Let the Merriment Begin!

Today is the first day of the holiday season! Well, for me it is. I hung the wreath. The first step.

I love the Christmas season - every single thing: the buying, the wrapping, the cooking, the eating [well, you know about that!], the tree, the music, the everything else. Unfortunately, Mitchell is less enthusiastic, altho he puts up with my enthusiasm for it. And, he does like some of it - he just doesn't want to admit it.

So, step one: The wreath is up. Previous years I used this wreath with big red poinsettias on it, but my wonderful sister-in-law gave me the oversized metal "ornaments" for Christmas last year. I liked them so much that I chased down a local source and bought a couple more. I love the look now.

Ho, ho, ho!

Kicking it up a Notch

So... the 10-10-10 Get in Better Shape (aka Lose Some Weight) program is not going so well. After a week's vacation that included five mornings of tennis and two days on a bike, I "only" gained five pounds - putting me at a new lifetime high weight. Not at all the sort of record one wants to set - ever!

It's time to kick it up a notch.

I have a lot of things going for me:

1) I have all the skills and experience I need for this. I have lost weight successfully a number of times. [Altho it's also true that I am even more successful at gaining it back. We will deal with that later - in about six months!]

2) I have support. Stacy (a Wise Woman), you all in blogland, and starting today Mitchell. More on that later.

3) I have found an exercise that I actually like - Jazzercise - and have been slowly increasing the number of times a week I go. And after a three-month break, I am ready to start playing tennis again.

4) I have a new tool. I know that journaling is incredibly helpful in the weight loss game, but I have not been doing it. Apparently having to write it down if it goes into the mouth causes us to either not put it in the mouth at all, or to choose a healthier option. You know, a cup of tea instead of a tablespoon of peanut butter (right out of the jar!). But, keeping track in my head is just not doing the trick.

5) And, perhaps most important of all, I know that I can do it. It will be hard, but I can do it.

And, I'm sharing the new tool with you. It's a free website called MyFitnessPal. You set up an account, set your goals and create a profile and then track both your food intake and your exercise on whatever basis you want - daily, weekly, or whatever. That sounds a lot like journaling, doesn't it? The modern difference is that the site calculates how much exercise and how many calories you need for a slow and sensible weight loss and provides the info on how many fat grams, carbs, protein grams and fiber grams on a daily basis. As you enter your foods consumed, it calculates what you have left. At the end of the day - when you have also entered any exercise - it gives you a daily summary.

You can do weigh-ins as you wish and it keeps a running track, as well as calculating BMI - now, that's scary - and resting metabolism and all sorts of other nerdy statistical stuff. There are message boards, blogs, all sorts of community resources. You have the option to post your weight loss to your Facebook account - like I'm going to do that!! And if you have one of those fancy phones, you can access your account from there and do your inputting on the fly.

Mitchell found the site this morning and shared it with me. He announced that he wants to lose some weight, too, and we are going to work together on this. It helps so much to have an in-the-house partner. We planned dinner together tonight and calculated how much each of us could have, and he's already talking about how to make soup tomorrow, so it will be a good partnership for us both.

If you are interested, please join us. We're gonna get healthy ... and a bit slimmer! My goal is significant for a short woman, so it may take nine months or more, so I am looking at 11-11-11 as a goal date. How do you like that?

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is my favorite holiday. None of the stress of present-buying and all of the love of Christmas with better rules. Here are some to remember:

1) Family is number one: but more importantly, family is who you say it is. When Mitchell and I were first a couple we had several Thanksgiving celebrations where we included all the singles and folks "with no where to go" that we knew. It was great fun. A pot luck to bring everyone together and instructions to bring your favorite dish. Sometimes the menu was odd, but the family time always wonderful.

It's always great to be with one's birth family or one's family by marriage, but there are lots of other ways to slice and dice a family and the love is just as good.

2)Tradition is important: All thru college I traveled home with Elizabeth to her traditional Italian-American family. Mama Lee pulled me right into the heart of their celebration and taught me that one really must include pasta in the festivities. She knew I loved gnocchi, so she always made it by hand from potato flour for dinner on Wednesday night when we arrived, but there was always a real pasta for Thanksgiving dinner. I know that when Elizabeth and her sister and their families sit down to dinner today in Florida there will be red sauce on something, 'cause that's how we do it in our family.

3) Food is definitely important: Where would we be without green bean casserole? or sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top? But there are lots of other ways to go. During our vegetarian period, we had tofu. And, we have frequently substituted chicken, or smoked the turkey rather than baking it. Two years we had fried oysters as the main course, and tonight I'm thinking it might be prime rib. It's all about enjoying whatever is on the table.

3b) Overdoing on the cooking is not necessary: I think we all have a preconception of what should be served and tend to work ourselves to death to obtain it. I am looking forward to learning what my friend Marn has this year. She will attend a small gathering for which her granddaughter and her friend - aged 18-ish - will be the chefs. I suspect it will be great, and all the better for having been prepared by new cooks who are sprouting their wings.

4) Home is where the heart is: For many years now Mitchell and I have traveled away for Thanksgiving - just the two of us. We have dined in restaurants by ourselves, with friends, and once with a couple we met while waiting for our table. It was a lovely evening. They were about 20 years our senior and we enjoyed learning about their family and their tradition of travel - which was much like ours. As long as the two of us are together, it's home.

5) Don't worry about shopping until tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you are at home with the family you love today. And thanks for being out there day after day to read the drivel on this blog. I am very thankful for you all!

Much is being said these days about the TSA and the new airline security pat-downs. If you have not seen Saturday Night Live's* take on this... you must. If you have.... it's probably worth another look! Happy Tuesday!




* Consider this a warning. It is SNL!