all your insides fall to pieces

Let me just tell you that you - my lovely blog readers and commenters - blow me away. I am consistantly shocked at how many of you read my ramblings, and then how many of you have enough of a reaction to me to actually say something in response. Amazing. I am so happy to have you guys, and you are seriously what keeps me going. I don't eat the chocolate chips that Nathan hid (I found them while looking for a printer cartridge) 'cause I don't want to have to tell you and have you be disappointed. You keep me on the straight and narrow, and I appreciate that very much.

One thing I haven't been very good at is answering questions that appear in comments. I'm going to do so now.

Let me start by talking some about my Scale-Free February. I will be staying at places other than my home for 15 days in February. That is a huge part of my motivation. I know scales often disagree with each other, and I really didn't want my scale taking up valuable suitcase room. And I didn't want to stress myself out with my fluctuations on different scales. And then came the frustration of the lack of movement despite my hard work. Thus, the decision was made. I want to focus on health, and I am judging that by meeting my food intake and exercise goals. If I'm doing this thing right, the scale will catch up eventually. If not, I'll still be much healthier for it!

So, on to the questions.

Yesterday, Sarah P asked

I just noticed you said you will out of town for most of it.. OMG I will go through withdrawls- will you be able to post while your training for the new job. (Which have you told us yet what the new job is and I just missed it?)

Yes, I will still be posting while I am in training. I already have several entries typed out and saved (be on the lookout for "What I Learned While Unemployed") in case things get crazy busy. I also now have an iPhone (I love you Nathan!) which will help as well. I'm still mastering the keyboard, so they might be short. I am also planning to update my food journal as well. I'm also not sure how to attach pictures that are on the phone in blogger (I haven't tried it yet), so it may be that when I get home, there will be 2 weeks of posts there. We'll see.

Oh, yes, my new job. I am trained as and have been working as a therapist. Mostly little kids, with some drug rehab thrown in there. I just couldn't do it anymore. I will be starting a higher-paying job (yipee!) working with a "revenue recovery" program to help uninsured hospitalized individuals get health coverage, either through government aid or charitable programs. I'm still working with people, getting to do the part of my profession that I like, and I get to learn a whole new set of skills. The nerd in me is very excited.

LainB asked

random question -- I know your post headings have to do with songs, but how do you choose each day?

You know, that process is more random than your question. Some days, I have a song stuck in my head. Some days, I put on iTunes and hit shuffle and post a line from the song playing. Some days the lyric actually applies. Some days I ask Nathan for a line. And some days, I just pull from my favorite songs, or song lines that remind me of something in particular. And I honestly don't know which song some of them came from. (Today's is from one of my favorite songs. Anyone know? Without putting it into Google?)

Eva asked (in reference to this salad)

that looks amazing...did i miss the post where you said what it is?? including salad and gave the recipe??

The one thing I don't like about my new layout is that it doesn't show links in the text. All recipes are on my recipe blog, and I almost always link them in the text. If you like something, look for the name, put your cursor over it, and click! But I don't put a picture of everything I cook on this blog, so make sure you check out Growl in my Tummy! (I also keep an almost-daily photo food journal at Tryin' on a Brand New Dress. I'll update it much more frequently since I can just take pics with my iPhone instead of hauling out my big camera in restaurants!)

Speaking of my other blogs, over on GimT, CountryJacket asked about the point value of the Sausage and Pepper Quiche. (There are 3 links in that sentence! Go ahead, find them!) The recipe makes 2 9-inch pans. For a quarter of one pan, (1/8 of the recipe - which is a lot) there are 496 calories, 32 grams of fat, and no fiber. Wow. That's why I can't do points anymore. The thought of having to flip over the points finder would have really freaked me out and I wouldn't have eaten this. But it fits well within my calorie allotment and it is so satisfying.

But it's not all about me! I read your blogs as well!

And you guys give me great ideas! My calendar was actually someone else's idea through the Healthy You Challenge. I honestly expected to see pictures of them all over the place yesterday. Where are they? And someone suggested shopping at thrift stores for in-between clothes. I never thought I'd find any that would fit me, but I spent $78 yesterday on 2 pairs of pants, 2 button-up shirts, 2 sweaters, (all high-end brands) and really cute Coach clutch at Plato's closet. Minus shoes, that's almost a whole work wardrobe! Thanks so much for the idea!

I hope I am able to keep up with the commenting while I am gone. If not, know that I have you on my reader and will probaby be spending all my breaks in training reading about you!

Have a great Saturday!