Sunday Weigh in December 17, 2023

[Barb135]

Good afternoon.  I hope everyone is having a good day.  Yes, I'm running behind again, but we're used to that now!!  :-)  It's been a busy day and I still have a ton of things to get finished.  The sun is finally coming out so, hopefully, I'll be a bit more motivated this afternoon.  All day yesterday and so far today, it's been dark, dreary and rainy.  We had a little over 4.5" of rain yesterday and last night.  This morning, it was mostly cold drizzle - yuck!!

Tomorrow is the Holiday Luncheon for my calligraphy guild, so I've been busy preparing for that.  We have a raffle and I offered to donate a pen, so I had to get busy and make them... yes, them.  I only give away 1, but I make 2 so the winner has a choice, since everyone tends to like a different style.   I also have gifts to wrap and food to get ready for the luncheon, since it's potluck.  There's also an envelope contest, in which envelopes are decorated and judged.  I have one, but won't submit it, since it didn't turn out as expected - they rarely do and I have yet to submit an envelope for the contest.  I do have another in progress and if I finish it satisfactorily, I might submit it, but we'll have to see about that.  

Other than that, I've been trying to get ready for Christmas.  We don't have much as there's only husband, our daughter, her daughter and her son.  Christmas got all messed up this year because daughter's ex is taking their daughter out of State for Christmas, so we won't even have Christmas until after New Year's with them...  Husband and I will open our gifts on Christmas morning and go out for Christmas dinner.  Our neighbors are going with us so that will be nice.  

I also found out the other day that my brother, out of state, is in the hospital.  He's elderly (more so than me), with some dementia setting in and has/had aspiration pneumonia and an intestinal bacteria.  My niece had taken him to live with her, but before she did that, she's pretty sure he'd eaten some questionable food, which could account for the intestinal bacteria.  

I only missed one day of walking this week, so that was good.  I'm still trying to keep down the amount of food I'm eating and I did actually manage to lose a little over 1/2 lb this week.  It's not much and will probably be back tomorrow (don't forget that luncheon), but for today, I'm claiming a loss of 1/2 lb.   It felt good to see some different numbers on the scale this morning!!  

So that's my story.  If you celebrate Christmas, I hope your preparations are going well.  If you don't, I hope you're enjoying whatever fun this time of year brings for you.  

~~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week~~

[Athena_M]

Hi Barb and Annie.
Barbara I like hearing about your calligraphy group. Annie it sounds wonderful to have a freshly cut Christmas tree.
I was doing really well with my weight loss last month but now the weight is starting to creep back on.
It seems like sugar is everywhere. I ate a few cookies over the week. Then I ate two See's almond clusters. They gave me an aura migraine where I see blue. Luckily it didn't last long.
I started a cardio class through my local community college. It's online with no meetings.  We exercise on our own through an app. We have to do 3 hours per week of cardio. I plan to do 30 minutes 6 days a week on my mini cylce. Last night was my first 30 minutes. I felt wonderful afterwards.
Two nights ago I took my son out with his church college group to see Christmas lights. The lights were pretty but then everyone wanted to eat at In N out hamburgers. It was late and I had a hamburger and fries. Now it seems I am so bloated and my face even looks swollen. I haven't eaten at this place in 3 years. I guess it doesn't agree with me.

[AnnieBrooke]

Well, the salt in the food at burger joints is a lot. You might not have trouble eating hamburger if you cooked it at home. You're luckily the almond clusters gave you a migraine, in my case all they would do is start me up for wanting more almost clusters!
Nice to hear about the cardio class. I'm glad to be able to do Pilates, but probably wouldn't stick with it if I did it at home, I clearly need the group.

[Barb135]

I agree about the sodium in fast food burgers and fries.  We don't eat at them very often, but I sometimes order my fries without salt - that does 2 things - guarantees hot fries, since they have to make a fresh batch to get some without salt and of course, eliminates some of the swelling/bloating I usually have to deal with after eating there.

It's wonderful about your cardio program, though I'm with Annie - I'd need the group to stick with it.  I walk most days, but only when my neighbor is here to walk with me and keep me motivated.  

I love my calligraphy guild - I've made a lot of new friends and learned a ton of new skills since I joined 4 yrs ago.  It does keep me busy, though.  

Have a good week and enjoy the festivities of the season.  

[AnnieBrooke]

I didn't even realize it was Sunday until late in the day, and wasn't going to weigh in with two meals under my belt! But it didn't help much to wait; I weighed this morning and am up 1.1 pound from last week. We've started to go to holiday events, and have to get more real about the food. Everyone cooks their best dishes, and it doesn't even matter if the food is sweet, I'm eating more than usual. It's not like the causes of weight-gain are waived because it's Christmas or anything.

Husband and son have decided they are going to go out and cut a live tree. (Our county has lots of Christmas-tree farms and U-cut fields.) They'll come home muddy with a muddy tree, who knows what kind of tree stand, and how are we going to protect the hardwood floor from the water? I'm sorely tempted to ask them set the tree up on the front porch, which is tile. I'll sound like the Grinch if I say this, though.

We have a lot of house prep to do before the big Christmas-cookie baking bash on Saturday. I look forward to the bash and shy away from the thought of all the cleaning and decorating and buying of supplies. At least my son is out of school this week and might provide some help, especially with the decorating. We have boxes of stuff, it should be interesting for him to decide where to put it.

Well, enough grumping on a Monday morning, time to get to work. Hope everyone has a great week!

[Barb135]

Oh my - I'd definitely ask for the tree to put on the front porch - just think how much better it can be seen from the street!!  lol  Barring that, I'd make sure there was a huge plastic container to catch any spills and/or dirt/mud from the tree.  

I'm glad I don't do a lot of decorating - the tree and a few small things is good for me.  :-)  Your cookie bake sounds like fun and I'm sure your son will do great with the decorating.

We don't do a lot of holiday parties, but when we did, I found that eating an apple or celery with peanut butter before I went to a party was enough to keep me from over indulging the goodies.   Of course, back then, I wasn't overweight, so didn't really have to worry about weight - I was more concerned about the salt and sugar than anything else.

Anyway, don't forget to enjoy.