Happy Wed! Thank you for all the sweet messages about Penelopes birthday yesterday. We had done some celebrating over the weekend so yesterday was a fairly normal day, but she still had a great day and felt very special.
My kids did have a "birthday treat" for Penelope's birthday yesterday. We always get something that's an individual sized portion in situations like that because we don't want leftovers and don't want them eating on it for days. They enjoy it and don't care at all it's not a traditional birthday cake. It helps me not think about it too, but Chris and I are able to avoid those things without any issue. I always tell myself that "I ate cake before just because it was a Tuesday so I've had enough for my lifetime, and I don't need it now even on someone's birthday."
I still feel the need to "treat myself" when it's my birthday, but I am able to do that with special meats or cheeses (or just a manicure or something) but at this point I feel no urge at all to indulge myself in order to celebrate someone else's birthday. It's not about me anyway, I so I try and do something special for them that isn't all about food.
How have birthdays and celebrations been for you? Are they a struggle? Have your created any new traditions around birthdays that help keep you on track?
Cheese is good! I ate a block of chipotle oven baked cheese with lunch yesterday and it was divine. I love it, but know that it halts any progress I'm making, and will even trigger eating in excess to where I'll gain weight. It's sad but I have accepted it. If I eat it in small quantities with a meal, it's ok, but I really have to work to keep it in check.
What's your favorite cheese? How do you incorporate it? Do you see negative results when eating it?
Happy Sunday! Sharing a video today from our week, one of the highlights. This was Wednesday evening church, normally they have a more casual prayer meeting where someone plays the guitar, but they were doing some construction in the fellowship hall so they had their prayer meeting in the sanctuary. No one was there to play the piano so my my Grandma did it, she's been playing the piano in church for probably 80 years.
For context, she's 88, she had a really bad fall 5 years ago now and hit her head and ended up with a lot setbacks, similar to having a stroke. She has a lot of dementia like symptoms also (I am sure related to her Type 2 diabetes), she really can't read music anymore, and she has trouble seeing well, and she needs to wear hearing aids to hear but hates wearing them, so on this night she didn't want to wear them. My 93 (almost 94) year old grandpa takes care of both of them on their farm. Anyway, on this night she sat down on the piano and led worship as people called ...
Happy Saturday! I hope you are all doing well. I know some people in the group have had some recent tough news for themselves or family members. It really puts the day to day issues we face into perspective, and reminds me to just focus on doing the best I can to be as healthy as possible. To those who are having a hard time, we are all here for you and sending you some prayers and support. 🙏🏼🙏🏼 Just focus today on doing the best you can and remember that food isn't going to bring you the comfort you are looking for.
Here is a little video of Penelopes performance from her piano recital l last night, she's been taking lessons for about a year and a half. 🎹🤍🖤
*Livestream Monday night at 4pm pst/7pm est
SORRY I had this set to go live at 7pm not 7am. 😒
Happy Thursday!! @KristieClark said something yesterday that was an important reminder to us all. She said "I want to enjoy the journey. I want to focus on all the things I am grateful for and all the positive things."
Many times in this journey I have been so focused on hitting my final goal or just focusing on what I thought was the end of the difficult road, it made me so impatient and frustrated with day to day set backs or when I felt like things were taking too long. But when we shift our mindset to daily gratitude, thankfulness, and just focusing on enjoying the journey the road seems a lot less difficult. It's a big part of why I say that we have to find a way to make healthy choices and still live the life we want to live and not feel imprisoned by a "diet". It's the only way to find long term health and success
What are you thankful for today? 🤎
Had to share, I just made yummy tacos while sticking to my no cheese non negotiable. Fried 4 of these in a couple spoonfuls of bacon grease, they puffed up, got slightly crispy like a flour tortilla and honestly I couldn’t tell they weren’t real flour tortillas. Topped with a little taco sauce (not the cleanest thing but I used 1 pack from Taco Bell for 4 tacos!)
