New Year's New Resolution!

Okay, so every week I get this report on my blog, telling me how many people have visited it that week. Naturally it has dribbled down to just one or two people a day. For God’s sake, I don’t even deserve that much activity since I haven’t blogged in a year! In fact, I have been astounded, maybe even embarrassed, that even this trickle of activity still perseveres! I’m sure that anybody bored enough to think about why I dropped off of the blogosphere has figured out, and quite correctly… that I have… gulp…. gained back some weight. SHIT! In my defense (and don’t I always provide myself with one of those?) it has been a tough year! My husband is in the building trades. Not a great year for those guys! Our income dropped by, oh about 45% this year. A person I am very close to went through a long, drawn out diagnosis of something scary and another person I love has entered the final stages of old age. I don’t know if you have ever had to help someone in that stage of life but… damn, hard process to go through. It all reminds me of a doctor, whom I mentioned in an earlier blog, that explained to me (slowly so I could understand) in an amazingly monotone voice that there was something called “stress eating…” He was lucky I didn’t “stress eat” his head right off of his scrawny neck! Well, you know the drill…. Food equates to comfort in times of stress (this is my explanation, not the doctors) and the more comforting the food… the better the stress relief, right? Mind you, I didn’t just canon ball off of the wagon. I can tell you with a righteous heart that I still haven’t touched a doughnut! But… I did wade a bit into the empty carbs family! THEN (oh yes it gets worse!) my daughter turned 16. She made my husband and me promise her… all summer long… that when her birthday came at the end of September we would quit smoking. Ah geez. I think I can tell you truthfully that as of October, I did just cannon ball off of the wagon! About the only thing I haven’t touched is a doughnut! If you think that poverty and the ill health of beloved family members were adequate self excuses for “stress eating…”, sister (or brother) you have never quit smoking!

So what was your New Year’s resolution this year? Wait, wait… let me guess. Were you going to eat right and exercise everyday? ME TOO!!!!! The problem is, “eating right” doesn’t make me actually lose weight. Exercise helps, that’s for sure, but I really have to make an effort beyond that if I want to return to losing weight… and I do. So…. Here’s my plan. I keep talking about the shopping/cooking/eating plan that I wrote and want to market some day. Starting February 1, I am going to live by that month long program. I’m going to see how the shopping lists work. I’m going to update some of the recipes which I will happily share with you. I’ll let you know how it’s going and if I am losing weight. If, throughout this process any of you would like to give me suggestions, or answers to questions I might ask, I will really appreciate the feedback.