I’ve been pondering something all day. I have been reading Meditation as Medicine by Dharma Singh Khalsa, as Heidi has recommended several times. As a “B” blood type, I am supposed to use meditation and visualization as part of my lifestyle. This is the one area I have never delved into. I have thought about it, and maybe gone to a class or two, but never took meditation seriously.

Anyway, as I’ve been reading this book, the author gives lots of proof that proper breathing and certain breathing exercises will help to cure some diseases and lessen ones dependence on drugs for health. And I’m getting into all this. It makes sense. And I started practicing the first breathing lesson this morning.

Then, as I’m getting ready for the day, one of the songs we have been practicing in chorus keeps going through my head. It’s an old Peggy Lee song from 1946 called “It’s A Good Day”. I wish you could hear the song while it plays in my head – it would help you understand my ‘AHA!!’ moment here. Anyway, the song goes: “It’s a good day for paying your bills

And it’s a good day for curing your ills

So, take a deep breath, and throw away your pills

‘Cause it’s a good day from morning till night!”

So, do you see my ‘AHA’ moment? This stuff is universal and timeless. A deep breath will cure you. Even the pop lyric writers in the 1940’s knew about it. IT WAS NEVER A SECRET!! Maybe I just opened my third eye this morning.

Oh well. That’s enough thinking for me today. And it has been a Good Day!

I had a nice and relaxing day today. Didn’t really need to go into the store, so cruised in around 11:00am just to make sure everything was going okay. Had lunch with a girlfriend. We always go to the same Thai restaurant and order the same thing. They make a lovely beef and vegetable dish and will spice it as hot as you like. I like this dish really hot. My friend and I usually spend the lunch hour blowing our drippy noses as we eat. Nothing like getting one’s sinuses drained!

Spent the afternoon with my daughter at a place called The Painted Plate. They have unfinished ceramic dishes and assorted knickknacks for painting. They provide the brushes and paints and other tools for making designs on the items. They then fire the dishes in their kilns and they turn out so nice! My daughter is trying to outfit herself with dishes for when she moves away into her own place. I’m not much of an artist, but it sure is a fun way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Sorry to have missed a few days. Just haven’t been able to sit at the computer long enough. It has been a great three days as far as diet and exercise go. I have had vegetable juice from my juicer. I have had a couple protein shakes (thanks for the flax oil suggestion Erika over there in the other corner!). I have eaten lamb, and sauted vegetables and beef and if I’ve eaten any avoids, it’s the handful of Toll House morsels I found in the cupboard left over from holiday baking. And yes, I ate them during that half-hour in the kitchen while doing the dishes!! I faithfully went to Pilates on Monday and today. And yesterday I did my aerobic activity and weight workout at home. Boy, do I ever feel full of myself!

I think I deserve a nice long soak in the tub tonight.

Oh, man….what a weekend! Friday evening we went to our golf club for a “Putting Contest”. They had set up a putt-putt mini-golf course inside the clubhouse. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I got hungry and succumbed to the taquitos that were being passed around. Corn is not my friend at all. And I knew what would happen to me as a consequence. Anyway, afterward went to a restaurant and had a wonderful marlin with pureed baby carrots. Way yummy!

Then, Saturday was the big one. We went to the annual fundraiser gala for our local performing arts center. It’s a black tie thing. Went to the beauty salon for an up-do. Gold glitter sprayed in my hair. Wore a shiny gold tunic and jacket with flowing black pants. Sensible lady shoes. Not too high. I tend to stumble a lot. We had Tony Bennett as the performer. The man still has it. It was a wonderful concert. He sang all his old hits. There was a dinner afterward catered by the best Italian restaurant in town. And you know what Italian food is…..pasta, pasta, pasta and some more pasta. Oh yeah, there was some shrimp with that pasta, too. And then the dancing! A wonderful rock and roll band and dancing, dancing, dancing! And probably a bit more alcohol than I usually drink.

So, anyway, I woke up this morning with what I call “pizza eyes”. I get those puffy red eyes after pasta and shrimp and more alcohol than I should. Had a four-hour rehearsal to grind through this afternoon. I was in no mood for it. But we have a barbershop show coming up in three weeks. Lots of extra rehearsals in my future.

Now, it is time to take stock. It is time to quit misbehaving. On February 17 we are leaving for a vacation. I want to get control of my diet and exercise for the next three weeks. Tomorrow is Monday…….another chance to get it right!

I have been good about my food choices the past few days. I have overdone it quite a bit on the portion category, though. Had a root vegetable au gratin with a hunk of lingcod for dinner last night. I’m sure I would have been satisfied with half of what I ate. But it tasted so good I couldn’t help sticking more of the vegetable dish in my mouth as I cleaned the kitchen. The cream and gruyere cheese made it taste sinful. And I probably could have done without the second glass of wine. Hmmm, come to think of it, I had that second glass of wine while I was cleaning the kitchen. There may be some cause and effect here. Maybe I shouldn’t be cleaning the kitchen! Yeah, that’s it! The secret to my diet success will be to not clean the kitchen!

I don’t think I can get away with that one. He cooks, I clean – that’s the deal here. He doesn’t like my cooking, so it’s not like we can share the duties. If I cooked more often, he would have to eat my ‘weird’ BTD food. I wouldn’t be cooking him pork and chicken, that’s for sure. So, I have to work on that one half hour in the kitchen after dinner while I'm cleaning up. An isolated period of time in which to set some resolve. I think I’ll try it. Not tonight, though. We’re going out for a little fun. But the food choices will be easy. I can order what I want – and not worry about hurting anyone’s feelings.

Okay…. It’s Wednesday and I’m still puffy from those two naughty days on the weekend. Hopefully by tomorrow all will be gone.

I received my first can of protein powder from the NAP store. This morning I spun it up in the blender with cranberry juice, just like the instructions said. It seemed a bit grainy to me. Don’t know if I didn’t blend it long enough. Or maybe I need to put some flax oil in it or something.

I had to attend a “function” for one of the community boards I’m involved with this evening. Had to take my Nike’s off and put lady shoes on. There was a real nice spread of appetizers and other lovely things to eat. I was s-o-o-o-o-o good!! I just walked around sipping a glass of red wine and didn’t even once touch a thing on that table. My Atkins Husband Buddy didn’t touch the stuff on the food table either. That really helps when you have some support in these things. So, it will be a safe meal of steak and broccoli tonight.

And tomorrow ALL the puffiness will be gone!!

Oh my goodness!! Sunday eating didn’t turn out nearly as compliant as I had planned. My dear, lovely husband the cook – who hardly EVER brings carbohydrates into the house – bought one of those wonderful, handcrafted specialty loafs of bread to eat along with the cioppino he made. Of course, the cioppino also had clams and prawns in it, which are also avoids for me. Even with the double dose of Deflect after that meal, I still was quite drugged by the wheat. I didn’t even wake up till 10:00am this morning. Had to make a mad dash to make it in time for my Pilates mat class. And my muscles were in no mood to exercise after all that wheat. Glad I made myself do it, though. I do feel better now.

This being a holiday, we didn’t open our stores today. So, it has been odd. We did putter about the stores and did some work on the computers that can’t be done when we are open. It is difficult to take a day off when there is something always hanging over your head that needs to be done.

Okay – today I promise myself to not eat any avoids. And to not eat too much. I must be good to myself in this way, or I’ll end up sick.

Whew!! I just go finished answering people’s comments and communications that I wasn’t aware of. There was a week’s worth. Sometimes I forget to hit the refresh button on my browser, and think nothing is happening. All of a sudden all these comments appeared this morning!!!

Anyway, the big German avoid dinner last night was everything I was hoping for. She actually served a beef entrée called Roulladen (sp?). It was all so very, very delicious. Ended with an Apple Strudel to die for!! The friendship was wonderful. A couple of the folks there got into their cups a little and had a delightfully loud and animated argument.

So, I am suffering a bit from bloating this morning. But, I knew what to expect. I have dutifully done my aerobics and strength training for the day, so I am jumping right back on the BTD wagon. I expect the puffiness to be gone by Tuesday morning. Of course, then I have to prepare myself for next weekend’s debauchery. More about that later in the week.

Didn’t get that morning meal in today. Had to be out of the house early. Ate a ‘Boomibar’ (ground almonds, whey protein and honey are the only ingredients) before going off to Pilates. It gave me enough energy to get through it. Had a yogurt mid-afternoon. Feeling kind of tired this evening. It’s been a long week, I guess.

Ya-hoo, I can sleep in tomorrow, though. I don’t have to “be” anywhere at any specific time. That is until dinnertime. I have to eat an avoid meal. We bought a home-cooked German meal at a charity auction last summer, and we’re collecting on the meal tomorrow. I know it will be pork. And she is making homemade spaetzel, too. I’ll load up on Deflect before and after. It will taste so delicious (the meal, that is, not the Deflect)….but I can feel the heartburn already!! Trust me, I won’t overeat. The socializing will be the best part. We don’t get out much to see friends, especially in winter. So, it will be a good time.

I started the day out just right. I keep meaning to eat something in the morning, as I’m never hungry early, and tend to skip a morning meal. Made a whey protein, cranberry juice and 1% milk smoothie with a little stevia to sweeten. That really kept me going till about 3:00pm when I had some cottage cheese.

Came home and got out the juicer again. Made some carrot, celery and apple juice. I am really bad about getting all my fruits and vegetables (double emphasis on the vegetables) in every day. I bought the juicer about a year ago, thinking that even just one glass of juice a day would be so good for me. Well, I am really sporadic about using this thing. I'll use it diligently for a week or two, and then forget I even have it for awhile. I think the main problem is that I really don’t like the taste of the vegetable concoctions I’ve been trying. I have a couple of juicing books. The all fruit recipes sound wonderfully tasty. But it’s the vegetables I need. If there is anyone out there with a favorite and “tasty” vegetable combination, please pass it on.

Looking forward to a dinner of rib steak and vegetables.

Happiness is a day of compliant eating.

Okay. I’m back to normal now. It was a great weekend. Lots of singing and singing and learning and singing some more. The eating wasn’t too bad. I sort of pretended I was a secretor for the weekend. So, some of the foods that were neutral when I ate as a secretor but are avoid for non-secretor sneaked into my choices. Like, a piece of bread at lunch. And some potato chips. Not surprisingly, I was able to stay away from the desserts. Everyone said how delicious they were. But frankly, when given a choice between sweets and salty, crunchy things…. I’ll take the chips and pretzels every time.

On another note, Heidi brought up the book Meditation as Medicine in her column last week. I bought that book a year ago, and didn’t get very far with it. I’m wondering if my lack of skills in the visualization/meditation area are hindering my progress toward those eight “resolutions” I stated in my initial blog. I pulled out the book again last night, and am going to put some conscious effort into reading it and putting it into practice. We “B’s” are supposed to use visualization and our natural creativity to solve our issues. Maybe, just maybe, if I do that, then those other issues will just melt away!

I’m just about ready to leave for a weekend retreat with the Sweet Adelines. This is a full weekend of hard singing and choreography practice on our competition songs. It is also a weekend of eating challenges. Meals are buffet and there are lots and lots of yummy avoids to choose from!!! Of course, I should not choose avoids, so will try to keep to all neutrals and scarf down the bennies, if there are any. This will be hard for me. It’s so easy at home because I can keep most of the yummy avoids out of the house. So, wish me luck. Be back Monday.

There was an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal about all the different low-carb diets. I got to thinking how there is such a glut of new “processed” low-carb products out there now. There is even a store here that specializes only in low-carb foods. Pasta, bread, candy, drinks – you name it. It reminds me of when low-fat was first the rage (and still is, mind you). All the food makers came out with no-fat and low-fat processed foods. Snackwells comes to mind. And on half the candy bags you see hanging in the store it says in bold letters “Zero Grams Fat!!!” People eat those thinking they are going to lose weight, but the calorie content in them is horrendous. Nearly the same amount as the full-fat versions. Is this going to happen with the low-carb foods, too? After all, they are just substituting for the breads, pastas, sweets, etc that we are supposed to be losing our cravings for. We are not changing our diets to whole, fresh foods. I agree that going low-carb on a diet is preferable to low-fat. So, maybe the nation (world?) is moving in the right direction. Sure seems as though progress slow to me. I hope that in my lifetime the BTD becomes recognized in the mainstream. There are way too few of us believers.

Yesterday didn’t go so well – eating-wise that is. We had invited friends to dinner. We were going to serve a braised beef with roasted root vegetables. Well, the weather has been pretty bad here. At least for the Northwest. We don’t deal well with ice and snow. The county has hardly any plows or sanding equipment, so it takes days to get all the roads driveable. Anyway…our friends couldn’t get out of their driveway, and since we have a Jeep, we went over to their house and ate what they served. (Just like Dr. D said to do in Eat Right :-). It was lasagna, french bread and carrot cake. The only compliant item on the table was the lettuce in the salad. Woke up pretty puffy this morning. And my stomach was kinda queasy most of the day. Oh well, should feel better tomorrow. I don’t see any eating hurdles coming up until this weekend. More on that later……

Happy New Year!! This will be a new beginning for us here in BTD-land.

Instead of introducing myself, you can read the short bio in the About Linda section. I’m sure you will learn more as the days pass.

First of all, I need to let you all know that I am not perfect. I am a master at fooling myself into believing that a tweak here, and an adjustment there to my liking, is just as good as doing something correctly. My Pilates coach will probably be the first person to agree with me. She watches me closely for “cheat moves”. I have done the same sort of “cheat moves” with my diet over the past two years….but nobody has been watching.

I guess I’ll just start bang out with issues I need to take care of this next year. I think the common term for this is “New Year’s Resolutions”.

1. Recent blood tests show my cholesterol has risen from 202 to 248 over the past two years.

2. My glucose count rose from 99 to 113. (A1C is 5.2, so that’s okay.)

3. I have problems with portion control.

4. I need to quit that morning cup of coffee and go back to green tea.

5. I need more aerobic exercise.

6. My blood pressure is too high.

7. I have eight more pounds to lose to get to “wedding weight”.

Okay, that’s enough.

Thanks for reading and watching. I think it will be a challenge knowing others are viewing my struggles as I try to get back on track. I know it can be done.