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.