It's paczki season.

It's paczki season. Be strong, my friends. Be strong.

Scaling it down

Yesterday somebody implied that SpunkySuzi's challenge had cured me of my scale addiction.

Um, no. It REKINDLED it! Hooray Suzi! It's just what I needed!

Now I've been on the scale 2 days in a row just like I need to be after a long hiatus. Down .7 pounds today is  good news for me. I still have a lot of damage to undo from my slothful "eating for fun" ways over the last month or so, but I'm heading in the right direction now. Progress, not perfection!

Sweetie had to leave in the middle of the night (ok, 5:30 am) today but by the looks of it he had a fun time at the candy store while we were at church yesterday. I think this may be the first time in my life I received a beautiful box of chocolates.  Luckily, it's pretty enough that I'm not too tempted to open it.

You should see the stack of goods he got for kiddo. He went a little crazy! Coincidentally, we won't see him again until 8 pm or so - just in time for him to scrape her off of the ceiling!

Happy Valentine's Day. I hope you're feeling as loved as I am. :-)

And it's OVAH!

Christmas has come and gone. Time to take down the Christmas stuff and put out the snowmen.

We had a nice visit with mom, sister, and sis' boyfriend yesterday. Kiddo got shloads more gifts and now we need to find a place for all her loot. Thank goodness hubby and I put an end to our own.  

I felt sad for Sweetie yesterday as we didn't hear from his parents until very late and he didn't get to talk to his brother at all. We called at 9:30 on our way home but alas, it was too late to talk to the kids, too. They are normal kids who were up early with excitement about their loot whereas ours had to be dragged out of bed at 9 am. Today I woke her up at 10. She likes her sleep. She his happy with her holiday loot and visiting.

Tomorrow night is my sleepover at the sleep clinic. Enough of that. Let's not think about it. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.

Other than squats, I've been slackin on exercise lately. Food as well. So much yummy yummy that I push my intuition aside and enjoy. I have undone some of my hard work that way and yet I'm not feeling terribly guilty over it. yet. maybe a smidge. I will not panic over 2 or 3 pounds. Kiddo will be back in school on Jan 3rd and I'll be back to the gym. Until then, she will just have to play Wii with me daily and have fun fun fun doing it. Once I can scrape the remote out of her little sweaty hand.

Finally!

Last night I finally was able to "normally" digest something. The Mac N Cheese, of course. It would be something fatty and highly caloric. Ah well,  I'm hoping this means the virus is on its way out of my body. My weight was the same this morning as it was yesterday which is somewhat of a relief since it hopefully signifies the end of this flu or whatever it is. Today I hope to be getting on and using Walk It Out for a while and see how I do. So far, eating is good, only about 150 calories and not hungry. Pushing lots of fluids and laying low for now.

Sweetie has a vaca day today and tomorrow which means he should be home from work soon and won't need to be back until Sunday.

A blessed Saturnalia, Merry Christmas, etc to all of you :)

Fun Friday

Sweetie took a vacation day today, which means he only worked 4 hours instead of his usual 10 or more. He'll be back in over the weekend to fix things up. Some IT problem has made it so that he can't check emails or access anything from home - all of 2 miles away - so he won't be home as much as he had hoped until they fix that.

Today we went to our home town and celebrated birthdays and Christmas with his parents who will be snowbirding this winter. We will miss them - at least I will - I am really hoping that when snow melts in the spring they will be able to move even closer to us - this all depends on the real estate market, of course.

While Sweetie was at work, one of my hometown friends actually visited us. So much fun hanging out with her. We have lots in common and she always makes me laugh. Plus, she calls me skinny. Yeah, I know she's teasing but I still like it :D

So I ate more bread that I needed today - nice big fat loaf of Hawaiian bread kept drawing me back to it. I think I'd better hit the gym tomorrow and every day this week. I wasn't making very good choices. I guess I spent all my good choices yesterday and today let down my guard.  After the festivities, we went to see the new Harry Potter movie which - of course - was AWESOME! I've read all the books so no big suprises, except for a lot of it was exactly how I had pictured it. I might re-read the last part of the last book to refresh my memory as it has been a coupla years.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to hit the gym before going to lunch and to see the movie Tangled with some friends. Gotta make this long 5 day weekend go by somehow.

Hot 100 and "I Refuse to Blow It Over the Holidays" update

I've lost 9 lbs since the first day of autumn. More would be better, but as long as it's going the right direction, I won't complain.

Health: Go to bed by 10 pm nightly
I've done very well on this except for last night when I had a hard time winding down after a day full of family fun :)

Nutrition: Eat more fruit!
I could do a lot better. I've been slacking here but I have lots of big juicy grapes waiting for me and I don't intend to let them go to waste!

Activity: Achieve BMI at or below 35
36.82 It's getting there! And with the new gym membership, it should get there a LOT faster now

Accountability: Blog at least 2x daily
This has been more difficult with all of the holiday prep and not much profound to say. Not a lot on my mind except for cleaning.


Pay it Forward: Encourage hubby to join the journey

Quote of the day "I could try to lose weight too, ya know"  :)

Can I go to bed now?

I've done a lot today, including a mile long powerwalk with the Wii and sorting though boxes and boxes of clutter. These boxes will need to be moved out of my living room and entry way well before Thursday. I've got my kitchen looking fairly good again, just need to get the desk area back in order and then do the floor.

Tomorrow I take a cat to the vet and then attend a Holiday Tea. Then I drop Kiddo off at the skating rink and home to see what Sweetie and his father have accomplished while the 3 generations of "ladies" were at their "tea."  I suddenly wish that I had a wide-brimmed hat with flowers. Oh well, it would probably class with my sweatpants, anyway.

I'm hoping kiddo will stay overnight then at her friend's party. It would be nice for me and Sweetie to have time to ourselves. Sunday is a long church day with bread communion and origami crane making or some such fun afterwards. The rest of the day will be spent prepping for turkey day.  Besides my pumkin pudding and turkey breast, I have no idea what's on the menu. We need to figure that out soon!

Trick or Treat

Dang, it's cold out.

Sweetie and I tookd kiddo t-o-t-ing and walked what felt like 4 miles but according to activetrainer.com was more like .868 miles. I could've sworn it was more. My hips were really aching. Maybe it was the cold or the small kid-sized steps we were taking. Anyway, we got loads of candy! yay candy! I love candy..  . .do you? (ha - a little joke, asking the obese people if they like candy).

Still the fatigue is hanging on, along with some minor aches and pains but nothing serious. Mostly just tired. I've taken my Paxil/Voltaren/water cocktail and will head off to start reading a novel soon - warm under the blankets where I belong. My biggest wish is that I'm energetic enough to at least do some light exercise tomorrow, and possibly get back with FLYlady and start tackling the dining room.

My kid was dressed as a chef. She carried a big pot/pan in lieu of a treat bag and she got lots of compliments. She's 9. How much longer will she still be into this? Hmmm. . . What did your kiddos dress up as this year?

Eating strategies for Holiday festivities

I read a great article here . Let me splain. No - it is too much. Let me sum-up.


It's not all or nothing: eat healthy before you go, don't sabotage yourself just because you know you'll be tempted later. Treat each meal separately and attempt to give your body the necessary nutrients to get you through the day.

Get the lay of the land:  Check out the offerings before you grab a plate and pile it on. Think about what you might like and then if you really want it  - have it, in a reasonable amount.

Keep it colorful:  Make your plate colorful. Not all tans and grays. You know that your body needs the nutrients from colorful fruits and veggies and this is a good opportunity to get them.

Don't drink your calories:  Stick with water every chance you get. There's just no healthy way to booze it up.

Be realistic:  Don't beat yourself up for having treats. It's a celebration! Keep moderation in mind and sample some goodies but remain in control.

I don't like to be too busy

This weekend feels a little crazy busy to me already. Tonight I took kiddo to clarinet lessons and hubs worked late again.

Tomorrow we have 2 "play dates." One is a really good friend of Kid's who moved away about 5 months ago & possibly her mom and sister. We'll propbably do a bonfire, cook hotdogs and smores and let the kids be kids chasing frogs and blowing out milkweed pods or cattails gone to seed.  This will be in celebration of the mom's 4 year anniversary of breast cancer survival. She'll get a basket of non-pink ribbon shampoos and deodorants that contain no known cancer-causing angents in their ingredient list. Maybe I'll tie it with an ACTUAL pink ribbon with white polka dots, though.

Before that, though, we're going to a local fall festival with another friend, one she's known since she was about a year old, also an "only", they get along supremely. Her mom and I have a great time as well. Hayrides, pumpkin decorating, and lots of fun like that. Should be a real "treat"

Sunday I need to go into church a bit early and get the "orders of service" ready. This is what Unitarians call their bulletins, I guess. Or maybe everybody does that now. When I was a kid, they were bulletins. At any rate, the regular volunteer wasn't able to complete them because of the numerous inserts this week so that is my honor to help out the church and I'm very grateful for it as they have not needed me quite as much lately during the week and I was starting to take it a little personally. 

After church will have our annual "spooky foods" potluck which is great fun for the kids. So many "crunchy" people there it will be fun to see some vegetarian inventions as well. So, tomorrow we will have to concoct something for that as well.  After the potluck,  will be family time and we'll hang out at home with dad, carve the pumpkin, and generally try to recover from the earlier events. Or, if it's super nice out, we might go to the pumpkin farm for some photo ops and a corn maze. Only  a few more days available to do that.

Between all this stuff, I get to clean the house, blog, read my really great novel, knit my scarf to go with my cool new coat, and hope to have time to talk to BFF. I'm hoping for before or after church in person. Could I be so lucky?

Planning ahead for Thanksgiving

I think I just found my dessert to make for Thanksgiving dinner next month.  Now all I have to do is triple the recipe and tell myself to stop after my one serving.

Does anybody else have any lower calorie versions of Thanksgiving favorites to share? 

Guess I'm going to have to resort to low-cal whipped cream. They just look so NEKKED w/o it!