**January Thread**

Happy New Year!

Since today is my birthday, I took it upon myself to start the new thread for the month.

We stayed in last night--don't usually like to go out on NYE, especially with sub-zero temps and icy roads. Hubby bought some sparkling wine to ring in the new year. I had a couple sips and then, when he wasn't looking, poured the rest of the glass down the drain. I really didn't want to hurt his feelings, but I didn't want to waste calories/splurging on something that was only ok-tasting.

I really want to get some exercise in today, but I just got my hair cut and blown out (I have really curly hair, and I'm not coordinated enough to blow it straight myself) yesterday so I don't want to wash it today. I wonder how many calories I can burn without sweating, lol.

Happy New Year, all! May 2011 bring us continued success in our weight-loss journey!

Happy birthday Teacherlady!!

Happy Birthday to you!!!

Happy Birthday! Hope you have a wonderful day .

Happy Birthday, Natalie.. Have a wonderful day
and Happy New Year everyone.

Patzi

Happy birthday teacherlady and Happy New Year everyone!

Happy Birthday Teacherlady

I went to a New Year's Day brunch and I was unprepared. I took my HNS and I thought they would have eggs, a cooked veggie of some sort, and some fruit. I figured I could make it work. When I looked over the spread, there wasn't really much I could eat. I ended up with one small medallion of pork tenderloin (probably an ounce), a quarter cup of roasted veggies, 2 large strawberries, and a tablespoon of shrimp w/sausage gravy. I drank water the entire time while everyone else was having mimosas and bloody mary's and champagne.

I don't regret drinking water and not parking at the food table. What I do regret is not planning better. I congratulate myself for not eating the biscuits and smothered french toast or even trying the fantastic looking chocolate bark that was offered to me at least FOUR TIMES! By the time I got home, I was famished because my lunch was almost nothing. I drank my MRC Hot Cocoa and it helped a little. I splurged and had an extra piece of bread with dinner since I moved furniture all afternoon and I could have eaten my arm by then.

So here it is almost 7 PM and I am drinking warm tea. I will have one more HNS in a few minutes. I guess I am venting. I am trying to focus on the positive and hope that this doesn't show up on the scale.

Happy Birthday Teacherlady!

These kinds of things happen. Take a deep breath and even go to bed early if you need to. Sometimes it feels really frustrating to be the only one making good choices, especially when you really, really want to go off plan! Great job sticking with it. It's life and you dealt with it accordingly. Life won't always be this restrictive - hang in there.

Don't be too hard on yourself for not being 100% prepared. Life throws curveballs at you, and you can't plan for everything--you did the best you could, under the circumstances, and that's something to be proud of. Not only that, but you did better than you probably would have done in the past, and that's certainly an accomplishment.

Like ladystarrider says sometimes, we should be striving for progress, not perfection. Only one of those is actually attainable, and it's not worth it to be too hard on ourselves.

Well I did ok today. My mother in law ended up coming over to watch football...and she brought several chips and deips (salty is my weakness). I had a serving of chips and dip, but I had no carbs at dinner and no fruit at lunch....so maybe it will equal out.

Like it was said before, make good choices, not perfect ones. So since I had chips, I didn't eat my carbs the rest of the day, instead of just adding in chips. Not perfect, but better than before when I would have eaten it all!

Happy birthday Teacherlady!

I did ok for my birthday dinner tonight. I made sure I was totally 100% on plan today, and drank lots of water, too, knowing we would go out to dinner tonight.

I did have the dinner roll, but then I ordered a sirloin with roasted veggies (instead of the mashed or baked potato it came with). Then we went back to my in-laws' and had cake. My MIL made a chocolate & kahlua cake for my birthday. I'll admit it--I totally agreed to it when she asked me if that's what I wanted a couple weeks ago. She did decide that it was rich enough without frosting, so she left that off completely. And it was AMAZING! I had a small sliver of the cake with a big glass of water (everyone else had white russians, yum) . . . and I really don't feel badly about it. It's my birthday, I let myself have a reasonable amount of a treat, and I'll just drink extra water and make sure I hit the gym tomorrow.

In hindsight, the only thing I would have done differently would probably be to have skipped the bread at dinner. If I'd thought about it at the time, I should have just had the cake substitute for my dinner starch, so I wasn't indulging in as many extra carbs as I ultimately did. Ah, well. Lesson learned for next year.

Thank you all for the lovely birthday wishes! I allowed myself a lazy day--reading books and watching movies--despite the growing list of errands and chores I need to continually catch up on.

Happy Birthday Teacherlady!

This is so true! And it looks like all of you have been making great choices- not perfect, but sooo much better than in the past. I was feeling somewhat guilty about the BLTs at my mom's party last night, BUT I didn't have any alcohol (no big deal) and I only had a few tastes of the snacks instead of stuffing myself. Today I was 100% on plan and I feel empowered!