Our barbershop group just finished performing our annual show. It has been a really busy week building up to our two performances yesterday. Besides the normal business of making a living, etc, we had many extra and expanded rehearsals this week (thus, my blogging absence). It was all very fun. But I am pooped today. I had extra coffee yesterday to boost myself through the evening show. Couldn’t sleep until the wee hours. Then at 7:30am this morning the daughter’s cat decided I needed to wake up and pay her some attention. Drat that cat!

I did not stay compliant yesterday. There was food everywhere. Lots of junk food.

Singers have to stay very hydrated. But drinking water before a performance washes away the natural lubricants in the throat. There is a trick to keeping the throat lubricated so that the voice doesn’t seize up or crack during performance. Eat Lay’s potato chips. (Only the plain ones – no flavors). The nasty oil on the chips coats the throat quite nicely.

I drank lots of water, ate Lay’s potato chips and sang easily.

Okay, January is almost over. I’ve been procrastinating about getting the self-improvement show on the road. I think about it all the time, but I’m not doing it yet. Before I know it, it will be March or April and I will still be in the same rut I have found myself for the past months.

I guess I just have to pick one thing and decide to do it. There are several to choose from. Why am I afraid to commit? I think I am afraid to be uncomfortable. It may be too much work to make a change. It is so easy not to.

Hmmmm…..which shall it be? Try to quit coffee? Cut down on my alcohol consumption? Cut down my evening meal portions? Increase my aerobic exercise? I only have to pick one. Or, if I did all four, just think of the health benefits!

I hope you all are having better luck with your New Year’s resolutions than I am!

Last night was the annual fund-raiser for our local Performing Arts Center. I’m pretty involved with the center, so it was a special night for me. It’s a black tie affair with open bar and food tables. At 8:00 was a concert on stage with Peter Cincotti. He is the new up and coming ‘hottie’ in the jazz world. He put on a terrific show. He has a great voice and knows what he’s doing. I expect he will be right up there with Harry Conick Jr. within a few short years.

Anyway, I got all decked out for the party. Had my hair done up at the beauty salon. Wore a slinky, shiny navy blue number. Broke out some good jewelry and I even wore mascara! Hubby looked gorgeous in his new tuxedo. The food wasn’t all that exciting. I tasted enough of it to get my nose stuffed up, but definitely didn’t gorge myself.

After the concert there were desserts and dancing on the stage. That was fun. I nibbled on a cheesecake square, but it didn’t grab my attention, so didn’t finish it. The dancing was great. Especially after about three martinis (or was it four?) We B nonnies are lucky enough to have distilled liquor as a neutral beverage, so I don’t worry too much about it. Did I mention the dancing was great? I’m one sore puppy today. Used some muscles I don’t normally activate on a day to day basis. The band voted me as the dancer with the best moves……I hope I didn’t embarrass myself. I’ll count it as an aerobic activity for the week.

So now it’s back to humdrum.

I don’t usually talk about my involvement in Sweet Adelines. But, this group is my drug. It is my escape from the every day stuff of making a living and dealing with life and integrating BTD.

This last weekend we had our annual retreat. We holed up in a hotel and did intensive work on our two competition songs we are preparing for Regional Competition in April.

This year we had 43 women participate. It was a great weekend. The work was grueling, but the camaraderie and sisterhood that comes from these weekends was priceless.

I made some BTD observations during this weekend. I roomed with two gals who are under 40. One of the girls suffers from lupus. She tries hard to keep the disease from flaring. She tries to follow her Doctor’s diet instructions. But this weekend she happened to be suffering from a sinus infection. I suffered from her snoring. I discussed my involvement with BTD with her. She wondered what her blood type is. We talked about wheat, since wheat seemed to be the main ingredient of the meals served to us. She mused about what would happen if she stopped wheat consumption for a couple of weeks. I encouraged her to try, since odds are that she is a blood type that shouldn’t be eating modern wheat. (DUH !)

My other young roommate had an array of prescription drugs lined up on the bathroom counter. There was Fosomax, Premarin, Zirtec and something else (I forget). But, there were too many drugs for such a young woman. She knows she is gluten intolerant and does not eat wheat. She talked about how her Doctor wanted her to take calcium supplements, and that she used to take a whole lot of vitamins. She said she felt a lot better when she took the vitamins. It seems it’s a lot easier for her to take these drugs and deal with their side effects than to take supplements. I didn’t press the subject as I finished swallowing my baggie full of vitamins and supplements. At least she doesn't eat wheat.

Our weekend was a package deal, so meals were included and we were at the mercy of the hotel as to what was served. I saw the direct effects of food on the chorus after the lunch meal. They had served a chicken fettuccini with Caesar salad and rolls. The heavy cream and wheat in that meal turned the whole chorus into a big sleepy crowd (okay, not me, I only ate the Caesar salad and an apple). The poor director couldn’t keep anyone on track for at least an hour into that afternoon’s rehearsal. It was very frustrating for her.

I did pretty well avoiding the really big avoids during the weekend. I probably had more wine than I should have on Saturday night. I did let some wheat sneak in at the Sunday breakfast. They didn’t have a decent protein choice, and I got lazy with my resolve, being as I was quite tired from very little sleep (from all the snoring from my roomates) for two nights.

But, the weekend was wonderful. It was very good for my soul. I’ll let my body recover and get back to normal over the next few days.

This has been a good week for eating right. I’ll give some examples. Maybe it will be inspiration for any that might need it.

Monday night hubby made a dynamite cabbage soup. It had onions, tomatoes (okay for nonnies),vegetable broth and was very spicy. A dollop of sour cream on top made it even better when I ate some for a snack on Tuesday.

Tuesday I was feeling a little foggy headed and had scratchy throat, so I sucked on my Proberry-3 bottle several times. I requested lamb and sweet potato for dinner, as I wanted to only put beneficial foods in my body all day to boost my immune system.

I was feeling fine the next day.

Wednesday….oh my goodness! Hubby found fresh sashimi grade tuna at the grocery store. He seared it ever so lightly and made a mango, cilantro, tomato salsa to go with it, served on a bed of watercress. I was temporarily transported to balmy Hawaii while eating that.

Thursday night was leftover lamb and steamed broccoli, while he roasted a chicken for himself and daughter.

Tonight it looks like steak and salad.

For breakfast I usually have a Membrane Fluidizer Cocktail with a tablespoon of protein powder and a teaspoon of psillium added. My nutritional therapist made me add the psillium. If it is a weekend, I will generally fry up a couple of eggs instead of the MFC.

Lunches are either nonfat yogurt or cottage cheese. On a rare occasion (like yesterday) I will have lunch in a restaurant with ‘the girls’. We usually go to a Thai restaurant where I know I can get a compliant beef and vegetable dish that has no grains in it.

For snacking, I usually have a handful of compliant nuts. It’s a mix of almonds, walnuts, pecans, macadamias and brazil nuts. Also if there is some seasonal fresh fruit, I will have some of that.

So, that is pretty typical for weekdays. Weekends are a little looser because hubby will sometimes buy a loaf of designer bread and sometimes I can’t resist it. Or he will buy special pate and cheeses from the deli. There are some things I can’t resist!