Manifesto: There are 22 days to go to December 30! After that it is New Year’s Eve, kind of a holiday for rest & reflection. I am starting NOW to make this last bit of the interesting year 2012 the best they can possibly be before crossing the portal into the GLORIOUS YEAR 2013, a year where anything is possible, with no mistakes in it (yet)! Woot!
THE GOAL IS TO BE IN THE 120s by year’s end, which is functionally, December 30 because the last day I will weigh in this year.
Last edited by Amarantha2; 12-09-2012 at 12:04 AM.
what that clerk told you, amarantha2, was correct-you are beautiful!
and kaylets, you are beautiful! i am with am2, and i also love what you said("We tell others, we see it in others, we deserve to see it in ourselves.") what an important reminder.
will be back again soon to post more, but wanted to at least peek in and say that i am thinking of you both, and it has brought a smile to my face. take care.
Good morning, all you best and most beautiful of ! What a frantic time here in my corner of the Palace. We just did the performance of The Messiah last Sunday. All went well but I think we sort of burnt out through the dress rehearsal. We were on fire for that -- always a risk. Needed to remind ourselves to keep that energy up. However, the audience was very appreciative. Had someone comment that it was the best performance yet, and we got a standing ovation, so ... good enough.
Then we had the traditional little dinner party after the performance. Had my mom's birthday party Tuesday, DH's staff party Friday night, my family Christmas party tonight, the choir party tomorrow night, a choir carol performance Tuesday evening, my writing group gathering Wednesday evening, DGS and putting up the tree Thursday evening, DH's birthday party Saturday evening and a baby shower on Sunday. Whew! That's way too much for me. I'll be looking forward to a week from tomorrow -- nothing planned from the 17th until the 24th.
I'm happy to report that I have not, not once, slipped and eaten anywhere other than at the table when I've been alone since I made that decision, maybe a month ago. Have also gotten my 10,000 steps most days, but want to make that "every day" and get to hot yoga at least 5 times a week.
Clothes are fitting better. I had tried on my winter jackets and they were too small, at least a couple of inches around the hips away from fitting. I wore one of them last week, so yay!
Amarantha, I did get a copy of "A course in weight loss." Haven't really started reading it yet but the concepts are resonating. What did you think of it? Congrats on getting to 125, as I know full well you will! WSW, that must be so frustrating waiting for your condo to sell! I know what it's like -- when we moved from Newfoundland, it took a year for our house there to sell and we had similar issues. So glad that no miscreant tried the door! Kaylets, it's nice when healthful behavior seems natural and not desperate! This year of self-nurture didn't mostly work out that way for me but, as we head into the end of it, I think I'm starting to get there. Remember to take good care of your own sweet self!
DH is here putting on his boots, time to head out for the Sunday walk, to be followed by hot yoga. Have a wonderful day, Queenlies!
Woot! Arabella, so great to see you here today and Wsw as well! Congrats to both of you for all your successes; Arabella, wish I'd been there to hear the Messiah, I love it so much.
Re ACIWL, I like it and have found it useful in many ways. I like Marianne Williamson in general and find her words often uplifting.
21 days to the day before the last Sunday of the glorious year 2012! While everything's NOT exactly goin' my weigh today (up a pound lol), I am happy with weight and still believe I can reach my year-end goal of reaching the 120s ... not likely to reach 125 by then so just trying for the 120s at the moment.
Weight loss ticker will not update, Ticker Factory seems to be all messed up; going to fix or do a new one, weight is NOW 134.4 ... had a lot of sodium as I am doing The Simple Diet and eating processed food for a while lol.
Love to all, shall returneth! Woot!
Last edited by Amarantha2; 12-09-2012 at 11:14 AM.
I had trouble with the tracker I was previously using, which I started at 143 pounds, but wanted to note that at the beginning of this year, I had bounced up to 150, from a low a year and a half before that of 117, which i had FINALLY reached after years of working at from my original high weight of 247. So when I started this new tracker I started it from January and am very motivated I have done so well this year and still have HOPES of being under 130 by 2013.
am2- you certainly have done well this year!! woot! woot!
hello wildfire!
arabella- yay on clothes fitting better, and only eating in designated area (when alone) for over a month!
kaylets-greetings!
and to all our lovely royals one and all. hectic day, so kind of worn out now, but did stay op food and exercise-wise, and pleased about that. some "ms technical difficulties" so will sign off for now. take care, all.
I am eagerly anticipating the new thread and the new year, too!
Arabella, meant to mention that I am doing a 10,000 step program also, I probably posted that already, too lazy to look lol. Congratulations on doing yours and on the hot yoga.
I have never tried hot yoga, sounds interesting.
Wsw, hope your day is less hectic tomorrow and congratulations on staying op with food & exercise.
I am totally worn out tonight but fighting the good fight to NOT overeat. I did have a high day yesterday but it was within bounds and so much better than last week.
Having lunch out with an old friend tomorrow in the town where I used to work. That is going to be challenging but I need to stay in the calorie range.
Yesterday I gave away all the processed meals but am still kind of doing the modular thing from Simple Diet, except I need to cook fresh food instead of eating the boxed stuff, which was making me ill as my blood pressure doesn't respond well to all that sodium and what not. I cooked chicken and brown rice, ate one meal, gave one to the dog, and froze four.
I am using whatever shakes I wish and varying them. For bars this week, I am going to bake some breakfast cookies that a friend gave me a recipe for and I am using Soyjoy bars because I still love soy and because they taste like fruitcake but are fairly healthy.
Got my steps in for exercise, still loving the Fitbit. I also am doing 2-3 strength sessions per week and some Leslie Sansone Walk Aerobics (because I like her).
Feeling WAY better since I stopped trying to be a runner.
Huzzah to tried and true royals and so love seeing you here, so grateful and thankful for your queenly comradeship through all the years.
Good morning, ies! Frantic Friday -- I've got a review to write, grocery shopping to get done, errands, plus work. But Friday, nonetheless. Tomorrow's DH's 64th birthday party. I've just decided that I'm not going to try to get the steak & kidley pie done today.
I picked up our tree last night and we'll get it set up and -- I hope -- decked today. If DH will just help me get it into the stand I can start decorating it in between things. It's in the porch now and I get a whiff of Christmas every time the door's opened.
Wildfire! Looking forward to gathering in the 2013 Palace!
Aye, Am! I do ken ye (help -- just read a novel set in Scotland!) walk 10,000 steps a day. I sometimes think of us virtually and virtuously walking together around this world.
WSW, thanks! It is a major accomplishment for me to have kept to sitting only at the table when I'm by myself. It adds that essential control to the situation for me.
Kaylets, Anagram: Hope to see you soon!
Love to all, as we go about our Fridays. Let's make it a good one!
Arabella, loved the holiday grammar quiz! It was fun to take! Woot!
I like that about walking this world virtually and virtuously. I wonder how many steps it would take to walk around the actual world. Hmmm, mayhap I should check that out. Could be a lifetime avocation to do that!
***
Hmmm, again! I am just drifting along here hoping SUPER DUPER CHEF (another identity that has popped up in my wee feverish brain) has a nice weigh-in tomorrow after getting off the sodium, additive laden diet entree train.
Calories were fairly good though still not where Chef wants to be. So we'll see ... rhymes!
Still have a strong possibility of a new job not in my profession but then I am supposed to be retired from that profession & transitioning, creating a new me, who shall she be?
SUPER DUPER CHEF? Nah, not a profession, but that is going to be a new passion of mine and hobby, cooking at home more, a vow and aim I have had for some time but often am too lazy to implement.
Have a cooking project for tomorrow. A recipe I pulled from a recipe site really intrigues me and I hope to make it tomorrow afternoon. It is for a healthy looking easy flatbread.
I do not really like using yeast, never have, although I've made yeast bread and pizza dough in the distant past, so the flatbread is perfect for me. It is low in calories.
Nothing further to say, SUPER DUPER CHEF is not much of a creative storyteller about queens and innocent diet maidens and exercise elves and such, she just likes food.
Hmmm, that is a good thing really. Food is good. But to maintain her royal & somewhat aging but still glorious figure (really do have a good figure ... old-fashioned word), we here in SUPER DUPER CHEFLAND do have to cook more at home and eat healthy food that sustains our royal energy level and doesn't send our blood pressure through the palace roof.
***
IT. IS. MANIFEST.
Last edited by Amarantha2; 12-15-2012 at 07:52 PM.
Almost afraid to say it out loud, but.....It's been over a week since I ran out of bread and saw the Dr. Oz show with the Wheat Belly author...........AND
I've not had anything ( that I am aware of, even thru away soup with wheat in it)............wheat or quinoa (and I do miss quinona).........BUT...........almost afraid to break the spell....................
Those big awful, can't control, must have, can't wait, must, must, must cravings are GONE.
Just pale, stick your finger thru, faint, tiny voices which are easily controlled and sometimes will even go back to your room and wait if I tell them.
Even, last Friday when I was so upset ---and even this Sunday, another sad day.
And I knew it all along, my Royals. I knew if I ate oatmeal that in about 45 minutes I would be so ravenously hungry I could eat a wooden chopping block without wiping it off. I know that Doritos and cheese puffs won't even make it out of the parking lot.........
Those cravings are as close to a crack addiction as I will ever know.
But never connected---because eating wheat bread, etc, was a sneakier craving.....it was a craving that acted like regular hunger, not a hand shaking,
emptiness.
But nevertheless, after eating a protein heavy sandwich .......I'd be hungry 2 hours later. Hungry as if I had only eaten a grape.
The past few days, if I just have the heavy protein----maybe even as the topping on a big baked potato for supper.....................I don't need to eat until the next morning.
All this time, I thought it was sugar and yes, I know what some sugars do to me and I realize there is a wheat/sugar connection ..........but................
I still haven't weighed myself, in fact, not even sure where the scale is but I could tell about 4 days in that my face was less round.
Sure, its a big shock to my metabolism but it was a wonderful 'atta boy' to look in the mirror that 4th morning.
Empress, this is exciting news about new job/career possibility!! Sending good thoughts your way!
Wood Nymph, so nice to see you and hear about your goings on. I know the birthday party for your DH was a success!
WSW, hope those difficulties only stayed a short while. I think often of you....I just need to get here and tell you!!
Wildfire in the castle! KEWL
Anagram, Greetings and Salutations in your new castle!
Hello all royals! Kaylets, so good to see you and that is interesting about the wheat. Please keep us abreast of how it is going. Quinoa, which I do not like, agrees with me when I eat it. I do get slight effects from wheat, although am not gluten sensitive and probably won't ever give up wheat, but it is interesting to explore the possibility. I love many gluten free products so it would be easy for me to do.
With apologies, I am crossposting my blog here as my status update 'cause my office is freezing and I need to go take a hot shower and sis boom bah outta the house soon for errands.
"Hmmm, not to go all cabalistic here but MY MOJO'S BACK! Woot!
Me, being the entity known as, well, ME! The QUEEN & EMPRESS OF MY OWN LIFE, my own WEIGHT LOSS COACH & FITNESS MANAGER, manager of my career zones, life, loves, & fortune!
And the CHEF ... the person who cooks her own food at home 70-90 percent of the time ... I am considering making that my New Year's resolution, btw, but not yet sure. It really helps having food at the ready in the palace kitchen.
Anyhow, the POINT of this silly blog is I have been kind of under a negative & gloomy spell for a while and this fantasy popped up in my wee brain last night whilst watching HSN wherein they had for sale for HUGE (to me) prices jewelry that had the Evil Eye on it. It was quite pretty and should be pointed out that the Evil Eye is not evil but a universal symbol used by people who want to ward off the EVIL EYE CURSE or the practice of OVERLOOKING ... e.g., folks who don't wish us well sending us bad luck or something.
I don't believe in the evil eye curse or runs of bad luck being sent by other people as it seems to me we make our own luck, for good or evil. But I like the idea of having a pretty talisman that my inner fantasy child could maybe use to ward off evil from outside forces, especially if some entity or other out there was stopping me from reaching the 120s by the end of this crazy year lol.
So briefly thought of spending some moola on the mojo ring but then remembered that much as I am a storyteller and a lover of the mystic in life, a mojo ring won't pay the bills and won't especially STOP ME FROM EATING EXTRA CALORIES THAT SNEAK IN WHENEVER I AM FEELING A LITTLE BIT O' NEGATIVITY COMING IN FROM MY INNER DEMONS OR FROM THE WORLD AT LARGE.
But I don't need a ring. I have a better magic power than that. It is called WILLPOWER or sometimes WON'T POWER or sometimes I HAVE A CHOICE.
I have the power of choosing my own destiny (to some extent) in all areas of life and the power of choosing my own destiny 100 PERCENT in the area of weight loss & fitness in the sense that no outside forces can make me eat calories I don't want or eat donuts or red velvet cheesecake I think unwise (okay, sometimes it is wise to eat red velvet cheesecake, but not this week when I am trying for a loss).
I always have a choice. I always have the mojo.
IT. IS. ALL. ABOUT. ME.
I don't need a magic mirror to reflect demonic cheesecake negativity or a magic ring to ward off evil caloric eyes.
It is manifestly, just ME here. Film. At. 11."
Last edited by Amarantha2; 12-20-2012 at 08:23 AM.
Kaylets, I've been thinking about cutting out wheat/moving to gluten free to see how I feel. Interesting to read your results, and look forward to more updates! By the way, I believe I was the one to tell you about Jesse Cook all those years ago. I saw his Blue Guitar tour in Hamilton last month, and it was excellent as always!
Anagram, I hear you have moved to a new palace? Still settling in? Can't wait to hear all about it!
Amarantha, I think "ALL.ABOUT.ME." is a fantastic theme for our new year. If we don't make it about looking after ourselves, who will? No one!
Arabella! Looking forward to catching up here with you! We see each other on the FB place but here has always been easier to talk about our day to day "stuff".
wsw, hope you are feeling well and able to enjoy the holidays without technical difficulties!
2013 is going to be a very selfish year for me. I think it's about time, too! I'm not getting any younger!! I have a gym membership and was dedicated to going 3 or 4 times a week, then my gym buddy had a family thing (liver transplant patient) and is on leave from work for the last couple of months, so I slipped out of our habit of hitting the gym right after work before my second job required me (making dinner, doing dishes, walking the dog, cleaning up, laundry, etc).
So, once this holiday nonsense is over with, I'm committing to regular gym attendance, paying more attention to food and what I'm putting in my body, meditation, and possibly a membership at a massage clinic where I pay a monthly rate and can have as many massages as I like! I will look after me first this year, so I can better look after the people in my life.
Right now I have to bake cookies for a friend who requested them for his Christmas gift. I love giving gifts like this - no shopping, no traffic, no screaming kids and hostile shoppers to deal with - and I enjoy cooking for other people!
take care.
Sunday in the Palace
Good morning, all you best and most beautiful of 
! What a frantic time here in my corner of the Palace. We just did the performance of The Messiah last Sunday. All went well but I think we sort of burnt out through the dress rehearsal. We were on fire for that -- always a risk. Needed to remind ourselves to keep that energy up. However, the audience was very appreciative. Had someone comment that it was the best performance yet, and we got a standing ovation, so ... good enough. 
