Ack! The first month of the year is gone already. That didn’t take long.

We haven’t put away the dog things yet. His toys are still in his toy box in the rec room. There are still three cans of food and his half-empty bag of dry in the pantry. His water dish is still on the front stoop. All in good time, I ‘m sure.

The week in the desert was a welcome relief from all the rain. It was sunny every day. The temperatures were moderate. I don’t think it got much above 70 degrees on any one day, but it just felt good sitting on the patio and soaking up some vitamin D.

It was disappointing that I was suffering from another respiratory virus during this trip. I am quite perturbed that it has only been two months since my last bout with a virus. I really like to depend on my BTD lifestyle to prevent these things. So, it has made me look seriously into what I may be doing that is compromising my immune system. The first thing I have done is to start a food journal again. I’ll keep that for two weeks and then chart it out against the Live Right portion guidelines. Hopefully that will point something out. (I can already say that I still drink that cup of coffee every morning.) I also have to ramp up the aerobic exercise. Even though I am diligent with my Pilates and yoga practice, sometimes I only get one walk or treadmill session in per week. That has got to change to a minimum of three times weekly.

Gee, I feel better already.

Things with the arm and shoulder had been getting worse in December, so I had an MRI on my neck a couple weeks ago. There is some significant degeneration in the lower cervical discs. I’m seeing an orthopedic surgeon today to explore the next step. Explore is the operative word here. I’m just at the beginning of this journey. I spent hours on the internet this past weekend looking up the words and terms used in the MRI report. At least I’ll be able to converse half intelligently with the doctor.

Be well, stay warm!