All I ever hear from my trainer when we are talking about weight loss is, “Eat more vegetables.” It’s like a broken record. But, I know he is right. Remember when you walked into the grocery store years ago, the vegetable selection was based on season, as it should be. Well, as you know, all that has changed. You want Okra in January, you can find it (like anyone wants Okra in January, or any other time). You can probably find a pumpkin in May if that’s what you want. The point is, there is no excuse for me, or any of us, to not be eating enough vegetables. And, I have to say, I feel better when I do.
I have been on Weight Watchers a few hundred times over my life and the one thing that any Weight Watchers member knows is that vegetables are free. Free. No points! What does that tell you? Nothing’s better than free.
So, please join me today in adding more vegetables into your life. I am trying to do the same. Salads for lunch with some chicken. I packed them all at once this week just like the experts say and I have to admit that it worked really well. Since I am a party of one, I buy a rotisserie chicken at the beginning of the week and use it for several meals for salads or dinner. I added a baked potato last night and I was very proud of myself. Am I losing weight? No! But I have to say that I am trying very hard to become more health conscious. I know the older I get the more important the nutrition piece of the puzzle is for me. I have to keep my energy up for all the fun I am having!
Read MoreThe Winter Blahs seem to set in about this time every year. It isn’t even February and we are already counting the days until the warm temperatures return. My best tip for beating those winter blues is with flowers in your home or office. They don’t have to be expensive flowers. Grocery store flowers are just fine. But make them colorful. And you can add more greenery to them to make a small bunch seem fuller.
I have two tricks up my sleeve for making flowers look great at home. You can’t just unwrap them from the store and stick them in a jar. I think they always look fuller when you cut them to fit the container better. By cutting a few inches off the stems the flowers stay close together in their container and look fuller. Not spread out. And, I always use a container that looks a little too small for a number of flowers I have. Nothing looks sadder than a small bunch of flowers in a too-big container, just sticking way out one at a time. Just take a look at the flowers here. They are held tightly together by the paper which makes them look full.Make sure you give them a trim at the bottom every day so they have the chance to drink up more water.
Make sure you give them a trim at the bottom every day so they have the chance to drink up more water. You will see how much water they can take in because you will have to refill the container often. Enjoy.
If you really want to stretch your flower dollars further, use several tiny vases. You can even put just one bloom in each, on the dinner table or buffet, to make a low “line” of buds. Color without breaking the bank!
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As the new year turns into plain old winter, it is no wonder that we get a little blue, a little draggy. For most of us around the country, the skies are gray, it is chilly at best, or worse, and we have about twenty minutes of daylight each day. But there is one factor in my life that has changed dramatically over the past year and that is this: I now have hope.
For probably most of the last 15 years I told myself I had hope and I tried to manufacture hope and I pretended to have hope. But pretending to have hope is more pitiful than having no hope. Even after I had been dragging myself through the muck that was my marriage, I still clung to an atom of hope for some miracle: maybe my husband would get it, that he was tearing apart his children’s family, and make real change. But, I know now that it wouldn’t have worked out. I was done. I was pretending that our family could still have life. But all the King’s horses and all the King’s men…you get it.
I don’t know exactly when I let the hope go, but the letting go didn’t make me hopeless. The hopelessness was in having false hope. And, once I knew in my heart that I was never going back to that life, I freed myself up for hope. I made room for it. Now, I couldn’t be more hopeful. I actually have a smile on my face most of the time and believe me, that was not the case a year ago. I smile for no reason, just walking down the street. Sometimes, I catch myself smiling while I am walking the dog, for no reason. I am watching TV and smiling, crazy. At the grocery store, smiling. Driving and singing with the radio, smiling. Knitting, smiling. Cooking, smiling.
And, I really have nothing to be hopeful about. It doesn’t matter. That hope comes from within. I don’t know where I am going, but I know it can’t be as bad as where I have been. I am so optimistic about the future that I feel excited every day when I wake up.
Read MoreHere’s a way to keep warm wipes and lotion on hand in the winter. I use a combination of face wipes and cold cream in the winter to take off my makeup. Yes, cold cream. My after-sixty skin is so dry and nothing beats cold cream in the winter when my face feels like it will just crack off. But, the wipes were always so cold and I would dread touching my face with them. So, I got a baby wipes warmer. Problem solved. Why should babies be the only ones to enjoy warm wipes?
Then I had an idea. My body cream in the morning is too cold to put on, so I hardly ever use it in the winter, even though I love the smell and the way it makes my skin feel. So, I set it on top of the wipes warmer. Nothing gets hot, just enough warmth to take the edge off. OK, so, if the body lotion on top of the warmer was a hit, why not put the cold cream on top as well. So, I did.
I remember hearing Joan Rivers once say that she threw her body lotion tube into the bathwater when she was bathing and it was nice and warm when she put it on, so maybe that was in the back of my mind when I tried my “cleansing station”. I also pretend that the wipes warmer is smiling at me when I walk in and I say hello to it (doesn’t it look like it is smiling in the photo. And isn’t it pitiful that I say hello to it?
Give this a try. The warmer was about $17 from Target, but you can get them anywhere. I even use the wipes to clean up my bathroom counter quickly in the morning and I don’t have the shock of a cold cloth in my hand. It makes a big difference.
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I have to say that I have never met a lip pencil I didn’t like. OK, what a confession. And my friend, Linda Crim, gave me this great lip primer by Urban Decay called 24/7 Glide-On Lip Pencil in Ozone that is my new obsession. It is clear, really smooth and luxurious and keeps my lipstick on my lips and out of the cracks around them. They also make a version that is a shorter and fatter pencil, more like a crayon, for anywhere on the face that needs a little extra help. You can even use it to fill in tiny lines before you put on foundation. This stuff feels great when I put it on and really holds lip color in place. I line my lips with the pencil then put an extra line around the outsides of my lips just because it feels so good. As a rule, I wear a lot of lip pencil as a lip color, so my lips tend to get very dry during this time of year. Not anymore!
My daughter showed me a similar pencil by Sephora, and I have seen one like the crayon style by Gaella, but I have not tried those yet. In general, I have become kind of a fan of Urban Decay pencils: they just have a creaminess that I like and seem to last throughout the day. I call this Ozone pencil my lipstick moat: nothing gets past it. And I find that having my makeup last for most of the day gets harder and harder as I age. It is like my skin just sucks it dry before lunch! Anything that can make me look a little fresher by mid-day gets a big two-thumbs-up from me and this product does the trick. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
https://www.urbandecay.com/ultimate-ozone/UD521.html#start=1&cgid=2_508?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=urban%20decay%20lip%20primer|163|930881&utm_campaign=Brand%20-%20Lips%20-%20Type%20-%20Exact&utm_content=Lip%20-%20Primer|76759664388206&cm_mmc=cpc-_-Brand%20-%20Lips%20-%20Type%20-%20Exact-_-bing-_-Lip%20-%20Primer
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Starting over doesn’t sound that great, does it. It implies that you started before, failed and now you have to start over again. Rats! But, as a new year begins I feel like I am starting over toward a new, exciting life in 2017. In the past year, I lived on my own for the first full year since 1984. Wow! And not every day was a picnic, that’s for sure. There were a couple of times during the year when I just didn’t think I could do it. I just couldn’t see a time when I would be happy again and that was ominous. I had lost my intact family and that was never going to be OK. Well, guess what, that is not going to be OK. I am never going to have that and moving forward means having to pack that up in my suitcase and carry it with me for the rest of my life. Sad but true.
But, the good news is that starting over means just that: it is time to start over. I thought I was doing that a year ago at the beginning of a new year, but I had a lot more healing to do. I remember that a year ago my stomach hurt every day when I woke up. And, that same pain kept me awake at night. The same thoughts played over and over in my brain like they were on a reel. I couldn’t escape my situation and, I still didn’t want it to be true.
One year later, I am still sad that my children don’t have that fairytale family, but I enjoy my time with them so much more. I get them to myself when we are together. There is no tension. I don’t have to keep trying to put lipstick on a pig, and I don’t have to keep trying to like the pig! And, I don’t have to keep trying to make the pig not look like a pig ( I could go on for days).
So, now, in 2017, I am Starting Over at Sixty (yes, I have a few more days until that 60 turns to 61). I feel like a million bucks. I am lightyears ahead of where I was last year at this time, and isn’t that what reflection is all about? Where was I and where am I today? I may not be younger or thinner (never giving up on that) or smarter than I was 365 days ago, but I guarantee that I am happier and healthier than I have ever been and I am only getting stronger.
I feel like 2017 will be the year that I hit my stride. I wish that had happened thirty years ago, but the good news is that I still believe it is out there for me. And, let me assure you that if I can see a great future anyone can. You may not be able to see or feel it right now, but keep working to find it. It is out there. Now, let’s get going on a great 2017!
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