Cooking

I don't know what my contribution will be cooking wise for Thanksgiving, as the menu has not been set yet.  I am determined to make this at some point during the week:

White Chili

Absolute Mexican Cornbread

I have never made White Chili, but became a fan of it several years ago.  Both recipes will be a first attempt, but I am up for it.

Charlotte

Great lobby view!

HH is eating the Breakfast of Champions: two oatmeal cookies with a frosting middle.

HH full of enthusiasm to sell soaps for his mom!  He kept going non-stop at the show!

This is where I sat to eat lunch at the hotel.  (I didn't go to the show, total energy crash.)  I love the curtains, and I felt like this would be where A List people get a private section away from the normal customers.

Crab cakes, asparagus, and mashed potatoes....and some Kindle reading time.  I love vacation time!

Downtown Denver

View from my hotel room:

I loved the view!  I certainly want to go back out west.

Colorado Pics Finally

I am in Charlotte now, and my Thanksgiving Break has begun!  Woo Hoo!  We are staying at an ultra nice hotel thanks to MIL.  I will post some pictures of that too tonight.

King Tut was awesome!  I wish that I were able to take photographs inside!

All the places that were mid-priced had calories, fat, protein, etc. listed by the meals.  I really liked that.

I loved our hotel!

I have a few more pictures, but I have not uploaded them.  This was mainly a work trip, so I didn't get to do a lot of sight seeing.

The Trash Can

I read something in I'm With Fatty that struck a deep cord within me.  He talked about how he would eat things, and would hide the wrappers and other evidence of his eating under paper towels.

OUCH!

I remember doing this quite a bit.  It started in college to hide what I had eaten from my roommates, but it especially continued when I started to nanny.  I would go straight from teaching school to their house, and I would hide what I ate while I was there.  This was easier for me to do since I bought most of the groceries as part of my job.  The mom was on another planet, and I don't think she noticed much of anything in that regard.  I guess what gets to me is the sneakiness of the behavior.  On some level I realized this was not right, yet I couldn't stop it. 

Repost from Julie: Lost and Found

I found a new blog a few months ago that I eagerly started subscribing to:

Julie: Lost and Found

She has written an excellent post about CHOICE.  I hope you enjoy it!  Thank you Julie for letting me repost this!  Please be sure to check out her site.

Life and Death Choices

I have choices. I make choices all day long.


Choose to get out of bed.

Choose whether or not to exercise.

Choose which clothes to wear.

Choose what to do for the day.

Heck, I work for myself and sometimes choose whether to work or not!

I can choose to be self centered, or to serve others.

I can choose to see the cup as half empty, or half full.

I choose what time to go to bed at night, armed with knowledge about the importance of sleep to my longevity.

I can choose mindFULness, or mindLESSness.

I have the choice to lose weight. I can choose what to eat today. How to move today. How to THINK today. Yes, I can choose positive or negative thoughts. I can choose to keep my blood sugar in control, or to feed my glucose intolerance and make it that much harder to make good choices tomorrow, and the next..

By making choices above, I can choose to live longer, or die sooner. Put that way, I know what the more appealing choice is. Therefore, the other choices that support life vs. death shouldn't be all that difficult. They are no brainers.

I'm looking forward to a day of choices. Choices to live longer..with every bite I take and step I take.
Cuz I'm sick of killing myself.

BIL Update....

My BIL is still in a coma.  Today he is supposed to have surgery.  This surgery has been "scheduled" for almost two weeks.  At first they could not keep his fever/infection down, then they needed to borrow the equipment, and most recently the doctor who was best to perform the surgery had to be out of town.  He has air on his brain, and this surgery the doctors feel in necessary, but also may be the key to Matt waking up.  He is not in the ICU right now, but does have a private room.  After surgery, he will be moving back into the ICU.  (They alternate very quickly on ICU or not....he has moved many times.)

We found out he will not be able to go to the local brain rehab facility here.  He must be able to "participate" in therapy for three hours a day, which means he would have to be out of the coma.  There is a good chance that he would go to a facility in Cincinnati or Indianapolis.  This is probably two weeks out for sure though.

He has been very active.  He moves around a lot.  He will turn his head slightly towards whoever is speaking. 

We are also thinking about the kids.  They are starting to ask A LOT of questions.  My BIL was not a good provider for his family, but his children were used to spending time with him in the evening, even if for nothing but to curl up and watch tv.  He was consistent with that, so they are not used to him being gone.  We have been thinking about how we could bring the kids in to see Matt.  Some ideas are....putting a cap on his head to cover the scar (although they do know he has a scar), pulling his covers way up, and perhaps using a scarf.  Then, making sure that he has received pain medication prior to them coming in.  This would allow him to be in a very calm "sleep-like" state.  My mom talked with my sister about this yesterday, and she is going to let the idea grow on her.

Finally Home

I'm working on getting my Denver pictures ready to post.  Here is some bits from the in-flight reading I did:

"In children 12 to 17 years of age, the overweight factor increases 2% for each additional hour of TV viewed daily.  Starting in adoescence girls' physical activity declines 7.9% per year, while boys' activity decreases 2.7% per year."

"Many of us are too passive about our health."

- Come On Everybody (Bill Cosby)

"My ability to tolerate shame, to compartmentalize it, to swallow it, increased right along with my belt size.  It came with the territory of being heavy.  Obese people have a lifelong experience with shame."

"I was trying to get used to the idea that I didn't deserve food just because I had a bad day.  Food doesn't fix anything.  It just makes your problems feel a little further away - like any other drug.  Food addicts are like any other addict looking for a fix."

"If you are not focused, you can lose it all in an instant."

"God forbid every morsel of food didn't end up in my mouth."

- I'm with Fatty

"Rewarding foods, tend to be reinforcing, meaning they keep us coming back for more." - David Kessler (The End of Overeating)

YAY SCALE!!!

I know I have some updating to do as far as my trip to Denver for the conference, but I wanted to share the most delightful booth I found today.  It was the "Boulder Youth Body Alliance: Honoring Body Diversity." 

I found out about the YAY SCALE!  Here are some samples...

These scales totally rocked!  I think I need to make my own "YAY" scale.  It was a great reminder that I am worth far more than a number that the scale provides.  The scale and my clothes are feedback, but there is so much more to me than just those numbers.

I forgot the entire purpose of the jeans project.  It is to demonstrate pride in your body, but I also think they sew the patches together to make blankets for AIDS patients?  I'm sorry I am fuzzy on this one.

The biggest thing I walked away with from this group was a quote inside their brochure:

"Despite all the pressure I feel to attain physical perfection, I have realized that in the end, when I look back, the things in my life I will be proud of will have nothing to do with the size and shape of my body."

POWERFUL.  I think I need to memorize that one.

Last Date Night....

HH had a great idea on Tuesday after work.  He suggested that we have one last date before we were separated for a week (this is our longest time apart).  He asked me where I wanted to go eat.  I am thankful that HH has very adaptive taste buds, because our meals almost always center on what I feel I can handle or am in the mood for.

So....

The PAULA DEAN BUFFET is where we went! 

This occasion certainly called for us to be a little fancy .... so we dressed up! 

I was proud of how I handled myself at the buffet.  I got several plates of food, but they had spoonful size bites on each one.  I truly just wanted to "taste" a bit of everything.  The only thing I got seconds on was a broccoli salad.  I am not a buffet fan, but this was really good food.  Not everything was a homerun, but I did enjoy most of it.

Oysters anyone?

This shirt cracked me up because HH has grease stains on almost all his shirts.