Why America Hates Fat People

If you haven't already seen this article from Newsweek, please click in on it. It's 3 pages long, so you may want to save it to your desktop and read it at your leisure.

I'm surprised by some of the things that I just read. Wow.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

What have your heard?

At the risk of sounding like I try every fad diet that comes along (really, I don't), I am interested in researching the Alternate Day Diet that I read about in Woman's World mag. It sounds like something that a person could deal with. Only "dieting" every other day. The every other day diet is supposed to be low calorie, healthy foods and then the off day, you are to eat what you want in reasonable portions (not the whole cake for example).

Anyway, I was wondering if any of my weight loss/healthy living buddies knew anyone who has tried either this or CRON. That stands for calorie restricted optimal nutrition. I know that there are a lot of nay sayers to restricted calories (1500 and under per day), but I was just wondering.

That's it for today. I'm having a better bloggy day, since I got some comments from you kids. Thanks for that and stay as healthy as you can.

No more long boring posts...

I'm having a "poor me" moment. I am thinking of revamping this blog in some way. Only my few faithful friends ever comment here. What can I do here to make it more interesting? Do you really want to hear that my weight is up five pounds again and that I have new creases showing in my neck and that at 56 I still have breakouts and that even though I have narrow feet, narrow shoes make my toes hurt? Is that what will bring you out of your shell? I didn't think so. I'll think of something. Really, I will.

Until then, carry on...

Learn to cook

Just a quick post to remind folks that cooking is fun and easy and so worth it. A little meal like this is healthy and almost prepares itself.

The green beans were easy, instead of snapping and stringing, I used canned beans and dumped two large cans in the pot. To this I add 3 beef bullion cubes, and two tablespoons of olive oil. I brought them to a boil, then reduced the heat to about low/medium (3 on my control) cover with the correct sized lid and let them simmer for 1-1/2 hours. (Down here in the South we like stuff cooked a while, none of those crispy green beans for us)



About an hour into the beans cooking, I started on the rest of the meal. The chicken was a snap, also. I always purchase boneless, skinless chicken breast when they are on sale. I freeze them and then the night before a meal I thaw them out in the fridge. There are several ways to thaw chicken, but that's for another post. Anyway, I just put my chicken breasts in a baking pan lined with foil (no clean up much to speak of), squeezed half an orange over the pieces and then shook some seasoning on it. I used lemon-pepper, but you can use almost anything. Baked it uncovered in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.

While the chicken was cooking, I put a pot of water (seasoned with chicken bullion granules) on to boil. I peeled the new white potatoes using a veggie peeler. I find it is so much easier than a paring knife, as you don't have much waste of the veggie. Sliced them long ways and about 1/4 " thick so they would cook in 20 minutes. (This is how I time everything to be ready at once) When they are done, I drain and mash with a potato masher with a small amount of 2% milk and a bit of trans fat free "butter".

Put it all on a plate with some sliced tomatoes on the side and sliced peaches for dessert and you have a really nice home cooked meal.

Remember not everything has to be completely from scratch to be healthy and if you are intimidated by "home cooking" check out Sandra Lee's Semi Homemade series. She has a television show on the Food Network and several books. She really is good for someone who doesn't know how to cook. If you don't have access to her show, go to YouTube and check out some of the cooking videos, they are so helpful.

Well, that's it for today. Remember to take care of yourself, and stay hydrated. If you aren't able to or just not in the mood for "exercising", do some stretches and deep breathing. You'll be surprised at how much better you will feel.

That's it for now. Remember that I really mean it when I say take care. I do care about you and want you to carve out a little time to take care of yourself, as well as your family.

Enjoy your weekend!

For Security Reasons

This may sound unusual, but I love hair curlers. I like the feeling of having my hair in rollers. Perhaps it's because I come from an era when we rolled our hair on big brush curlers and slept with the hair dryer on. The kind of dryer that had a tube and a soft plastic bonnet that covered your head with heat. You may not remember them, but I certainly do...

So even these days, when life is good and you don't need the security that having really great hair brings, I still love to roll my hair and sit around and read until it is ready for the unveiling.

Yep, there's a lot to be said for doing things the old fashion way. Don't get me wrong, I'm as hip as the next chick is, but I just love the feeling of nice tight curlers in my hair.

That's my thought for today. Don't know why. Do you know anyone who still rolls their hair? Well, you do now. Take care and wrap yourself in your own security blanket until we meet again.

The Best Day Ever

In honor of the most special event in my life I am re-posting this. I know you won't mind reading it again, sorry if you just read it on my other blog, but that makes it twice as good!


Please join me in celebrating the Best Day Ever...
August 8, 1988

I don't have an picture from the actual wedding, but here we are soon after.

The wedding was a spur of the moment thing. One of the girls I worked with convinced me to go ahead with the plans that my sweetie and I had sort of talked about. I said to her that morning, when I looked at our office calendar, "ahhh, I wanted to get married today". She said "Well, the boss is on vacation, so we have most of the day to plan it out. Call your sweetie, go get the license while I find a preacher". No more encouragement was needed. We did get a parking ticket while we were obtaining the license, but other than that everything went off without a hitch.

Yes, my sweet friends, twenty one years ago today, we said "I Do" and promised to love, cherish and obey. We meant it then and we mean it now. We got married in a little wedding chapel. I wore my favorite denim skirt and top and pinned Baby's Breath in my hair and carried some fresh wildflowers. (Sandy thought of everything). When we went to pick up Denise, to go along as our attendant/witness, she was wearing a yellow terrycloth tank top with matching short shorts and flip flops (she was the singer in the band Sweetie was in) and had already gotten a wedding cake for us that had little gold rings on it (there is still a piece in our freezer, we have taken it whenever we have moved). I carried my sister's Bible and wore my Mom's long forgotten wedding band. I have no recollection of what he wore, but we went to the Sizzler afterwards and had dinner. I am a little sad to admit that we didn't think to tell either of our families until it was over. We were more impulsive in those days.

I have to let you all know, I was crying as I wrote this originally. I am so blessed and fortunate to have him in my life. We have been through tough times just like anyone else, but we made it this far and we will make it through anything that comes our way. He is the love of my life and I will never stop thanking God for allowing me to spend my life with him. I remember I couldn't stop crying as I typed and guess what... I am crying again, as I re-post it. Whenever I blog, he gets his guitar and plays and sings songs for me as I type, I don't think he realizes how romantic it is. He and I aren't big party people, and we still haven't decided how we will celebrate. It doesn't matter what we do, as long as we are together.

I can't think of a better way to share my joy with all my friends, than through this little blog. That is why I am posting this happy, grainy picture from so many years ago. Hope you like it.

To help us celebrate, please kiss that special someone and say "this one's for Susan and her Hubby".

Are we in the same boat?

I think that perhaps some of us are in the same boat. There are certainly some ultra-success stories out there in blog land. Success is relative to the individual, though. I think that for the most part, lots of us are just trying to lose a little bit of weight, while some of us consider no weight gain a success. I have mentioned before that I don't exercise, even though I know that all the advisers stress you must exercise in order to lose weight and stay healthy.

Staying healthy is really key for my husband and me. I am 56 and he is not quite 52, so we are seeing a bit of difference in things. He is finally noticing a gray hair here and there and those of you that know me, know I sport a head full of silver locks. We are both starting to do crazy things that we never did before, like putting freezer foods in the regular part of the fridge and putting on two pair of undies. You know, the usual absent minded stuff.

With the possibility of health care options becoming limited for the elderly, I know that I must keep us as healthy as I can, as we plan on being around a long time. With all this being said, don't be discouraged if perhaps this blog becomes more about living healthy in general, with an occasional article about actual weight loss.

Just know that when I am at the keyboard, it will usually be as positive as possible. I am a positive thinking person by nature and that just sort of spills over into my writing. Even when I was at my worst (and everyone has had those days) I was never angst ridden or a poor me baby.

Blessedly I am healthy and happy and hopeful. Combine that with a loving husband, the freedom to do my art and to make jewelry, and the ability to sift through a bunch of junk to get to the "good stuff", and that makes me one extremely grateful chick.

Enjoy your week and make one good choice today. That's all I ask. Just one. It might be not eating the whole pack of cookies... it might be adding an apple... it might be parking further away from the store. Whatever it is, just do it.

Well, that's it for today. Take care and have fun.