PROCRASTINATE, PROCRASTINATED, PROCRASTINATING

I admit it,
I'm the "Queen" of it.
I hate it,
especially when it gets to the final moment.


And that's where I am today.

I generally schedule all medical test
in January
so that I can have them over
for the year and not look back.
That works fairly well for me.
The doctor's office
gives me a set appointment
and I generally don't reschedule - too much.

But today is the last day of January
and
Virginia requires all vehicles
to be inspected
one time a year.
And
all
of
our
vehicles
have
a
big
old
1
right on the front windshield.

So,
I'll be there,
with a bunch of
tobacco-chewing old men,
sitting in the garage,
waiting,
knitting,
waiting,
knitting,
waiting
for my truck to pass inspection.

There are a few
words and phrases
that I would like to eliminate
from my vocabulary -
take a rain-check,
dawdle,
put off
postpone -
well you get the picture.

William James
says,
"Nothing is so fatiguing
as the eternal hanging on
of an uncompleted task".

It is my goal to
do more
and
procrastinate less.

Blessings to all who visit here,
Lynn

IMAGE CHANGE

I've always had the thought
or
made the statement,
"if I were 50 pounds thinner,
I'd wear this
or do that".

Yesterday was the day that
I made my first step
toward changing that perspective.

For many years,
I have worn rimless or nearly rimless glasses.
I loved them
because my Grandmother
had always worn them
and I liked being like her.

Well,
I'm here to tell you now -

These are not your Grandmother's glasses -

They are my new look -
fun and funky!!

And as soon as I can get used to looking
through the frames,
I know I will absolutely love them!!

Blessings to all who visit here,
Lynn

ARE YOU A MEMBER?

I'm a "baby-boomer"
who grew up in the 1950's and 60's.

I can't tell you how many times
I heard my Mother say,
"You need to clean your plate.
There are 1000's of starving children in ....."

I'm sure you know the drill.

So I'm blaming her for my membership.
Yes, I'm a card-carrying member
of
"The Clean Plate Club".

It's taken me a while
to get to this point,
but regardless of what I eat
or don't eat -
at this point,
I'm not depriving anyone.

Now I know,
it's OK
to leave food on my plate.



Blessings to all who visit here,
Lynn

SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE

Lets face facts,
I'm a professional "dieter".
I would like to know
how many pounds
that I have lost and found
during my lifetime.

This is the year that
I am going to retire
from that profession.

One thing that I have learned
from this lifetime profession
is that I know myself well enough
to know there are certain statements
that will doom me to failure.
I also know I must keep a positive outlook
to succeed.

I have heard people who start
a new eating plan say
things like
"I can never go to McDonalds again"
or
"I can never drink soda again".
Face facts -
you can and you will.
We just have to learn how
to handle these situations
in the best possible way for us.

I guess if I had to pick
my all time favorite food,
it would be French Fries.
I would choose them over any
hotdog, hamburger, banana split out there.

I'm not willing to give them up -
we've had a love-affair
for my whole life.

But I know that I can have them
in moderation.
As much as I advocate
eating a balanced diet,
there are rare times
that my lunch or dinner
might be just
French Fries.
It works for me.
Why fill my body with calories and fat
from foods that I don't really want
just so I can have the
French Fries.

I also know that if I say
"I'm going to exercise every day"
that by the second day
I will fail.

I have 4 dogs who must be walked
so I get a moderate amount
of time on my feet when I am out with them.

But one must
have some exercise goals
Right now,
mine is to do
my Leslie Sansone Walking DVD
at least 3 times a week -
one power mile -
3 times a week
and if I do more
that's just
"icing on the cake".

On to cakes -
*
*
*

If you follow my dog blog,
Rocky Creek Scottie Adventures,
you will know that I recently
have decided that I need to learn to bake cakes.
I'm on my 4th cake
for the year.
It's a Apricot Brandy Cake
and it's pretty tasty.
But there is where moderation comes in again -
I'm not eating cake for breakfast,
(and I have been known to do this)
I'm not eating cake for lunch,
but I am enjoying one slice of cake
in the evenings
after I have my sensible dinner.

I can live with this plan for now -
I hope to modify it in the future,
but for now it's working for me.

Blessings to all who visit here,
Lynn

TASTY TUESDAY

One of the hardest task
that falls to me
is deciding what to
make for dinner.

I love to cook -
it's just the deciding
that wears me out.

This year,
I've tried
several new recipes.

Last night,
I made
Chicken Tamale Casserole
from
The Cooking Light website.

The only change I made
was that once I shredded the chicken,
I mixed the enchilada sauce
in with it
while the cornbread base baked.

I will have to give this recipe
"2 thumbs up".
It is not only easy,
it is delicious
and one that I would make
again and again.
It would even be a great dish
to take to a potluck dinner.

Blessings to all who visit here,
Lynn

ONE SHOPPING BAG AT A TIME

A lot of dog lovers like to
show their breed in many ways.
To Scottie "moms",
the ultimate is
"the purse".

And the purse of the year
is last year's hot purse
from
Dooney and Bourke.
In fact,
I am on the lookout
for another one.
(does one need three?
or is 4 the line
where it is considered excessive?)

This tote bag is great for shopping
but the other night
when I went to Jo-Anns,
I couldn't believe
that I let them put my purchase
(a light bulb)
in a plastic bag
and then I stuck the bag in my purse
and went merrily on my way.

Where I live,
having a trash service
is the same amount of trouble
as gong to the landfill,
so I get to make a monthly
visit to our wonderful landfill.
The first time I went there,
after moving here from California,
I was amazed at the amount
of plastic shopping bags
that were just blowing around.

At that time,
I decided that I would recycle
them as much as I could,
so I found ways to use them-
such as packing material,
taking them to thrift shops
that don't have their own bags
or returning them
to the bins in the grocery store.

But I still get more bags
than my husband and I can use.

So yesterday,
when I went to get my groceries,
I broke down and
purchased reusable bags.

I might not remember to use them
all the time,
but I'm going to make
a concentrated effort
to try and get them back in the car.

I might add,
that yesterday,
I came home with 3 1/2 of these
bags full of groceries
instead of a dozen plastic bags -
it was even easier
to get them in from the car.

And the next time,
I purchase a light bulb
for my sewing machine,
I'll put it in my purse,
instead of adding
one more bag to
our local landfill.

Blessings to all who visit here,
Lynn

HOW DO I REDUCE?

Even though I want to reduce
the number on the scales
as well as my waistline,
I need to reduce the number
of medicine bottles that are
in my cabinet.

As much as I admire my doctor,
I would like to minimize my visits to him.

Telling me that I need to eat fish
doesn't help me.
I was raised in the
Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
My parents were farmers
and
good, lean Black Angus Beef
was a staple in our diet.
But I know how to limit it -
even if I don't cut it out entirely.

Years ago,
I started cooking with olive oil
and that's a good base to start on.

*I need to increase my
fruits and vegetables to
5 per day.

*I want to add one serving
of walnuts to my daily diet.

*And my husband and I
have made a pact -
we are not going to purchase
any chips for the next two months.

And we also have decided
(on the advice of his cardiologist)
to add at least one glass of red wine
to our diet daily.

And to quote Dr. Oz,
"Getting healthy happens
one day at a time"

Blessings to all who visit here,
Lynn

DAY 21 - TIME TO KICK IT UP A NOTCH

Today is
"day 21"
of my new habits -
soon they will become
my old habits
and I will do them without thinking.
But I have accomplished
the following -
*flossing/brushing my teeth every night,
*cleaning the dishes every night before bed
and
*keeping my checkbook balanced.
I'm going to put a running tab
on the sidebar,
so I can keep account of these changes.

I've been thinking for the past
couple of days
about what I wanted to add
when I got to this milestone.


Better posture is one of my goals.
I've heard so many people comment
about what wonderful posture my Mother has-
and that's a trait that I want to emulate.
I don't think I will be walking around
with a book on my head,
but I do want to be conscious
of my shoulders and spine-
straighten up, walk and sit like I should.

I rarely drink a full sugar soda
(unless I'm celebrating!)
but I have gotten into the habit
of drinking a couple of
Diet Rite Grape or Tangerine sodas
per day.

I plan to switch out those sodas
for water or unsweetened tea.
But I don't want to purchase
bottled water -
when I'm at home, that's fine
because we have a
wonderful spring fed well,
but I need to be more conscious
of what I might need when I go out.

And remember to fill up my
little red bottle
from my sink.
That way I won't have to purchase
a bottle of water
(causing another bottle to go in a landfill)
or even be tempted
to get that full sugar Coca-Cola
that I love.

I must confess
(and I know you're thinking
"shame on you")
that most days my bed goes unmade.
This is the next change I'm making -
I want to get that bed made every morning.

I do have some weight loss goals
and have attached a ticker at the top
of the page.
We'll be getting into those changes
as we go along.
The good news is that I have lost
7 pounds since January 1, 2011.

Blessings to all who visit here,
Lynn

DOWN SHE GOES

We hear more and more
about reducing our carbon footprints.
In reality, my husband and I
have planted enough trees
in the past 5 years
to reduce the carbon footprints
of our unborn grandchildren.

But I have other goals in mind
and that we can all aspire to.

When I was a young wife and mother,
I employed a lot of money-saving schemes
during my day.

And then I got "busy"
and had a job
and it caused a lot of these good habits
to go to the wayside.

And now I rip off too many paper towels,
fill my septic tank with too much paper
and
buy books when I should be
getting them from the library.

It is my goal
*to have floor towels again
and not use paper towels for everything.

*to keep a check
on the amount of TP I use
and not to grab a big wad
of it to blow my nose
and then flush it-
I always have handkerchiefs -
I need to use them.

And when I finish reading this new book,
I'll see about getting a library card.
I don't need instant gratification -
unless there is a new Scottie purse involved!

Blessings,
Lynn

THIS IS THE YEAR!!

About the middle of December,
my friend, Diana,
from Jazzi's World blogspot
gave me a challenge.

She, her sister and her niece
had challenged each other
to finish unfinished projects.
She invited me to join in
on it with them -
I was amazed at how much
it helped to have this accountability.

So hence the new blog -
it is starting out as a blog
to help me get my life together -
(as if spending more time
on the computer would do that!!)
but I want it to be a gradual
unfolding of changes .

My dogs have a blog
and it's for fun -
I never have liked to have
a picture of myself on it
because I'm not happy
with my body image -
that is one of the changes
I need to make.
I don't look healthy or feel healthy.

So for this year,
I have goals.
But I am breaking them down
into smaller goals -
according to what I've read,
it takes 21 days for a change
to become a habit.

For January 2011,
the new habits I want to acquire
are-
*1. Floss and brush my teeth
every night before going to bed.
*2. Make sure the dishes are
in the dishwasher before going to bed.
*3. Keep my checkbook balanced.

So far - so good.

For the year,
I have bigger goals
that I will share as we progress.
I just needed to get this started today.

Have a blessed day,
Lynn