Welcome to our December 2021 South Beach Daily Chat! Feel free to join in and talk about your South Beach Diet successes and challenges, no matter which version of the South Beach Diet you are following. Here is a link to our October/November 2021 chat: https://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/sou...each-chat.html
We hope you join us or post again soon! We love the support and sharing!

Happy December! Well, the scale still wasn't very pretty today, but it was better than a couple of days ago. I was afraid that it would still be up, but I made myself get on it anyway. Pretending that it doesn't exist sure doesn't make the weight go away. If it did, I would be too thin and writing the next diet bestseller!

Hard to believe that we are in the last month of the year. And December is always busy and seems to fly by so quickly. It is also a challenging month for off-plan foods and gatherings with opportunities to eat. Plans have already changed for Christmas visits with this new virus variant. I may be able to control my food options more with fewer gatherings, but I have to be very careful with what I bake or bring into the house. Planning ahead will be the key, as always!

I hope everyone's December is off to a great start! Post and let us know what you are up to!

Happy Saturday! The days on the calendar are marching quickly toward Christmas. My inbox is filled with recipes for Christmas cookies. I always get the urge to bake like I used to when the kids were young and between them, their friends and school activities and scouting and such, they would fly out the door! Not so much anymore. They would be flying into my tummy and my husband's tummy, and we surely don't need them. Sigh. I knew that they weren't particularly healthy back in the day, but I didn't really know how bad the sugar, fat and white flour really is for your health. Moderation would be the key, but that's pretty tough for us. I think I will just admire the pictures for now and then delete those emails!

I have been struggling with my eating for a while now and I am having a hard time getting back on track. There was too much left in the house after the Thanksgiving company. It's always tough trying to predict what to have in the house versus what will really get eaten. Also, I know that my mind plays tricks on me saying I should get this or that to have for them, when it is really my unhealthy relationship with food plotting to have things that I normally just don't buy because I shouldn't be eating them and pretending that it is for company. I get sucked in by the "special occasion" excuse and my rational mind really does know better. Well, time to clean out the pantry and get back on track!

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend! Muffin, I hope you are recovering from your trip!

Monday morning already? That was a quick weekend! But the weigh-in was better than it has been. Not down to where I was for my low but getting closer. That's good news. I have been doing a little more on the exercise front, so I am sure that it is helping. The weather was nice over the weekend for getting out and walking. It hit 50 and there has been no rain. Last week it got cold enough for a few flurries, but not enough to stick, and if you weren't watching at the right moment, you would have missed them.

I'm getting a little nervous about ordering Christmas gifts for the grands and having them come on time. But their parents are dragging their feet helping me choose, so I am kind of stuck. They all have plenty of toys and that is part of the problem. I have offered to buy something like toy boxes or bookshelves instead, to help corral some of their things. And I considered "experience" type things like tickets or memberships, but with covid still being an issue and them being too young to be vaccinated yet, I haven't found a good option. I always give them a magazine subscription every year, so that's already done. They do love to get mail! I do, too (when it's not bills or junk!)

I hope everyone has a good week and that we all drop at least a pound this week! If I could have done that this past year, I would be at goal, but I am closer than I was in January of 2021, so that's something. Happy last night of Hannukah, if you celebrate!

Good Thursday Morning! Not much to report on the diet front. Just treading water and not really following the plan right now. Not gaining, but not losing. A serious lack of motivation. Plus, I need to do a grocery shop that includes more veggies AND the willingness to prepare and eat them. Been in kind of a funk. Longer, darker days and more worries about covid when we thought that this holiday season might be more carefree again, I think. And way more little aggravations like double billing on my credit card, DMV not having a record of my insurance, so they say, package delivery issues, etc. etc. etc! All first world problems that will get solved but there have been so many lately that they are feeling very burdensome. Oh, well. They will all get straightened out sooner or later. On the good news front, I have managed not to snack for two evenings in a row. That is an accomplishment for me, as the snacking was getting out of hand for a bit there. And you know what? I didn't die of hunger. Imagine that! LOL! Tonight, I try for three in a row!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day, today! I am going to address my Christmas cards and try to get them out while I wait for UPS to come to pick up a return.

Good evening! our trip went really well, and I was able to manage to not overeat. Last week was super busy, my eating hasn't been too bad but not on point either. On Friday, I baked some chocolate white chips cookies for the boys, so you know what I have been eating these weekend I weight in this morning and I'm down 2 more pounds, but my meals today have been full of high carb so who knows how the scale is going to read tomorrow.

MJMS- I'm sorry to hear you are struggling with motivation. As you mentioned before, this time of the year is really hard to stay on track. I don't think I will be able to eat on plan everyday as we have visit coming over next weekend, which I'm not very happy about it but we couldn't say no. The idea is to balance as much as I can so I can mantain instead of gaining.

Muffin, I am so glad that you had a great trip! And down 2 pounds, too. Wow, you are doing awesome! I know too well about the cookie problem. They just seem to call my name when they are around. Most of the time I can ignore store bought ones, but homemade ones, well that is a different story!

I didn't weight today, but I seem to be maintaining at this point. That may be the best I can hope for during the rest of December and that's okay. But come January, I really will have to buckle down, along with the rest of the world probably.

Have a great rest of Monday!

I really can see the difference when I keep my meals gluten-free and low carb...my body feels great, so why do I keep hurting myself by eating so many bad carbs I I have been eating too many bad carbs (mostly cookies and bread) these past few days and my face is all puffy and my joints are sore and achy. Not to mention the scale is going up a bit every day

Early this year I read Atomic Habits by James Clear and I read that to create a good habit we need to make it OBVIOUS, ATTRACTIVE, EASY, and SATISFYING and to break a bad habit to make it INVISIBLE, UNATTRACTIVE, DIFFICULT, and UNSATISFYING. I guess I need to figure this out and put it into practice so I can create new good eating habits. I need to make next year my year

MJMS- how was your day today?

The scale and I are not friends again. I am right there with you, Muffin. Too many carbs! I think I have been stress eating again. I sure hope that we both can rein them in again soon, Muffin. It is awful when your joints ache and you feel puffy. It just totally drags you down physically and emotionally. Bleh! I haven't read Atomic Habits. I think I should look into it.

Thanks for asking about my day, Muffin. Eating-wise not so hot, but I had the laser procedure done on my right eye for the narrow angle glaucoma. They explained everything before I went, but I still wasn't sure how it would really be. However, it went great and hopefully it worked. It was kind of weird to have them zap my eye with the laser, but it was a split second only and didn't really hurt, it was just kind of shocking. There were lots of drops and checks before they started, but the doctor only took less than a minute to do the procedure itself. Just before she did it, the assistant said I am going to place my hand on the back of your head for support and I thought that was kind of odd, but it did make me snap my head back when she zapped it. They do the other eye in a month and maybe I can relax a little bit now and stop my stress eating a bit, too. Now to stay out of the Christmas goodies!

MJMS- I'm glad to hear the laser procedure went well. Yes, you should read the book. I really enjoyed it, I just need to put it into practice. Yesterday I came across this blog post where this person highlights the book very well. Make Good Habits Easy and Bad Habits Hard - Atomic Habits However, I think I'm going to re-read it and take my own notes

Good morning This morning I have a few errands to run and then I have to clean DS2 room. The boys are pretty organized and normally clean their own room but once in while or when we have company coming over I clean their rooms. I started the day making good choices for breakfast so hopefully, I'll keep making good choices throughout the day.

MJMS- Do you celebrate Christmas, are you ready? We do celebrate but this year, for some reason I'm not in the Christmas spirit as much as always and the weather is not helping at all. We are in the high 80's. I still have to do my Christmas shopping

Happy Saturday! Just holding my own weight-wise, so I guess that is not too bad for December. I know what you mean about it not feeling like Christmas with the weather, Muffin. This week it got up to around 60, which was nice for getting out for walks, but doesn't feel too Christmassy. Last year, we had a dusting of snow around this time and that felt more appropriate.

Hope you have gotten a couple of good eating days under your belt, Muffin. I bet cleaning teenage boy bedrooms gives you a pretty good workout, too!

All my Christmas shopping is done, I think. But I still have all the wrapping to do. Maybe tomorrow? Good luck to everyone trying to get everything done. I can't believe it's only one more week away!

We had a very good weekend but I ate and drank way too much. I weigh in this morning and I'm up almost 5lbs oh well, I knew it was going to happen. This week is going to be busy, the boys are off school but we have volunteering Tuesday thru Thursday from 7am to 12pm. Dh wants to go to Costco tomorrow and the mall on Wednesday I ordered most of my presents on Amazon so they should arrive tomorrow and all I have to do is pack them before the boys see them.

I need to make sure I drink lots of water this week.

It sure has been a busy week around here. Yesterday I had a colonoscopy late morning, so that pretty much took care of getting anything much done. And of course, the prep pretty much took care of Tuesday. But it went well, and I don't have to go again for another ten years. I can wait, lol! It did shave a little weight, but I will have to see if it holds or if I am just a little dehydrated still.

Today will be picking up groceries and wrapping presents. Tomorrow, I hope to bake. My hubby got me the Nordic Ware Bundt pan with the tree shape that I have been eyeing for years. Not that I need cake, but I will bring it to my daughters for Christmas dessert. Assuming we can still get together. It will be just hubby, DD, DSIL, DGS and DSIL's sister. We have decided to all take a rapid test in the morning and hope we are all still good. DGS's daycare closed yesterday out of what they said was an abundance of caution because a couple of families had reported close contact with a person who tested positive for covid. Cases are exploding here with this omicron variant. It's hard to cope with psychologically since I think we all hoped that we would be closer to normal by now.

Healthy eating-wise, New Year's is looming! There are so many health issues, not just covid that are affected by being overweight, that I will need to get serious again and try for another 30 pounds or so gone in 2022. I'll just plain feel better, too, and that's a biggie!

Muffin, good to hear from you! I am sure you have dropped those 5 pounds. Probably water weight from sodium and the alcohol. I am sure you couldn't have eaten enough to gain 5 pounds. But it still hurts to see it on the scale! So good of your family to be volunteering, especially at this time of the year. There is so much need in the world. I hope that you survived the mall trip and Costco. I saw lots of people pulling into the mall I passed on the way to my appointment yesterday. It looked like it might have been crazy in there! I did a good bit of my shopping at Amazon this year and a few other retailers that offered delivery. I managed to mostly stay out of the stores.

I guess I had better get a few things started around here. The next couple of days will be busy. I hope everyone that is prepping for Christmas has some fun with it along with the work! Enjoy!

Merry Christmas Eve! I hope everyone has a wonderful day today! It will be busy around here with wrapping, baking and food prep and I bet your day will be the same. I'm hoping for a cozy, relaxing evening tonight and a nice day of visiting with my daughter and her family tomorrow. We will all take a covid test in the morning and hopefully all be negative. What a strange year, this is. I sure hope 2022 is a lot better! Enjoy your day, whatever your plans!