A New Year, And a Little Back Tracking

Happy New Year!!

I have been working on a few of projects, the first of which you see all around you-my new blogger layout! I am thrilled with the graphic design, courtesy of my dear friend Elizabeth Harris Berglund. If you are ever looking for a creative thoughtful person who knows their way around a website to do your graphic design, you gotta contact her! My other projects are still brewing (I am not talking about my Kombucha, which is incidentally still brewing), so you'll have to wait a tad longer.

So I have been busy in the last week even though I have not been posting. It has been nice to get a little ahead. Christmas and New Year's were lovely. There was a little too much chocolate, a little too much pink eye and not enough sleep. But we are through it now and into 2011! I have a feeling that this is going to be an exciting year. At least it better be because Susan Miller has been telling what a great year this will be for at least 6 months, and if it doesn't pan out, I might just stop reading her website.

And now for the back tracking part. As if by a cosmic (or Godly) wave of the hand, as soon as I said in my post It Takes Some People A Little Bit Longer... that I had not been sick this Fall, sure enough my whole clan came down with an awful bug. I am not sure where we picked it up, but it came complete with hacking coughs, sleepless nights and finally PINK EYE! How fun! Thing One actually woke up with a 104 degree fever during that awful blizzard that shut down every airport on the eastern seaboard for 48 hours. We also had just run out of children's ibuprofen and I seriously thought to myself "How would I get my kid to the Hospital right now, with a foot of snow on the ground and 40 mile an hour wind gusts." It was a scary moment. Actually, I didn't get sick like the kids did, but we had to cancel our annual New Year's Eve Party, which is the highlight of my Holiday Season every year (and I think some other folks' too). So that was a bummer. So there you go Fate-I am sorry. So sorry that I would tempt and tease you by saying how healthy we were from eating coconut oil. I had no right to speak so brashly. But it could have been worse. Thing One's fever cleared mostly by morning, the pharmacy reopened on time the next day, and even Thing Two's pink eye, while disgusting, was mostly a 48 hour ordeal.

I also want to back track on the post where I told the world that I just don't gain weight during the holidays. Again, like some evil b**** I announce to the world "I simply don't have average problems. I am blessed with an amazing metabolism, and am able to eat whatever I want!" Jeez, couldn't you just strangle me? Well guess what, it ain't true. I weighed myself for the first time in a long time and I have gained 7 pound sometime between my trip to Morocco and now. I have noticed that my pants have been a little tight recently, but I didn't pay it much mind. But now that I have had a couple days off I have come to the conclusion that I really can't eat everything I want, fresh vegetables are VERY important (not that I didn't already know that) and portion control is next to Godliness. First order of business in the New Year? Lose 7 pounds.

How do I plan on losing the weight you might ask? First off is portion control. I will be eating less overall. I will be eliminating snacks mostly. I think snacks have been my down fall. And I believe that while I am still firmly of the belief that fat doesn't make you fat, I do believe that I have been eating too much fat. So I am going to make sure that my total food consumption is in line with proper nutrition, lots of fresh veggies, the right amount of fats, etc, and not eating when I am already full. More on that later....

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I have always noticed a shift in the light around this time of year. Perhaps it is the winter solstice? I see December as being lit with sepia tones, whereas January is a bright icy blue. January just seems lighter and brighter, even if colder. So perhaps my new awareness of my extra poundage is my body's way of telling me that it has gained these 7 pounds to get me through the cold winter, and I don't have to keep packing it on anymore.

When I first lost my baby weight after Thing 1 in 2008, I began my journey into food and nutrition in the month of January. By January 2009 I was pregnant again and I was not worrying about losing any Christmas weight. By January of last year, 2010, I was again embroiled in a structured weight loss program to lose my baby weight from Thing 2. This year, January 2011, is the first time I have weathered a full Holiday season under normal non-pregnant circumstances. Perhaps this will be a learning experience. Perhaps this weight gain is perfectly normal, and will come off naturally by March when the first crocuses peak their purple heads up out of the snow. Perhaps this is one more opportunity for me to become a more conscious, connected eater. Either way, this time I am NOT throwing out my skinny pants.