Worldly Chicks JOYously Jaunt into January
 

It's here. Well it has been here for 6 hours. We are in 2015.

So here's to us and our friendships and fun, I hope this will be a good year for all of us.

Hope I didn't jinx the world with that statement.

If you need to go back to the previous thread, click http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/supp...ml#post5110105

Morning all,
Dawned fine and clear for the first day of the year. No doubt there will be heat to come later - all the more reason for getting out there to do things now rather than sitting on here.

Susie - That pie looked really nice, however you have had such a good year with weight loss, it would be a shame to undo it over something that you really don't need. A treat is fine, but I've seen the portions that you lot put on the plate. I've eaten meals in the USA that would have provided food for 2 days for a small country. It's easy to see why the population is obese and it is also easy to see how difficult it is for people to lose that weight. Even the children's portions over there are too much for me.
Sorry to hear of the car woes. Always something.

Annie - Nice to hear that you are not putting all your heart and soul into putting on a feast for New Year. Enjoy the night and the seafood sounds really good.

Laura - Curries abound from India through Malaysia and Indonesia and the countries of Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar (or Burma, whatever you want to call it). The further east you come, generally the lighter and fresher the curry although some of them can be pretty fierce. I like mine milder than most. The Massaman is not the light variety with chunks of beef or chicken but it is tasty and as long as you don't eat it too often it is good.

Ceejay - not sure when you brought up the challenge idea but I like it. I think I will do a 20-30 minute walk in the early mornings when I am back in Melbourne next Monday. At least it will get me moving down there as there isn't a lot else I can do down there.

Dee - Hope the new year brings some peace in your family. It isn't as if you have nothing else to do, however the grandkids deserve the best we can give them so good luck with that. At least they have grandparents who care.

Michelle - 25 pounds is great news. You are doing very well. I will have a look to see what I have in the way of Chicken soups. I'm sure there has to be something there to get you going.

Happy - get well soon.

For my last meal of 2014, I had a Donna Hay recipe. She is a chef who likes fresh, fast and simple recipes. This one was a chicken one pot dinner Chinese style. It wasn't too bad, but I think it needs some extra flavour - it is light on salt but that's okay, and since I don't like a lot of chili that part was okay as well - I will probably make it again, once I have sorted the flavour lack.
http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/reci...hinese-chicken.
Easy to make, 20 mins of cooking time. Serves at least 3. Few ingredients.

With that I am off to get dressed and get started on the new day. There were a few parties around the place last night, so I guess getting out the lawn mower will not be appreciated.

Have a safe and happy new year.

Happy ~ I started walking again on the 21st. My foot is all better now. I'm glad my mom is feeling better too. Luckly I havent got sick yet, My younger brother is sick for the 2nd time since winter began

Annie ~ My foot is all better now and Yes I've been getting my exercises in

Laura ~ Yeah I'm glad my mom is feeling better too. Yeah we add everything to the Strawberry Cheesecake salad but the banana's cause they brown too quick so we just leave them out of it

Dee ~ Hi, How have you been?

Ceejay ~ How are you doing now? I hope you took everyone's advice and got to the E.R quickly.

Susie ~ I've been busy for a couple of days but I'm back now.

Shad ~ Happy 2015 New Year to you!!!!!!!

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I woke up at 9 a.m. this morning, Its now 3:50 p.m. I ate lunch a few hours ago, I wont eat again until 4 or 5 this evening. I'm about to do my 30 min walk dvd and then I'll do my 40 min. evening chair exercises at 7 p.m. tonight. I hope everyone is having a good New Years Eve...By the way what is everyone doing for New Years Eve? Scott and I are having non alcohol wine and light cheese and crackers while waiting for the ball to drop tonight.

Thanks for all your concerns. I'll go to the doctor on Friday as planned unless he's not open. I only vomited once or twice that night but there was quiet a bit of blood. I'm gonna insist that he do at least an upper GI or MRI. I want to know what's going on in their. And if he tells me this is a virus I'm changing doctor's. Yes the Nexium is what the doctor gave me when he found out I had diverticulosis. It never did do anything for me.
I've been expecting the light office to switch their phones at any time.


Shad
Thanks for starting the January thread. We in America still have several hours to go. I like the title.

Laura
I'm going to do a push up challenge also but I'm thinking more of 25 per day. Mine will be counter height. I need to work on my upper body.

Susie
Tell DH happy birthday from me also. Enjoy your meal.

Terra
I hope you are not sick.

Annie
I've been thinking the same thing about the ulcer. I've never had one before but with all this acid/gas I think it may have done some damage.
I have faith in my doctor and his specialty is internal medicine. He will find the cause.

:happy new year:

Terra
You posted above me. Glad to hear your foot has healed.

While I think of it.

Thanks Laura for the lovely card which got to my letterbox just in time for NYE. Nice card.

And....... don't know whether I have mentioned this previously, but Annies birthday card to me just arrived the other day - via my DS2 who got it mixed up with some of his mail. Thanks for the lovely thought Annie.

Happy New Year! :newyear:

We had a lovely time with our friends and family last night and we were in bed around 2:00 a.m. Everyone left about 1 and I cleaned upi the kitchen and read a bit quiet myself down.

Today we have a friend who is having an open house for his birthday today so we will be there for a bit. I'm planning on organizing my home office and doing bit of dusting in there too. With the hip/groin problem I have to do everything slowly. I am feeling better each day and I will have another adjustment on Saturday.

Shad: :rofl: I thought the comment about running the lawn mower this morning was so funny! Back in the day I was one of those who would not have appreciated it....now I just laugh at drunk, hung over people.

Annie: I hope you had a lovely time at your NYE's celebration. I would have opted to stay in a hotel as well.

Ceejay: I hope you are feeling well today and I think your plan for seeing the doctor or going to ER if they aren't in is a good one.

I must have missed the challenge you all are talking about but I will get in on it as well. My plan is to do 25 push ups (I will start on the wall) every other day and after the first two weeks I will then move to doing half on my knees and the rest on the wall and I hope to do all of them on my knees by the end of them month.

I wanted to challenge myself to getting back on the treadmill but I need to talk to the chiropractor about that before I do to make sure that it is ok for my hip and groin. He has me taking small steps right now while I am walking.

Michelle: What a great report you got at the doctor. Just keep to the plan they have set out for you and you will continue to do well reaching those goals.

Laura: Let me know when you have the fitbit set up. If you link it to MFP, you still need to log your food but it will sink with your fitbit and all your info will be there in your fitbit dash board.

Terra: I hope you and Scott had a nice time ringing in the New Year. It sounded like a lovely way to usher in 2015.

Happy: How are you feeling? Is the cold finally releasing it's grip on you?

Dee: :hug: I'm so glad to have you back on a board with me....Happy New Year!

Good morning lovely ladies,

:newyear: to all. Hope the day dawns with us all having a clear head and looking forward to a new start. Thank you Shad for setting up the new thread, thanks to Annie for coming up with the thread title. I think I am past the halfway point with my cold - nose is not running 23 hours of 24 but the skin on my face is dry and irritated from all the tissue rubbing. I am still as tired as I can be which is frustrating - DH talked about going for a drive today but I am too tired to even just sit in the car. Blowing the nose at this point just plugs up my ears so I am careful not to push anything in there. My humidifier died yesterday - things with electrical elements don't seem to last but a year/season it seems. I put a pot of water on to boil and was really surprised at how much sediment was building up in the pot. I guess we have a lot of minerals in our well water. Which means I should probably use distilled water for the next warm mist humidifier going forward. The washing machine repair guy came back yesterday. I don't think he was very happy about returning when the other part he ordered didn't come in. I attempted to tell him that I thought the new circuit board he installed was faulty. He tried to insist the washer would not drain because DH had stuffed the drain hose too tight in the drain hole. DH wasn't having any of that :no: So the poor guy ran his diagnostics with both of us standing there watching him :snooty::snooty: At first the machine behaved properly and of course did everything it should have. Then thank you heavens above, when he ran diagnostics the thing stopped dead and gave us that lovely error message. Yes, it did appear the part is bad. That is what concerns me because from the reviews I have read - you are fine until you need an electronic part - many of them are faulty and require many trips back and forth to fix it. I just spent $400 on an extended warranty so I'm not about to replace the entire machine at this point. He ordered another part and will be back next week. That took the better part of 2 hours mid day. Had to get up early and could not do anything else while waiting on him. For dinner we had picked up 2 big lobster tails at the specialty grocery store up in Duluth. DH was asking about them, I told him to take a look at the various cooking methods I found and pick one. He selected baked. He prepared and cooked the tails, I took care of the rest of the meal. Unfortunately, my taste buds are still pretty dead from the cold - I could taste the salty of the au gratin potatoes and the sweet of the green peas but the lobster and melted butter were pretty much of a loss for me. Also I feel like my lobster should have been cooked a little bit longer for my liking and I didn't want to insult DH so I ate it but honestly, I didn't really enjoy it. Pity for what we spent on it but still a cheaper meal than we would have spent going out. DH said it was ok, but did not have the wow factor he was hoping for. There are 3 upscale restaurants out here that opened for New Year's eve but their New Year's eve menu was rather exotic for even my tastes and DH certainly would not have like most of what was on them. DH did the supper dishes which was a nice change of pace. Afterwards he suggested we play cards or a game which surprised me. I saw that the movie Jersey Boys was available to rent and suggested we watch that since he said he'd be willing to see that. I was leaning to Maleficent instead but let him pick. We were both a little disappointed in the film, even though I realize that 3 of the 4 leads were in the Broadway production. Very hard to adapt a movie and get the same effect you do from a big stage production. I thought the singing was a bit off and they should have found someone who sang more like Frankie Valli. I know from what I read earlier about the reviews and from the trailer I saw that people who mostly didn't care for the film, did so on those points. I guess they tried to highlight the concept about how Jersey Boys stick together but that's hard to illustrate in just 2 hours. One thing I did notice was how very different music then was from music now. Especially when we turned the tv back on right after 11pm (and missed the traditional ball drop in NYC) and saw what passes for today's musical entertainment. One thing I noticed once I moved away from Chicago is that on national television we in the Midwest kind of get screwed when it comes time to mark midnight on New Year's eve. The tv stations broadcast from New York City at 11 our time or West Coast California (2am our time). The only noise we get is if someone outside shoots off a firework or a gun shot :lol: So no confetti, horns or Auld Lang Syne for us - just oops - it's 12:05 Happy New Year! :lol: I didn't even feel like cracking open one of the bottles of wine chilling in the refrigerator or indulging in the cheese and crackers and fruit I had set aside. DH watched another movie in the bedroom, I tried to keep myself awake until it ended. Another year quietly rolls in again. I have 300 pages in a book I need to finish today - it was due on Tuesday and I decided to keep it overdue until tomorrow in the hopes I can finish it. :devil:

One of the downers about this long cold is that I feel like I've lost all ground on gym front and will need to be starting all over again. I am a bit winded still from the slightest exertion but I do want to get back to the gym again on Friday. Better eating too. Been eating out of the freezer to make room for all that pork I will be picking up in 2 weeks so not much on the fresh food end. I did enjoy a couple of frozen soups I had in there :D

Happy New Year to everyone.

Susie - sorry to hear about the hip issues. Smart of you to keep moving, and work around it. Have you considered any yoga? I would recommend the yoga for arthritis types of videos as they do gentle movements. One of the things I most like is that they do things to lubricate the joints and increase flexibility without powering through the moves. Especially important if we are working with injuries or limitations. I just looked out the window and the sun is shining brightly and it is snowing like crazy out there - looks like a snow globe. Lake effect type snow for those of you that know that term. Anyway - the wall push ups are a good modification exercise too. Have a good time at the open house today. Also enjoy the office organizing - today's a day of high motivation to get things in place. :D

Shad - happy belated birthday 8 months past :rofl: The curry sounds good - I was turned off at first because I thought curries were highly spiced and often quite spicey - not my thing but then I learned more and discovered they can be more the savory stew and it sounds as if the one you talked about had somewhat sweet spices in it. As for the portions here, it's the restaurants that overserve. Part of the problem is either the fussy palates of people (I want a burger and fries, not vegetables) or people want more food to justify the 15 dollars a pop for the meal. One restaurant actually did come out with lower prices and smaller portions but I'm not sure it went over as well as it should have. The Chinese one pot dinner you shared sounded interesting but I would have needed much more in there in the way of flavors with the addition of some tender crisp vegetables - otherwise it's just flavored rice.

Ceejay - that's most scary tossing up blood like that. I agree with the others - get thee to a doctor FAST. And stick with a bland diet for the interim - blood is nothing to take lightly. Hope you feel better. There are a couple of different acid calming medications - don't be afraid to speak up to your doctor if you feel one is not working for you. Prevacid and Tagamet did nothing for me either.

Happy New Year Terra - glad your foot has healed up and you can get back to a regular routine again.

Annie - hope you had a nice NYE at the hotel.

Michelle - congrats on the pounds down - I'm sure there are tons of recipes on the internet - probably are some valuable links right on this site since there is a special interest group or two. I'd be jonsing for some hot food too by now.

Laura - did you say you were going out?

Happy New Year Dee - hope you didn't spend it sawing wood! :lol:

Well despite my best efforts, Kitty keeps crawling up here - she can be quite insistent - and it makes it difficult to type with her on my arm so I'm going to go find me some lunch. We are having filet of beef and salad for dinner. Looking forward to that. Again a happy and healthy new year to all...

My NYE celebration was quiet. Texted my bff a happy new year last night and we watched the Moon Pie drop in Alabama. Memphis was supposed to drop their guitar but didn't see that one. Oh well. I was to late to watch the ball drop in NY. I slept till 10 this morning without turning over or even getting up to go to the bathroom. The phone rang or I'd probably still be asleep. I feel better now than I have all week. The Zantac is working very well.
I weighed this morning and I've lost 7 pounds. I'm very pleased. Part may be due to being sick a couple of times, but I have been trying.
Going to put my black eyed peas, ham, spinach and cornbread on to cook in a few minutes.
Looks like the radar is showing rain for today. My trip to Paragould to pick up my keys may have to wait till Saturday.
My sister and I planned my trip to Dallas/Houston in March. I'm going to drive to Little Rock International airport then fly into Dallas. I'll ride with them to Houston. I'm looking forward to this trip.

Happy New Year.

No time to post. Lots to get done today. I'm going to the dog park, then taking Santa to day care, then to a couple stores, to my step-mom's. After that, I'm visiting Bob, then going to the gym, then to yoga class. Right now, I feel like I could go back to bed and sleep for an hour or two or three. Not sure how I'll make it until 9 pm when yoga class lets out.

I want to incorporate some challenges, either push ups, squats or planks...or all of the above.

D and I went out to dinner and a movie last night. We went to a sushi place and I got Shrimp Tempura (and removed most of the breading). Then we saw "Into The Woods", which was cute and sweet, as a fairy tale should be, and had more singing than I expected. I didn't realize Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp were such good singers. I was very impressed by the talented cast, and pleasantly surprised to see Tracy Ullman in the movie.

Last night, there was lots of fireworks going off in my neighborhood, and some large explosions, like M-80s. So even though I was tired and trying to fall asleep by 10:30, I was awoken at midnight and didn't fall back asleep until everything quieted down around 1.

Ceejay ~ Yeah I'm glad my foot is healed now too

Susie ~ Yeah Scott and I had a nice time ringing in the New Year

Happy ~ Yeah I'm glad I can get back to walking regularly again

Morning all, or rather afternoon all,

Another muggy day. We are getting showers on and off and so the humidity is pretty much up there. Still we have a light breeze and that is good to dry off the carport which I pressure hosed down today, getting nicely wet in the process. And damn it all, the water was warm and not cool but it was fun. Now I can get on with thinking about sanding and painting.

Weighed in this morning and am down a pound from last years last weighin which is good and I hope I can keep it up during the year. I've been drinking a lot of water lately as well so don't know if that has much to do with it.

Terra - glad the foot is okay again now. Just in time to get stuck into the new years resolutions.

Ceejay - I am hoping you have been to the doctor already and are ready for testing for your tummy troubles.
Wow that is a great loss.
When are you going to Dallas?

Susie - can't remember who started the challenge talk. I'm going to do walking while I am away in Melbourne and should be able to do a fair amount of physical work while I am here. Have to work on that one.
Enjoy your friends birthday and stay away from the crème pies.


Happy - I was the same with my cold. It was all I could do to get out of bed some mornings. If it wasn't for the cats, I may not have done so.
Glad to hear the washing machine played up for the service man. So little control these days. This is of course why we have things made in China. No quality, no endurance - but OMG it's cheap - well it isn't when you have to get things put in several times before you get one that works.
Sorry the lobster tails were tasteless. Very expensive stuff lobsters and it's not much fun if you pay a humungous amount and it doesn't taste too good.
Yes curries can be mild. Try some of the Thai curries and cut down on the paste if you have doubts about the heat. Thai is much lighter and fresher than Indian. If you only have Indian available, go for the Korma, Tikka Marsala or Butter Chicken rather than the Rogan Josh or vindaloo.

Michelle - You sound busy. That's better than sitting around huffing and puffing because you can't get off the couch. :rofl:

Time to go and clean out the microwave. Darned if I now how it gets so grubby. I always seem to be giving it a wipeout.

The attached photos are my meals from last night and todays lunch. Last nights menu courtesy of the Happy's restaurant. It was biscuits, brie cheese, peanuts, figs, apricots, peaches and strawberries. Yum.
The second one is todays lunch. One baked potato with light yoghurt and coriander with a spinach salad of strawberry, apricot, home grown tomato and red bell pepper with a small amount of parmesan cheese and a Saffron and preserved lemon dressing. Yummy and just right. Tonights menu is Mushrooms and onions in a creamy dressing on toast. I'm hoping to bore you all silly with my food in an effort to keep me on track. Should I not put a picture up, you will know I am not being good. Then you can all :kickbutt:

Have a good day
Lunch today and dinner yesterday.

Very pretty meals Miss Shad! Um figs! I have not had fresh figs in years since a woman at work had fig trees and brought us bags from her trees. They are quite tasty. You are doing an excellent job on the color wheel and as hot as it is by you right now, I'd say that is a most refreshing and light meal. I was looking at one of the cook books I borrowed from the library - another America's Test Kitchen - this one of TV shows and they have about 25 different chapters in them. There was one on Thai food that had some really interesting dishes as well as curries in them. I have decided I am going to purchase this book myself - even if it weighs about 80 pounds. They have tried to minimize some of the more cumbersome steps - as in making a curry and unlike many complicated recipes - this is stuff DH and I will eat. And healthful too. So thank you Shad for the mention of curries. What does saffron taste like? I am nervous to try things like truffle oil and saffron.

Michelle - that's an awfully late yoga class. :yawn: Might just bring a bedroll and fall asleep on the mat afterwards :lol: Wouldn't it have been easier to just get a California roll with shrimp rather than pulling off the tempura? I say that because I just did the same - got a shrimp tempura roll and I realized since it was cold and made earlier, I would have been better off with just the plain shrimp. And with fewer calories too.

Ceejay - Moon Pie Drop? :rofl: that's too funny!!!! Glad to hear you found something working for your stomach. Congrats on the weight loss so far.

We had a very nice dinner tonight - of course I cooked ;) Had pan fried beef tenderloin, DH had a favorite Italian dish of spaghetti cooked with some red pepper flakes in a garlic butter, I had cauliflower with cheese sauce which was yummy and we both had cucumbers - his pickled, mine just fresh like Nature made them. Oh and I made a pan sauce of Dijon mustard with a dash of cream from the pan drippings to deglaze the pan. DH said it was more yummy than last night's meal - perhaps we should have bought 4 filets of beef instead. I have a beautiful piece of salmon for tomorrow's dinner, will have to find something for DH as he hates salmon as much as he does cauliflower. And I got a nice meat mix for meatloaf for Saturday.

I called Mom tonight but she was coughing so much and her voice was so raggity that it was very hard to understand her so we only chatted briefly. I told her to put a pot on to run some steam in the house and go have some honey lemon tea to soothe that sore throat. I'm sure she would have preferred to keep talking but I know all too well that horrid choking cough that talking makes worse. I am finally feeling better - I hope to be back to the gym on Monday at the latest. We are in for some frightful cold over the weekend. I may have DH drop me off at the gym - then I don't have to get in and out of a freezing car because by the time I get down the road I am there before the car even attempts to heat up - when he gets me, the car is already warm AND he puts my seat heater on! What a dreamboat :love::spin::love:

Anyway - back to my book. Have a good night everyone.

Shad ~ Yeah I'm glad my foot is healed in time to stick to my new years resolution of continuing my weight loss journey in 2015

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Woke up at 3 a.m. this morning, I was hoping to not wake up until 6 a.m. but oh well I guess. Its now 7:23 a.m. and I just got done doing the morning dishes, My brother fixed breakfast for everyone this morning. My plans for today are to do my laundry in between doing my morning and after exercises. At 2 today we are gonna go do our running around and go to Walmart to do our monthly food and non-food shopping and those are all of my plans for today.

Hello Everyone and welcome to the new year. I am going to try to make 2015 a good one as best I can.

My brother's cancer has spread to more lymph nodes, his PSA was 50 (normal 3-5), so now he is on step two of treatments. Hopefully this step will last for a very long time. Then comes step 3, then you die. Got the news on NYE at my nephews house. All I can think about is my brother and praying my brain out for him. He is now having pain in the right leg, where the cancerous lymph nodes are located. Not every day and now has pain meds to help with that. What a way to put a damper on the new year. I am asking for many continued prayers for my brother, Michael.

On a better note, the seafood NYE was fabulous. Steamed shrimp, steam crablegs, shrimp cocktail, baked salmon, then a spread of about 10 types of hard cheeses, cheese dips, two kinds of cocktail sauce, just amazing and delish! Oh and homemade mac n cheese which I did not eat. No alcohol for me. I drank unsweet iced tea all evening. Indianapolis dropped a race car at midnight. Goofy!

Yesterday, once we got home. C went to work and I went over to Sissy's house. The kids were so glad to see me. I walked in and Jacob yelled very loudly N A N N A!! Too cute, Royce crawled over and threw his arms up at me to pick him up. I just love those kiddos. Ainsley ran over and gave me a huge hug. You would of thought I hadn't seen them for days. Of course Miss Sassycakes was really glad to see me a piddled on the kitchen floor. lol. She is not like Sissy's house as much since they got a puppy, who at 4 mos old weighs 30 lbs already. He is way big and to playful for Sass. Her hair raises up and she growls at him. He just keeps right on flopping around her p*ssing her off.

Then went to the grocery bought cabbage, ham and red potatoes that I put in the crocker. So good, brought leftovers for lunch today. We will have it for dinner tonight then it should be all gone. It is so good I can hardly wait for lunch today. Yes I am in the office, no one here except about 4 people. I hope to get my files at least started for 2015. I am not working the entire day.

Hope everyone does well with their goals and WL. I am still at it. Had my pre-op appt this morning for my surgery next Tuesday. Had to weigh in and confirmed the 13 lb loss. That makes it official, and that is with clothes on. lol.

Have a great Friday/night.

Loves and hugs

Morning ladies,

Here we go. New year. Fresh start.

Annie - I am very VERY sorry to hear about your brother's health. Thank you for giving us a bit more detail - I do like some specifics when saying my intentions. Will include him in healing prayers and hope level 2 treatments have a positive effect. Your seafood blowout sounded very yummy - good for you for sipping unsweet tea. Enjoy the kids while they are still young and look at you as the light of their world - they grow up fast... Hope you can use the quiet time at work for a little catch up or just to drop the usual crazy pace a bit for one day.

Terra do you go to bed super early to wake up at 3am or is it just that you are a light sleeper? I'd be yawning at noon - although yesterday I went to bed it was nearly 3am so we are crossing paths in the night.

Today I have to run books back to the library. This year when I take out a book, I AM GOING TO READ IT. Renewed these twice and barely looked at them :o I also need to make a quick stop at Walmart and it's trash day so I have to go through my freezer, make some room for the pork I have coming in 2 weeks. I have learned there are some things (like loaves of bread) that are not worth freezing at all. Those are my 3 have to do things today. I would LIKE to also get my food arranged on the shelves in the basement pantry. I think it's time to take down the Christmas decorations and make room for the new furniture that needs picking up. I am giving the gym one more day's pass because I am still a bit winded from the cold. But I will do one of my videos in it's place for some exercise. And that's my plans for the day.

I hope you all have a good one yourselves.

I'm exhausted today. By the time I picked up Santa after yoga, I got home around 10. Then I had to get up at 6:15 to drop Santa off and then go to the gym to do a 1/2 hour of cardio before my workout with the trainer. I showered at the gym and then I was off to run errands. I returned a pair of pants at Kohl's, then went to pick up prescriptions, then off to Target.

I'm home now to sort through some stuff on the computer, and do a little decluttering, then I'll pick Santa up and we'll go to my step-mother's for another Scrabble match. I'm picking up my nephew after he gets off work and then taking him over to my step-mom's for dinner.

===================
Annie - I'm so very sorry to hear about your brother's cancer and the PSA results. I'll keep him, and your whole family in my prayers.

Happy - I really don't like California rolls. I just don't like the seaweed...and white rice is something that the bariatric dietitian said should be avoided, along with potatoes and pasta. Like you, I also check things out of the library and then never read them.

I've really got to sign off for now...too much cleaning/decluttering to do.

Here's to a great day for all of us!

Love and hugs,

Afternoon all. And a very Happy New Year to you all!

Shad
Thanks for setting up the new thread. Your meals look so delicious! Bf's mom gave us two cookbooks for Christmas, both are focused on healthy/light recipes. I like them both because they have nice photos in them. For some reason that makes a difference to me. I have to dig into them and pick out some recipes to try. First plan is to pick recipes for a day when she can join us for dinner. Yes, Thai food is so much lighter and fresher tasting than, say, the type of old school "American" Chinese food the mom and pop restaurants serve here. We don't eat much Indian food, but based on the Indian food I've eaten in the past, Thai is also lighter than that too. Same for some of the middle eastern food we eat. This will be the year I finally make a very popular Thai soup - Tom Yum. We love it!

Michelle
Congrats on your follow up exam going so well. You're doing so great! I'm tired just reading your posts! But it sounds like you're enjoying life right now - here's to 2015 being more of the same for you. Good for you on the decluttering. :)

Ceejay
Glad the Zantac is working for you. Did you get to the doctor today? Congrats on the weight loss! Wow, moon pies & guitars being dropped! :D. :lol:

Annie
So sorry to hear your brother's health situation has become more serious. I will keep him in my prayers. I'm glad you had a nice NYE feast at your nephew's place. What a nice greeting from little J! Poor Sassy - hope the puppy will soon calm down and give her some peace! Great job on the weight loss. I guess I'm finding all the pounds you ladies have lost...

Susie
Glad you enjoyed your NYE gathering. How was the birthday open house? Yeh, I'm perfectly fine with just a couple a couple drinks and not feeling bad the day after!

Happy
I usually do alright with not borrowing more books than I can read, but renewing the books helps me a lot too! Your last couple meals sound so tasty - but what a shame the lobster tail didn't wow you or dh. I'm glad the diagnostics found the defective part so a new part can go in. Oy! May 2015 be a better year for all your appliances and electronics. I'm happy to hear your cold has eased up & you're ready to get back to the gym. Don't fret over having lost any fitness gains, as long as you're getting back to it, that's what counts!

Terra
Sounds like you had fun plans for NYE. For Walmart, do you use the Savings Catcher they offer? You enter your receipt numer into their site and they go off and compare the prices you paid with those same items' prices in other stores in you area. They give you the price difference if it's less elsewhere, and you can transfer that to an e-gift card.

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I got out of work at noon on NYE and that was nice. Be and I went out for lunch & and then stopped in at the thrift shop in the same strip mall. It was the last day of the month so everything is half off. I bought a nice bright contemporary canvas art print - a floral - for only $5. It's by an artist named Kim Parker & she appears to be popular in not just art prints but textiles as well. My print is called "Wild Roses".

After that we stopped at Walmart for a few things for our party and then it was back home to get ready.

Our party was nice, just the right amount of people (9 total) and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. At around ten til midnight, We turned on the tv for the local countdown and had a champagne toast. Happy - the local ABC channel still does its broadcast, and Janet Davies & Mark Giangreco still pair up to host from one of their broadcast locations. I think I heard Janet say they'd been paired up for that over 20 years now!

Because I'm still having fluid pressure in my ears, I bought some generic Allegra and took one during the party ( allegra's non-drowsy and one dose is for 24 hours) and most of the following day and into last night overnight I was very parched and dried out. I woke up coughing a few times or perhaps something else woke me up and it took a bit to fall back asleep because of the coughing caused by my dry throat. Maybe I should stick with Zyrtec and save the Allegra for when I'm suffering only the worst of any hellish allergy symptoms.

I didn't do much yesterday, and thankfully there wasn't much on the way of party cleanup left from the night before. I did want some movement, so in the afternoon, I tried out one of the PBS "Classical Stretch" shows I'd dvr'd about a month ago. It was more strenuous workout than I thought it would be, and not simply stretches BTW, but that's fine. It does have classical music as its background - meh. I'll try another one or two and see if I like them enough to continue with them. I do have the Suzanne Deason Pilates and yoga workouts on hold at the library and the Pilates one is ready for pickup, so after I post this I might go get it and give it a go a bit later.

I'd forgotten that doggy had a vet appointment this morning at 9, but it was still early enough to give him his calm-down dope beforehand. Or maybe not...he was still very nervous - poor guy. He's been sleeping off the dope all day, but there is no doubt he will be eager for his walk in a little bit!

Okay, gonna post this now. I used our iPad and the typing was so much easier than using the cell phone!

Off to the library now. :wave:

Laura
I love my tablet/ipad. I have a key board to go with it so it's like a mini computer. However, it is very sensitive. I did go by the doctor's office but as I suspected they were closed.

Michelle
I love to play scrabble. I have a game on the work computer that I play when I'm not to busy.

Terra
I've been doing laundry today as well. Also made a run to Walmart.

Annie
Sorry to hear the bad news of your brother. Will be sending him good vibes.

Happy
Hope your mom is feeling better.

Susie
Glad you had a nice NYE party.

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I did go to the doctor's office but as I suspected he was closed. And since I'm feeling better I decided against going to the E.R. I will go next week as I have to get rx's refilled. Also paid the rent and to Walmart.
I feel like I'm getting this "cyber" cold today that's going around. My throat is sore and tightness is my upper body. I've taken an Allegra so hopefully this will keep it to a minimum.
Rode my bike for 20 minutes tonight trying to get warm. Did my counter push ups last night and will do those again tonight.
Going to put one more load of clothes in the washer. I'm so grateful that I cleaned last week. I don't feel up to it today.

:cheer: to Everyone of U Gorgeous chicks on our thread :hug: starting this New Year sooo Positive :sunny:


Susan~ I hope that U r feeling much better from your chiropractor appt. how about a massage also :smug: My chiropractor has one that is also a certified Naturopath & they work as a team; he does the correction & then tells her where the prob is occurring & she does a corrective massage & I feel 100% when I leave. Doing 'yoga' like Happy said would b good for ALL of us here, I do Tai Chi occasionally. I'm very happy that U r taking good care of yourself.


Annie~ My heart goes out to U & 'yes' your brother Michael is in our daily prayers & also U & your upcoming surgery next Tuesday :hug: Great job w your 'Official clothes-on weight loss! LOL :goodscale I was in a diet club called TOPS & ppl would take-off jewelry, glasses, as much as possible prior to weigh-in to get a pound-off :lol: & thrilled to see any kind of loss, they were a fun bunch of girls.

ceej~ I sure wish that U had seen your Doc today. Please take it easy @ home & @ work until U see your Doc. :hug: I wish I lived in your town, U need some TLC from your friends. I'd b there in a flash, just tell me what to do, chores or just hang-out & do nothing w U. Sometimes just somebody being w us doing nothing, or poking fun @ stuff laughing, is comforting.


I'm Happy to See the rest of U girls r Feeling much Better :dancer: & reading about allll your Delish NYE meals made me Hungry :hun:
We stayed home w our 4 grandbabes so DS & wife could go party. We had a great time as always w the kiddos, watching a movie & playing board games; they made it till 10:30pm & crashed. They tried sooo hard to stay awake until midnight :yawn: Dh only had NY day off & I kept the kids for 3 days. Today I gave our 6 puppies their 1st puppy shots & I gotta go trim puppy nails now. Tomorrow 2 get their new homes & hopefully the other 4 will have families next weekend.

Have a Fabulous weekend girls :wave:

Evening all,
Short post tonight. I've been very busy today and managed to wear myself out, so I am about to have an early night.

The attached photo is my dinner tonight. Port chop, roasted pumpkin, potato and onion and a salsa made of mango, red onion and coriander with a lemon myrtle flavoured olive oil and some lime juice. I should have put some spinach with it, but thought there was more than enough on the plate.

Happy - re the curries. You can buy curry pastes in the supermarket. The majority of them should tell you whether they are hot, medium or mild. I always buy the mild. I'm really chicken when it comes to chili. But if you are not sure how hot mild actually is, use less than the recipe calls for and see if it is okay. You can always add more but you can't take it away.
Saffron is about the most expensive spice in the world. I don't buy it very often. I have often thought it didn't have much flavour and was only used to colour things, but apparently it does have flavour and I am being too much of a cheap skate and not using enough of it. Truffles likewise are too expensive for me and I usually only buy truffle flavoured oil or the like.

Annie - so sorry to hear that the brothers cancer is spreading. I will keep him and you in my thoughts and hope that further treatment will improve the situation. You'll forgive me for not praying. That is not my style unfortunately.

Laura - hope the allergies or whatever has gone away. Good for you trying out new and lighter recipes. Whatever it takes - yes?

Dee - out having fun with the grandkids. I get to see mine next weekend.

Okay, time to move along. I've had my second shower of the day. I was covered in paint. I've been painting the carport as well as mowing lawns, cutting hedges, picking up the green waste, doing laundry and sanding walls. Long way to go yet as far as the painting goes. The colour I chose appears to be much lighter than I had anticipated but it looks okay - not much different than the yellow on the house already. Which was not what I wanted, but I've spent too much on paint now to take it back.
Better attach the photo before I forget. Have a good day.

Happy ~ Lately I've been going to bed at 8 or 9 at night, Last night I went to sleep at 9 and I didnt wake up until 5 this morning. I'm trying to stay up until 10 but I havent made it to 10 yet.

Laura ~ Yeah Scott and I did have a Fun night bringing in the new year. Nope I dont use the Savings Catcher but I probably should start using it.

Ceejay ~ Yeah I'm finishing my laundry this morning, I got a late start on it yesterday. Anyway we also went to Walmart yesterday.

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Woke up at 5:00 a.m. this morning. Its now 6:40 a.m. I'm waiting for my nephew and sister in law to wake up so I can go downstairs and finish my laundry. As always my plans for today are to get my morning chair exercises done and get my 30 min walking dvd done and my 40 min. chair exercises this evening and thats it. I hope everyone has a great Saturday.

Woke up to early this morning at 6 a.m. but I have to get up early tomorrow morning for work. I haven't done a lot. I did clean the living room and my bed room, washed and dried the sheets for my bed.
I took an Allegra and a cipro last night for my extreme drainage. My throat was getting very sore. I laid down on the couch at 8.30 a.m. and woke when my aunt called about 12.30. I'd told her about my stomach experience. Didn't realize how badly I sounded until I tried talking to her. I think I'm better this afternoon. I'm taking another Allegra in a few minutes. I think the sleep is what I needed the most.
I'm completed the 25 push ups.

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Shad
I admire all the stamina you have. Your food looks good. I haven't had a sweet potato in a long time. May buy some this week.

Terra
Good for you in getting in the exercise. I do good to get in twenty minutes. Keep up the good work

Hi. We had a nice time at the open house for our friend's birthday on January 1.

Yesterday we went to the car dealer to begin the process of looking for a good used car with a warranty and in the price range that I wanted to make payments for and came home with a 2015 Hyundai Sonata!! We test drove a 2012 Elantra and 2012 Sonata (I have had Sonata's since 2006) and they had some good deals on them and the Elantra had very low mileage and the 2012 Sonata was under the average as well. So I was about to choose the Sonata (it rides a bit better than the Elantra which is important as we drive closed to 90 miles round trip daily) when I asked, what sort of deals do you have on a 2015.

We have bought our last two cars from the same guy and he is great! He was able to work me out a deal where I got the 2015 for $30 more dollars a month on the payment than I would have been paying for the 2012 Elantra or Sonata.

I went today for an adjustment and things are getting there. The strain is no longer in my groin area but just in the top of the thigh. He wants to adjust me again in about 5 days. I like my chiropractor because he is great at working you toward healing and doesn't believe in having to adjust you over and over. He feels if that is needed that something more is going on and it's time for MRI's and things to really check out what is going on.

He told me this has happened because I have weak hip flexors and adductor and abductor muscles in my leg and they don't pull my pelvis around. He has me doing some stretches and now doing a couple of exercises--bridges and outer leg lifts. Just 5-10 on each side twice a day and then ice the groin and thigh muscles.

I finally got my home office back in order today. I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and couldn't sleep so I decided it was good to move around and do things before I went to the chiropractor. It feels nice to have some files purged and things filed away and organized and dusted. I still need to sweep in there but I will have to have DH do it. The chiropractor said no running the vacuum for me for a while. I can do other cleaning (as long as I face every thing I am doing and no stretching/reaching to the side--it will throw my hips out) so DH will have to help with the sweeping. I'm ok to mop as long as I don't twist so push in one forward direction the whole time.

Happy: I'm glad the cold is getting better. When you start back to the gym ease into it. Better to be able to go back again and again instead of missing a day.
What a time you are having with that washer! I would have lost my patience by now.

Annie: :hug: I am praying for your surgery on Tuesday and keeping your brother in my prayers as well.

Laura: Your party sounds just like the right size party. Did you make it to get the Suzanne Deason Pilates and yoga DVD's and try them yet?

Ceejay: I am glad to hear that they Zantac is working. I hope you get into the doctor this week. It is nice you have a upcoming trip planned. Something to look forward to.

Terra: I have been doing laundry today as well. It seems there is always something that needs washed.

Shad: I am enjoying your pictures of your food. It looks very tasty and I have noticed that a lot of it is just vegetables which is the way I eat since I don't eat meat, or poultry or seafood.
The issue I have a lot with my food is that it takes a lot of time to prepare those delicious dishes and it makes so much. DH will eat some of it but not all--he is a meat and potato type of man and likes to stick with a salad, or green beans or broccoli.

I know you are just one person eating those meals so how do you prepare them so you don't spend hours in the kitchen or have to eat it over and over that week?

Dee: It is so nice you got to be with your grandbabies. Do you miss your puppies a lot when they go to new homes?

I need to go do my wall pushups and also do my new exercises. I will see you all tomorrow.

Afternoon all,

Hot and dry today I went out early and got most things done out there that had to be done before I went back to Melbourne tomorrow morning. now the cats and I are spread out around the house trying to catch what breeze there is. I need to go to the shops shortly to get bread, and some stuff for dinner tonight.

Susie - my meals depend on how hungry I am. I haven't got a full appetite back since that cold I had and I crave fruit at the moment. Generally speaking, I am not good on eating my greens. I don't like the leafy veges cooked so I tend to put some on a plate and eat it raw. I am not vegetarian but have several nights a week where I don't cook meat. When I do, I tend to go for a one pot meal. Tonight I will be having Lime and Lemongrass Chicken which is chicken and rice in a stock with ginger, lime leaves, lemongrass and a red chili. The recipe is supposed to be for 2 people. What I will do, since the portions are fairly generous, is to divide the resulting meal into portions, and put the other portions in containers and freeze them. That means that at any one time, I can have several meals in the freezer ready for those times I come home and can't be bothered cooking or have nothing to cook with. The most times I have a meal is twice in a row. And only then if I enjoyed it enough to have it again. Otherwise it is into the freezer.

Ceejay - sometimes it is good to listen to the body and sleep when you can. Other times you have to push yourself to do whatever needs to be done. If you know you are procrastinating, push. If you have to lie down because you can't stay upright any longer then rest. I have trouble working in great heat, so I can only do the hours at the beginning of the day and the end of the day. Which reminds me, I should get some more bug spray when I go to the shops today. I hate being bitten by the mosquitos.

I'll post again, when my day is done. I now need to go shopping and then finish the packing and I have a couple of other things on the list to do later when it cools down somewhat. I'll be back with my dinner photo later.

Susie ~ Wow a brand New car :dance: that's exciting, I'm so happy your car problems r over now. It's great that u have a 'intelligent & concerned doctor' taking care of u, there r many jerks I've been told that hurt patients, or trying to force supplements. I once had a chiropractor that pushed 'honey' after every appt. :o


Happy ~ I never commented on your 'washer dilemma' because I'm still using the same Deluxe Heavy Duty model Kenmore since 1996, it's had 2 minor/inexpensive parts & my matching dryer has gone through 2 heating elements, that Dh replaced. I have friends that own $800-$1,000 washing machines w electronic sensors that break also, soo u r not alone :( I run 2 cups of white vinegar through the washer monthly because we garden, etc. My washer cleans as good as the front loader, but I don't wash my comforter in it; I sewed 3 duvets for our 3 bedrooms & wash those instead. When will 'All Men realize/respect' a female's wisdom/intuition about things, I hope your washer repairman got a red face when he saw U had solved the broken part mystery ;)


ceejay ~ 25 push ups is great :carrot: When U feel sick U still clean & do laundry, U r amazing.

Terra ~ I'm happy for U that U r getting more sleep now. I don't know how U get lots of energy w your early hours :exercise:

Our football game just finished, so I'm going to sleep now. I wonder if everyone got snow today? We got 6" of fluffy :snowglo: beautiful powder all day long & gas is $1.70 gallon :smug: a very nice day.

Hi all,

Deep freeze has hit. Not supposed to get above zero today. Good day to stay inside. I think I'll make some soup and plan some meals for the week. Made a meatloaf yesterday - still looking for the perfect recipe! Tomorrow I am going back to the gym. It's going to be tough - I am still a bit winded from the cold and the head is still a little stuffy. I can feel how much strength I have lost and I notice that my hip is hurting again - not sure if it's the onset of the deep chilly weather but I do think the yoga and movement so far have helped with the usual aches and pains. Downton Abbey starts again tonight! I am missing my washing machine - the wash is piling up but DH said the agitator part is due to be shipped here tomorrow so that's good. I also decided to buy one of those balance ball chairs which I snagged from Amazon at half price. We will see how that works out. I hope it's not too hot to sit on. That's supposed to come tomorrow as well as one last book and a shipment of some hand soaps. I'm sure I will hear about it soon from DH about all the deliveries here lately. :o

Dee - I am glad you had good luck with your washing machines. I had a JC Penney brand that lasted me 16 years. Traded that out for a fancy Sears brand with all sorts of controls that DH thought was cool - not that he much does the laundry nor would I want him to "man wash" my clothes :yikes: We had that for 10 years and when we sold our house in Illinois the new owners wanted it and I knew I could not use the gas dryer in Tennessee so we left it for them. Got a new Maytag in Memphis - that lasted 18 months and turned into a mold pit due to a very flawed design. Kissed my money goodbye and purchased the one we have now with crossed fingers. Actually it's held up quite well I must say. The trouble starts when you need a repair according to most of the reviews. They don't teach these poor guys starting out very well how to fix stuff and there is a shortage of capable repair people I suspect like the cable companies - they probably don't pay very well or do things to keep good employees either. I am hoping the new agitator and the next new control board (especially that part) will work and I can get a few more years out of this machine. My Maytag dryer from 2005 is still running fine :crossed: It's a unique design that has an upper drying cabinet - the lady who bought our house in Tennessee REALLY wanted that dryer but not only was I not going to give it up - they also expected me to leave it to them for FREE. Then again they wanted to offer me $500 for my all wood, high end, barely used dining room set and figured we might want to leave the really large entertainment center in the living room rather than move it out. :rolleyes: Some people! Anyway, I digress as usual. Sorry.

We didn't get much snow - just a dusting. But we have plenty of really cold air to share if anyone needs some cooling. Shad???? :lol: Between cooking for one and your constant travelling - I would think that meal planning can be challenging for you. Then again, it sounds like you are more of the practical European buy a day or two's food - get less and go more frequently. That makes more sense than what we do here - shop in bulk and toss parts of it out unused at the end of the week. However when it's 5 degrees below zero as it is now, who wants to go out to the store? Not Me :no: You mention lime leaves - I don't think I've ever seen that up this way although we certainly have the lime fruit itself.

Susie - congratulations on scoring a great deal on a brand new car!! How exciting. Sorry to hear of your hip pain but that's wonderful that you have such a good chiropractor who not only adjusts but gives you therapy exercises. It's a pity we have to keep searching for health care workers that actually help us but when you find them - they are gold! Keep doing what you should be doing. Your eating sounds like my friend - she is a vegetarian and will not eat anything that is born or hatched so she eats dairy and eggs. Her hubby is a big sweets and meat lover, I often wonder how their meals go - I think he gets it where he can and eats what she makes at home :lol: I would agree with you though that if you are making soups or casseroles for yourself - it's hard to make them in 2 to 3 serving sizes.

Annie - I say a prayer for your brother whenever I think about it. I am glad Sissy took you out for the day and got your mind off your troubles for a while. :hug:

Ceejay- be careful with that Cipro if your tummy is already sore. That is mighty strong stuff. As for the rough, raggety voice, hot tea with lemon and honey will go a long way to sooth the soreness and the hoarseness. Boil a pot of water on the stove if you don't have a vaporizer too. Feel better!

Laura - did you get a chance to try the videos yet?

Hi Terra and Michelle - hope you are enjoying your weekend!

The sun is shining brightly. It is deceptively cold out there but looks very inviting from the inside of the windows. I can hear the frosty sirens singing :D Let me get off of here and get something useful done. Have a good Sunday ladies.

Good Sunday morning ladies,

My last day off before going back to work. I have enjoyed my time off. I was glad to be able to spend more time visiting Bob at the hospital and time with my step-mom playing Scrabble.

Today, I'm getting together with some friends for a doggie play date at the dog park. Then I'll go up to the hospital to see Bob and after that, I'm going to either take Santa on a long walk or go to the gym or both, and then it'll be back to the dog park in the late afternoon.

================================
Annie - Great job on the 13 lb loss. I'm praying for your brother, and for your surgery on Tuesday. Sending you lots of love and hugs, dear sister friend.

Susie - Congrats on the new car! How exciting!!

Shad - I hope you and the cats are able to stay cool and find some breezes.

Laura - I hope your allergies have eased up. Sounds like a nice NYE party. Have you seen the movie "Wild" yet? Or have you read the book? A friend of mine and I are planning to see the movie Wednesday evening.

Ceejay - Well done on all the counter pushups and other exercise.

Happy - I hope you're feeling better today. Bummer about the hip pain. My yoga teacher says "motion is lotion for the joints", which I'm finding to be very true. Sorry to hear about all your appliance woes. I saw on the news about the deep freeze. I do not miss that at all. It's been getting below freezing here at night. I absolutely love balance ball chairs! Well done on snagging it for half price.

Dee - I'd love to see photos of your puppies.

Terra - Good for you for sticking to your walking and chair exercises.

Well ladies, I've got to eat something before I head out to the doggie play date.

Much love to all,

I skipped church this morning. With my hip and thigh, I need to get up about every 15-20 min and stand so I didn't think that would work.

I'm making a grocery list so that DH can go to Walmart. We haven't done any real shopping in about 2 weeks, other than milk and bread and a bag of salad. So we need to get real food back in this house and meals planned for the week.

I also reworded our budget with the new car payment included so I can see it and keep things on track. I am a stickler for details and I need them as a roadmap for everything that I want to accomplish.

We head back to work tomorrow and it looks like we have snow coming. Why couldn't it have done that when I was off work and didn't need to get anywhere?!

I'm about to finish cleaning the bathroom and then the housework is done. The Bengals/Colt's came comes on at 1. Annie and I will be on opposing sides for this game! :D

Michelle: It sounds like you have a busy day planned. You are a very good friend to Bob. How is he doing?

Happy: Enjoy your day making the soup and staying warm. I hope the washing machine parts come soon and it is fixed soon. I hate to have laundry piled up but you don't have a choice.

Dee: Our snow is on the way I guess. Our gas is $1.86 a gallon today.

Shad: I am one who would rather have leafy veggies raw as well. Thanks for the examples of how you are making your food so that you don't have to cook all the time. That is the hardest part for us because we don't get home until late. I try to find meals that can be fixed in 30-40 minutes but then there is still the cleanup and such. I had a personal chef at one time for a couple of years and it was so great! She cooked for us 2 nights a week and we would eat the same meal twice and then have a simple sandwich type meal one day a week. We always go out on Friday night and it's easy to cook on Saturday and Sunday's.

On the weekends (now) we try to do things like a pot roast or pork roast with veggies (I just eat around the meat and add cottage cheese to my meal for protein) and then freeze the leftovers or have that at least once during the week.

I need to get the cleaning finished so I can relax and watch the game--or nap! ;)

Have a great Sunday!

Ceejay & Michelle ~ Thanks for commenting on me exercising, I must not be doing all that great though cause I've gained 8 pounds :( I went from 282 to 289 Ouch!!!!!

Susie ~ Did you get your laundry done? I got mine done yesterday

Dee ~ Yeah I'm glad I'm getting more sleep too

Happy ~ Yes my weekend has been going good. How is your weekend going?

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I woke up at 8:00 a.m. this morning. Its now 11:46 a.m., We are trying to figure out what we're doing for lunch/dinner. Chinese as been brought up and so has Chipolte so we'll see if one gets voted on. After lunch/dinner I'll do my 30 min. walk dvd and then later on tonight I'll do my 40 min. chair exercises, I also need to clean the bathroom sometime today too.

The Allegra has done wonders. And thanks for mentioning about the Cipro.
I felt awful when I woke up this morning but after I got to work and got warm I was good. Very little drainage. :dance: And of all thing my co-worker was coughing deep this morning. Maybe she will be better tonight.

Dee
Wish you were closer also. Are you said about seeing the puppies leave? We have cold air in place but no snow.

Happy
I've noticed that when the weather changes to extreme cold, my lower back where the arthritis is, is very painful. Hope the pain subsides.

Susie
I've never been to a chiropractor. Congrats on the new car!

Terra
Ouch on the weight gain, but I know you will take it off pronto. With all the exercise you could be gaining muscle.

Michelle
My week end was short. I'm ready for my long break in March. Never been to Houston.

Evening all,

Yesterdays dinner is attached. Even no. 2 son thought it was pretty good. And his mate loved it. Took less than 20 minutes to cook, and about the same time to prepare. Can't whinge about that.

Tonights dinner is not worth taking a photo of. I went to the dining room here at the motel and figured I might like a steak. It wasn't the cheapest meal in town. I ordered an eye fillet steak medium rare. It was as tough as old boots. If that was an eye fillet, the cow died of old age. The brocollini that went with it was bad news as well. So when they asked how it was, I thought I would let them know. So I did. They managed to reduce the price by $15 which was good. But I won't be getting much else from there again - unless it is soup. Surely they can't dry that out.

Okay, not even going to attempt personals tonight. I'm just about dead on my feet and I am getting a headache. So I will be back tomorrow with some more scintillating conversion.

See ya

Ceejay ~ Yeah I shouldnt be shocked about my 8 pound weight gain, You'll have out why if you finish reading my post

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I woke up at 4:00 a.m. this morning. Its 4:50 a.m. right now. Today my plans are to clean the bathroom, Do my 40 min. morning chair exercises, my 30 min. walking dvd and my 40 min. evening chair exercises. I also need to clean my room as well.

I have to come clean about my dieting and exercising. I havent been serious about my dieting and exercise for a couple of months now but I know I need to get serious about it if I ever want to reach my goal of 150 pounds. I just had to come clean and tell the truth. I'm sorry everyone for agreeing with everyone when they said I was doing good with my work outs :(, I hope everyone can forgive me.

Monday dulldrums....blah

Woke with a stuffed up head and nose. Trying to decide if I need to call the doc about the surgery tomorrow or just go do it and get it over with. Sneezing is the only thing that clears out my head. I am rather on the tired side and should of taken my temp as my eyes want to close and go to sleep. See that is what happens when my doc takes me off all my vits, minerals and herbs for the surgery. Two weeks without has thrown me into a head frenzy. Altho the grandbabes have been quite congested. hmmmmm.

The weekend was ok. Sissy and I went shopping, lunch and more shopping on Saturday. (Grocery, hair supply place, pet store, etc) She also colored my hair that morning before the day really began. We had a really nice time.

Yesterday was church and football. Sorry SUSIE, Colts beat the Bengals, altho Bengals put up a great fight. No worries, Peyton's Broncos will kick the Colts arse next weekend for sure. Also want to watch the Packers game CHELLE, next weekend. It should be a good one and I think the Packers will win.

We are due 3-6 inches of snow beginning tonight around 9pm. I am hoping it misses us but it doesn't look like it will. Great, will have to leave for the hospital around 8 to be there by 10. lol. It is only a 20-25 minute normal ride to the hospital. haha

Thank you everyone for the prayers for me, my brother and my family. We appreciate them immensely.

SUSIE...congrats on the new car. Whew who and 2015, you are living right sister. It is always fun to get a new car, however that first ding always hurts, lol.

CHELLE...you sure are doing a lot for being post op, you really need to get your rest before you wear yourself down and get sick. When is your next check up? I took monthly pictures of progression of myself and have those to look back on, you might want to do that too.

HAPPY...oh the washer whoas, how is that coming? Hopefully the part will come and you will be back in business. I shouldn't of watched DA in bed as I fell asleep 15 minutes into it. Dang it. I will just have to buy the season's dvd when it is released on the 27th of this month. I really remember requesting that you keep all the snow and cold up your way and now here we are going to get a storm blast tonight. lol

SHADDIE...your meals look and sound delish. Wish I was there to enjoy them with you. I am still eating on the cabbage/ham/potatos from NY day. We didn't end up having it for dinner that night, so leftovers it is. I don't mind cause I love cabbage.

CEEG...would you please get to the doc and find out what is going on? Don't make me come down there and whop you with the MELLIE's rolling pin. Take it easy, eat lightly till you find out what is going on. Did you get my snail mail?

TERRA...you sleeping hours sound much better. Good for you. Get back on the wagon and lose the lbs you gained.

DEE...fun times with the grandbabes, nothing like it. Glad you get to enjoy them like you do. We are due some of that nasty white stuff starting tonight. Not happy about that.

LAURA...your NYE party sounded quite nice and really peaceful. Now back to the work routine, bleh as you say. lol. Wish we had a thrift store nearby that we could frequent. All I can find is Goodwill and that place does nothing for their employees, I don't even donate to them anymore. I donate to St. Vincent DePaul or AmVets. Sounds like you have the head stoppage and ear fluid as I do, wow, we need a warm weather vacation. Are you ready?

Guess I better get busy and work for my pay here today. New year, new day. Make it a good one. I will report back in either Tuesday evening or Wednesday, my internet at home is out so I may just text LAURA/CHELLE and they can post for me.

Love and Hugs.

Morning all,

Minus 19 this morning. Brrrrr. It's back to the gym day - not looking forward to getting in a cold car - will be like driving the refrigerator down the street. Since the gym is only 4 miles away, the car will just start to warm up as we are pulling back into the driveway on the round trip home. I told DH I wanted to get a remote starter on the new car but he didn't see the reason for it. We'd have to go outside and pull the car out of the garage anyway in order to start it so I guess I will reluctantly agree with him. Many people up here have remote starts simply to warm the car up in the winter. I didn't really do much of anything yesterday except some cooking and a bit of clean up. Watched the last episode of last season's Downton Abbey just to remember what was going on and then watched the new episode. They had a 30 minute bonus feature with one of the experts talking about how precise everything had to be in English aristocracy - clothing, postures, mannerisms. I'm sure if reincarnation is true - I was more the scullery maid in a prior life rather than an aristocrat. :lol:

Today is back to the gym day. I'm going to try for that new yoga class too. Part of me is whining and tired but the other part says I am tired because I have been away from things for 2 weeks and that's what happens when you stop. Takes great strides to make progress and you lose it fairly quickly. So press on girl and do something hard today. :D

Annie - good luck with your surgery tomorrow. Sending you good wishes that all goes well. As for the sniffles - you know yourself better than anyone - is this the start of the rampant flu or just as you say how you feel when you are taken off of everything prior to surgery? I guess it won't hurt to make a quick call to the office and ask because of the anesthesia. To your question - according to Sears I am to get the new washer agitator today and tomorrow the new control board. So we are set for the technician to install them on Thursday. I hope the bits won't freeze on their way here. Or the bottles of hand soap I ordered that are due today or tomorrow. Black Cherry Merlot from Bath and Body Works. Oh that smells so good!!!! I wish they made it in a body wash. As for the snow we drove north to Duluth and they had no snow and my sister said it was raining in Chicago the other day. It's all white out here so I'd have to say I held up my part of the bargain about keeping the snow up here. As for the cold - at minus 19 there is only so much we can contain here - I have to share lest it be - 60 here :lol:

Terra - ok you fessed up - that's a start. Now get back on the wagon again. Holidays are over, we are all starting back clean again. ;)

Shad - quite frightful about the steak dinner and if they took $15 off - that had to be a rather pricey entrée. The curry looking dish looked quite nice. Pity you can't do much cooking for yourself while in Melbourne. Hope you got a good rest and are feeling better later on.

Ceejay - sometimes we feel a bit better when we get up and move around a bit. I think things sometimes get stuffed up and clogged when we are sleeping. I have never been to Houston either although my niece lives there currently. Supposed to be quite pretty. Definitely warmer on the winters there. You should have a good time in March.

Susie - I always thought a personal chef made sense when you are both working and have busy schedules. It's really not that much more when you can double up on the meals - no waste on the groceries, good nutrition and portion control!

Michelle - looks like having a dog keeps you quite busy with moving and social friends :D And you are not even trying to walk the beach and pick up the opposite sex like guys would :rofl: Glad things are going well for you and I totally agree with your yoga teacher's comments about motion lotion. :D

Hello to the others. I should get going and eat something and pack my gym bag. Probably would be better if I changed out of my pajamas too :lol: Have a good day everyone.

HAPPY....I ordered a new yoga tape by bodywisdom. Yoga for 50 and over. I have not added it to my collection yet but is on my night stand. lol. Hopefully I will get motivated to try it. Ease into your gym routine, it is just like starting over when you have missed a few weeks. I guess my cold is not of an issue as the doc office has not called me back.

I ordered a food steamer off of Amazon today. Got it for 2.03 by opening a prime account. I am sold on crab legs and shrimp steamed. So yummy. Cannot wait to use it. Also like the idea of fresh steamed veggies. This should help with weight loss. Here's to hoping.

Later gaters

Afternoon all. I’m back to 5-day workweeks today!

Annie – I hope your surgery is still a go for tomorrow – you need it, best to just get it over with. My thoughts and prayers are with you sister. And your brother as well. I dvr’d Downton Abbey because I knew bf would be watching football. He’s been dvr’g the games so he doesn’t have to sit through all the commercials and timeouts, lol. I could’ve watched DA on the bedroom tv, but it’s a sure bet that I’d fall asleep 10 minutes in. Hahaha. If I’m not ready for a tropical vacation today, I likely will be by tomorrow. We’re getting the same snow that you are tonight, and it’ll be even colder tomorrow than it is right now, which is 4 degrees F. Brrrr!

Susie – Congrats on your new car! Enjoy that new car smell!! :D Good that your chiro is giving you exercises to stretch the trouble spots – otherwise it’ll just happen again at some point.

Shad – I imagine you’re back in Melbourne today. Forgot to comment when you mentioned it a while back about cleaning the microwave. I gave ours a cleaning before our NYE guests came over – it needed it. Good thing I did!! One guest brought something to be heated up and she wanted to use the microwave! We always cover everything that goes in there, yet it still gets dirty! :shrug:

Terra – Ouch re the weight gain! I put weight back on over the course of the last year starting about March/April, so it’s back to work for both of us! Good to ‘fess up and just lay it on the table. I updated my ticker a week or two ago, and it’s time to get back on track. If I don’t post about exercise, I’m not doing all that much! Feel free to call me on it, LOL.

Happy – Hope you weren’t too cold on your trip to/from the gym today. We had remote start on a previous car, but not on our current one. It was a nice thing to have! But keeping the car in the garage sure helps. We had rain on Saturday that was really slushy on the pavement, but more snow-like on the grass. It was not fun walking the dog in that! Then we had snowfall yesterday, but just an inch or two.

Ceejay – It’s nice to have a fun event to look forward to like you do in March. I hope your sinus troubles have eased up. Good job on the pushups! I haven’t started my challenge yet. I have my challenge sheet on the computer here at work, so I’ll print it today and bring it home. I like to mark off the days as I complete them.

Michelle – I hope your first day back at work isn’t too tiring for you. It might actually be the break you need from all the activities you were doing while you were off work!!! :D No, I haven’t seen “Wild” yet, nor have I read the book. I probably won’t venture out in the cold this week to go to movie night. I’m a weasel that way, lol.

Dee – How’s it going with the puppies? Will you miss them when they’ve all gone to their new homes?

--
My weekend was fine, but mostly lazy, though I did so some laundry on Saturday, did the usual dogwalks both days, and yesterday I made some split pea soup. I took down all the Christmas decorations except the tree.

My cookbook shelf was a major mess, so I set that to rights. I even ended up putting 3 or 4 cookbooks in the donation bag. The vast majority of my cookbooks have been ones that my mother bought at garage sales and passed along to me. A lot of them are real oldies and I like them more for the retro vibe – the photography and the types of recipes. There are so many in which I’m almost 100% certain to never make any of the recipes in them that I should just get rid of them. There’s some that I’ll keep – I have an old Scholastic Books “Peanuts” cookbook that’s cute. I also have a pretty old version of a Weight Watchers cookbook – it’s funny to look through it to see the foods and recipes that fit into the old WW plan. I think this was in the era when liver was a required food, hahaha. I bought several shrink-to-fit clear plastic book covers on clearance a while back. I finally put one of those on one of my newer cookbooks and will probably cover a few others. The real issue Is trying to keep the pages inside clean while using them! I have a clear acrylic cookbook holder that is handy and I use it frequently. I used a recipe from my America’s Test Kitchen cookbook the other day and I was annoyed that the recipe fell onto a 2nd page and I didn’t use the cookbook holder because I kept flipping the page back and forth.

I still haven’t set up my Fitbit! But I have been exercising! I’ve done a workout each day for the past 4 days – two “Classical Stretch” workouts, then a Body Electric workout and yesterday was the Suzanne Deason Pilates dvd. The Pilates dvd reminded me how much I like the Pilates classes I’ve taken at the park district, however, I can’t see myself doing that dvd over and over. It would be too monotonous. I will, however, keep the dvd until it comes due because it not only has a combined workout (three levels of difficulty shown during one workout), but it also has two separate workouts showing the two different levels of modified workouts individually. I’ll do those as well. I’ll print my easy pushup challenge sheet and start that as well.

I misplaced my pedometer for a few days, but I finally came across it on Saturday. Today’s steps so far are 4,177.

I’ll probably take a break from exercise tonight and set up my Fitbit (finally). And watch Downton Abbey! :queen:

Okay, lunch time is done, better post and get back to work! TTFN.

Hi ladies,

I've been in a funk for the last couple days...and I have no idea why. Perhaps I need to win the lottery so that I can stay at home with D and Santa. :D

=====================

Terra - A lot of people say this...but in the last year, I have proven it's true for me. Exercise is important to keep the metabolism going...but there aren't enough exercise hours in the day to make up for high calorie eating. I would recommend trying MyFitnessPal or SparkPeople to track your food. Many of us are on MyFitnessPal. It's great for accountability, especially when you become aware of what actual portion sizes are as compared to what we eat. You can track calories, carbs, sugars or whatever you want to limit. Once I saw what I was actually eating, I was able to make better choices to get the most protein/nutrients per calories. For example, I love Greek yogurt. Dannon Lite and Fit Greek has only 80 calories and lots of protein, it helps keep me full longer (even before I had surgery a Greek yogurt or Egg Beaters for breakfast). I also like low-fat string cheese...only 50 calories and lots of protein. Prior to surgery, I limited my carbs to approximately 19 grams per meal. Now I have A LOT less than that because I've had to eliminate pasta, rice, potatoes, sugary food, bread and cereals from my diet. So basically my suggestion to you to lose the 8 pounds and more would be to keep up with the exercise AND track your food....honestly....I used to "guesstimate" portion sizes and wonder why I didn't lose. I started to lose weight when I started getting honest about what I was eating...every bite, lick and taste (BLT). Chipotle has some good healthy options, and if you go to Panda Express for Chinese food, choose the steamed veggies instead of rice or chow mein, and avoid the deep fried entrees. Before surgery, I used to get a bowl of steamed veggies with broccoli beef on top and I was amazed how few calories that was compared to the other menu items. As for fessing up about your eating and exercise, I'm really proud of you for coming clean. You've got to be honest with yourself most of all.

Ceejay - I've never been to any part of Texas. So nice that you're going to get to spend time with your sister.

Shad - That would tick me off if I paid for a nice filet and got shoe leather. Ugh.

Susie - A personal chef sounds great! When I was married, I would cook a lot of "make-ahead meals" on the weekends that just had to be reheated and paired with a salad. Dang, your gas is under $2 per gallon? Ours in CA is around $2.50, which is a big improvement from what it was. Glad that you were able to rework your budget for the new car payment.

Annie - So glad you had a nice day with your daughter. I hope your head congestion clears up and you don't have to postpone your surgery. Sending prayers your way, dear sister...and to your brother too. Sending you lots of hugs. My next post-op is at 3 months, so about 5 weeks from now. My trainer has been taking monthly progress photos. I'll take a couple not in workout clothes pretty soon. Nice that you got the food steamer! I found a great recipe for shrimp scampi over Zuccini "strips"...it looks so delicious and is bariatric friendly! I just adore recipes that don't contain starchy stuff.

Happy - 19 below! :yikes: :brr: Have a good workout! I'm wondering if my blue mood is due to not working out every day.

Lots of love and hugs,

Shrimp Scampi Zoodles
 

Shrimp Scampi Zoodles

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...49fc7b9e4f.jpg


http://www.skinnytaste.com/2015/01/s...s-for-two.html


Shrimp Scampi Zoodles for Two
Skinnytaste.com
Servings: 2 • Size: 6 shrimp, 1 zucchini • Old Pts: 3 • Weight Watcher Points+: 4 pt
Calories: 161 • Fat: 8 g • Carb: 13 g • Fiber: 4 g • Protein: 11 g • Sugar: 4 g
Sodium: 76 mg • Cholest: 72 mg

Ingredients:

2 medium zucchini, about 8 oz each
1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil. divided
4 minced garlic cloves, divided
12 large peeled and deveined shrimp (about 6.5 oz)
kosher salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/2 tsp fresh grated lemon zest
3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
1/8 tsp hot red pepper flakes

Directions:



Use a mandolin fitted with a julienne blade or a spiralizer to cut the zucchini into noodles. Cut the strips into 6 to 8-inch strips.

In a large nonstick pan, melt the butter and 1 teaspoon olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add the shrimp, kosher salt, and the pepper and saute until the shrimp have just turned pink, about 5 minutes, stirring often. Set aside.

Add the remaining oil and garlic to the skillet, cook 30 seconds then add the zucchini noodles, kosher salt and pepper. Cook 2 minutes, stirring.

Remove from the heat, add the shrimp, parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes. Toss well to combine and serve immediately.

Makes two servings: 6 shrimp each, 1/2 the zoodles

Laura - you were posting above me. I'm still on 4-day work weeks for the rest of January...then going to 5 day. I do not miss the bitter cold. I'm impressed that you have nearly 5,000 steps and it's only 1 pm! Well done on all your exercising. I'm still trying to find what fitness tracker would work best for me since I mostly exercise on a stationary bike. What's the URL for the easy pushup challenge?