Wow, we are getting down to the wire now...today I plan to finish my "ingredient' shopping, and perhaps bake some more cookies. Also clean the living room and family rooms, hopefully I'll get to both but if not I'll do the living room (where the tree is and we will spend most of our time), and then do a quick job on the family room tomorrow. Dh sprayed Febreeze on the dog covers in the living room where Halo likes to spend most of her day and she hasn't wanted to be in there. Makes her more whining but I'd prefer she not be anyway. She did sleep a while on the rug in front of the fire and that's fine, just prefer she not be on the furniture. Funny since I had this cough thing I can't smell her...but dh said it was getting stinky in there.

My coughing has gotten worse again. I honestly think it is from my GERD and/or my hernia. It gets worse in the evening but I cough all day. It's not a little dry cough, it's a rough (kinda hard on my throat) loose cough which makes me feel kinda sick. It feels similar to the drawing feeling I have in my throat when my reflux is worse only is stronger than that...however it is mostly worse when I cough. So I don't know whether it is the cough making it feel worse or if the cough is caused by the GERD/hernai. It goes up a little toward my ears and even makes my head hurt a little and sometimes there is mild pressure around my lower sternum or below it. I've had all these feelings before with the relux but the cough is just making it more pronounced I guess...that's the only way I can describe it. Once Christmas is over, I'm going to try to get in and be checked again or at least contact the doc to be sure it's not a sign of worse things. Even when I was treated for a bug and took the antibiotic, I felt the same way except then my ear was plugged up. When the antibiotic seemed to help I thought well, maybe I'm wrong and it was just a bug, but the cough never completely went away and now is worse again although not nearly as bad as it was for a while there in Oct.

Well, lots to do so better get to it.

Merry Christmas! I got everything done yesterday, so all I have to do is make the mac and cheese and start the chili in the slow cooker and make an onion dip. Oh and my first step will be to set my frozen cookies out. I froze two varieties but did not freeze the brownies and the rice krispy cookies are in the fridge. Good to have it all done. Very little to do today. I did forget to buy ground beef for the chili so dh just went to the store for that.

BTW, my bread was still pretty tasty even though I forgot the third rising. It's just small. Dh gave one loaf to our son but we kept the other and he is eating it. I had one very thin slice. My weight has fallen down again but it's really going to be a challenge with the holiday. I've already eaten 1/2 cookie and "licked" out the bowls as I cooked.

Dh will be home soon so better get started. Hope you both have a wonderful Christmas Eve and you lurkers too!

The frozen cookies turned out ok, about the same as the way I usually do them but perhaps just slightly drier. Not bad though and sure was easier not to have to make them last minute. Usually I put a piece of apple in with them to keep them moist so there wasn't a whole lot of difference. The oatmeal chocolate chip were kinda hard but our grandson's gf seemed to like them and took them all home. I think I would freeze cookies again but perhaps would cook them just slightly less.

I did half way on plan yesterday but did watch my portions and spread out my eating like NS recommends. I'm still up just 2# which I can do during the week even without a holiday. I got the skirt I ordered from another consultant and it is beautiful but very snug around my tummy. Makes me feel I haven't gotten anywhere. I have actually lost 16# since last Jan, (my sig only says 13 though) the last couple pounds pop on and off), but no one can even tell. I can't even except maybe my arms and legs are little thinner. I don't need to lose in the legs but that's what always happens first. I need to lose in my upper arms but they just get saggier. That's the problem with losing when you're older, but I still want to lose.

My dishwasher isn't working well and dh found a part in the bottom but we don't know where it came from. So I called for a tech but he won't be here until Jan 4. Meantime we will just scrub the dishes more before putting in the dishwasher. It's always the top rack as far as I can see.

I think I will fry some fish tonight. We have left over rice so will probably make some fried rice to go with. I don't use a lot of fat, just a little and if needed, spray oil. I'll serve with leftover green beans and perhaps a salad.

We had planned to go to the gym today but neither of us have been sleeping well and it's hard to get up and go. If we don't go early we don't get there as we get busy with other things.

Hope you both have a good day!

Good afternoon GG's,

It is an overcast day here today ~ sun peeks out every once in a while. It is a bit breezy and kind of chilly.

We had a nice Christmas. Sara, Corbin, Maddie and Jason came over in the afternoon. Origianally Sara had talked about getting together on Monday, but she had bought something for Steve and said she couldn't wait until Monday to give it to him. So, she and the kids came over on Sunday. I'm glad she couldn't wait, because by getting together on Sunday, Jason was able to be here too. We exchanged gifts. It was a nice time. It was the first time in a couple years that everyone was all together. That was better than any Christmas present that could be bought.

The thing Sara got her dad and couldn't wait for him to see was this huge giant giraffe (stuffed animal). Giraffes are Steve's favorite animal. He has some smaller ones, but when Sara saw this one, she had to get it for him. She found it at Marshalls. Surprisingly the price was pretty good. It was the last one. She got it and said as she left with it, kids were looking longingly at it and she felt like she better get it to the car and get home before something happened to it.

After Maddie saw it (before Christmas while it was at her house) ~ Sara said that Maddie was looking at it and she could tell that Maddie wished it was a zebra (Maddie's favorite animal). So, Sara found a great big one of those online and ordered that for Maddie.

Steve has been all taken with the Amazon Echo thing. And when the Echo Dot came out ~ at a lesser price than the Echo, and then went on sale on top of that, he bought some of those and gave Sara, Corbin, Maddie and Jason each one. I wrapped them each in a different size package so that maybe they wouldn't suspect that they were each getting the same thing. It was fun.

On Monday then, we still got together over at Sara's. She served us vegies and dip and then offered apple pie (warm) with ice cream. I joked around and said that apples were plant based, so I would take a serving. Steve (the ever perfect one) didn't have any of course. A couple weeks back, I had gotten one of those dreaded lectures/conversations from him about my eating. I told him that my thoughts/plan for how I wanted to deal with off program foods was to limit it to holidays and parties. In those situations when other people are around, I am better able to be in control (because I don't want to look like a pig in front of other people). So, I had the piece of pie and ice cream ~ it was delicious.

After that, we went to the Mall. Maddie had gotten a gift card for the Build A Bear Workshop as one of her Christmas gifts. She had been eyeing this kitty for some time, so we took her there to make that. Then we headed back home. Sara said she was tired and hated to have to start supper, so I told her that I had a pizza and could make salads to go with it. So she and Maddie came over and had supper with us. I had one of the smaller pieces of the pizza. So, I think I did pretty good with my eating for the holiday. One piece of pizza and a dish of salad and one piece of apple pie and a scoop of ice cream.

Carol Sue ~ hope you have a nice visit with your friend and that the snow holds off until after you are back home. Glad you had a nice Christmas Eve and relaxing Christmas day. Sorry you felt so stressed before hand. Your new tradition sounds like a good idea ~ hopefully next year, you won't feel so stressed before the holiday.

Mary ~ I have been having a little trouble with the sleep too. It is like it kind of goes in cycles. I will sleep ok, then have several nights that I toss and turn for a while before finally falling to sleep. I have sleeping pills I can use (rarely use them, but have them if I need them), but try not to ~ unless I have something in the morning that makes it so I can't just sleep as long as I want to when I have had a restless night. Glad you had a nice Christmas day with your family.

Maddie is here today, probably again tomorrow. Not sure about Monday. She goes back to school on Tuesday. Then I need to work on getting myself into some kind of exercise routine and buckle down with the eating. Hoping I have been able to do better so I have a better visit with the endocrinologist in January. At my last visit, she gave me instructions to increase my metformin ~ from 500 mg twice a day to 1000mg twice a day. And to add a new med ~ a once weekly injection of Trulicity. It is supposed to help lower my blood sugars and maybe help me lose weight. I really don't want to do either of those. I took one dose of the Trulicity last Monday. A couple days later I had a headache worse than usual that wouldn't go away. I don't know if it had anything to do with that med or not. I haven't increased the metformin yet either. I remembered that my friend Margaret told about taking cinnamon capsules and that helped her. So, I got some of those. My blood sugar was better, but because I had taken them and that trulicity, I don't know if the cinnamon helped or not. So, this week, I have just been taking the cinnamon caplsules. The blood sugars are not quite as low as last week (they got down to the 80's some days), but they have been in the 90's which isn't too bad. This is the first time I have ever not done what the doctor told me to do.

Ok, guess I'd better do something else. Hope you both are having a good week.

Happy New Year to you, Carol and Glynne!! I appreciate your friendship and pray that you will have many blessings in 2017.

I have just a few minutes before leaving for church. I hope you all had a good New Year's eve. We sure did even though just the two of us. Kept it very simple ...no snacks bought, but we shared a bag of popcorn I found in the pantry...no telling how old it was but it tasted good. I allowed myself to go over a little bit on my calories since it was a special night. We watched a couple movies...neither very good but kept us busy til a little after midnight. Toasted the new year in with a little wine we've had for a long time and never opened. It was a good evening. And I got the best sleep I've had in several nights.

I lost all but one pound of my holiday weight, so ended up the year with a total loss of 15# rather than the 16 I had before the holidays, but that's ok, 15# isn't much for 12 months of tryng, but it was off and on trying and I'll take it..we will eat out today so another challenge, but I'll do the best I can.

You all have a good Sunday!

Good afternoon GG's,

Happy New Year

We had booming thunder and rain during the night and it was pourning rain when I got up. That stopped after a bit and the sun came out. It is in the low 70's now.

It has been a nice couple days. Kind of relaxing. Didn't do anything special for New Years Eve. An internet friend and I messaged and watched the ball drop together. I've been doing some puttery stuff. Hemming up some pants and pajamas. Altering a couple items ~ one, a shirt I got ~ pretty with what looked like white birch trees or trees with sparkly snow on them and red cardinals on the branches. I love the colors of green leaves or pine branches with snow (or the white birch trees) with red cardinals in them. And I especially like the cardinals because of that little story about how the cardinals are a loved one from heaven come back to visit/check on us. They always make me think of my dad and father-in-law and my grandmas.

We have just a little (4 foot) Christmas tree now. Sits on top of a litte table in the living room. Decorated simply with small silver garland, medium sized candy canes, red velvety bows and mini lights. (Most items from the Dollar Tree). Oh and I even found a mini little tree skirt for it. I thought it might look cute if there were presents under it. So, I used some empty little boxes and cut down to size and wrapped an put ribbon on to look like little presents. I think it looks cute ~ had fun doing it. I thank the Lord every day that Steve was able to figure out a way for me to retire (sooner than origianlly planned because of health problems) and that I am able to enjoy doing these puttery kind of things I enjoy.

Today, I got my medications organized so that I will know when to reorder again. Got the gift wrap carried to the other room so Steve can help me get them put away. Got my 2017 calendars fixed up. Been keeping busy.

So far, so good today with my eating. I had wanted to walk also, but my head has been a little achy, so I haven't done that, but have been up and down while keeping busy.

Carol Sue ~ your New Years Eve ~ nice and quiet sounds nice. That suits me fine too ~ I am not a big social/party person. I am like you about discussing politics. I don't unless I know that it is a person who I can share with and even if we don't agree it won't affect our friendship. Otherwise I don't. Like you said ~ not worth losing a friendship over it.

Mary ~ If I could do house work stuff consistently like you do and keep myself busy with that and other things, maybe the food wouldn't be such a problem. I hope I feel good more days so that I can. I have kept pretty busy today. It has been a good feeling not to be preoccupied with food so much of the time and a good feeling to have accomplished some stuff.

Hope you both have a nice evening.

I'm new to this thread but not new to what has been my annual "This is the year I will lose weight" New Years resolution!

When will I ever get it together? UGH!

But, I am still hopeful and looking forward to giving
and receiving support here.

Happy New Year

Welcome eLany ~ you're not alone in the yearly quest to lose weight. That you are hopeful is a good thing.

We're a small group, but enjoy making new friends. Look forward to getting to know you.

Another cold day...will be glad when it starts warming up...I think next week it's to be in the 40s. Today we are expecting a repair person to check our dishwasher. I keep finding parts in the bottom, have three now. I've never had a dishwasher that falls apart like this one. When it's all together it works well, but then another part falls off.

Yesterday I went to Pennys and bought a couple tops on sale for very cheap. Doubt they will last long but they were the only thing that looked half way decent on me. The good thing was I able to fit in three Large tops, rather than XL, wasn't sure that would work in the stores, so pleased about that, but they still don't look good on me...and won't til I lose this belly.

I was on plan yesterday and so far today but yesterday I didn't eat much vegetables...hope to do better at that today.

Today I hope to clean the main bathroom and my office...that's a pretty easy day so maybe I'll do some decluttering too.

Very sleepy...wish the guy would come and get it over with so I can take a nap.

What plans are you all following. I can't seem to find one that I can stick to long term.

eLany first let me say WELCOME! I missed you yesterday, sorry about that. As far as a diet plan, we do different things..I joined Nutrisystem 43 days ago and have lost six pounds. I gained some over the holiday but am now today back to my sig weight. Before NS I was just doing it on my own. I really like NS, the food isn't bad...you can customize your orders. It is kinda expensive for me, but it's worth it if I lose enough and can keep it off. That's one thing I really like about NS, they make it easy to transition to your own food in fact you could do it totally with your own food I guess, but it's easier to use some of theirs. Right now I'm out of snacks so am doing my own snacks. Just finished a cup of frozen cherries with 2 T of pecans...one of my favorite snack!

It's a beautiful sunny but cold day! When it's cold like this we can't seem to get out of bed and go to the gym, but I am trying to use my stationary bike everyday..some days I miss though. Yesterday we went to Costco and picked up a few grocery items and some suppliments. We actually got mixed up, thought it was the first day of coupon sales but most of the things I got were already labeled for it and rang up that way. I didn't want to go back. We also got info on phone options on our trip...haven't yet decided whether we want to buy a package as think we may not need it, but will consider it on at least one phone possibly. We also made other travel arrangements last night. Just doing as much as we can early so not so much to do last minute.

Gradually taking down the ornaments, hope to finish that today.

Much to do so need to get busy..

Good evening GG's,

It has been a dreary cloudy day here today. A bit chilly.

Sometimes I like to go out and run some errands early in the day, but when it is chilly, I drag my feet and if it isn't an urgent need, try to wait for a day that is sunny and a little warmer. Same thing on rainy days.

eLany ~ Mary and Carol Sue are pretty good about posting nearly every day. I post every few days ~ I feel like I don't have much interesting to tell.

Been doing some puttery stuff ~ trying to clean off my desk (decluttering I guess you'd call it). And did a little organizing in my sewing room ~ I've got a long way to go in there. Still more to do on the desk. Many drawers (desk in kitchen, desk in bedroom and drawers in the bathroom) that need going through and orgainzed or stuff thrown out. Then the big project for the year ~ hoping to get it done this year ~ going through the many boxes of stuff that we have stored from when we moved. Get rid of stuff, give away stuff and organize what we decide to keep.

I have been doing pretty good with my eating. A few little bites here and there of things that aren't part of my plan, but I don't think it has been enough to mess things up. The activity not going too well. I use my step counter every day and while it is not perfectly accurate ~ it serves my purpose ~ gives me an idea each day if I was more or less active than on previous days. And I find myself purposely doing things in such a way as to get in more steps. And I have been trying to keep myself busy ~ with these “puttery” things. I think that helps keep my mind off food. Because ~ thinking about it ~ it is when I am sitting around watching TV, that I want to eat. But if I have started on some kind of project, I find that I sort of push myself ~ wanting to reach a certain point ~ and that seems to have helped me snack less.

Mary ~ I'm glad that Nutrasystem is working for you. I see the commercials and the food looks good. Hope your dish washer stays together better this time. And hope that the weather warms up a little for you.

eLany ~ Like Mary said ~ we all follow different plans. I sort of follow the Eat to Live Diet (Dr. Joel Fuhrman) a plant based diet. Dr. Fuhrman calls it a nutritarian way of eating. There is a similar diet called a flexitarian diet which allows more things than the Fuhrman diet does ~ I guess that is how I would describe the way I eat. My husband had a heart blockage and stent placement and needed to change his diet. His brother ~ a family practice doctor ~ follows the Eat to Live diet and recommends it for his patients and recommended it to us. My husband does well with it ~ he has an iron resolve and does not ever mess up. I have struggled with the weight my whole adult life. What ever it is that my husband has that makes him never mess up ~ I just don't have. I don't know that I will ever lose this weight. I guess at this point I am just trying to make better choices more of the time and move more. I do think even though the weight loss goes slow, I am eating way better most of the time now. When I eat stuff I shouldn't, I don't feel good and actually am glad when I start eating right again. So, I guess that is progress from how I used to do.

Carol Sue ~ I'm sorry that you felt depressed at Christmas time. But glad that the little pink tree helped you to feel more of the Christmas spirit. The only people who come here are Sara and the kids and Jason. They don't seem to care that we don't have a big tree anymore. I think it might bother them if this was a house they had grown up in and having a smaller tree instead of the usual one would make it seem like a loss of a familiar tradition.

Hope you all have had a nice day.

Here is a picture of the our little Christmas tree ~ with the little pretend presents I made for decoration.

I give up ~ I fiddled around and can not find a way to get this picture rotated so it is like it should be. Sorry

Friday evening ~ I fiddled around with the picture some more. The second one is rotated in the right direction, but a little blurry (I cropped it) ~ the first one is side ways, but a better picture. How I was finally able to get the picture going the right direction ~ had to do with how I was holding the phone when I took the picture. The first picture ~ I was holding the phone up and down so I could get the tree in long ways. But when I tried to post it ~ it would come out sideways. So, tonight I tried again ~ I held the phone sideways ~ I had to stand back further to get the tree in. So, when I posted this one, it is up and down like I wanted it to be.

Gayle, your tree is cute. I didn't think of making the little fake presents like you did, but my Grandson would think they were for him and want to open them. LOL

My friend is like your husband. When she got her A1c and it was 8.5 she got determined to bring it down. She is not eating what I would consider a healthy diet. It's very low calorie. It seems like it's around 700 calories a day or maybe even less. I don't know how she doesn't get hungry. But she has lost 30 lbs and now her A1c is 6.4. She says she writes down every single bit of food she eats and eats no more than she has planned. She told me she went off over Christmas and ate 2 cookies. LOL 2 whole cookies!!

Now that Christmas is over I am getting in a funk again.

eLany, I am attempting to follow a low carb plan. I say "attempting" because I am not very good at sticking with it. I have diabetes and should avoid carbs to keep my blood sugar down. I'm not very good at that, either.

Mary, at least you use your exercise bike when you don't go to the gym. That's good. When we went to the local shopping center we noticed that there were very few parking spaces open. There is a Planet Fitness gym there, and I think it's probably crowded with people who joined up for the new year.

I figured out why my picture came out sideways when I posted it.

I fiddled around some more with the picture of my little tree on my post on the previous page. The second one is rotated in the right direction, but a little blurry (I cropped it) ~ the first one is side ways, but a better picture. How I was finally able to get the picture going the right direction ~ had to do with how I was holding the phone when I took the picture. The first picture ~ I was holding the phone up and down so I could get the tree in long ways. But when I tried to post it ~ it would come out sideways. So, tonight I tried again ~ I held the phone sideways ~ I had to stand back further to get the tree in. When I posted this one, it is up and down like I wanted it to be.

Headed to bed soon. Hope you all rest well.