Okay….it’s time for the New Year Blog.

I am doing my usual first of the year self-assessment. It doesn’t look all that hot, folks. I am three, yes count them THREE pounds heavier than I was at the end of last year. The last one has come on in the last month. I haven’t had this much lack of will power in years. There have been more avoids in the house than usual. And I kept saying…..”well, it’s the Holidays!” Yeah, man. The Holidays.

Of course, during this past guilt-ridden month of eating too much and too many avoid items, I have also been plotting and planning the annual “New Year’s Resolution to Lose Weight”. I think there is a theme to my life here. Denial could be part of it. (Oh, that blasted Egyptian river!)

Denial is not good for a non-secretor.

So, here’s the plan. I have gathered fresh flax oil and lecithin granules. I received Harmonia and B/AB Protein powders from NAP. I have purchased beneficial fruit juice and will RESOLVE to mix these all together and drink for breakfast three or four times a week. I will not put breakfast off until 2 PM. I am going to eat smaller meat portions at the evening meal. I am going to drink less bourbon. That’s enough for the food part.

Exercise-wise, I will continue to practice Pilates 2-3 times a week. I will continue to practice Tai Chi once a week. I will make sure that I do aerobics a minimum of three times per week.

Oh, and after reading my fellow bloggers latest entries……I will love myself.

I have “wait for the Plumber” duty today. He’ll be here sometime between noon and five. Luckily it’s not an emergency situation. Just something we thought we should take care of before it does become an emergency. I don’t have a lot on my mind, so will ramble on a bit. Maybe some of it will be BTD relevant.

I’ve been sending daughter the Basic O type packs. She takes them when she ‘remembers’. She doesn’t follow the diet at all, but I’m hoping the supplements are helping her body in some way. This last time I sent her some Harmonia. She loves it. She says it makes her regular and she feels good with it. Her only complaint is that there are only 19 servings in the container. Any progress will do.

I started the holiday baking frenzy this weekend. I had orders from daughter to make rum balls. They need a few weeks in the refrigerator to mellow the tastes before eating. I cringed as I made the darn things. My hands were touching ingredients that should never be in my house. The ‘good’ ingredients were toasted walnuts, unsweetened cocoa, dark rum and because there was no corn syrup, I used agave. But, I had to use vanilla wafers, and confectioner’s sugar. I remember loving to eat vanilla wafers as a kid. I could down two dozen at one sitting with no problem. I tried one out of the box on Sunday, and it tasted horrid. Looking at the ingredients, I didn't see where there was any vanilla in them at all. Then looking at the box, it said Nilla Wafers. They don’t use vanilla any more. I would guess that vanilla extract has alcohol in it and they can’t put that on a grocery shelf any more. I would love to play with my recipes to make them more BTD compliant. But then the family wouldn’t eat them. They want things to taste the way they remember. No tweaking allowed for treats.

The singing group is picking up quite a few gigs for the holidays. Some we get paid for, and some we do just for exposure. We’re always looking for new members. I’m looking forward to the fun and harmonizing with my friends.

I feel like a horse at the racetrack. The gates are opening, and BOOM! We’re off and running into the holiday food season.

Our holiday season gets a slow start a few weeks early. Hubby’s birthday is at the end of October. He gets a special chocolate cake that I make. It’s one of those complicated recipes from Joy of Cooking that involves making a custard, and then you blend things in as you go along. I think the only compliant ingredients in the thing are butter and the walnuts in the frosting. Hubby says it’s the happiest three days of his year when he gets to indulge in that cake. This year I was able to hold off eating much of it. Just a tiny sliver here and there.

It was my birthday on Monday, so hubby took me out to dinner at a local seafood restaurant. I was able to choose wisely from the menu. They offered Hawaiian Nachos as an appetizer. It is Ahi poke with a wasabi cream topping on taro chips. It was very tasty and light, following the true meaning of an appetizer. After a green salad with raspberry vinaigrette, we both chose a macadamia nut buttered mahi mahi with rice and squash for our entrée dishes. They came out overcooked and we had to send them back. The second time was perfect. I was too full for dessert, but they offered us free desserts because we had to wait for the meal. The apple crisp seemed the most compliant, if you can say that about any restaurant dessert. It was nice and tart, and the two of us barely finished half of it. Anyway, I like going places where I can choose compliant food and enjoy it. Heck, even the martini was neutral!

Now, today is Thanksgiving. We have been invited to eat at a friend’s house. He is an excellent cook. I will not worry about compliance. But, I will try to keep the portion sizes down. We don’t have to cook anything. We just have to bring the wine. Hubby wanted to take champagne, and I wanted a Riesling. We compromised and are taking both.

My modest goal for this holiday food season is to not put any more weight on. I have been very bad at keeping it off and have put on two permanent pounds this year. I am increasing my aerobics and hopefully this will help keep me steady. I see the calendar filling up with parties and other eating opportunities. To paraphrase someone famous:

“I will stay the course”.

They lied. They promised that whatever happened in Vegas would stay in Vegas. Even the gal at the airline counter said any pounds I gained would remain there. Not so. I returned with one more big, ugly pound hanging around my waist. I ate a lot of wheat. And they served bacon, potatoes and wheat along with my eggs in the mornings. At least I always chose a beneficial or neutral protein for dinner. Yep, that’s it folks. I chose good protein. Sheesh! No wonder it followed me home.

Anyway, we had a great time. The convention was wonderful. There were 14,000 people there. Besides all the great barbershop singing, we managed to take in three shows at the various casinos. And, I thought, as long as I was in the gambling Mecca of the world, that I would try my hand at it. I had planned on losing $200 and call it a vacation, but by the time I had lost $75, I was so bored with it I quit. I just couldn’t get the point. At least that’s one addiction I won’t have to worry about conquering. Goodness knows I have enough problems to fix.

It’s been a busy, busy week at work catching up, and trying to get ahead while we get ready to take off to visit daughter for a week. She’s been pretty lonely and needs her Mom to go shopping with and buy her things. That always makes her feel better. Hubby is coming along too. He’ll fix the things she needs help fixing. Food won’t be a problem, as we will be cooking in most of the time. Maybe I can leave that ugly pound in Hawaii!

Another month has come and gone. Where does it go? And where is my progress? Hmmmm?

I’m staying even. That ‘s a good thing. But, I lack the impetus to really go after my BTD goals. Again. My bad.

Anyway, enough self-flagellation. There are more fun things to write about.

This past weekend was our Sweet Adelines Cabaret show. We worked hard all summer learning the songs and choreography. It’s always exhilarating to put on a show. We had two performances on Saturday. I couldn’t get to sleep for a long time that night. Too much music spinning around in my head. No rest for the weary, though. Tonight we start learning new songs for the Holiday season. Plus, we have to start learning the songs we’ll be singing in Competition next spring. There will be small performances in between, of course.

The golf season is winding down. Our ladies club had its end of year dinner last Friday. It was edible from this B’s standards. I left the roll sitting on the bread plate. There was a green salad with vinaigrette dressing. The entrée was salmon wrapped in puffed pastry (I scraped that off, for sure) and asparagus, with which I took a glass of riesling. There was the obligatory chocolate cake for dessert. I had it boxed and took it home for hubby. (I must admit, I did taste it after I got it home). It was just another example of all the obstacles we BTDers have to hurdle when eating out. My golf season suffered this year. I don’t think I played enough to improve. In fact, my handicap went up three points. That was very disappointing and frustrating. Hopefully next year my neck and shoulder will be stabilized enough to allow me to play more.

Daughter is toughing it out in Hawaii. She is definitely invested in school this time. So, we’re happy about that. I don’t know if she is refining her diet yet. I try not to mini-manage her life from across the ocean. We are planning a trip to see her at the end of the month.

Next week I leave for a short week in Las Vegas. The Sweet Adelines International Convention will be there. There are a bunch of us gals going down to watch the contests. It should be a real hoot. Of course, that will be a week of extreme dietary obstacles. We will be depending on hotel and restaurant food the whole time. I’m saving the last of my Unibars for real emergencies. I’ll be sure to take some workout clothes, too. Six days could wreak havoc with my routine. Hopefully, I can leave all the extra pounds in Vegas!