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!

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

Good morning lovely ladies,

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 So the poor guy ran his diagnostics with both of us standing there watching him 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 So no confetti, horns or Auld Lang Syne for us - just oops - it's 12:05 Happy New Year! 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.

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

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.

Shad - happy belated birthday 8 months past 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!

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.

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

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. Might just bring a bedroll and fall asleep on the mat afterwards 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? 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

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

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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