2016 New Years Resolutions

Because I always try to document here what my NY Resolutions are going to be, even though I rarely post, I have to come here to make my proclamation for 2016.

This year, I am going for broke.

RESOLUTION #1: LOSE WEIGHT

Joining the new and improved Weight Watchers again. Oprah's commercial inspired me, what can I say? I need the accountability of a meeting, and the structure of a weekly weigh-in, so I will be checking out the meeting schedule at the storefront near my office. After-work meetings it will be!

RESOLUTION #2: EXERCISE REGULARLY

I joined the small but functional gym at work in the summer -- it's $22/month and includes a pool. Time to get my money's worth. My feet and back will thank me. Again, after-work sessions it will be!

I feel good about both of these, because if I learned anything from the year of Abby's obedience classes last year, it's that I actually do well with after-work learning activities. I usually just go home and we all lay around until bedtime, but having something to do instead turned out to be pretty fun.

RESOLUTION #3: SAVE MONEY

We've gotten really, really bad about this. Time to turn around the ship. That includes all the eating out, and poor grocery shopping. I can do it a lot more frugally than I have been.

And...that's it. It's enough. Anything extra that improves in my life will probably be due to the three items above. Haha, maybe I'll have more energy to come back here and finish the KonMari series (I still love my organized and streamlined house, by the way).

Do any of you have resolutions for 2016?

Links and Thinks

Is the title too twee and/or dorky?

1. I've been making good headway on a few of my resolutions already. My 45th birthday (!!!!) is this March, and the day falls in the middle of the week. I had a few grandiose plans for celebrating but those usually end up getting scrapped. Instead I decided to give myself a gift I sorely need: I am taking the entire week off. A birthday staycation!

I am already counting down the days: 45 business days to go. Seriously.

2.  Also from the resolution front: I dropped off a couple of bags of food at the Food Pantry, added this Donate page to my bookmarks, did my monthly edits/purchases post, and got the 3 posts in last week.

3. I am also working on the budgeting. For years I used Quicken on Windows, and loved the program. It was linked to all my accounts, I could categorize all my purchases easily, and setting up budgets was a breeze. Switching to a Mac changed all that; Intuit refuses to make a good version of Quicken for the Mac, so I had to abandon my beloved program. I've been half-heartedly using Mint, but my Nordstrom account doesn't link to it, and after all this time, I just don't love the idea of doing all of my financial planning up in the clouds. I have online banking so it seems like a weird tic, but when I pull all my accounts together in one place with their account numbers, I just feel better if it is on my computer.

So I have been comparing programs and I am torn between two: iBank and Moneydance. Anyone have any experience with either? Thoughts?

4. I want to add Helen's dinner-table "aspiration" as an addendum to my own New Years resolutions; we have a great kitchen table, and we only use it with company. Not only is it a great way to truly slow down and appreciate our food (when I did Core we sat at the table all the time), but it is a way to spend more time together, take a breath between working and laying on the couch watching TV, and most of all, will eliminate most of the food stains on our clothes, laps, computers, and rug. ;-D

5. Lest you think all of this resolution business is a waste of time, a recent study showed that our personalities are changing all the time even though we think they are not. Science! (TM Jessie) It's never too late to change yourself.

6.



This is what I needed the plastic shoe boxes for. ;-D

Yes, those are all of my frozen bagged foods. I made tomato sauce and a batch of Sheila's green pasta sauce, and froze them flat on a cookie sheet.



Then I stacked them in the plastic boxes, alongside another container of soups. They had been scattered throughout the freezer, and I realized we weren't eating them as much as we should. This should help with that.



That's chicken noodle, smoky black bean, Tuscan bean, and butternut squash-carrot soup on the right. My friend Amanda created another recipe for a savory parmesan-nutmeg muffin that I am going to try, and I think we will be making quick work of some of these soups this week. (I will post the muffin recipe once I have tried them out!)

P.S. I stole the shoebox idea from Kat at Corporette, from a post from many moons ago. The frozen baggies idea I incorporated immediately, but I waited on the shoe box until now. It felt way too anal-retentive organized, but...that's what I am! Might as well make it work for us. :)

7. Meal planning frequently falls apart for me when I try to do it over the course of a week, and sometimes (like this one) even Sunday Cooking doesn't get done. I think sometimes I am just too ambitious; I buy all the ingredients but for whatever reason I just don't feel like doing the work, and the food goes bad and we order pizza instead.

So when my friend A linked this cooking challenge, it was a light bulb moment. OH! Not every meal is made for the same reasons, or with the same amount of effort -- and even comfort non-cooking foods have their place in meal planning!

I can use my own lists of known classics and my Pinterest board for new ideas, but this categorization from that post is one I want to use over and over:

• Classic Weeknight – Exactly what it sounds like. Quick, simple, healthy, meals that require minimal effort when you are charged with getting dinner on the table fast.
• Make-Ahead – Some of these would also fall under “Classic Weeknight,” but the beauty of them is that you can do a large chunk of the work on the weekend and store in the freezer.
• Keep the Spark Alive – These are a little more involved than regular weeknight dinners, but they are every bit as crucial to your psychological health because they take time and love and have the potential to get you excited about cooking again.
• Security Blankets – These are not recipes, per se, but suggestions for finger-foody things (peanut butter, hummus, baby carrots) that don’t need to be cooked.

The challenge is that you look at your calendar for the week, and see which nights should be Security Blankets or Make Aheads, which are ones that you have time to try new things (Keep Spark Alive), when you can prepare Make Aheads or just Classic Weeknights. You are supposed to pick a couple from each, and Security Blankets for the rest of the days.

I LOVE THIS IDEA. I can tweak it for us so easily, to ensure we definitely do more home cooking, with a reasonable mix of new, favorites, easy, hard and pre-made, or just a happy PB&J or baked potato.

8. Doesn't this sandwich look amazing? I don't know why it never occurred to me that we could make reubens at home. We can make reubens at home, OMG. And it can be a healthier version too: turkey pastrami, good sauerkraut and rye bread, a light Thousand Island...my husband is going to love this one. Oh my yes.

9. Did everyone see Ally's trick for wearing collared shirts under crewneck sweaters? She doesn't button the shirt underneath except for the top and bottom buttons, and tucks the rest to the sides. As I commented on her blog: Woman, you are a genius.

10. Is it time for my birthday staycation yet?

New Years Resolutions 2013

One of the nice things about maintaining the same blog for several years is that you build up an archive of posts, and if you tag things well like I do, it's pretty easy to find old ones.

Like my New Years Resolutions from 2010, 2011, and 2012.

In 2010, I wanted to:
1. Become a 5K runner
2. Get back into size 10
3. Go paperless
4. A new unidentified self-improvement project

In 2011, I vowed to:
1. Get healthy
2. Get my literal house in order
3. Keep evolving Low Fat Dressing

In 2012, I didn't make any resolutions.

Interestingly, the year I didn't make any is the year I actually completed some of the ones from previous years; the office and all the piles of paper were finally cleaned up and overhauled (as were all the clothes in the office, basement and bedroom), and all the mechanical work was completed too -- new garbage disposal (and pipes, ugh), new water heater, and the shower got regrouted. Plus we painted and redecorated the living room.

Okay, so maybe 2012 was just the year of home improvements. So glad we finally got them done!

Interestingly, I made this year's list before I started looking back at previous years, and I am seeing a startling difference: the resolutions I have this year are more specific. They're goals more so than vague proclamations; maybe doing it this way will make them more successful? We shall see!

2013 Resolutions:
1. Lose 9 pounds (i.e. do not be the weight you are now).
 My doctor gave me this one last year, and I didn't listen to her. I said with my mouth, "I'm going to lose just 9 pounds", but my heart really said, "But really it will be 50! Just by magic!" Of course that didn't work. Despite several attempts, I am still at the same damned weight I was last January. This year I am going to keep chipping away, but I am simply aiming for the nine pounds she recommended.

2. Donate to the Northfield Food Pantry more regularly.
I give to charities whenever someone has a fundraiser, but the bulk of my charitable giving is to my local food pantry. I live in a well-to-do town, and the number of families who depend on the food pantry has doubled in the last few years, from 300 to 700. That appalls me. So I am going to set up a monthly or quarterly donation schedule to give actual money, and I will start buying an extra bag of beans, rice, peanut butter, cereal, etc to bring in more often too. I have a couple of bags on my counter to bring in today -- they sent out an email saying they were low on those key items. I picked some up cheap at Tonys this weekend.

3. Keep editing closet and tracking purchases.
This is a terrific habit I am glad I picked up from Lorena. I did buy more this month, but I edited out more too. (Post coming this weekend!)

4. Blog more consistently.
I am looking at a schedule of one weekend day, Tuesday and either Wed/ Thur.

5. Continue home cooking.
Hubby and I are getting better every week at making do with whatever I have available at home instead of ordering out as much. These last few weeks we've been eating baked potatoes for dinner once a week-- I put cheese on mine, he has been using up some chili I had frozen from this fall. We have been loving them!

6. Take one selfish, week-long vacation.
Last summer's trip to New Buffalo was the high point of my entire year. We tend to use our vacation time for family trips, but I think we need one "for ourselves" again. Most importantly, it has to be a full week; we are masters at long weekends but that isn't enough of a break. We both went back to work fully refreshed for once. I want that again.

7. Don't waste "emotional energy."
This article resonated with me when I read it over the holidays; I've been very stressed and anxious the last few months over work and other yucky issues, and I realize that a lot of that is because I keep getting wound up over the same problems over and over, rehashing conversations in my head and not letting things go. Then I get home and am exhausted and crabby and indulge myself too much. When I think about it terms of emotional energy, it's easier for me to let it go; I need to keep my emotional bank better stocked, so I am better able to handle other stresses or to move forward on the positive things I want to do for myself, like eat better, drink less, etc.

8. Develop budget.
We're DINKS so I have been able the last few years to coast along without a definite money budget. I pay all our bills on time, our 401ks get the max amounts every year, and we have several savings accounts that have scheduled deposits set up for (like our Christmas account, car/home repair, and general savings), but I haven't actually done a budget in quite some time. I need to do that, and thus figure out where money is being wasted. I bet we can save a lot more if we try.

I have a few other goals that I am not ready to talk about here but definitely are my to-do list for 2013. I will let you guys know when they come true!

Did you make any resolutions this year? Were any of yours as sweet and earnest as Woody Guthrie's?

Happy New Year!

As the rather tumultuous 2012 draws to a close, I wanted to thank everyone who reads and comments on LFD. I know my posting has been erratic this year, but I appreciate all of you sticking with me and encouraging me through the ups and downs. You are a fun, smart, vibrant group of people, and my life is richer with all of you in it.



I will be posting tomorrow about my resolutions -- I have a few this year, unlike last year -- and playing catch-up on some other items -- but the main resolution I am making is to post more often in 2013. Who knows, maybe I will get myself on a schedule like Shelley and Helen! (I can't possibly do a daily one like Sheila. That kind of discipline eludes me.) Blogging is a lot of fun, and it really does help me strengthen my habits. So that's my main resolution.



I hope you all have a safe, warm and fun New Years Eve. 2013 is coming! What will be in store for us next? I am looking forward to finding out.

Sunday Cooking: Making it a Habit

Back at New Year's, I elected not to make any resolutions for 2012. I said things were too chaotic and uncertain, and that all I really wanted to do was this: the Foodstyle continues to go along; I've lost the weight I gained back over Christmas, and I continue to plan my meals and get plenty of cooking in to prepare for the coming week. I'm hoping to add in some minimal exercise soon, just to get myself moving and get my core stronger. I've started making some long overdue appointments, like the dentist and some home improvements. We just ordered new living room furniture and have our paint colors picked out.

On the last weekend in March, I've come to realize that the food prep of Sunday Cooking has become a habit. It's no longer the thing that takes up my whole weekend; by now I know how to browse recipes and shop in such a way that if I don't have a lot of time on the weekend to actually cook, I can still provide for us for the week. Whereas before if I didn't have time, I would throw up my hands and we would eat takeout, now I am able to squeeze in at least an hour and stock us up.

Instead of takeout, we now have:


Strawberries


Red peppers




Spaghetti squash (the last of the sauce is in the freezer)


Roasted Brussels sprouts


Veggie-Chicken meatballs (a recipe from Helen). I went with a spicier seasoning -- Northwoods and Worcestershire -- since that's what we like, and I switched out almond crumbs for real bread crumbs, but otherwise I followed the recipe. I assumed Hubby would not be interested, but he taste-tested one and gave it a big thumbs-up. Who knew?  These will go well with the spaghetti squash and maybe in sandwiches.

I also bought a ton of stuff for salads: spring/spinach mix, seedless cucumbers, radishes, mushrooms. There is also the rest of the chicken thighs marinating in the fridge; tonight they will be broiled or grilled, then we have the protein topper for the salads. Along with the red peppers and strawberries, it should be a tasty spring meal.

All of that took me 90 minutes. Not bad!

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So what else was I doing this weekend? Besides writing reports for work for a couple of hours of Saturday and a pretty full day on Sunday, plus treating myself to a casino trip (and winning a good sum of money to boot)?

Getting our new furniture!! The stuff we ordered way back in January from Laz-y-boy finally arrived. The rug won't be ready until April, and we are scheduling the painter this week, but the furniture was delivered on Saturday and I could not be more pleased.

This is what it looked like before. That recliner was like sinking into a leather swamp; no support whatsoever. Probably the source of most of my chronic back pain.



My house is very colorful! We are painting over the blue now; it's just too dark and sucks up all the light. So we're going with "tiger stripe" orange, and keeping the mustard walls because I love that color. :)



We cleared the recliner out, as well as the cat perch and coffee tables. As I insisted to Hubby it was time for there to be more human chairs than cat chairs. They, of course, disagreed and wandered all over.



The new furniture. LOVE IT.





We got two chairs. This one is the Fletcher model; it swivels and is very soft and comfy. You just want to curl up in it.



This one is the replacement for the recliner, so will be "my" chair. I forget the model name, but it's a great mix of looking very sharp with plenty of back and butt support.



And it's a secret recliner too! So clever.



The salesperson found us a great between table, plus the pretty cushions use all the colors in the room. Another super-colorful patterned rug arrives next month. All that is left is more lamps. I will be on the hunt for those next weekend.



I love my new furniture. Now I have to go to work to pay for it. ;-) Not true; I have a special savings account for home repair and decor that we auto-transfer money into with every paycheck. It had built up a nice nest egg over the last nine years since we moved in. So we've cracked open the piggy bank to pay for all the house repairs and changes this year, including the painter, new water heater, new garbage disposal and possibly new bathroom vanity. Auto-saving accounts are the way to go, my friends. I have another one I call my Christmas club account; we never feel the pinch of the holidays because we've saved up for it all year. Of course, these are in addition to our regular savings account (which also has automated deposits), which I try not to ever touch.

So endeth the unexpected and unsolicited financial advice. :)

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Heh, looking back up at my non-resolution, I can see I also noted that I wanted to start some kind of minimal exercise eventually. The Bottom Line Challenge starts today; looks like "eventually" is here!

2012 Resolutions, sort of

In a Low Fat Dressing first, I have no New Year's Resolutions to make.

I wish I did; I wish I could look at this coming year, fresh and clean with unlimited possibilities, and say these are the things I want to accomplish. But work laid waste to last year's resolutions, and there is so much uncertainty and, well, work to be done there, that I don't want to make myself a promise I can't keep.

That said, the things I have been doing will continue. The Foodstyle continues to go along; I've lost the weight I gained back over Christmas, and I continue to plan my meals and get plenty of cooking in to prepare for the coming week. I'm hoping to add in some minimal exercise soon, just to get myself moving and get my core stronger. I've started making some long overdue appointments, like the dentist and some home improvements. We just ordered new living room furniture and have our paint colors picked out.

I'm just not going to resolve to get it all done in a calendar year. :)

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I've had a nice staycation. Did a lot less than I planned on, but it was some much needed time away from responsibilities. By the end of the week, I was busy cooking up a storm.

First off, I used a gift from my mother-in-law to make our first main dish of 2012:

Hee! I got the Perfect Meatloaf pan! It does make perfect meatloaf, but not for the reasons they think; it's not that the fat drips away, but that the heat is able to circulate all around so the sides get nice and crispy. Mmmm. I threw in a couple of baking potatoes and a pan of Brussels sprouts in the oven with the meatloaf, and voila! Dinner.

Hubby made dinner for us for New Year's Eve.



Sauteed shredded cabbage with Polish seasoning and kielbasa disks, with a side of mini pierogi. These weren't the best pierogi we've had from my new favorite grocery store, so we'll try some other brands. But the cabbage was amazing! I have some leftover for lunch tomorrow.

We went to a New Year's brunch the next day, so I made Helen's overnight breakfast casserole and my own dish of lucky blackeyed peas. Unfortunately we had to heat and reheat the casserole and I didn't let it settle enough the second time, but everyone seemed to love it anyway! No one had had blackeyed peas before, and they didn't know that they are supposed to be good luck for the coming year, but they were all game and ended up enjoying them too.  (Or it was the mimosas. Heh.)






Today I took Helen's excellent advice and roasted a couple of pounds of carrots. I just used olive oil, kosher salt, pepper, and Penzey's Wall of Flavor seasoning, and roasted them for 40 minutes at 400 degrees. A-mazing. The plan was to have them throughout the week, but since I was just eating them right from the pan I'll be surprised if they make it to Wednesday. Thank you for the great idea, Helen! This is going to a regular weekly thing for me.




I also checked out all the fruit on sale, and grabbed kiwis and blackberries for my yogurt and granola in the mornings. I also opened up a couple of pomegranates to collect the seeds. They also go into my morning yogurt.




How can anyone not want to eat right when they start the day off with that? I ask you.


Did you make any resolutions this year?

A Gift for Yourself

I was going to suggest a few last-minute gifts but since most have to be ordered online, they're probably too late for Christmas. However, New Years comes right after that, and if you have been putting off starting your own "foodstyle", maybe buying yourself one of these will help inspire you to kick your New Year's Resolutions off right!

1. Get a cool lunch box.

I got mine from Laptop Lunches. I actually bought an extra set of inserts too, which is so helpful on the days when I am too lazy to wash everything out in time. Plus I have twice as many colors!

These are great for portion control and variety; with so many sizes and shapes, you can fit just about anything you like to eat in there, and they work great for bringing lunch and snacks. Look at all the ideas for filling them here!

2. Get a cool lunch box, v2.0

The Mr Bento is from Amazon. It's great for soups and liquids, perfect for cold weather lunches. Two of the containers can be used for hot or cold, and the top two are better for snacks and dry goods. So the bottom one is usually yogurt and fruit, the next is soup or leftovers, the next is clementines or a slice of bread with cheese, and the last is almonds or grapes.

$40 may seem like a lot for a lunch box, but I've have both of mine for two years already, and they are both going strong.

3. Replenish your spice cabinet

Spices only last for a year before they lose their flavor, but I have the worst time remembering when I bought them and if it's time for them to be replaced. I restock on flour and sugar at Thanksgiving, and this year I'm going to start replenishing my spices for New Years.

And that means Penzey's, people. Penzey's.

It's a Wisconsin/Illinois company, but you can order online from anywhere. Everything is fresh, and the clean look of the bottles will make you want to cook more, I swear. After several years of trial and error, these are our staples:

Northwoods Seasoning -- adds a layered kick to everything, from chicken to roasted veggies to soup
4/S Seasoned Salt -- for grilled meats especially
Chicago Steak Seasoning -- the only thing we ever put on steak
Italian Herb Seasoning -- that and some basil is all I need for my tomato sauce
Krakow Nights -- we add it to sauteed cabbage and mushrooms, like the good Polacks we are
Greek Seasoning -- my favorite in the summer on chopped cucumbers and feta

I also order the pure spices and herbs like chipotle, cumin, bay leaves, cinnamon, dried minced onion, garlic, celery flakes, rosemary, French thyme, and red pepper flakes for Hubby's pizza. But for starter cooks, the seasonings are all you need; Penzey's know how to blend everything perfectly. You can buy all different sizes too, so if you just want to sample something, get the 1-2 oz. jar. At this point, I buy 4-oz bags to refill my existing jars. Whatever works!

And spices DO work. They are my secret weapon of cooking; I just buy basic meats or veggies, douse them with olive oil, kosher salt, and a seasoning, and cook it up. Everything tastes so good, I never miss the butter, sauces, gravies, etc.

4. Get a cool lunch box, v3.0

Okay, maybe I'm the only who wants that one. Just like the one I had when I was a kid!

Mark Bittman also had a list of gift ideas for the non-cook. I would LOVE to offer shopping lessons to several of my co-workers, either for clothes or for groceries.

As for me, this is shaping up to be a Cooking Christmas. We already got a Farberware percolator, and our coffee has never tasted better. Plus, I get the daily nostalgia trip when I wash out the grinds and the pot! Flashbacks to Acorn Lane... :) I am also hoping to get a new smaller crockpot, a local soup cookbook, new set of colored cutting boards (to separate veggies from meat), and a new spice rack.

What are you hoping for under your tree?

New Years Resolutions 2011

Happy 2011, everyone! I hope you all rang in the new year successfully. We stayed in, exchanged all the Christmas presents we hadn't bothered to bring with us to Vegas, and were fast asleep hours before the ball dropped. It was just a nice relaxing day and night all around, and this weekend will be more of the same. Exactly what a couple of workaholics like us need to start off the coming year. :)

Last year was my first New Years on this blog, and I brought over the tradition of annual resolutions that I have been doing for the last eight years on a different social website. Before I kick off this year's, I want to look back and see how I did on the ones from 2010. I didn't discuss them as much as I should have on the blog, but I did look at them several times over the last year and worked on some bits of them when I could.

In 2010, I resolved to:

1. Become a 5K runner.
STATUS: Ran a 5K for St. Pats, then stopped running completely. I can't remember why I did that, but I did it again!

2. To get back to my size 10s.
STATUS: HAHAHAHAHA. (Damn.) Next!

3. Go paperless. It's time to get that office finally cleaned up.
STATUS: This has been 95% achieved. I am still not sure what to do with certain important papers that do still need filing and whatnot, but our finances are completely electronic.

4. A New Self-Improvement Project, this time for my brain not my body.
STATUS: As tends to happen with the last-minute comment or resolution, this one turned out to be the thing that consumed all of me this year. I didn't go back to school which is what I thought this resolution would lead to, but the new job has been all about learning new things and stretching my brain and my potential in all kinds of ways.

Addendum: I had mentioned on my other journal that another resolution was that I wanted to grow out my hair to a sleek bob. I promptly forgot about that one, but that is exactly what I ended up doing after all!



So, now it it the moment of truth: what are my resolutions for 2011? Let me give you a hint:



This delectable bowl of fruit is sitting in my fridge right now, a timely Christmas gift from Shopping Friend. It is just the final nudge I needed to make the switch from Medifast to Weight Watchers, which is something you guys know I've been contemplating for a while. I still have about a month of MF food so I might switch back in February or March if I am feeling the need to do a jump-start, but the call of citrus fruit, hearty homemade soups, whole grains, and roasted vegetables is too strong. Winter months always make me want to cook, so cook I shall. I've got makings for bacon-wrapped turkey meatloaf, roasted Brussels sprouts, shrimp cocktail (leftovers for salads and sandwiches), chicken sausage and cabbage and mushrooms, and a wonderful broccoli cheese chowder (5 points a serving on the new plan) nestled in the fridge next to the fruit bowl and a box of clementines.

Here are my formal resolutions:

1. Get Healthy. I've been inching toward (and away from) the goal for years: I've quit smoking, I've lost and gained weight, I've tried various exercise routines. I have gotten myself better about going to the doctor and getting regular checkups. This year I want to keep chipping away at the weight, work on finding a permanent exercise habit, and getting my butt in a dentist's chair.

You will note I am not specifying how I will do the weight loss or the exercise. I'm going to explore lots of options this year, and be open to trying new things. I just have to find the one that clicks and STAYS in my life!

2. Get my (literal) house in order. We aren't selling for a long, long time, but we need to do some work nonetheless. The shower needs regrouting, the basement crack needs sealing, the hot water heater needs replacing. I need to refinance! Plus a few fresh coats of paint here and there wouldn't hurt. This will be a spring and summer projects; I've been socking away money for this for years, it's time to spend it.

3. Keep evolving Low Fat Dressing. I really love doing this; it's a great creative outlet for me, and a wonderful source of self-esteem boosts when I need them most. I think everyone needs to hear at least one compliment a day; this is how I get mine! :)

I want to grow the blog more, but I am talking more about content and relatability. Growing my audience or making it a profitable venture aren't my goals; I have a great group of regular readers, and I love all that you contribute to LFD. Your enthusiasm, ideas, and general awesomeness make this worth it for me. The part I do want to evolve more is the content of what I write; I only have time for one post a day, so if I do an outfit one I can't really talk in depth about anything else. I'm going to use my draft feature more, and maybe skip a day or two a week (or double up in posts) in outfits, so I can cover topics like weight loss, food and recipes, self-esteem, etc like I would like to.

I am not, despite my friend Annie's smart-ass plea, going to start dressing up my cats for the blog. Sorry, m'dear!

4. Spend more time with my friends, face to face not just electronically. I feel like I've been neglecting everyone these last few months because I've been so stressed about work. Enough!

It's gonna be a great year, you guys. Can't you feel it in your gut?

Monday: The Way I Used to Be

Black ruffled dress, Loft
Gray boyfriend cardigan, Martin + Osa
silver skinny belt, Ann Taylor Outlet
plaid oxford booties, I forgot

I had on a white belt at first, and I liked the crispness of the colors between the black and the gray. But a white belt before Memorial Day felt wrong. Even just a belt! It's probably impossibly old-fashioned to worry about that, but I did so I went with silver. I kind of wish I had gone with white.

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I spent a large chunk of this weekend catching up with childhood friends on Facebook, and sorting out a ton of old photos. (Part of the Going Paperless New Years' Resolution, woohoo!) I may have to post a few here; the fashion faux-pas, and bad hair eras, are pretty amusing.

I also spent some time looking through another online journal that I have been keeping for the last eight years, and I stumbled across an entry I wrote in 2007. If you think you can't change, that you're too old and set in your ways, that you can't start over and reinvent yourself, that you'll never quite get where you want to go, read this. I wrote this *before* any of my metamorphosis had begun.



I don't know why all I think and talk about is shopping these days. I think working at F&T is rubbing off on me, and not in ways I'm entirely comfortable with. I've managed to go my whole life pretty much avoiding the whole fashion/girly-girl part of life, mostly out of defiance of my mother but also because I didn't know anyone who was into it so I had no idea what to do. I stopped reading fashion mags as a pre-teen, and I created a "style" that worked for me that I've stayed consistently in since high school. Sure, I've watched What Not To Wear and incorporated a lot of their advice into how I dress, but worrying about having the right bag or the right shoes for the season? Never been my thing. Heck, I barely even carried a purse for years.

But now I'm finding that I am thinking/caring about these things, and I'm trying to do it right. And it bothers me, but really, it doesn't bother me nearly as much as I think it should. I've been taking some long hard looks in the mirror, and I'm realizing I can't quite coast on that "I'm young and I have boobs and a big laugh and I can get away with no makeup and a t-shirt and jeans and still feel attractive" thing that I have been for so long. Age is taking its toll, and I don't like what I see when I do that now; I don't feel like I look youthful and defiant and carefree, I feel like I look dowdy and old and stuck. But when I put on makeup and a pretty shirt and some cute shoes, I get that carefree confident feeling back. This is astonishing to me!

But it's scary, because seriously I don't know what I'm doing. I have no idea how to put on makeup, I wouldn't know a cute shoe if it poked me in the eye, and I instinctively think a new style of blouse is ugly until everyone at the store starts cooing at it and trying it on. I'm listening, though, and trying new things. And it's fun when I get it right and someone compliments me on my purse or my coat. I feel like I solved some secret mystery everyone knows the answer to except me.

Of course, it's also making me acknowledge all of this would be so much easier if I got off my duff and started losing weight again, but weirdly, I'm not being mean to myself about it. I don't feel like I'm some awful troll who should stay under the bridge, I just know that I could find more clothes if I was one or two sizes smaller. I'm thinking about it more logically than emotionally, I guess, and I'm happy for that. It's really hard for me to listen to my friends and my co-workers put themselves down all the time, insulting their physical appearances with some really cruel self-inflicted barbs (YES, I am talking to you! You guys do it all the time! And you shouldn't because you are great and are much more attractive than you give yourselves credit for), and I don't like doing it to myself either. So I've been making an effort to frame those thoughts in less insulting terms. I'm not worthless and gross if I'm overweight, but it limits me in ways that frustrate me. So it's time to change that.

And change I did. I'm still changing it, and I still work on framing negative self-talk into positive actions, but I have come a long, long way. So don't ever think you won't too. Just keep going.

Changing Direction

For those of you who have been following Low Fat Dressing for a while, you may have noticed I stopped posting about the 13-in-13 Challenge a couple weeks ago. I was struggling with it from the get-go, and finally accepted that I was going to need to make some drastic changes to get myself off the trajectory I have been on for months (meaning: gain gain gain, pretend I'm not gaining, gain gain gain).

The reality is I have gained nearly 25 pounds since stopping Medifast in June. It's been a slow chipping away at all my hard work of the winter and spring when I lost 60 pounds total. I did eat relatively heathy, but in fits and starts, and I never quite figured out how to break my worst eating habit: food is a treat for me. A lavish meal is something I think I "deserve" after a hard day, or to celebrate an achievement, or just a way to pamper myself when I am feeling stressed or tired. I love my new job, but it's extremely stressful and I am still figuring out its rhythms and cycles. So pretty much every day, every meal, has been me treating myself. My schedule has been so upended, in fact, I even skipped running last week. ACK! I am on Week 7, where I am running 20-25 minutes straight. Soooo close to completion!

I ordered a box of Medifast food last week, and I started back on plan yesterday. Ironically, the extreme discipline works for me. There are no treats, ever, and for some reason I don't rebel against that. Medifast is mindless: just eat a packet of food every two hours, then for dinner have 3 servings of veggies and 5-7 ounces of meat. We never got out of the dinner habit, so I've got easy-to-make meals at my fingertips. I can just slide back into the rhythms of the plan and let food and eating take a backseat in my life while I concentrate on establishing new rhythms to my day and my attitude (for instance, I now work longer hours, and often on the weekends. I am more responsible for running meetings and projects, unlike before when I was always the second-in-command. That requires a very different level of energy and commitment.)

Six months ago, I vowed never to do Medifast again, and it kills me to go back on that. It was hard, and it doesn't teach me anything about how to eat regular food without gaining weight. But that's not the lesson I need to learn right now. Right now I need to take this weight off again, before I go even further and gain it all back, and get myself back into my 10s like I've been wanting to do for months. Once I get back there, I'll figure out how to do the maintenance part. That's Phase 2, and I may have started it a little too soon last time; I still needed to lose a little more weight when I switched from Medifast, and so I ended up with a hodgepodge of counterproductive goals. I wanted to lose weight, I wanted to maintain, and oh my God I wanted to eat regular food again. Guess which one won? I won't make that mistake again.

Hunh. I've been looking back at old posts as I've been writing this, and I just looked again my 2010 Resolutions. I'm not doing them the way I thought I would be, but I am still on track for all of them:

1. Becoming a 5K runner. Despite missing last week and probably this one, I will be running the St. Pat's 5K on March 14, and I will be running other 5Ks this year.

2. To get back into my 10s. That's what returning to Medifast is about.

3. Go paperless. Hubby actually "re-organized" my disaster of a desk on Sunday, which prompted me to clean the whole thing out and get rid of tons of paper. Now my tax papers are sitting next to me in a folder as I wait for the mortgage company to send their tax forms. Then I'll be using TurboTax online this year -- no more paper or CDs.

4. A new Self-Improvement project for my brain. If this new job doesn't qualify, I don't know what does. I am reading all kinds of books right now, attending classes, learning new business philosophies, etc, as well as learning how to take charge of projects and become more self-sufficient at work. It's not going back to school for a degree, but I can see how it would lead me there in a year or two.

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I started brewing ideas for this post a couple days ago, after my box of food arrived but before I had officially started. I felt fat and unwieldy and desperate, tired of failing and gaining, embarrassed about needing such a strict plan to lose weight and even more embarrassed about not fitting into any of my favorite clothes anymore. (I have another week of dresses I would have loved to have worn for Dress Remix Week, but all of them are hanging in another closet right now so I am not reminded daily about not being able to wear them.) I was beating myself up pretty badly; my original title for this post was "Have I Hit Bottom Yet?"

But that's not how I feel anymore. I survived my first day back on Medifast, and I actually was relieved by the end that those 5 little bars were in my purse. I appreciate not having to think about food right now, and I am looking forward to getting back to running tomorrow. I'm proud of taking action again, not just kicking myself for failing. I'm excited to look ahead again, to make plans and see achievable goals in front of me, and to realize I hadn't actually gone as far off-track as I thought. Yeah, 25 pounds up still pisses me off, but it could have been worse, and at the rate I was going it was going to be much worse very quickly. So maybe this drastic change is what I needed.

I'll check back in a week and let you guys know how it's going. My guess it will be even better once I hit ketosis and all the hunger pangs and headaches go away. The first few days of Medifast are rough!

Walk or Run?

As I've discussed before, one of my New Years Resolutions is to run 5Ks this year. I am working through the Couch-to-5K program for the second time, getting my lungs and my legs back in shape to run 30 minutes at a stretch; I am on Week 5 now and it's going very well.

But my new co-workers/long-time friend was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and she asked me (and others) if I wanted to do the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, which is a 2-day event where you walk a marathon one day and a half-marathon the next. She ran the Chicago Marathon last year, and does triathlons and other events regularly. I was intrigued of course, not just because I want to do something for my friend but also because one day I will walk or run a marathon. That's in the long-term picture, and I wondered if there was a reason why it was coming up sooner than I anticipated.

I have been considering it; if I agreed, then I would need to start training immediately after the St. Pat's 5K, and for the next three months, work on long walks and probably not do 5Ks at the same time. Which meant my New Years resolution probably would not be achieved. I would still be exercising and it would be a new challenge to accomplish, but it wasn't my original plan. But my friend would be thrilled, and I found out another friend was also planning on doing it and we could train together. The appeal was pretty strong.

Still, I felt like I was letting myself down. Walking a marathon for breast cancer is a noble idea, and I know I would have a lot fun doing it and it would be great exercise and a good discipline lesson etc etc etc, but deep in my gut I was disappointed. Jessie and I talked about it while we were out on Saturday, and she pointed out that I do very well with a series of small mini-goals, as well as just having a competitive nature; running a bunch of small races fit who I am much better than training for a marathon. I realized that it isn't right for me right now; right now I want to be a 5K runner.

So that's what I am going to do. I will donate to both my friends who are walking, and I may even join each of them for a couple of miles that day, but I am doing to stick with my 5K plan. I feel better already about my decision.

And there are SO many to choose from! The heart of the season looks like it is in the summer months, but I can find at least one race every month all year long. I am definitely signing up for the St. Paddy's Day 5K Run/Walk and Leprechaun Leap on March 14th; that's my birthday weekend and we will be staying downtown already. Ooooh, that is the weekend of the Dyeing of the Chicago River and the parade; I love being part-Irish and being born 4 days before St. Patrick's Day. It has always been "my" holiday.

After that, I will coordinate my races with local fishing holes that Hubby may want to explore, and see if we can't find reasons for both of us to go to various small towns around the area.

Yeah, I like this plan a lot. It's right for me.

2010 Resolutions

Happy New Year! I hope you have a wonderful upcoming year of love, prosperity, happiness, feeling skinny and looking good! :)

As I said a couple of days ago, I really like New Years Resolutions, and I usually do pretty good sticking to them. I don't make them every year, just when I want and am ready to change. I am ready to change again this year, so here are my resolutions.



1. To become a 5K runner. I already talked about it at length the other day, but I will be running 5Ks whenever I can. I'll be Googling this weekend to find some cool future events to run at; for sure I want to do a St. Patrick's one. Chicago knows how to celebrate that holiday!



2. To get back into my 10s. To me, this means losing the rest of this weight, then embarking on learning how to maintain my weight. I was thinking the other day about how AA gives 90-day chips and other milestone markers for people who stop drinking, and how people who lose weight could use a similar celebration tool. We cheer and mark milestones as we lose weight, but once that part is done you're on your own. I am considering doing a 30-day AT GOAL award of some kind, then 60-day, 90-day, etc. And I would like to have earned a couple of those at least by the time 2011 rolls around.


This is me in my 10s. And my glowing summer tan, and everyone's favorite purple sweater. :)

I'd also like to do more of these type of posts. Good food is fun to eat!

3. Go paperless. I am not a saver or a pack rat; I frequently go through old boxes, old clothes, even my computer files and throw out what is no longer needed. I winnow down books, movies, Christmas ornaments, you name it, nothing is safe from me when I am in organization mode. That said, I am TERRIBLE about keeping up with paperwork, projects and printed photos. My side of our shared office has piles of paper I need to sort through, and there are 4 boxes of photos I have yet to unpack from our move here six years ago. And I am the Family Project Manager in our house; all financial decisions, home improvement projects, family planning events and vacations, all gets done by me. I've got a LOT of paper, and much of it is important.

I did make a big dent last year in it; I had a huge filing cabinet with old bank statements, tax returns, etc that I sorted through and cleaned out, narrowing it down to one drawer in my desk instead of the whole cabinet. But I didn't finish: there is still a huge pile of paper that needs to be shredded, I've let more paper pile up on top since then, and I didn't even attempt to tackle the photos. This year, that will get done. My husband would be delighted to have the office back, I am sure!


4. A New Self-Improvement Project, this time for my brain not my body. I'm thinking about going back to school this year, perhaps for process engineering or some other degree I can use at work. I don't really want an MBA, but I'm not sure what to get. That's part of the project: investigating options and dreaming about what I want next. It's time to do something else, and I'm giving myself the push to try to learn what that is.

It's funny how self-improvement seems to go in cycles for me, and one type of improvement usually spawns another. Five years ago, I quit a 20-year smoking habit. As a way to clean out my lungs and give my mind and hands something to do, I started riding my bike around my local lake after work. For the first time, I noticed all these beautiful wildflowers along the shoreline, and I wanted to identify them. So I brought my then little-used camera along, and when I got home I would download the photos and look them up online and in books and find their names. From there I started taking more photos, traveling around the state to various state parks, and learning more about the nature of the Midwest plains and about photography. I'm a pretty good hobby photographer now; my photos have been used in various Chicago websites, I have a blog for it which I've let lapse a bit, and I always make a family calendar of photos I've taken through the year.

I also turned that bike-riding into a triathlon that I competed in the next year (and then never again, LOL), and I've stayed quit as a smoker since then too. The last couple of years, my self-improvement project has been body-related: I've learned about fashion and dressing myself (I was HORRIBLE before, just ask Shopping Friend!), and last year started the weight-loss kickoff. I've had a great time with this, but it may be time for something new. Hence the idea about going back to school.

I'll be honest, of all the resolutions this one might not turn into anything. And that'll be okay, because when I am ready to do it, I will.

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So those are my plans and promises to myself for this year. Now I am going to give myself a nice New Year's treat and spend the day on the recliner catching up with ATWT and all your blogs. My tabs and my Tivo runneth over! There have already been some great Resolution posts; things I have pondered as I put together my resolution list.

Cranky Fitness talks about resolutions as Gifts. I like that lot. She also challenges us all to one particular resolution: get a bra fitting. Truth be told, I am due for one of those myself! The weight came back to my boobs, too. ;-D

What a Splurge looked at the habits she formed over the last year. I LOVE this one, and I might do another post today with mine, and my 10 favorites outfits/new items of 2009.

Unclutterer (one of my favorite organizational, motivational blogs of all time!) invites us to brainstorm and stretch ourselves with our resolutions, then puts together a staggered three-month plan for the year to achieve her goals.

Pasta Queen has a great list, including a secret resolution. How mysterious!

Zen Habits offers the Definitive Guide to Sticking to your New Year's Resolution.

Happy Reading!

Resolution: I will be a runner.

I was remiss this week on posting about the 13-in-13 challenge. I don't want to do it, even now. I really am tired of discussing my failures in losing weight, in eating right, in blowing off exercise. I'm tired of feeling fat and ungainly and like a failure.

It's time to change. Coincidentally, it's also coming time for New Year's Resolutions. I love New Year's, when the year is fresh and new and full of promise. I like looking ahead, imagining the person I want to be when the year ends again, and setting goals to become that person. Last year, I made a commitment to lose weight, and I accomplished that. I lost a lot of weight, and changed the way I looked at myself and the way other people looked at me. I also began a long obsession with dresses, started this blog, ran a 5K, swam laps at my lovely little secret town pool, and joined the online fashion community. It was a really good year.

So, what do I want to accomplish this year? What person do I want to be when 2010 is over? I've got many dreams percolating, about finishing losing this weight, about maybe going back to school for process engineering, about finally getting a new haircut that I really like. But mostly I dream about being a runner.

I like running. I'm terrible at it, and I hate myself about halfway through and I want to quit/die/curl up on a ball on my couch, but I still like it. I like that's it just me and the path in front of me, no expensive equipment save a good pair of running shoes, a chance to tune in my iPod and shut out the world and run. I like what it does to my body, the way it firms up the flabby parts on my dupa and my hips, the way the deep breathing reminds me it's only been 5 years since I quit smoking, and I never thought I would be able to do that. I like wearing cute tops and shorts in the summer, and yoga pants and sweatshirts in the winter. I like running.

So that's the goal: to become a runner once and for all. I don't have dreams of a marathon or even a 10K, not quite yet. I want to run 5Ks, lots of them, all year long. I plan on signing up for as many of them as I can this summer and fall. Until then, I have started the Couch-to-5K plan again; it's been so long since I ran regularly I might as well start over from the beginning. This time I plan on completing it in 9 weeks, which will be just about when the 13-week challenge ends, just before my birthday. (Hey, maybe there is a St. Pat's 5K I can sign up for! I will check that out.)

I started Day 1, Week 1 this morning. It felt good, but no lie, it was hard. The indoor track at my park center has windows on three of the walls, and at 6am there's nothing to see except one's reflection in the glass. It was hard seeing that, seeing things jiggle that haven't jiggled for a while. Accepting that this is the same size body I was dragging around the same track last spring, that all the work and weight loss of the summer was gone and I had a lot of ground to cover again.

But that's okay; I've got my running shoes on, my iPod has some new playlists, and I am ready to go.