Hi friends: brunch is cooking, we will have bacon and eggs and then I plan some shopping. There is a clothing store in Quebec called Simon's that I like, different lines of clothes and I always like them, so I am going there. The nice slacks I got there in October are large on me now. I can wear them with my sweater tucked in though. I hope that stuff is on sale and I can get some new things to see me through winter. I know some people suggest thrift store shopping while still in the process of losing weight ( and I do intend to get down further) but I like the reward of newer stuff that makes me feel good about myself. SO I am going to go for it.

We both slept late this am. Must be something about vacation and not feeling the need to get things done. I haven't slept this much in ages. I am a little stiff.
I am glad I skied a lot yesterday, today is rain as is predicted. We are supposed to plunge to an icy deep freeze overnight though. Tomorrow will be a real mess, at least for traffic. Hoping that the roads will be cleaned up for my visits on Friday. Arranged with my auntie to have lunch with my very elderly uncle and then supper at her home with my cousins. SO far so good on the eating properly front, except the wine.
Its weird having no scale, so its all up to me to stay accountable.
have a good day friends.

Mad, it sounds like you are having a very nice visit with family. Enjoy!

Today is my birthday. No big deal. Not doing anything special...it's just another day except now I'm 73 instead of 72. :D

:bday2you: Carol Sue!! I hope it has been a great day for you.

Not much going on here. I went to beauty shop got perm and came straight home. Was taking jeans off and I guess I should have set down to take them off because I got off balance I guess and fell flat on my belly. The only good thing I can say about it was I was able to get off the floor. You know that time I got down on the floor to reset the internet, I couldn't get up. I've decided that if I would get more regular with my exercise, I might have been able to get up easier than I did. I didn't bruise or anything and don't seem to be sore from it. Just was a weird experience especially since I always take my pants off like that but have never fell before. My DS would say "You know we are not spring chickens any more?" LOL So that was my excitement for the day.

Food has been OP so know complaint there. I had the shake this morning. I wanted to fast, but my body said NO. I felt like I was going to be sick if I had tried to go without anything so since I was going out I had the shake.

fatmad sound like you are have a good visit with family. You had quite a ski time. 3 days exercise in one day. I'm glad your holiday is going so well.

Y'all have a good evening.

Trish, thank you for the birthday wishes.

I'm glad you didn't get hurt and were able to get up off the floor. I always sit down when taking clothes off. I do not have good balance anymore.

DH always argued with me saying that green bananas are not good for you and he just looked it up online and saw about the resistant starch and that they ARE good for you,. Yay, I was right! I usually buy bananas when we still have a few at home so I buy them green. If I buy them ripe, they are too ripe by the time we eat them. We usually eat them when they are just turning yellow. We split one each day, so we only use one a day.

Rennie: I think if you are considering Keto or Atkins, go for it. If you can do it, its great. Its hard for most people to eat high fat though, and TRULY go low carb.
If you want to go lower carb but not all the way, consider reading either "the obesity code" or "the diabetes code" by dr jason fung.
Its been life changing for me. I have lost a LOT of weight.
I had some help though.
Best wishes to you in your journey. Keep checking in.

Rennie Welcome back. I would love to do low carb, but can't do the fat. I cooked beef liver in Olive oil yesterday and I my potty issues returned. So I just can't do very low high fat. However, I know that a lot of people have great success with keto. Good luck on your journey. I seem to do better with low fat myself.

Carol Sue and Rennie I have always stood up and taken my pants off, but I guess I'm at the place in my life where I have to remember to sit down to remove them from now on.

DGS who lived with DH and me in SC called us tonight and he has a got his first job that is a result of his college degree in chemistry. DH and I are so proud of him. He starts in March. He has to move to Charleston, SC and will live a little closer to his girlfriend.

My eating window ended up being longer today. I will work at doing my 5 hr window tomorrow.

Rennie I am happy to see you stop in and thank you for the birthday wishes. I try to eat as low carb as I can due to my diabetes but not quite keto. Many can do it but if you are used to eating carbs it can be a hard change to make but not impossible. I don't eat high fat. Eggs are high fat and I cook them in butter. I put a lot of butter on my veggies and I don't buy ant fat free or low fat products except for skim milk. We got used to that and we prefer it now. I say try it. If nothing else it will get you to cut back on carbs which will help with blood sugar and weight loss will help with blood pressure. I have been buying deli meat and I have to stop because it is full of sodium and my blood pressure is up. All the things I like are bad for me.

Give it a try then check back with us and let us know how it's going.

I ended up eating veggies for dinner last night. I saw Dr Furman on public television and he always psyches me up to eat veggies. I have a lot of frozen veggies in my freezer so I am trying to get some room in there.

I have also been drinking the hot lemon water in the am on an empty stomach. Its tart but I'm getting used to it. It helps make your body more alkaline. I'm not sure of all the benefits but I'm watching for changes.

More snow today. Yuk! It's really cold so it won't be melting.

Hi everyone
Happy Birthday Carol! Nothing bad about 73, its a fine number. I hope it will be a good year. Not hard for it to be better. I truly hope you are healthier this year than last and that things continue to go well for your DH.

I visited with one of my cousins last night. Its been a long while since we have talked as adults. The talk turned to some dark places in her past. I had a hard time hearing about it. Her father is in prison for touching her and other girl children. While I knew he had this problem, I did not know it extended to her. Before I left, I worked hard to turn the conversation to a more neutral topic for a while. I didn't want to leave her after all that revelation. I did share with her about my doing BMDR therapy this fall, and it turns out that this is what she is about to start, so I was happy to give her good reports of it. I have been having "normal" sadness and not the nightmares and flashbacks this week.

Yesterday was raining and today is sunny and colder again, but not the arctic temperatures from earlier in the week. But it will be icy, no good skiing for us.

Hello to everyone else, have a good day and hope for a lovely weekend.

Mad I think your cousin needed to tell you about that. We had similar issues in our family. I sensed that something wasn't right but never thought it was that. Its surprising how much that goes on in families. I don't understand why.

I too am hoping this is a better year...for all of us. We deserve it.

Carol Sue I don't buy fat free foods either although I will buy low fat milk and lower calorie Lite dressings but I won't by the low fat or fat free because they are so high in sodium. There are foods that I used to like, but don't buy any more because I can't stand the fat.

Rennie I agree with Carol Sue. Just because you try a diet doesn't mean you have to stay with that plan if it doesn't fit you and your lifestyle. If I remember correctly you work late and your kids do a lot of the cooking so I would say test a plan to see how it goes for you.

fatmad Your cousin obviously felt comfortable sharing her experience with you and possibly if nothing else so that you could encourage her since she is going into the therapy you did. I'm sure it put her at ease to know that that therapy had helped you.

It is so sad when we learn these things about our families. I know I was excited at first when we started doing our genealogy. Then I met my cousin who told us about the incest that had gone up in our family history. I remember when I was made to feel so bad about some of my past mistakes in my life like I was the black sheep of the family only to learn that my mistakes were mild compared to what had gone on in generations before. Oh how different my life would have been if I had known what I know now. After that I backed off. I don't want to know anything else. You probably helped your cousin better than you realize. I'm glad you are dealing with the anniversary of this time better too. I have been dreaming of my Mama lately. They are never bad dreams. We are somewhere together and we laugh and have a good time and I am glad to see her, but can't remember anything other than that when I wake up. I think it is because her birthday was a week ago because I don't usually dream of her. It is unusual for me to even know the people in my dreams. Plus the fact I am attending church in the building that she and Daddy were a big part of building probably has a lot to do with my dreaming of her too.

My daughter uses SparkPeople.com to track her diet so I joined it today mainly because I couldn't track anything on MFP this morning. I like the set up, but they don't have any of our stores here in TX so I had to use things that were close. I was pleased to see that they recommended for me to eat between 1200 - 1550 calories a day so the amount of calories that I had chosen for myself was close. I finally got back on MFP and reset my goals to be between their guideline cutting my high number back to 1550 instead of the 1600 I had. I also joined them on FB. I always end up using MFP because they have just about everything on there that I use even from our local HEB stores.

FBS was 160 this morning. Weight is back up to 218.6. Trying to stay OP and closer to 1200 calories.

Have a great weekend.

FBG 112, but that was with G last night. DH fixed my oven and the first thing he wanted me to make was mac and cheese since he likes my baked mac and cheese so much. I intended to eat a small portion, but I went overboard. Then he found a pkg of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls in the refrigerator and baked them so I ate 3 of them. That's why I needed the G. Now that the oven is fixed I will be using it for all things I couldn't make in the past 2 months. I've missed it. Today I am going to make meat loaf. And I will be able to bake some cookies for him and get a frozen pizza occasionally. I like using the oven in the winter because it helps warm up the house. So the G did it's job, and I'm hoping to stay low carb today so I don't need to take it again. I put bread crumbs in my meatloaf but that is not a lot of carbs.

DH likes oatmeal cookies. I found this recipe where you mix the batter, then put them in ice cube trays and freeze them. After they are frozen you put them in bags in the freezer and can bake them when you want. I freeze mine on a cookie sheet instead of in ice cube trays then put them in bags of 12. If I bake a whole recipe they will not get eaten. He likes to have a dozen at a time.

My lemons went moldy so we had to throw them out. Maybe I can't buy a whole bag of them because I only use 1/2 per day. I will try again with a new bag. They cost a lot more when you buy them separate. I didn't start using them as soon as I bought them, but I feel that the warm lemon water is beneficial to me.

I belong to SparkPeople but I haven't gone there for a long time. I lose interest in those sites after a while. I guess I really don't like to track. Most of what I eat is home cooked and I don't feel that their calorie counts are correct. I prefer to go according to how I feel. If I feel too full then I think I ate more than I should. If I never feel full, my weight and blood sugar go down. It's what works for me.

My SIL did not clear our driveway. DH told him not to because it's not a lot of snow, and it's been snowing a little bit every day and is just going to continue to do that the next few days. Maybe if he feels like doing it tomorrow we will let him come and do it. It's hard for him to come to do it after working all day. We pay him, so maybe he will need the extra money.

FBG 187. Not good. It was good in the evening but I finished off the last 3 cookies. Ill have to remember not to buy ones that I like.

SIL cleared the driveway but it just snowed on top of it. We didn't go out anywhere but DH went down and cleaned off the car that sits outside. He is getting able to do more and more every day. There is light snow predicted for most days in the coming week. We call it nuisance snow. Not a lot but enough to be annoying. 52 days til spring.

We ordered takeout for dinner. Started up the road and had a flat. Came back home and got the other car that hasn't been driven for 2 months. There is no way DH can change it especially in this cold. SIL is coming after work tomorrow to help. He might have to buy a new tire. I'm glad it didn't happen when I was driving. I hope they get it fixed because that is our all wheel drive car for winter. Before we had it we did drive the other one in winter but we just stayed home If it was really bad. There is nowhere we have to be.

I remembered too late this morning that I never checked in here yesterday. Nothing much. I'm trying to add more fiber to my diet again, but take it a little slower. My weight is up, but it always does that when I add fiber. I will have to just see how it goes. The nice thing is that my FBS was 131 yesterday and 130 this morning. I have to be careful not to go too fast with it and really track it because I don't want to eat too much of it just enough to keep the FBS coming down.

Carol Sue I have the same big problem you have on things like MFP. I ended up having to estimate some things I cook too so never know how accurate I am. I just hope by tracking it helps me stay OP. I'm glad your DH is feeling better and that the SIL came and cleaned away the snow. It is going to be nice here until Friday and then we will have some rain for a couple of days.

Baby sister called last night and she is in the hospital with the recent virus she and her family have had all week. We probably will not have out Bible study class tomorrow night either. I will have to call and check on here and my Daddy in a little while. I'm just too tired right now.

We went to church again this morning. DH hates the contemporary music they sing now in churches to pull in the young people, but we really like the minister. I think we will probably join in a few weeks. I would like to meet the pastor and learn more about a few things I don't really understand. He is out of town so much that I may have to meet with the secretary to learn those things since she seems to be the one who takes over he isn't able to be there to minister. It will be good to have a church home again.

This is our 16th wedding anniversary, but we didn't do anything special except go to church and then we had to go to Sam's and Walmart. As usual, we were out of tomatoes from Sam's and then we had to go to Walmart to get DH medicine. We came home and had eggs for lunch. We are both so wiped out. I had to come home and divide meat and cheese to go in the freezer. I told DH that I do not want to do this any more. From now on, I want Sunday for going to church only. I do not want to have to go shopping after church any more. I don't know what is going on. I don't think I've been exercising too much but the front part of my thighs are sooo sore like I've been exercising them for hours or days. It could be from standing so much in church. My back started hurting and I had to sit down for the last worship song. Hopefully I will get used to this in a few weeks and not feel so bad physically. Getting better with my exercise and diet would probably help a whole lot.

Any way, I am still OP and that is a good thing. I think when I get off here that I will take a nap.

Hope everyone has a nice Sunday.