There's More to Life than Food

 

Hey y'all!  There's more to life than just food.  I'm trying very hard to convince myself daily, who am I kidding, momentlly (I just made up another word).  I really believe that as Americans, we are obsessed with food.  I know I am, I'm a "Food Addict" and Weight Watchers is my recovery program of choice. 

 

Everywhere you look there is a new restaurant, a billboard, a pizza place, etc.  And the commercials, if you weren't craving something when you sit down to watch a show, you will be by the time the first commercial break is over.  This is all very hard for a person that is coming "down" from their food high/habit.

 

The good news - at weight-in this week, I dropped 1.6 lbs., for a total of 6.6 lbs. in two weeks.  Yippee-yiho-kiya!!!!!!!  I don't think I mentioned this last week, but as I stood in line for my initial weigh-in, I noticed all the women ahead of me were stripping.  Taking off clothes, shoes, purses, belts, earrings, necklaces, etc.  I thought to myself, self, you don't want to do this, you are here today to keep it real.  So I weighed with my boots, jacket, skirt, jewelry, everything.  The Speaker, who is also the weigh-in-er (we'll just call her SW) told me that I will have to dress the same way every weigh-in to get an accurate reading and I said no problem.  So this week, I put on the same boots, same jacket, a tank top, a belt, a scarf, my jewelry, and my denim skirt.  As I'm putting on my skirt, I reach for my slip (for you young girls out there, us more mature women always wore slips and still do most of the time) and say to myself, self, don't wear a slip today cuz this denim is heavy and you don't need the extra weight of the "slip" (a blonde moment if there ever was one).

 

So SW weighs me, sees the look on my face and asks me whats wrong.  I tell her how good I was and thought I should have lost a little more.  So she assures me I'm doing well, but then says, "well look at what you're wearing.  You didn't have that heavy (leather with studs) belt on before, or the scarf."  So she makes me take it off, weighs it then me, and those two little things were 1lb.  I couldn't believe it.  Then she wants me to take off my skirt, but I couldn't because of the "slip" thing.  So she tells me that the skirt was about 5lbs.  SW starts the class after weighing everyone and right away she asks me to step forward.  Then she proceeds to use me as "Weight Watchers What Not to Wear on Weigh-In Day".  It was very funny and the class had a good time poking at me.  So, I told you all that to say this, I'm doing good with the program, I probably lost more than 1.6 lbs, but - My name is Cindy and I'm a foodaholic.

 

Speaking of food, I want to get a couple of chickens.  MY mother had a bunch of them years ago and I used to help take care of them and enjoyed it a lot.  Chickens are very smart and can become tame and trained.  Plus, they are a great food source that you don't have to pay for at the grocery.  I went to a County Commissioners Meeting last night where they were supposed to be discussing a decades old law that states you can not keep chickens in the County.  You can, however, keep them in the City limits.  Doesn't make sense to me, the City has chickens, but the County can't???  But there is a bunch of us "Crazy Chicken People" opposing this and asking the Commissioners to re-visit the ordinance.  They tabled the discussion last night for another 90 days.  But, I'm gettin' me some chickens!!!!  You have to brood them for up to 15 weeks anyway and that can be done inside in a cardboard box.  I want the ones that lay the Easter eggs, they are called Araucana.  My mother had some of these, they are cute and they do well in this area.

 

I guess my country roots are showing in full color.  I will stop bending your ears for now.  Take care.

 

See you in the funny papers!!!

 

 



My New Habit

Hey y'all!  Well, I did it!  Last Wednesday, I joined Weight Watchers.  I'm happy about it and I'm committed to follow through with it for the long haul.  Of course I want to look good.  I want to be able to go in a store and look at the "normal" sizes vs. the "plus" or "real women" sizes.  Real Women my big booty, they have some Ad Team sitting around a big conference table brainstorming on how to make us "healthier" women feel not so bad about ourselves by calling us the Real Women.  I'm just speaking for me now, but that is just a ploy to make me not want to loose weight so that I will continue to buy the bigger sizes and pay more money for the clothing.  Oh, I really don't want to get started down this road........I think you kind of get my drift on this.

 

The main reason for doing this, is to get healthy.  I'm not healthy at this size, everything in my body has to work twice as hard as it would if I was my optimum weight.  And that starts to get a little scary thinking about that once you start getting older.  I know people my age that have died.  DIED, I said. I'm 56.  I still feel very young mentally.  Like, where has the time gone????  I don't like this getting older bull_____, you know what I mean.  People don't prepare you for this.  Now, here I am 56, fat, and don't wanna be this way any more.  So now I have to kick my booty, and get it in to shape.  Then maybe I can live even longer and get even older, hahaha.  Seriously though, this is it.  I'm doing it, I'm in it for the long run.  Going to the meetings every week, doing exercise, psyching myself up, all that stuff......

 

So this is Tuesday, weigh in is tomorrow morning.  I'm closing for today and I will report back tomorrow when I get home.  Oh, I guess I didn't mention earlier, you guys are going on this journey with me.  I'm gonna try to update you every week along with other stuff, but this weight loss adventure will be in here too.

Well......anyone bet money on whether I lost weight or not?  I did, yayyyyy, 5.2 lbs.  I'm very happy and surprised.  I didn't have all the food I needed to start this last week, but I was very careful (except for when Emmy was eating mini marshmallows and before I knew it, I had eaten a couple of handfuls without thinking and then I'm like, oh, how did these jump in to my mouth, bahahaha) and I cut the amount of sugar in half, in HALF, do you hear me,  in my tea, that was seriously hard.  I went through some serious sugar withdrawals last week.  So here I am, in it for the second week.  Food can be just as much of an addiction as anything else and I'm a life long junkie (more on this later).

Closing for now, I have to go to the Farmer's Market, grocery, and any place else that I need to go to feed my new habit.  Love you guys for sharing this with me.

See you in the funny papers!!!

Canning or Memory Lane???

Hey ya'll!  I hope all of you are doing good. I love this picture that I've posted about canning.  This isn't mine but I wish it was.  I love the rustic items in the pix especially the jars.  I love what we call now-a-days as the "old stuff".  I never thought I would say this, but I remember jars like this when I was younger and didn't pay a lot of attention to them.  Sad to say, but I remember hearing some of my friends who were older than me talking about the old stuff and me thinking at the time that I wasn't old and would never be old like them.  Ha, 20 years later and here I am.  It's so hard to believe that 20 or so years have passed and it really does seem like yesterday.

Twenty eight years ago, I was pregnant.  It was the best time of my life so far.  I had a new life growing inside of me and I was the happiest I could ever remember being.  Almost twenty nine years ago, my baby was born.  That was definetly the best day of my life so far.  That beautiful curly headed baby was the prettiest baby I had ever seen and I was in love more than I had ever been able to imagine.  The years of raising my beautiful daughter were the scariest but best years of my life so far, and without the help of my heavenly Father, I wouldn't have made it. 

During those years, I had some wonderful friends in the country that taught me how to garden, harvest, prepare, freeze and can.  I owe pretty much everything I know to my neighbor on the corner, his daughter, his granddaughter, his two sons, his son-in-law and his two daughter-in-laws.  They also taught me how to cook like a true southerner.  I am so very thankful for the times I spent in their kitchens, on the road talking, in their barns (sheds), or sitting in their yards.  I loved sitting and listening to them talk about the old days, there were always stories about them growing up.  They had us all laughing and always having a good time.  All this would go on while one of them was cooking, shelling peas, preserving veggies, etc.  Those were some of the best times and fondest memories I have.  I do miss them all terribly.

Going down memory lane and canning is almost one and the same to me.  As I'm preparing my garden list and collecting jars and canning supplies, I can't help but think of all of this.

I want to carry on the things I've learned over the years.  Teach and learn with my daughter and my granddaughter.  So one day they can think about the old stuff and me fondly, like I do now.

See you in the funny papers!