Bathing Suit Weather???

Just wanted to show my friends over in weight loss land, that I'm thinking of being slim enough to wear a swim suit. Until then I'll just pretend....

Yep, this is what I did with the snow on my deck. I got that exercise I promised myself (and a bit of a stiff back, too) but it was fun.

Everyone is finally digging out from the snow, but they are calling for an ice storm Christmas Eve. I hope everyone stays safe and has a Merry Christmas.

Take care and enjoy your week. If you have snow, break with the traditional snow man and go wild. Who knows what you will come up with.

Wow, did we have snow...

We had snow here in the Star City, about 16 inches. I am now a "stay at home-r", so I don't have to worry about getting shoveled out to get to work. I am working on my laptop, so I cannot post any pictures here, but if you click on this, you can see the pictures of my deck that I posted on my other blog.

My hubby and I tend to hunker down and stay in when the weather is bad. We enjoy each others company, but have plenty of room here in the house to do our own thing, in the event that we do start getting on each others nerves. One of the things I love to do is cook, and I keep my storm pantry stocked year round with comfort food, as well as staples.

We almost got stuck in the beginning of the storm, another 10 minutes and we would not have gotten home. Since then we have eaten:

cinnamon buns with icing
Canned Beef Stew
homemade vegetable soup
brown sugar oatmeal
turkey sausage, eggs, homefries and toast with warm homemade strawberry compote
Fritos, chips, popcorn, pretzels
raisin bagels with buttery spread
coffee and/or tea with condensed sweetened canned milk or with just milk and sugar
oranges, apples
crackers and cheese
angle hair pasta with butter and Parmesan cheese and broccoli and cauliflower
(and this is just what I can remember right now)

We're talking 48 hours here, folks. I am just using the snow as an excuse to eat. It's not that I don't have anything else to do. I'm an artist and have an entire basement full of things to do. We have power and cable and there is really no real reason to be stuffing myself (and my hubby) as if we were going to need extra calories.

All this is just to say, that I'm aware of how I sabotage myself when it comes to being healthy. I think it's human nature to eat more during the holidays and especially during a storm. I am so grateful that we didn't get stuck on interstate. Some folks got stuck for over 24 hours in our area. Some in our area have been without power for several days. I know how blessed I am and I feel myself becoming stronger, I'm going to get back on track.

I made my way to the storage area today and found our shovel. Tomorrow we will dig out, (taking it easy, of course) because we are both over 50 and while I don't like to admit it, age does complicate things like lifting huge shovelfuls of snow.

So tomorrow is a new day. I will get some exercise tomorrow. I will be more conscious of what I eat tomorrow.

That's it for today. Hope you are all staying healthy and happy. Hang in there, friends...we're going to make it though this.

Still here...

Just a quick post to let you know that I'm still here.

When it comes to food, the holidays are my most difficult time.

My own family is just about gone. No Mom, Dad or Uncles or Cousins left. It's only my younger brother and his wife, who have their own lives that apparently include only her children and grandchildren. My older sister lives on the West Coast and while we are very close, we do our Christmas there in October. My Darling Hubby's family is about the same, both his brothers both live several hours away and his daughter lives in London.

I think that is the reason that I want to bake cookies and make party mix and pretend that we still have people that might stop by and say hi. I'll send some cookies to the neighbor, but other than that, anything that I cook has to be consumed by the two of us. Poor hubby has gotten heavier as the years have gone by, also. I'm a really good cook and while most recipes can be cut in half, you are still confronted with 12-18 cookies to be chomped down on.

Oh, well, I'm just whining. I know not to console my lack of family with food and I know that if I went out to local events and such that we could cultivate more friends. I know all that. Knowing something and doing it are two completely different things.

So for now, I'll just hang in there and remember that I have a healthy husband that loves me very much. I have a nice roof over my head and a really decent car. I have a lot more than some folks have. Maybe tomorrow I won't be such a baby.

Well, that's it for me. I'll be back soon with something more interesting to discuss. I promise.

Every day is a new day

That's what I love about being allowed to wake up each morning. I don't care if it's raining, snowing, or so hot that I sweated all night, I feel so blessed to be able to have a new day. Thank you, Father, for allowing me to have this new day to eat better, to hug my hubby more, to be allowed to make the decision to wear sweat pants and watch TV all day. Yep, I'm a blessed woman.

My hubby got his stitches out yesterday and now he can eat real food again. We have both gained weight this year, (not what I had planned when I named the blog, obviously), but he developed gall stones and I have had to deal with severe acid reflux. Not an excuse, just stating that we both have some dietary restrictions. Plus we eat according to Leviticus and don't eat pig, shrimp, catfish, mushrooms and some other things that are usually part of a diet plan. Being Christians, we don't follow the kosher food laws, but our dietary choices are very similar.

I'm not advocating any specific plan, but I do prefer eating clean foods. Here is an interesting site, regarding clean foods that I just found, I haven't had time to study it, but I am saving it as a favorite.

I haven't decided exactly what we will be doing on our way to get back optimum health, but the first plan is to avoid sugary snacks. No donuts, chocolate bars or layer cakes.

It's a new day, after all.

Happy Turkey Day

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Since the hubby still has dental stitches, I made a nice pot of veggie soup and chopped the veggies and beef very small. Didn't want to puree it, as we like a bit of texture in our soup. It's really yummy and I'm glad I didn't do the traditional turkey dinner.

Hope everyone is staying on track and not putting themselves down for extra calories consumed. You know you did it and you knew your were going to. Bounce back and get on with the program (whatever it may be).

Take care and avoid Black Friday. Shop homemade. Try Etsy or Artfire or Shop Homemade.

If you really prefer to shop locally, check out the artsy area of your town or city. Flea markets and local craft shows are a great way to buy homemade. Enjoy the holidays...stay within a budget and only buy for people you really care about.

That's all from me for now. I'll be back soon, I'm sure, with numerous gems of wisdom.

TTFN

Do you see yourself here?

I am mad at myself right now. I go to the store on Mondays and for some reason we have gotten in the habit of having a treat on grocery day. I got way too many sweets yesterday and the hubby and I both felt awful last night. This morning he had an early dentist appointment to help prepare for Friday's big dental surgery appointment.While he was gone I baked two small sweet potatoes that had started to gaze at me from the counter top. I didn't eat anything until he got home. He takes the rest of the donuts in to the living room to have with his coffee. I initially said I didn't want any, but went on and had one (Krispy Kreme Glazed Pumpkin Cake) with my coffee. Hmmm. Tummy felt ok. Went back into the kitchen to read, where I can put my book on the bistro height table and be oh, so comfy. I stay and read in the warm kitchen and couldn't get those sweet potatoes out of my head. Had to get up and fix a sweet potato, adding butter and salt , and it was so yummy that I got up and fixed the other one. Hmmm, still feeling ok. Not quite sick yet. Oh, what is that? Can it be my remaining candy bar from yesterday? Yep, more coffee and now I have consumed the candy bar. You realize that I am, in essence, hiding in my kitchen eating? This is something I haven't done for quite some time. I am mad at myself for doing this, and I carefully hide all the wrappers in the trash and make my way back into the living room and hubby stops me and says "what is that on your face?". Busted. Chocolate on my face. Now I'm embarrassed and mad at him for calling me out on it. This leads to me flinging a tiny, unwarranted fit about something completely different and now I'm saying I'm mad at him, when I actually am mad at myself and don't want him to know it. Anything like this ever happen to you?

Not the best day for the happiest girl in the world. It's got to get better from here.

Later, TTFN.

Why am I dreaming this?

On Tuesday night I dreamed that my husband and I were on some type of vacation. There was this really good looking gal that was assisting us is some way, perhaps as a tour guide. She kept giving my husband the "eye". Even in my dream, my husband was unaware of this flirting. (He never knows that chicks are checking him out. He is quite a hunk and all women love him. He is super friendly and just thinks ladies are being nice to him.) Anyway in this dream, we are all three set to go somewhere and I can't find the things that I need to join them. He is patiently waiting for me to find whatever it is I am hunting, but she keeps inching closer and closer to him as he waits. I can't remember everything about the dream, but it did include me not locking the door to where we were staying. It was very open to the outside, like a sun porch or screened structure and I remember seeing wild animals of sorts, maybe a gorilla roaming freely outside. I remember knowing I needed to lock things up and I found pad locks, but instead of extra keys, there were bolt cutters to cut the locks when you lost your keys. This dream when on for seemingly hours and contained all the usual dream elements, but the main theme was this chick wanting to be with my hubby.

If I want to be honestly analytical, this dream probably occurred because of our recent trip to California. We rode in several open vehicles, we saw lots of wild animals at the zoo and before the trip, the hubs had to cut our old locks off of our luggage with wire cutters.

Therefore, I know that this dreams really mean nothing sinister since it contains all the elements of things that have actually happened to us recently. Right? I even discussed the dream with hubby and was laughingly reassured that he loves me and will never leave me and it was just a dream.

Well, then last night-the next night, by the way-I dreamed about this girl again and this time I realized who she is. Angelina Jolee! Yes, Angelina Jolee is trying to steal my husband! Guess what? In this dream, he went with her and he told me he was going to go with her. This dream involved all my usual dream themes. We were in a large room where folks were eating cafeteria style. Perhaps a hospital setting? I remember lots of former friends being there and asking me what was wrong? Was I sad? I remember piling all these food items in industrial plastic type packaging on my tray and trying to get to a table with them. Then instead of eating, I was trying to find a seat so I could draw a sketch of someone in the cafeteria. I don't think it was Angelina, but I'm not sure. Again, the dream seems to go on forever with lots of other stuff happening.

When I told hubs about this dream, he laughed and reminded me that when he was out of town last week, when I called him, he told me he watched one of Angelina's movies in the hotel room.

So here is what I'm thinking. Perhaps I am feeling like I need to do more for my hubby. He is very concerned with current events and keeps up with the news, some might think he is almost obsessive about staying informed. I try to stay aware of what is going on and feel like I am helping to keep him grounded, while supporting him in these areas, as well as others. Do I feel like I am losing him to his computer, television and radio? No, it can't be that, he has always been very intense and passionate about his interests, so I'm used to that.

Am I unconsciously concerned about my body image, and only acting like I really don't mind being 30 pounds overweight? What do you think? Are dreams sometimes just dreams? Or do they always have to mean something? Let me know what you think before Angelina takes my husband!