I am happy to report successful maintenance of my new weight for the last seven months. I still use the free Fooducate nutrition and weight tracker to record what I eat and weigh each each day as a reminder. In my 22 September 2022 update, I mentioned having to buy new clothes after losing sixty pounds. This meant making lots of style decisions (since nothing fit except my socks and scarves). I have enjoyed using ThredUp and other thrifty online sources to find new clothing designers and materials. I have also been watching YouTube for fashion ideas and to get an idea of what is worth extra expense. (The trick is to find a YouTuber whose style and form feels like yours.) My recent splurges have been for a pair of Thursday Captain boots, and Sézane fancy sweaters.
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Katy Dickinson, Lee Satterfield, TechWomen 10 Year Honor, 20 October 2022
As 2022 is ending, I have been reflecting on how busy these last few months have been. In October, I mentored the remarkable and inspiring TechWomen Team Tunisia, and was one of the 21 mentors honored by the U.S. State Department – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for ten years’ service to the TechWomen program. (I was the TechWomen Process Architect 2010-2011, and have been a mentor each year since.) Also that month, my husband John Plocher said a fond goodbye to Apple, and started a new job at Ford Greenfield Labs.
Katy Dickinson, TechWomen 10 Year Honor, 20 October 2022Katy Dickinson, TechWomen Honor, 20 October 2022Katy Dickinson, Tunisia TechWomen, 16 October 2022John Plocher with Ford Mach-E
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I am honored to help mentor five TechWomen Emerging Leaders from Tunisia during their visit to the USA. The U.S. State Department – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs – TechWomen program connects and supports the next generation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by providing them the access and opportunities to advance their careers and pursue their dreams.
So far, our team has spoken online, been to a kickoff event hosted by Twitter at their San Francisco headquarters (I got to wear the embroidered cape I bought in Tunisia in 2015), and enjoyed dinner together at my house in San Jose. We are learning about each other, and working on the project again online, Tuesday night! This term, I am happy to be a TechWomen Co-Mentor with Darpana Pendyala (Hardware Design Engineer, Marvell), and Priyanka Sahay (Director, Product Marketing, LinkedIn).
TechWomen Team Tunisia 2022-09-23TechWomen Team Tunisia at Twitter 2022-09-29TechWomen Team Tunisia at Twitter 2022-09-29TechWomen Team Tunisia with WP668, in San Jose, CA 2022-10-1TechWomen Team Tunisia in San Jose, CA 2022-10-1TechWomen Team Tunisia in San Jose, CA 2022-10-1TechWomen Team Tunisia in San Jose, CA 2022-10-1TechWomen Team Tunisia in San Jose, CA 2022-10-1TechWomen Team Tunisia in San Jose, CA 2022-10-1TechWomen Team Tunisia in San Jose, CA 2022-10-1
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The lyrics of “When I’m Sixty-Four” by Paul McCartney of The Beatles start, “When I get older losing my hair, Many years from now, Will you still be sending me a Valentine, Birthday greetings bottle of wine. If I’d been out till quarter to three, Would you lock the door? Will you still need me, will you still feed me When I’m sixty-four?” Tonight, I end my Beatles Year!
I start my new half-decade tomorrow. Such a delightful adventure!Katy Dickinson 1957Katy Dickinson 1961Katy Dickinson 1967Wade, Eleanor, Mark, Peter, Katy Dickinson, Bachelor of Arts Commencement, University of California at Berkeley, 1979Katy Dickinson 1980Wade, Eleanor, Katy Dickinson with baby Jessica 1989Jessica and Paul, Nut Tree Railroad, 1995Katy Dickinson, John Plocher, Wedding 2000Jessica and Matthew wedding 2011Jessica and Katy, Beirut, Lebanon, 2013Katy Dickinson, John Plocher, Lalibela, Ethiopia 2014Katy and Jessica, Sierra Leone 2019Katy and Jessica, Horseshoe Bend, Arizona 2019Paul D Goodman and Katy Dickinson, Cielo Lodge, Golfito, Costa Rica, August 2021Graduate Theological Union, Master of Theology Commencement, 7 May 2022John Plocher, Katy Dickinson, Loon Lake, Wisconsin June 2022
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I am about three months into my weight maintenance program. As I wrote earlier, I started using the Noom program for weight loss and wellness in October 2021 and lost about sixty pounds by July 2022. Last month, I realized that Noom does not really offer a weight maintenance program, so I shifted to using the free Fooducate nutrition and weight tracker.
Fooducate is working well for me. I like that the home page displays how many calories I have left to spend each day, and that I can save a regular meal so I don’t have to reenter the information if I eat the same selections again. I am trying to keep within two pounds on either side of my target weight (and not to get stressed if my weight bounces up and down a bit).
One surprise with this health improvement journey is that in some areas, my skin has contracted at a slower rate than my muscles and other parts. Sometimes, this feels like being inside a deflating balloon. However, with regular walking and weight maintenance, my skin has continued to contract, so I hope to reach equilibrium in time. While losing weight, I bought successively smaller sizes of Gloria Vanderbilt Amanda jeans – for sale prices – so I could compare progress. I started at size 18. In July when I reached my goal, I was a size 10 but have now shrunk to a size 8, at the same weight.
My son Paul and I put together list below for a friend who recently started a weight loss journey using Noom. (This only represents our experience – your mileage may vary. Use a program that works for your health and way of doing things and you will be more likely to stick with it.)
Remember to drink / log plenty of water daily, makes you feel more full (at least ten cups of liquid per day)
Drink water 30 minutes before each meal
Read the Noom daily lessons, take advice that makes sense to you, ignore the rest
Noom’s group discussion function can help you be accountable for taking regular walks
Figure out a portion size metric (volume vs. weight) that works best for you, stick to the one metric for simplicity
Weigh in every day, expect lots of fluctuations (even five pounds up or down in one week) because of water retention
Write down your key body measures at the start so you can compare later (bust, waist, hips, around upper arm and upper leg), and to help you know what size you are
Weigh in, & log water and food on Noom daily, even if you are frustrated, or stuck/ plateaued. Getting stuck at one weight for weeks or months seems to be a usual part of the journey.
Drink a big glass of water after you weigh in each morning.
If you are on vacation or away from a scale, you can just repeat you last weight each day to keep the pattern going
Buy some clothes that fit as you reach each new size so you feel good about making progress. Thredup online consignment and thrift store is a good choice – for both cost and fashion choices. If you don’t love a clothing item, or it does not fit properly, do not buy it. If you bought it online, return it! You need to be happy with yourself and how you look.
Buy clothes by measurement, not size. My key measures and shape are different than they were when I was last at my current weight.
Some Noom (and Fooducate) food database entries are unrealistically low or high in calories – I think these are user-entered. When in doubt, break it down – log not a whole “serving” portion but the components (for example: green salad “serving” may be made up of mixed leafy greens + dressing + croutons, you can find individual calorie counts for each)
Walk or exercise every day and carry your smart phone so the steps count, to give you a better idea of how much you actually move. I use the Apple Health app on my iPhone which can share information with both Noom and Fooducate.
Add extra exercise under Noom’s “Track More Progress” if you do yard work, or exercise without your smart phone
On Noom, you can set “weight loss speed” under Noom settings (three lines at upper left of screen) from tortoise to cheetah, in case you want to go slower or faster
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John Plocher, Katy Dickinson, Loon Lake, Wisconsin June 2022
Our family went on two short trips this summer. John and visited the Plocher family at Loon Lake, Wisconsin, in June. At the end of August, John and I and our kids took a road trip through Northern-Northern California, including a ride on the Skunk Train from Willets. John and Paul and I were in one car and Jessica and Matthew were in another.
Loon Lake, Wisconsin
Plocher family, Loon Lake, Wisconsin June 2022Loon Lake, Wisconsin June 2022Loon family, Loon Lake, Wisconsin June 2022John Plocher, Katy Dickinson, Loon Lake, Wisconsin June 2022Plocher boating on Loon Lake, Wisconsin June 2022Dragon fly, Loon Lake, Wisconsin June 2022Osprey fish eagles, Loon Lake, Wisconsin June 2022John and Naomi Plocher, Loon Lake, Wisconsin June 2022John and Naomi Plocher, Loon Lake, Wisconsin June 2022
California Road Trip
Dickinson family, Willits, California, August 2022Wild Turkey, Red Bluff, California, August 2022deer, Northern California, August 2022Road Trip, Northern California, August 2022Road Trip, Northern California, August 2022John Plocher, Katy Dickinson, Paul D. Goodman, Road Trip, Northern California, August 2022Road Trip through redwoods, Northern California, August 2022Skunk Train tunnel, Willits, California, August 2022Skunk Train, Willits, California, August 2022John Plocher on Skunk Train, Willits, California, August 2022Skunk Train, Willits, California, August 2022John Plocher, Paul D. Goodman, Glass Beach, Fort Bragg, California, August 2022John Plocher, Paul D. Goodman, Katy Dickinson, Glass Beach, Fort Bragg, California, August 2022
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John Plocher and I are in the process of fixing up our 90-year-old Spanish Mission style home in Willow Glen (San Jose, California). One of the duties of homeownership is maintenance, particularly fixing what does not show. We just completed Phase One of a maintenance project, including adding new French drains to redirect water away from the house, repairing some rocky tiles on the side porch, replacing a front porch post, adding better support for the ground floor so that the front door opens all the way, and replacing a walkway-with-a-step with a ramp. This work will not meet the realtors’ goal of “increasing the value of your home” for resale, but since this is our family’s forever home, it is enough that the work increases its comfort and value to us. We got virtual tours of the ongoing work under the house using FaceTime.
Some of maintenance challenges come from ours being an old (if well-built) house, and others from the land being part of the original Willow Glen swamp of the Guadalupe River. The ground shifts annually with seasonal moisture changes, causing stucco cracks and sometimes making doors stick. The most unhappy person with the construction has been Princess, our porch cat, who resented the disruption of her royal domain. Phase Two is being planned now!
Porch post with gap, July 2022Original side walkway, July 2022John Plocher raking weeds, July 2022Resetting porch tiles, July 2022Repaired side porch tiles, July 2022Cat judging front porch construction, July 2022Digging french drain trenches, July 2022French drain trench complete, July 2022French drain lining and rock, July 2022Completed french drains, July 2022Painting new porch post, July 2022Pouring new side ramp, July 2022Smoothing new ramp, July 2022New ramp walkway, July 2022FaceTime of work under house, July 2022End of walkway drying, July 2022Fixing front door, July 2022Princess the cat hiding, July 2022
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