there'll be much mistletoe-ing

I started my day with my kitchen looking like this:

Add 7 and 1/2 pounds of chocolate, some liquor, and a bottle of wine...
Tah dah!!
The tins for family and friends are not quite full yet, but they are getting there.

These are White Peppermint Bark and Cream Cheese Truffles.

Still needing to be covered are Spicy Truffles and Espresso Truffles.

And somewhere in there are Poor Man's Turtles and Rocky Road Bark that are getting solid.

And I still have these to make.

The good thing about making all this candy is that the last thing I want to do after spending 8 hours around it is eat any of it. I've had one truffle, and that was many hours ago.

Now, the rest of my evening will be spent Farley-style. Hoping I can get him out of my chair.

Hope you all are having safe weekends! The weather might get kinda snowy here tomorrow. As long as I can get to Meijer to get the rest of my chocolate, I should be okay!

its how we operate

It's boring being sick and not going to work for 2 days. This is where boredom gets me.

Anatomy of a Sick Day
(just add "and blew my nose and coughed a lot" to each statement)

First, I had breakfast.

Then I got my necessary aids for the day.

So I got out my iPod and started listening to sermons. I am loving the "Jesus Wants to Save Christians" series from Rob Bell's Mars Hill. Scully helped me. (Not the greatest quality...the pic is from my cell phone.)

Then I had lunch. Yum. (I also ate a Fiber 1 bar. The jello just didn't do it for me.)

I took a shower. The shower was disgusting. I often take baths, and Nathan is blind until he puts his contacts in, so its really no one's fault. So the I cleaned the shower.

Then, it was back upstairs where I listened to more sermons on our iPod player-thingy. My ears were getting sore from the headphones.

Then I decided to watch Dr. Phil in our spare room. (Notice bunny ear antenna on tv. Very high tech, we are.)

Then I decided I needed some popcorn to go with Dr. Phil.

Then I decided that Dr. Phil has pretty much joined the rank of other talk shows that sometimes appear to make fun of people. So I decided that I would wash dishes to get ready for dinner. I put in my favorite dish washing playlist, Matt Wertz. I only got through 2 songs, though. Not a lot of dishes.

Nathan came home! Then I fixed dinner. This is a favorite from my childhood. Toast, cheese and egg(beaters). I added some Healthy Choice sausage.

Then I wrote in my WW journal and realized I still have 6 points left for the day. So I made muffins.

And I plan to spend the rest of the day right here:

Watching That 70's Show and American Idol.

Tomorrow I must go back to work. Snot and all.

Oh, and Annie answered her interview questions from me. Check them out here.

so glad our paths crossed this time today

Today started with a Weight Watchers meeting. I was so hopeful. I had been so stinking honest last week. I had written down every bite I put into my mouth. If I was unsure of points, I added one (sometimes 2) for good measure. I didn't even use all of my 35 weekly bonus points (I used 21). And I lost an astounding .8 of a pound. Whooptie-freaking-do. I was moderately discouraged. No, I'm going to be honest. I am incredibly discouraged. The meeting discussion was about excuses and things we tell ourselves that allow us to eat. I think it was good to hear, but didn't apply to me too much today. I have held myself so accountable for 2 weeks to have a massive loss of 1.4. I'm hanging in there.

I am hanging in there. I had a pretty good rest of the day. Nate and I met up with Kent and we went to Stella's for brunch. They had a buffet for brunch. It was wonderful, locally-grown breakfast foods. And I couldn't help noticing that I was the only fat person there. That told me that the food mustn't be too bad for me. I had some cheese grits (more grit than cheese), tomato strata, some sausage and potato hash (very heavy on the veggies) and a little fruit. I left feeling very pleased with the amount I had eaten and the choices I had made. I did not have french toast or biscuits or gravy or bacon or sausage or ham. And I really didn't want any of those things. I ate just enough. Not too full, but not hungry anymore either. Good times.

Then Nate and I went to Wild Oats. We were after whole wheat linguine and honey. We had a normal honey bear, but we approached one of those free sample tables. The lady was tasting this raw honey. We were suckers. Man, it's good. I'm excited to try it on our banana honey wraps!

We stopped at Starbucks. I forgot to ask for non-fat milk in my white chocolate latte. Thus I used 8 points instead of 6 (geez, I'm an idiot!). But at least I didn't go for whipped cream!

Then we came home and got to work on dinner (we'd had a long day!). I fixed Linguine with Asparagus out of this month's Rachael Ray magazine. It was amazing. (We had salads too...iceberg with a little mozzarella and O'Charley's reduced fat honey mustard.)


For anyone interested, the recipe is very easy.

Cook 3/4 lb. whole wheat linguine as directed on box. While that is cooking, sautee a chopped onion and 4 chopped garlic cloves in 1/4 cup olive oil. When onions are translucent, add 1/4 cup water, 1 lb asparagus (in 1 inch pieces) and one bag cherry tomatoes. Cover and cook 4 minutes. Drain linguine and toss with asparagus mixture.

Nathan attempted to fix the annoying rub/squeak in our elliptical machine. We thought he was succesful and I got really excited that I'd be able to work out at home tonight. But he reassembled the thing and the noise returned. So it's still not usable by me. I know we can't afford a treadmill, but I think I may try to talk Nathan into an exercise bike. We'll see.

I have spent a lot of times on blogs this evening, looking for inspiration and motivation. Ben's blog for today hit me hard. He talks about his decision to work through the 12 steps of Overeater's Anonymous. I know what that's about - I've worked in drug treatment. The program teaches total reliance on God in order to overcome our addictions. Although I do not think I need to work through the steps to ease my weight burdens, I do know that I'm not allowing God to help me. I have stopped praying about my weight. There's a big part of me that thinks it's silly to bother God with my weight problems. (I'll just pray and pray for a baby. That's what's really important.) I've stopped praying about my food choices, I've stopped doing my prayer journal, I've stopped listening to sermons. Why? I don't know.

I don't want it to sound like I'm deciding to take a good dose of Jesus and expect Him to step in and make me lose weight. That's not it at all. I've taken this all on me...I've attempted to control my weight myself. Maybe I'm like some of the kids I work with. Sometimes they are struggling with a task (homework, craft activity, something athletic) and they won't accept my help. Not only will they not ask, but they won't accept when I offer. They are so bent on doing it themselves that the don't even want my help. I think that's where I am today. Ready to not be so stubborn and ask for help. And actually take it. What will this mean? I don't know. A few days ago, I said that I was listening, but I don't think I really was.

So I'm digging out my prayer journal. I'm going to go back to devoting time each morning to really sit and listen. I'm putting new sermons on my iPod, specificially one titled "Leaving Control for Faith". And I'm working on doing that.

do you wanna take my picture?

As promised, here is my food diary for today. I think I did pretty well. I found that not wanting to take a picture deterred me from eating so many things. I would have done really well if it weren't for my ritualistic morning Starbucks drink. I'm thinking of cutting it out tomorrow. I'm also thinking of attending a Weight Watchers meeting at lunch tomorrow, if my schedule permits. But, on to our feature presentation.

Breakfast: Starbucks drink and oatmeal. Nothing too exciting there.

Lunch was wonderful. Nice spinach salad with apples, romano cheese, turkey, and raspberry dressing. I forgot the walnuts, or it would have been better. I snacked on the Wheat Thins through my work day, and I only ate half of the yogurt/grape nuts concoction.


Dinner was okay. I tried to recreate my favorite dish from Tapas in Lawrence...tomatoes with balsamic vinegar and cheese. Wasn't the same. Didn't eat a whole lot of it. But I did eat the Lean Cuisine pizza (newly preservative free!) and added strawberries (no pic) to make up for the tomatoes. Just imagine the plate holds a different red fruit.

I came across a recipe today for these chocolate pumpkin muffins that I just had to try (and they are amazing). So that added a late snack. I also bought new olive oil and cracked pepper Triscuits earlier and had to try two. But I did not eat the two in the pic...Nathan selflessly finished those for me. They just had to be in pictures!

I'm still trying to figure out how to get the layout to look the way I want. This is my first post with pics, so I think I did pretty well!

A few of reflections of food photograpy: I think I will keep doing this, but with much smaller pictures. Taking pictures kept me accountable in a way I hadn't imagined. I really spent more time preparing my food and making it look pretty when I knew I would be taking a picture. I used my new Very Bradley plates (just the two!) that I've had for a week or so and my favorite red bowl. I noticed I had part of the Italian Gnome in the dinner pic...he was a present from when our future sister-in-law went to film the Olympics. Maybe he'll have a recurring role. And my milk snack was in my Early Girl Eatery glass, a momento from still yet another amazing Asheville restaurant.

I went to the store today, so I have many exciting options for lunch tomorrow. We'll see what I come up with! I'll keep you updated on the Weight Watchers thing.

'Night all!