I think autumn began as soon as the calendar flipped over to September. It has been unseasonably cool. Today I tried to play golf. There was a women’s tournament. It had to be stopped in the middle due to thunderstorms. It was too bad, because my partner and I were doing well.

The new season coming on is giving me impetus to pull in the reigns on some of the sloppy eating habits I’ve slipped into. The first thing I’ve done is cut my coffee consumption in half. I was drinking a large mug every morning. Occasionally in the afternoon I would indulge in a small cup. This week, in the mornings, I took a smaller cup, filled it one third full of hot 1% milk and then filled it up with coffee. I figure I’ve gone from a 12 oz mug to 6 oz of coffee. I would eventually like to wean myself completely. It is an avoid, and there is something wrong with starting the day out with an avoid food. When I first started the BTD, and found out I was a nonnie, I stopped the coffee right away. But a couple years later hubby and I went to a weekend conference somewhere, and I slipped and drank coffee all weekend and haven't stopped since. That was three years ago. I think it’s time to quit again. (I must like coffee. I have written the word six times in this paragraph.)

I’m also going to try to be diligent about getting my aerobic exercise in. I didn’t play golf nearly as much as usual this summer, and those walks have traditionally helped keep my weight down. I’m up a couple pounds due to lack of consistent aerobic exercise and those trips to far off places I took.

So, fall will be my renewal time. I don’t think I’ve tasked myself with too many changes. It’s doable.

I’m missing my blackberries this year. By last year they had so overgrown our property, that Hubby mowed them all down to give us some breathing space. Well, I can’t find enough to make a pie this year. In previous years I had been able to walk out in the yard and munch on handfuls of blackberries any time I wanted for at least eight weeks. They were my truly seasonal beneficial food I always counted on.

Hubby and daughter are on another motorcycle weekend. You know what that means? Yup, I’ve had liver and onions for dinner the last two nights. Yum, yum!! They are coming back a day early today. I guess they aren’t having as much fun as they thought they would.

I have one more trip to take this week. I’ll be going back east to visit family and celebrate my mother’s 90th birthday. She’s doing pretty well for that age. She still takes a two-mile walk most days. She doesn’t follow the B diet, of course. She practically lives on peanut butter and popcorn. I assume she is a secretor and my father was the non-secretor. He died at the age of 75 from many illnesses like heart disease and emphysema. She manages to keep going with the help of many medications.

Anyway, I hope after this trip that I don’t have to get on an airplane for awhile. There have been too many airports in my life the past few months. I don’t know how some people can travel for business as much as they do. It would drive me bonkers!

We got back from the motorcycle trip last Sunday evening, but it has been a horrendous week of trying to play catch-up with everything. Yesterday was the first day I felt normal from the time zone changes. Hubby got sick the last day of vacation. It was some sort of horrible virus in his chest. He has spent the entire week at home sick as a dog. I’ve really never seen him so ill. I was worried it might turn into pneumonia, but, of course, he wouldn’t go see a practitioner. Yesterday he tried to go into the office, but the walk out to his car was almost too much for him, so he waited 20 minutes and walked back to the house (about 75 feet). Today, I drove him to Costco and I think he is done in for the day. At least he is able to carry on a conversation now. Nobody could talk to him for five days.

Anyway, the trip motorcycling through the Alps was FANTASTIC! We traveled through five countries. I felt like I was on one continuous amusement park ride for six straight days. The first two days were pretty scary. Hubby was getting used to the bike and learning how to drive all the hairpin turns up and down the mountains. He dumped the bike on the first day while making a slow turn, luckily we weren’t hurt, and there was just a little scraping on the bike. (Though it didn’t do much for my confidence.) By the third day we were settled in and riding like pros. We’d go up one mountain, and down. Then up another mountain, and down. I got the hang of taking photographs while riding….and not needing to hang on to the bike. We were in a group of 27 folks (20 bikes) plus the tour guides, who were three wonderful, patient German and Austrian men. We made some new friends. The others tourers were from Boston, a couple cities in Texas, Orlando, Pennsylvania, and a twosome from Edmonton, Alberta.

Besides the riding, of course, were the food and beer. The food is just as wonderful as I remember from 25 years ago. For the most part, when given a choice, I chose the beneficial or neutral foods. In fact, I had a marvelous venison stew for lunch one day. Had goulash soup a couple other days. There were a few evening meals when the hotel only served one entrée, and it would be pork. I didn’t stress. I ate. A buffet breakfast was always provided at the hotels. As the days progressed, my choices digressed. There were all sorts of meats and cheeses and copious semmel rolls (sigh). I ate.

And, I think hubby and I tried to drink all the beer in Europe. Probably no less than three half-liters per evening. You can’t get beer like that in the States. No way. We hardly ever have a beer at home. It was all good.

And the best part is….. I only gained two pounds! (One of which is gone already.)

As our friend Edna would say, “Woo-huuu”!

This seems to be the summer of eating trials. Tomorrow hubby and I are leaving on another trip. This is the one we have been waiting a long time for. We’re going on a motorcycle tour of the Alps. We haven’t been to Europe for about 25 years, when he was in the military. I wonder if it’s the same as I left it or really different.

Of course my tummy has been in knots for days. There is so much to prepare for here so that the business can get by without us for the ten days we’ll be gone. I’ve been checking the weather reports for where we will be touring. It was looking like all rain for awhile, but things are improving. We’re, of course hoping for warm and sunny weather, but we’ve packed all our rain gear just in case.

I’m afraid I’ll be somewhat at the mercy of the food gods as to what I’ll be eating. I know I’m going to be tempted by all sorts of things. But, I think I learned a lesson from my trip to South Carolina that my gut doesn’t absorb foods that it’s not used to eating any more. (Hmmm, could I be getting older, too?? That’s another blog). I hope I can find a happy medium. There’s nothing like suffering on the back of a motorcycle!

Anyway, it will be an adventure both riding and eating.

I’m back from ‘barbershop school’. It was amazing. Three packed days of classes and singing and contests and entertainment. It was held on a college campus, so the food was all served cafeteria style. Since we were in the Deep South, there were plenty of avoid foods available. I did my best to make reasonable choices. Grits were served every morning. Oh, how I wanted a serving of those lovely grits! I managed to stay away from them, and was able to avoid all the corn products that were obvious. For breakfasts, I always had eggs, and a small portion of bacon. I cannot resist a crispy piece of bacon when it is staring me in the face. There was always fresh grapefruit, apples and bananas available in the mornings, too. Do you want to know what other kinds of food they served??? Well, there were biscuits, and french toast, and pancakes and muffins galore. The usual cold cereals, milk, bagels, peanut butter, jam…and well, you know. Lot’s of things I (we) used to eat.

My body had a hard time getting used to the time change. So, after forcing down breakfast at what my body thought was 4:00am, I was not hungry for lunch a few hours after that. So, I would skip the lunches and have a Unibar around 3:00pm, which was noon to my stomach. By dinner time I was hungry. They had enough choices that I never had to ‘choose’ chicken. Unfortunately there was a lot of starch served to fill in the gaps of small protein portions. So, I had some noodles here and a slice of bread there. There was plain rice one evening, which made me happy. There was always an ample salad bar available, but there were no compliant dressings, so I chose the ranch. And the DESSERTS!! There were tables of desserts. Cakes, cookies, apple crisp, krispy treats and a soft serve ice cream machine. I was able to avoid them all till the last evening when I poured myself a bowl of the ice cream. Whew! I almost made it though!

A consequence of these food choices resulted in some, what you might call, ‘gut reactions’. I did suffer for an hour or two every morning. I was lucky the classes were only about an hour long apiece. The change in weather could have affected things, too. The humidity was very high and it was very hot. I am not used to going from air conditioning to hot, humid air so many times in one day. By the end of the week, my ankles were very thick from the swelling. They don’t swell in the Northwest where I live now. But I do remember when I was growing up on the East coast, my ankles would always swell in the summertime. Even when I was as young as twelve.

But, despite the few inconveniences, it was a most valuable experience. I’m already planning next year's trip.