Resolutions

I read on a friend's blog today that New Year's Resolutions are made to be broken.. Come on, how many have you kept? Instead, she is going to start making monthly resolutions. You can keep anything up for a month, right? Then there will be a day of reflection at the end of each month, in which you establish your resolutions for the following month. I really like this idea!

First, I'd like to think out loud.. er, digitally.. whatever you want to call it.. and reflect on my past year's accomplishments. There is nothing like tooting your own horn to start positivity into the new year, right?

Now, these aren't all necessarily goal driven accomplishments, but it's still significant to me, or I wouldn't bother listing!

• Maintained my weight loss for the entire year. I have bounced up and down within the same 3-5 pound range since March. I think I started 2009 at around 168 or so, and I've been staying between 157-162 since March.
• Keeping my sanity (for the most part). My job has been intensely stressful this year. And I'm still alive and relatively sane. And, a little better off financially because of the OT!
• Reduced my debt by about $4,000
• Moved in with my boyfriend in July. He's awesome! :)
• Established a savings account that actually has a little bit of $ in it!
• Broadened my horizons in the kitchen.. I've been experimenting with lots of new recipes and so far, so good! It's been a lot of fun for me!
• Read all 7 Harry Potter books (and enjoyed them all!).. This is an accomplishment for me because I haven't read too many books in the past few years.. and since reading the HP series, I've read another 7-10 books! Yay, me!!
• Purged lots of clutter... When I moved in with John, I gave away, sold and trashed a lot of things. As I've let go of the pounds, I've learned to let go of possessions too.

I'm sure there is more... but, my brain hurts from thinking too much, and I'm itching to share my JANUARY resolutions, not my New Year ones! :)

On with it...

For January, I resolve to:

• Get back on track with vitamins. I've been a slackerface lately, and I know that needs to be corrected. I had glorious labs all of 2009, and I don't want to ruin 2010 lacking in vitamins!
• Get back on track with water... or should I say, get ON track with water.. I've always been terrible with it. I resolve to drink at least 40 oz of water a day in January... and then hopefully in Feb, I can up it to the proper 64. I'm not trying to be an underachiever, just realistic!
• No More Diet Cokes! As Chris H's blog is titled Diet Coke Rocks, oh, it truly does. But, it's my downfall, and I'm not even supposed to be drinking it. So, bye bye Diet Cokes. It's on to tea, Crystal Lite, and oh yeah, WATER!
• Get back on track with protein, go off track with the carbs! Are you sensing a pattern here? Why yes, Laurie has been a terrible post-op patient as of late! I resolve to focus on protein as my main source of nutrition again. The carb monster needs to be tamed.. bigtime!
• Be more active! I don't want to put a number of workouts per week or number of minutes, because if I don't make it the first week, I know I'd quit!!
• Blog more. It keeps me accountable, and I miss it!

Yeah, my list is fairly simplistic, and should be easy. But, I know it won't be. Pre-oppers, post-oppers, and everyone in between... if you haven't yet tried something post op that you shouldn't.. Don't! You won't miss it. It's when you try it again that it's hard to stop. You don't need that diet coke, and you don't need those carbs or that sugar. The worst thing for me is that I don't get dumping syndrome easily enough. I think it's a curse. Thankfully, though, I seem to control myself since I'm staying in the same weight range. The sad thing though? I'd probably be completely at goal if I had just said NO! when offered my first diet coke or my first piece of non-sugar free candy!

Ahhh!!

Well, there you have it.. What are your January Resolutions? We can help each other with them all!

Happy New Year to you all!

Back to the Grind!

Well, the work holidays are almost over... I have Friday off, and then who knows when I'll have another day off! LOL I wish I could say that the week off that I had from work left me renewed and refreshed, but coming back to the massive pile of paperwork made me want to run home and hide under a blanket!!

How was everyone's Christmas? I hope wonderful.. I'm sure all of you were very good boys and girls! :-) My Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were very nice. My sister's family came over on the Eve, and we made homemade pizzas and exchanged gifts. On Christmas Day, John's family came over and we had the whole traditional fare with all of the trimmings. It was nice getting to visit with everyone!

Bad news about our puppy. We had to put Emma down the day after Christmas. She just kept feeling worse and worse, and we couldn't keep any weight on her. The emergency clinic said that she had some combination of distemper, parvovirus and/or pneumonia. Poor little baby! She was such a sweet dog, and I wish she could have lived a happy, healthy life. I hate sounding like a broken record with puppies.. we aren't having much luck! When/if it is time to try to get another puppy, we will make sure we get an older one that has had several rounds of shots, as neither of us can handle the heartbreak anymore that comes with the young pups. The sad thing is that you rarely know where the puppies come from, and we tried two different avenues - an individual and the SPCA, both with bad results. :(

Anyway... I must change the topic now!
John and I went to see Avatar on Sunday. I didn't think I would like it, as it's not really my kind of thing... but I LOVED it. It was a great movie. I'm sure we'll see Sherlock Holmes one day this week, as that's another we'd both like to see.

I'll blog again later in the week about my New Year's Resolutions... and I'll give you a teaser that blogging more often is one of them! ;-)

Hope you all are doing well!

xoxo
Laurie

Checking In

Whew, these holidays sure have come up quickly... It's only 1 week until Christmas Eve! Have you all gotten your shopping done? Happy Hannukah to all of my Jewish readers! :)

Life has been really busy for me lately. I was sick over Thanksgiving and still have the remnants of a cough.. ugh! At least I have tomorrow off from work, and I only work next Monday. The rest of the week is FREE TIME! Wahhoo!!!!

I need all of you to cross your fingers and toes for me, and if you are a praying person, that would be appreciated too. You all know how we lost Mojo to distemper in November. We bought a new puppy last weekend on craigslist, as we wanted to go through a person instead of through a shelter again to try to protect ourselves. Well, Emma, our little puppy, is sick as well. It is possible she could have distemper, but we can't be certain of anything. She is infested with worms, and she has an upper respiratory infection, but distemper is still a possibility as well. It's so sad! I really hope she gets better. I feel terrible for John, as these are his first two experiences with puppies, and they obviously haven't been very good so far. She appeared to be healthy when we got her, or we wouldn't have gotten her. AHH! Anyway, I would appreciate any positive thoughts in our direction!

One of my goals is to start blogging much more often. It really is therapeutic for me, and it helps keep me focused. No blogging, no focus! NOT GOOD!!

Well, I will check in soon! I have to get back to work and finish things up before my day off tomorow!

Ciao!

It's Snowing! In HOUSTON!

What a lovely little surprise for us.. We get snow maybe once every 3 or 4 years, and we hare getting some now! Hurray! :) I hope it sticks to the ground, but as of now, it still isn't. Hopefully it will snow all day so I can play later! :-)

I hope everyone is doing well.. This is my crazy week at work, but after Monday, things will be pretty mellow for the rest of the year, at least at work!

Tomorrow, I'm going to meet Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman. I can't wait! I love her blog, and her recipes, and am looking forward to meeting her! If you haven't checked out her site, you're missing out! Yes, the recipes aren't exactly WLS friendly, but you can modify practically anything, right? :)

Well, I better get back to work, but wanted to share the snow with you all! :)

xoxo