Sunday, December 09, 2007

Seasons of the heart, Christmas

I've been writing out the personal notes for Christmas cards. This year has been a blitz of presents (Win made over a hundred personalized glass casserole dishes, packaged them up and mailed most of them, and that was only a start). As the season progresses, with memories and everything coming in, makes me want to just find a way to disappear and resurface in March. There are only so many presents to give away, so much activity to interpose, and I can no longer hide behind food.

Jessica was so excited about being baptized. I've not known a kid not quite seven who was so enthused about getting to eight to be baptized. Now, Rachel is about to turn eight and it just brings back and lot of feelings. We head towards Christmas, where Courtney died on the 26th of December and Rachel was admitted to the hospital then, and it is a cold month, in so many ways, and this year, more than many before, a very hard month to face.

But, we got a tree, got it decorated, had the pets eat everything on the bottom few branches, and we have lights up (out of reach of the pets outside).

Wish I had better advice for weathering the seasons of the heart.



BTW, ethics, fair trade and everything else aside, http://peaceworks.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=28 is a link to the best granola bars I've ever found.



I've simplified my modified Shangri-la calories as well.

2 ice cubes, one cup of water, 1/4 cup oatmeal, 1.5 scoops protein powder, 2 tablespoons extra light olive oil, blend well (using a blender), drink right after getting up, no flavor for an hour, then I brush my teeth and go to work. It is simple, easiest two hour block of time to find (since I'm spending an hour of it sleeping), replaces breakfast and seems to work well. The powder binds up the oil and it is the most gag free approach I've found. A number of people use nose clips, but if you use Designer Whey, unflavored, it is pretty much flavor free with or without the nose clips.

Contains enough protein that you don't have to pay special attention to getting enough protein while losing weight.

4 comments:

Robyn said...

Now I just may try this one. I tried the chicken, but I am a super taster and even with the chicken breasts cooked in plain water, I could taste the chicken. bleh.

Stephen said...

I had to drop the cottage cheese. For some people it works really well, but too much taste came through for me.

Designer Whey (what a name, took me a couple times looking for it before I realized that was its actual name) is about as neutral a flavor as you can get.

I use the nose clips anyway, just in case.

Robert Nichols said...

Great blog, great information

Xango

Stephen said...

Update, eventually the protein mix goes from better than oil to not as good, and I find that switching back to just oil is better.

Been interesting.