Valentine and Dieting

 Happy Valentines Day!

I hope you all had a great day full of love. 

It was a good day for me. My vestibular disorder has been on a low the past few days. I think the Meneier’s is going into another remission again. I hope so. Thank you all who have prayed for me. 

Me and Nick did a Valentines breakfast last Saturday at a The Toastery in Belmont. 

Since I’m feeling better, I felt like doing a little craft project for the girls in my unit. I made them all a small jar of sugar scrub. They all seemed to love it. 

I also made a little sweet treat to share with the office. I used premade rice crispy treats and dipped them in chocolate. Everyone thought I worked really hard making them. 

There were a lot of sweet surprises at work. There were candy, doughnuts, and cupcakes everywhere I turned. But guess what? I ignored it all and did not eat a single sweet today. I am proud of myself. 

Sadly, I put on 30 lbs since thanksgiving. Everyone tells me I do not need to lose weight but I do. I need to lose about 40 lbs. I have tried so many different and expensive diets. They will work until I complete them, then the weight comes back on. That’s why I have decided to go back on Nutrisystem. It’s just so easy, the food is good and it works for me. You can read about my first journey with Nutrisystem At the top of the page. 

The doctor also had me on 3 weeks of Prednisone and took me off of the diuretics I was taking. Both will cause weight gain. I do not like it when people tell me I do not need to lose weight. They are not in my skin. I am generally a small person so I can feel weight. Here are just a few ways extra weight affects me. 

• Heart burn at night.
• Snoring
• Always tired
• No energy
• Fatigue
• Shortness of breath doing simple task like getting dressed or folding clothes. 
• Chafing from my legs rubbing together.
• Sweating
• Achy knees
• Rapid heart beat
• Headaches
• Bloating
• Fluid retention   

So see, it’s not always about the appearance. It’s how it makes me feel and when I get to where I feel unhealthy and my clothes get too tight, I know it’s time to take hold before it gets out of hand. 

So yes today I had to make a choice. The doughnuts or feeling healthy.

Our Valentines Day

We had a nice little Valentines Day. It was Sunday and neither one of us had to work. We decided to stay in bed longer than usual soaking up every little moment together with no alarm clock telling us to get up and get going.

Once we decided to get up, we grabbed a cup of coffee and a little breakfast. We each had sneaked a Valentine Card in each others seat at the table. 

After breakfast we sat around and discused what we were going to do today. “Well its too late now to get ready for church”. So neither one of us went. 

We decided to call up our daughter and ask her if she would like to meet us in Belmont for a Valentine lunch. She was exited and of course said yes.

We let her chose the place as we are always indecisive. She said she always wanted to try this little place called Jekyll & Hyde Taphouse and Grill. 

I felt funny going to a taphouse on Sunday. Daddy might would shame me. But thats where we ended up and it was delicious. 

We ordered off the “Brunch” menu. We placed our order and looked around while we waited. Nick said “This place used to be an old Ford Dealership”. They used a lot of the remains as decorations. He admired the surroundings and said “I could live in a place like this”. It was really cool how they remodeled the inside while keeping a lot of the character. 

Our food arrived. Me and my daughter ordered the Chicken biscuit with pimento cheese and pepper jelly. I had a side of fruit and she had tater tots. Nick ordered a chicken and bacon biscuit with a side of pancake. There was so many good looking foods on the menu it was hard to choose. 

For Valentines dinner, we had waited too late to get any reservations at any fancy place and all the steak houses had over an hour wait. We ended up at Sammy’s in the little town of Dallas. While we were there, I was able to show Nick where I now work. He didn’t know exactly where it was. Now he does. It was just a block away from where we ate. You could see it from the window. 

It was a nice day and I didn’t want it to end. I love spending all the time I can with my man. But work came early the next day. 

Cupid and Valentines

Eros: The Greek God of love. Romans refer to him as Cupid (meaning desire).
He was born to Aprodite Goddess of Love and Ares the God of war. Imagine that. If you think about it, put all that together and you got todays world. Erotic, desire, God, love, war..etc.

Ok, that was my little Greek Mythology lesson for today. Sorry Dad.
I remember my Dad used to hate it when we would study Greek Mythology at school. Little did he know, I loved this subject. I found it interesting but only Myths (like fairy tales) and knew it had no biblical reference. 

 

Back to cupid....
Cupid, as we call him, is a well known imaginary half naked angel that comes around on Valentines Day and shoots people with his arrow and makes them fall in love. Silly isnt it? Even though Valentines is not a religious day, its a day to show kindness and love with chocolate, candy, flowers, cards, doughnuts.......opps. Ok I got carried away. 
Anyway, Since we really don't have a little Cupid around now days, I try to spread the love myself. I do all kinds of little things in the days leading up to Valentines Day. 

I used to make my daughter heart shaped pancakes every Valentines morning. This stopped a couple years ago when it got too hard to get them to her after she moved away. If she is home on Valentines day, I will make her a plate of them. I have already given her a basket of goodies when she came over the other day. She was also a sweetie and brought us some heart shape cocoa bombs.

They are filled with cocoa, sprinkles, marshmallow and other goodies. You pour hot milk over top of them and they will burst open and release their insides making a nice cup of cocoa. 

Friday, I made some chocolate covered strawberries to share with the office. I made over a dozen so I may take some to my daughter or keep them here for myself. I may make some heart shaped brownies later. 

Today, depending on the weather, we may meet our daughter for Valentine Lunch. Later on, me and Nick plan to do a nice quiet dinner somewhere special. Not sure where that will be yet. So far we can’t seem to get any reservations anywhere. We have been trying since last week! I don’t care where we end up as long as we are together. I love that man so much. 

What are your Valentines Day plans?

Almost Valentines Day

Valentines Day seems to have come fast this year. I guess because we started seeing heart shaped candies and fluffy teddy bears taking over the store shelves the day after Christmas.

I like Valentines Day. Love is in the air everywhere we go. While most couples are busy every day with work and/or kids, this is the day they will find a baby sitter and spend quality time alone whether it’s at a fancy resteraunt or in their den watching a movie.  Nick and I never really get into the whole candy and roses thing with each other but we do try to go out for a nice Valentines Dinner. I’m not sure where we will end up going but I look forward to it. 

Here is a little token I have kept for years that my daddy got me one Valentines Day. It came in a little red velvet rose shaped ring box. It’s holographic and says “I Love You”. 

I never remember my parents really making a big deal out of Valentines Day with us kids but I do remember mom always made sure I had valentines for class mates. I would spend hours trying to figure out which ones I wanted to give who.  I also remember her making red heart shaped pin cushions for my teachers. They were pretty and gained me a few brownie points. 

I always make sure to get my daughter a little Valentines gift each year. This year we got her a few of her favorite snacks and some candy. I wanted to do more but she came home to visit before I could finish putting more things together for her and I knew I wouldn’t be seeing her until after Valentines Day. 

Instead of flowers, we got her an Aloe plant. She is always calling us upset that she burned herself while cooking or hot ironing her hair. I also think it will look sweet in her little apartment. When she lived at home, she always woke up to heart shaped pancakes. Now she has her own Valentine sweetie so we will not be seeing her until next week. 

For myself, I usually like to find a fun Valentine shirt to wear. I found this adorable heart sweater on Poshmark. 

Poshmark is a website where you can buy and sell your new or gently used clothes and shoes. I actually have my own posh closet where I will sell some of my unwanted clothes. I haven’t sold much but It’s a fun way to make a little extra money. You can find my closet HERE.

I had some extra yarn on hand so I crocheted a matching hat. Pretty cute huh?

For Valentines Day dinner, I have a red sweater to wear. I rarely wear red but I make an exception for Christmas and Valentines Day.