A Poem for the New Year

First Foot

One .... two .... three .... four ....

Midnight knocking at our door.

A tall dark stranger waits outside

Turning away, his face to hide.

A lump of coal in one black hand -

What does it mean? Why does he stand

Holding his other hand out to us all

As we welcome him into the midnight hall?

Goodbye to the old year, good luck in the new,

'Come in, dear friend, peace be with you.'  

- Ian Serraillier

Food Diary Blues

I didn't keep a food diary or weigh in during week 3 and 4, and I gained back the pounds lost in the first couple of weeks. Correlation doesn't prove causation, but I'm thinking there is probably a connection.

So I'm using the food/exercise diary again. I hate it for a number of reasons:

• Filling it out is tedious.
• Every time I eat something different I have look up the calories.
• If I don't exercise the empty space on the calendar stares blankly, rebuking me for my laziness.
• I'm already over target by nearly 700 calories in the first 2 days this week, which means I have to cut back a lot. Knowing this means I can't pretend I'm doing okay, which kind of sucks.

This weight loss project is giving me the blues!

Great Show

Saw a delightful Christmas show at Chicago's Goodman Theater this week. It was Congo Square's "The Nativity," a re-telling of the birth of Christ through singing and dancing. My son-in-law Casey Diers, designed the lighting, which was warm and elegant and highlighted the actors' movements and costumes beautifully. I thoroughly enjoyed the deeply emotional performances and rich voices of the ensemble.

Shoppercizing



Shoppercizing at the mall

 It's day 2 of week 3 of my weight loss effort. So far, so good. My calorie count was just under the target for last week. I weigh myself every other day or so; last week I was consistently 2 pounds lighter. Today, the scale says I've lost 3 pounds.

Tracking all food and drinks is tedious, so I stopped recording things that don't have measurable calories like black coffee, diet pop, and lettuce on sandwiches.

Still need to exercise more. But I'm consistently doing 15 minutes of something which is improvement. Last night I shopped at Gateway Mall for 5 hours. Never worked up a sweat or had to breathe hard, but I was really worn out at the end--does that count as exercise? Why not? Let's call it Shoppercizing!

Happy Birthday To Me

I celebrated my birthday by making cupcakes and giving them to our Frank & Simon's customers. Call me an attention whore if you like; it was fun.

Birthday Cupcakes!

Next day, the family went downtown for a swing dance lesson followed by some practice at the Del Ray Ballroom. Lots of slapstick comedy there!

Swing dancing with my son. In background, hubby is dancing with my mother.

Then we went to Dish for dinner, which was fabulous. We had the cheese platter for an appetizer, which everyone loved. My entree was grilled pork tenderloin with apples, sauteed spinach and butternut squash, and mashed potatoes. Drank water and skipped dessert, but I estimate that was 742, which is a lot. But it couldn't have tasted better, and at least we got some exercise!

French Fries & Donuts

It's day 2, week 2. Yesterday I went 400 calories over the target. Damn those fast food french fries! Looked it up on Runza's nutrition web page to log my food from last night, and discoved a medium order of fries has 410 calories. Okay, lesson learned. If I'm really craving their fries, a small order at 280 calories is the way to go.

Gordon may be trying to sabotage my diet. He delivered an order to Randy's Donuts this morning and brought back my favorite kind, a cake donut with chocolate icing. According to my Food Counts book, that's 130 calories. Yes I ate it--it's my favorite!

Family Ties

Thanksgiving weekend this year was just the way I like it...lots of time with extended family that we don't see often. I feel especially grateful to the relatives who travelled and those who hosted gatherings, giving us the opportunity to strengthen family ties.