year, I had a hard time with meals, and simply snacked on things.  It was awful.  That’s unsalted almonds, baby carrots, grapes, and celery with unsalted peanut butter and raisins.  That was my lunch one day.  That isn’t lunch!

And so, the question I’m posing to you is:  How much weight will I lose?  I currently weigh 130 pounds.  I am NOT doing this diet to lose weight (not at all - I plan on eating a TON!), but it seems like it is an added side effect.

Anyone want to make any guesses?

Jay and I were talking about how we needed something to do when we hang out and just watch a movie or TV (he’s the one who introduced me to How I Met Your Mother).  We tried playing checkers once, but neither of us could remember how to play, or what colors went on what squares.  The other weekend, I brought over two puzzles.  We set one up on the coffee table, and any free minute I’m at his house, I’m sitting on the couch working on it.  It’s a mini puzzle (10″ x 18″), but it’s 500 pieces!  They’re very little pieces.

Usually I do puzzles with Megan, but I work on it for an hour, and then I get sick of it.  She will either finish it, or we will both give up, and put it away.  This puzzle, however, is going to get finished!  It makes me think of Megan as I work on it, which is nice, and I had Jay take this picture so I could send it to her.

My low iodine diet starts on Monday.   Mom and I went to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods today to stock up on salt free items.  We found  salsa, tortilla chips, dried fruit and spaghetti sauce that was all salt free!  I also got Lara Bars as snacks because they are delicious and contain nothing but nuts and fruit.  We also bought Spectrum Shortening so we can make pies that I can eat (I can’t eat regular Crisco -  Spectrum makes theirs with palm oil).  We got two of everything at Trader Joe’s.  I’m going away for the weekend with Jay* and his friends to Cape Cod, and I’ll be on my diet.  This way, I can bring tortilla chips and salsa as a snack, and spaghetti sauce if I get stuck for something to eat for dinner (I’m allowed to eat pasta).

We also bought eight bottles of wine (four for me, four for mom), and a six pack of beer for dad.  We spend around $90!  And by “we”  I mean “mom.”  But I’m very happy about the food we bought, even though this diet is still going to suck.  I’ve been spending lots of time at Jay’s house, so I plan on bringing one of my bread machines there so I always can have fresh bread there.

* Jay is the new guy I’m dating.  We started dating back in September, and then we stopped hanging out, and then we got back together in February.  He lives in Leominster, enjoys doing things outdoors (hiking, mountain biking, snow shoeing, snow boarding, etc.), and he makes me laugh.  Sometimes he calls me “Robo.”  He does not, however, understand my love for Honey Bunches of Oats.  But he’s cooked me dinner, and has let me drive his precious car.   I hope that covers it.