Weight Loss Challange Dec. 15 - 22

And what a challange it is this time of the year. Junk food everywhere tempting us to indulge, our flesh telling us that 'just a little won't hurt' when we know full well that we won't stop at 'just a little' and that more is waiting to for us to try 'just a little', etc. until we undo weeks or even months of careful eating. Most of us have found that just not giving in to any of it at least at home(that usually means not having any of it in the house)is the best plan. At gatherings try to stay away from the unhealthy foods until you are so full of the good stuff you can't eat much of the unhealthy goodies. And I do mean goodies. Why is it that the bad stuff tastes so good and we have to cultivate a taste for the healthy foods? I wish I could be like little Skyler. I really believe GOD's hand is on that little boy guarding him against future health problems. He just does not like sweets unless it is fruits. This is discouraging to Holly as she would love to bake cookies, make candies, etc. this time of the year.The other day she said "I must have the only child in the world who hates candies and cookies". I could hear the disappointment in her voice as she said it. We agreed it is for his own good, but it sure makes holidays more untraditional. Maybe she can get him to help make a fruit tower or pomander with her. Kyle on the other hand is like me. One bite of cookie leads to eating the whole batch and gaining lots of very unneeded #s. Like his father he tends to carry his excess weight where we women carry it, in the abdomen and around the heart and lungs. Plus he is still a smoker. Holly is trying to quit. I encourage her all I can. She too has smoked since early teens I think. I don't think either of her parents smoke(ed). Jack or I either one ever allowed smoking in or around the house. But everyone of our children either did or still do smoke and all started at very early ages. They got them from so called friends. True friends do not encourage us to destroy ourselves. And that encludes unhealthy eating. Ok, I'll get off that soapbox. LOL.

We are getting just a bit of the snow predicted. I only see an inch or 2 so far but my close friend in Sedalia declares they already have over 3" and it is coming down hard in there. Ally, give us your view of this please. I know my friend usually exaggerates quite a bit. I have told her that doing that is lying and makes her word let credable but she keeps on doing it anyway. And she was raised in the same denomination I was. But some of it didn't soak in somehow. She is a wonderful friend tho and is more like a sister than just a friend. She is the one who checks on me daily. I have been told to not come in to work again tonight. This is not a good time of the year to be coming up short of money. Thankfully I have most of my Christmas gifts bought. I shop all year and that makes it much easier.

I didn't get up until 9 so I still need to get out there and take care of the birds. I feed in the building now tho so they aren't without food. The dogs and a couple of the cats are outside for a long potty break right now. They will be ready to come inside anytime now. Usually Penny barks at me when she is ready to come back in & I haven't heard her.

Have any of you tried out the Quesidella(?)maker yet? Yovonne bought one for the cafe' and Sarah brought in hers because she doesn't like it. She thinks it is too slow. They use to have them as a Friday special until people got burned out on them. They don't seem to be showing any signs of burning out on the taco salads we have been serving for nearly a year tho. I looked at it and thought it might be nice but I can make one in the skillet and cut it up just as easily. It makes 6 slices. One for me, 1 each for the 3 dogs, and 2 slices to divide among the 5 cats. lol.

Anna, I'm concerned about you being out there in all that snow and so cold temps. Please be careful to not slip on ice and fall. Or falling into a large snowdrift/bank and not being able to get back out. Working out has given you a lot more strength & endurance than most of us have and that can be a real plus if you did get down in snow.

How are all you warm weather folks making out in your 80+ * temps? Most of you have a lot of humidity to go with it so it feels much hotter. Right now I think Sue, Anna, Kim, and some of the rest of us would love some of that heat. I have the humidifier on most of the time and if the house is up into the low 70s it feels pretty good. Dry air feels so cold. I told Kyle how much water I am putting into the air and he said to cut it back because he thought that was way too much. I was going thru 2 3 - 5 gallon tanks every 30 hours or so. I When I came home from Kris's and walked into the house it was only 75* but it felt like 90+* it was so humid.

Pebble, please keep us updated on yourself. We really do care about you and your children and want you to be safe as well as happy and healthy. I realize the happy is rather difficult right now. How is does his family feel about all this? Is unfaithfulness taken as lightly over there as it seems to be here in the states nowadays? I know that in some cultures that is the norm so to speak. As well as the fact that he is blood family and you are only in the family by marriage. Does he have a past of unfaithfulness in former relationships? Or has he ever been married before? Kris married a man who had been married twice before her and we could not get her to try to contact the former wives. I did finally get ahold of his father and got her to talk to him and what he said should have told her a lot but she ignored it much to her later regret. None of his family wants much if anything to do with him. Which is sad because he does have some very good qualities if you can just get past the bad ones. I'm sure your DH had some to or you would not have been attracted to him in the first place.

I need to go try to get something done today. It is going to be a long boring Sat. again. There is probably plenty to do but I'm just not very motivated. I did walk off 100 calories on the gazelle already this morning.

Breakfast was 1 slice of 15 grain toast with spay 'butter' and p. butter. Plenty of water already for this time of the day. I need to do my stretching and other exercises yet. And get out the resistance bands to work with. Kris keeps a resistance band under a leg of her desk and uses it several times a day. I complimented her on that. She needs encouragement in that area in spite of how it looks sometimes. She isn't going to the gym much any more. She wasn't getting enough sleep and a co worker told her she really looked exhausted all the time. There was a lot of stress at the office at the time but the lack of sleep from getting up at 4:30 everymorning to drive 15 miles or so to the gym, work out on mostly a recombant bike for an hour or more, back home to get the children up and off to school, then to work for 10 hours or more, and trying to keep up with life in general was just getting to be too much for her. She has a wonderful total gym/weight machine at home and has finally started useing it a lot more. So she really doesn't need to go to the gym. She had hoped that Cindy(her DD) would go with her but she won't. I'm getting her that pedaler for Christmas. I have one and need to use it more than I do. It is one of the best $10 I have ever spent.

GOD bless and keep each of you.