Day the 55th

Read it here first...I have started a new journal.

This journal details:

1. How much water I drink each day
2. How much of my supplements and vitamins I take each day
3. Overall, what I eat
4. My mood
5. How much SLEEP I managed to get the night before
6. Movement--exercise, walking, carrying stuff out to the trash, housework...anything
7. 5 things for which I am grateful that day
8. One thing that is kind or thoughtful or good that I have done for someone else that day
9. One thing that I have done for myself

And I think that's it! A friend does this each day--Poodle--and I decided to do it, too.

Went to Pei Wei for lunch today, and had 2 servings of steamed edamame ("no salt") and it was so good and fun to eat. Saw Susan who works there and is a friend from before I started going to Pei Wei. And this morning, my breakfast was a beautiful, ripe, juicy Ruby Red Grapefruit from Texas...those Texans sure know how to grow grapefruit...

Here's the deal--this works for me. I like eating this way. I wasn't hungry afterwards until I realized "hey, it's lunch time and yes, I do want something to eat!" I love that...

I am taking a little vacation and visiting some other churches that I have longed to see, as in loooooooooonged...St. Jerome's is my home, but it's fun to go on a trip so you can doubly enjoy coming home and staying there. Today, I visited Trinity with my friend Keith the English Prof and we sat with Bill the Presence. Such a beautiful service--a great homily--incredible music--gorgeous, awe-inspiring nave--lovely people. It was so cool to be there. I'm going to visit there and Holy Family a few times before wending my way back home.

And it's back on the Correct Eating and Weight Loss Trail I go! Who's with me?

And hey! post your New Year's Resolutions!

Love you and thank you for joining me...

Independently,

Weltha

Day the 41st--SUNDAY December 19 (Saturday below)

And in other news...

Let's see...I forgot to tell you, Gentle Readers All, that I received a LOVELY gift box from my friend Sue Ellen the Librarian in Virginia, on Saturday.

Reader, I opened it. It was filled with lovely Avon stuff (I adore Avon...so affordable and so very good) and lovely Christmas sweets (more about this in a minute) and darling fuzzy socks infused with refreshing mint and shea butter (can you say "Spa Experience" anyone?) and finally, the single MOST gorgeous fuschia scarf I have ever seen, and which has spent MUCH time on my neck over basic black since almost that very hour.

Now that's what I call a friend. AND...my friend Martha the College Buddy has sent me a package, to arrive any day now, but I have promised to be A Good Person and not open it until...that's right, the Feast of the Nativity itself (Christmas Day to you non-Anglicans and non-Roman Catholics). Oh yeah, Martha the College Buddy is definitely a friend, too! She is the Queen of Loyalty. And so is Sue Ellen...

As to the sweets--and thank you Sue Ellen!--I shared them with Alyce [aka Pearl] who will be passing them off on her grandchildren. Woo hoo--they have been deeply loved and admired (especially those frosted spice cookies) but they won't be spending January making my posterior...bigger.

Now...on to Sunday.

Once again, not much eating in the morning BECAUSE I GET SO BUSY AND I FORGET! But...I was lector at St. Jerome's [read a passle of Scripture and then CHANTED--yes--CHANTED the Psalm for the day! Woo hoo! And didn't pass out from stage fright...]

And people said I did a nice job, and Francie May at St. Jerome's told me and Poodle that it was obvious I had lost weight AND that I was lookin' good. Francie May is a paragon of style and elegance so I took that as a MAJOR COMPLIMENT, and why not? Thank you, dear Francie May! And thanks to Poodle for passing on the "lookin' good" comment.

And then my friend Virginia the Fellow Alto said that someone I absolutely bow down to in terms of his intellect had referred to me as brilliant and oh, what can I say! And my friend Woodstock agreed that this was so, and he is brilliant beyond imagining...

Talk about gifts--those are some of the best I can imagine.

Later in the afternoon, I decided to hit the $$ movie (because girlfriend here had spent most of her spare $$$ on Christmas stuff and that's fine...the cats and I are not missing meals, the car isn't running out of gas, not about to be evicted for non-payment of rent and the utilities are not going to be cut off. Yes, very good!) and I saw Clint Eastwood's lovely film Hereafter. Now...I am a major Clint Eastwood the director FAN, and this was wonderful. Wonderful. Wonder. Full.

But before the movie, I went to this little Mediterranean place on Memorial and had a lovely chicken sandwich with Mediterranean pickles and garlic sauce in pita bread and enjoyed it. A lot. A whole lot.

Life these days is so much fun.

Now...I will soon post those dadgum pictures! I promise. It's just that I have to fool around with them in order to post them as I want.

After work, I will post for today..and then...I will be caught up!

Thanks for joining me on this Way Too Much Fun and Slightly Wacky Trip. I love having you all along with me...LOVE IT.

Oh, special shout-out to Scott the Organist and he knows why! You GO, brother...(just FYI, he is neither Scott the Bagelman nor Scott the Lector. Yes, 3 separate Scotts in my life...a girl can never have too much Scott in her life...)

LOVE YOU ALL!

Independently,

Weltha

Day the 39th [Not Posting This Weekend]

O M G ! D'NOVO has incredible food.

If you live in "my town," and you care about food and about not eating gross amounts of junk with the concommitant calories, get yourself to 61st and Yale to D'Novo. A totally sleek and elegant and minimalist design to the restaurant, really quiet surroundings, the serve-yourself-drink machine is hidden behind a panel, lots of calm off-white, and no entree above 500 calories.

That's right...you read it here. AND...desserts not above 500 calories, including a flourless 2-chocolate thing that I must have as a reward when I break 200 (all right...that's gonna be a while. At least 17 weeks, and that's ONLY if I continue to lose 2 lbs a week which is--as Doctor X and I told you--the outside of the weight loss envelope...Let's say it's going to be 18 weeks, and that translates into...April 21st. Plenty of time to anticipate it...)

Anyhoodle, if you live here, go there. The food is wonderful--I had a chicken salad sandwich on a wonderful granola bread...real chicken, lightly spiced, delicate binder holding it all together, with lettuce and a slice of tomato...and a cup of Asian slaw that tasted as though the binder was...tahini? or did I taste a hint of peanut? with a little kick to it. And my gift from Granny Jean was a gift card to go there, so I am going to take one of the BFFs there...

Let me say this...who wants to eat junk? Not me. I don't want to eat food that tastes lousy or food that is nothing but chemicals and is horrible for me. Good healthy--and I really mean healthy--food can taste great and still not be high in calories. I am totally impressed with this place. Spread the WORD!!! Go there, support it--and I am happy to say that I saw Scott the Lector (not to be confused with Scott the Bagelman) from St. Jerome's there...way to support good stuff! Oh, this is a guy who makes his own hummus for when it's his turn to supply the treats for after church in the undercroft (as Bishop Rick says, that's Anglican for basement...) Oh yes, he knows good food.

I won't be posting Saturday, December 18 (Day the 40th) or Sunday, December 19 (Day the 41st) until Monday at lunch. The reason is that the fair Anglicans at St. Jerome's have an Advent calendar that advises not emailing, etc. over the weekend with no cheating. So...Sister Weltha-the-Anglican is going to stay away from the 'puter--no emailing, no Mafia Wars, no posting on the blog. Ba doomp boomp...

Also...a little advertisement: if you live here in my town, please consider yourself invited to St. Jerome's Feast of the Nativity (also known as Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve). There is a wine and nibbles reception starting at 10 pm on December 24th, and then the service--complete with incense, black-and-white robes (cassocks and surplices) on the choir, Bishop Rick in his Big Bishop Hat, and lots of singing, not to mention placing the Baby Jesus in the manger. We love this service--particularly because it was snowed out for the first time in the history of our charming church last year and it was a major bummer and let-down. We get all sorts of excited that we are celebrating that Jesus was born, a real baby in a real small town. And there will be all the lovely features of a high mass--the Scripture readings (fun fact: Anglicans read four portions of Scripture in every service: OT, NT, Psalms, and Gospels. We read loads of Scripture, for you that like that sort of thing. We like it), the Lord's prayer, confessing our sins, the Peace ("Anglican Meet-and-Greet"), one of the creeds (the Nicene...my personal favorite in my personal favorite version: Rite I--woo hoo!) and of course, the highlight of any Anglican service--the Eucharist. As Bishop Rick says, this is the greatest gift we have to offer--the Body and Blood of our Lord. So come if you can--even if you're not Christian or religious or spiritual or whatever, come join us. It's a great evening. You are welcome and will be loved and embraced!

Sermon over...I am going to meet Keith the English Prof at Nordaggio's tonight and get me some EGGNOG! It's been a day--I ate a bagel and later Pei Wei yesterday, and now...some EGGNOG. So yes, I am indeed celebrating. No, I didn't have my grapefruits yesterday, an omission I am remedying tomorrow, and no, I did not exercise--an omission I also plan to remedy tomorrow, too.

I'll see you on Monday and there will be 3 posts that day--Saturday's and Sunday's by 1 pm, and then Monday's after 5, I think. Don't worry, they will all show up on the same page: you won't have to carry out a search-and-destroy mission to find them.

Also, I will post my new pics on Monday. Believe me, they make me realize WHY I am doing this. I'm fat, and I don't like it.

On the postive side: FAT is something you can do something about and without superhuman effort. Just do the right thing, and do it over and over and over and over and over...and I'm doing it...over and over and over and over and over...

Independently,

Weltha

Day the 37th

Yes, I wanted a Pumpkin Bagel today, too...but I didn't get one.

That's tomorrow's reward for Weigh-In Thursday.

I've been thinking, and here's what started it all...

On Saturday, as I have said, Woodstock and I went shopping for the charming new ensemble for his prospectus hearing for his doctoral dissertation in Philosophy of Education.

When we had finished and paid for everything (and I do mean everything), he announced that he wanted to buy me a scarf of some sort "because you always pull your outfit together with the perfect scarf, and I want to thank you for helping today!" Nay, nay, I protested, that was perfectly A-OK with me to just come along for the ride and lend my hand and ability to say, "Uh...dearest...no, not that one. NOT that one!" and how I didn't need any thanks, but he insisted.

So off we went to Women's clothing and there were scarves...mostly the ones you wear to keep warm, which was perfectly fine by me. I first saw a lovely chenille one--a sort of deep champagne color--and I liked it until I saw the price. However, Woodstock reminded me that a sale was indeed on. And then he pulled me over to other scarves where I saw this yummy amber brown scarf, all cushy and elegant, with a muted paisley print.

"Thar' she blows!" I shrieked, or words to that effect, and off we went to the checkout where Woodstock bought not only the paisley scarf, but the chenille scarf also. I protested for at least 15-20 nano-seconds and then graciously gave in. As in, "oh my goodness, I get BOTH of them." That sort of gracious...

Anyhoodle, I was wearing the lovely chenille one to church at St. Jerome's on Sunday and noticed that the fringe on one end had balled up into a major knot. I mean, it was the Mother of All Knots. Had the cats done this? No, because they wouldn't have left the rest of the scarf in pristine condition...and besides, I have more sense than to leave something cute and delicate out where the Masters of Destruction can get their paws on it. Most of the time...

Apparently, this lovely, elegant little champagne-colored chenille scarf had had balled up fringe to start with, and Woodstock and I were just too busy too notice.

So...starting Sunday, I began to gently unravel the knot. And I worked on it on Monday--at my breaks, at lunch, after work...and the same on Tuesday--at my breaks, at lunch, at home until some vile hour when I finally had all of the fringe untangled and straightened out--without having destroyed it first.

And I decided the fringe was a metaphor [Caution: English Language and Literature Master here...we see metaphors in salad dressing...and toilet paper...although not together. We hope...] for a number of things.

It wasn't particularly difficult to unravel the major mess of fringe--it just took time, and patience, and doing the right thing over and over and over.

Weight loss and regaining health are like that. It's not particularly difficult as such to lose weight. It's just a matter of time...patience...doing the right thing over and over and over and over and over again...and yes, vigilance that the fringe doesn't ball up again...

AND...if I had wanted to get the fringe untangled right now (or I guess that would be right then) I could have ripped it loose with my hands OR simply cut it with scissors. It would have done the job--but the fringe (and the lovely little scarf!) would have been ruined.

If all I want is to lose weight on the scale, I can do all sorts of things--but they will damage, if not completely ruin, my health. I think I'll pass on that one. It took time to do the job right on that fringe. It takes time to lose weight the right way...

And if this were a blog where I was going to preach at you, I'd include my observation that our lives are like this, and that it seems that God has to take much time and care in untangling them...and it helps if we aren't fighting the process...but this isn't that kind of blog...so I won't write that...

Coleslaw, Tabbouleh, Raw Spinach, Raw Broccoli...and Cashews...at lunch today. This morning, I ate the rest of my seedless Red Grapes--oh they were good and juicy...and sweet!

And tomorrow...I weigh in...

Thanks for joining in the Big Ol' Bus Ride To Excellent Health And Slammin' Body...

Independently,

Weltha