Sometimes, I don't have much to report because my life has a real predictability to it. Not that I am "complaining" about that.
My usual activity of walking the treadmill 5x a week during my work week plus floor exercises and doing upper body strength training with the free weights still stands. That will be my work out for as long as it gets the results I am looking for.
A couple of NSV to report: I am now under the .8 waist to hip ratio! I carry the majority of my weight through my middle---yes, I am a ripe, juicy apple.
I have lost 4 inches from my mid section since I have been doing this in mid-September. My shoes are getting looser on me. Some I will have to give away. (that makes me sad since I really love each and every one of them) and I spent one Saturday afternoon trying on clothes that now do fit so I feel like I went on a Mall shopping spree right in my own closet! Woo Hoo!
I have been reading a couple of "diet" books: "The 4 Day Win" and "Thin for Life". The second one is a faster read. It was published in 1994 by Ann Flectcher who is a R.D. and who interviewed "masters"(name she chose) who have successfully lost and maintained a weight lose. It is really a very good book and I checked it out from the library. Considering the date of the book, it is very interesting that most of the life-long weight lose maintainers finally did adopt what we now are telling everyone to do. Most did this by trial and error, finding out what works for them.
The book lists the KEYS to successful weight lose. Comparing myself to some of the criteria of those people who lost weight for good made me realize that THIS TIME it is going to happen. However, the caveat through out the book so far is that these people also realized that this was a "life time change"( seems we have heard that before, huh?). That means I am a "lifer" from here on in. And, I realize that what I eat today will probably be what I will be eating in 2008, 2009 and so on.
One thing it has done for me is made me realize that why treat this holiday any different than the next or the next or the next? Because, it isn't. I did think (well, I am a work in progress) that maybe next year I could indulge more but once I read about how these other people AFTER they had lost the weight kept their weight lose in check by NOT reverting to some of the previous eating behaviors (that myth seems to take awhile to die, doesn't it?) I realized that there is more to life than a butter cookie----I decided that I will "indulge" a "smidgen" but a full blown binge? Not if I can help it!
And, both books really emphasize that it is not about White Knuckle Willpower. It is really about making peace with food once and for all. We have to have it but we don't have to have ALL of it!
That is where this active 54 year old is today. I did get up a live Christmas tree in my office, to my left as I write this, and I spent all of this past weekend stringing lights on my front porch. The weather was so cool here in Atlanta, drizzly rain, and with me being a perpetual "hot Mama" these days (if you know what i mean) I welcomed the cool weather. I just wish I could have had the knees to take a walk outdoors. It was a wonderful time spent alone allowing myself to let my cheeks get red from cool (not inner heat) and then having a hot cup of French vanilla capuccino afterwards.
That's the holidays for me so far. I am very nervous about attending a church Christmas party this Saturday. I hate social events with food. Just hate them! If I can be brave and not chicken out, I'll share how it went next week.
Must be California... 
More later.
Hope it is soon over with.
Was going to go out shopping today, but think I'll hold off until tomorrow. We are supposed to be getting about 6 inches of white stuff today, anyway. It's never a good idea to be on the roads during the first major snowstorm of the season.