Beauty

[just bee]

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@kathie66 wrote:

Hello All! 

Can't believe its December wow! Wanted to post one goal met. I finally finished up my Laura Geller Baby Cakes Blush Palette. It took me a long time to finish it! But its totally gone. I am pretty darn proud of myself!! Now on to all the other blush I have collected over the years. One by one.... and they are getting done WOOHOO!!

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You are a far better woman than moi.  I bought my palette in March 2010 and I still have plenty of product left.  And this is the only blush I have in the house.  You would have thought by now that I'd know which color is my favorite but I still haven't figured it out.

All I need is a new tube of mascara for January 2017.

[just bee]

I complained bitterly that we were eating more than usual over the holiday, but I noticed something: I didn't touch my white cheddar popcorn while the house guest was here.

I think I've conquered my addiction.  Told Better-half to stop enabling me and keep the white stuff out of the house.

I can give it up.  I gave it up back in the 80s and I can do it again.

So... what are you prepared to give up in 2017?

[aprilskies]

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@kathie66 wrote:

Hello All! 

Can't believe its December wow! Wanted to post one goal met. I finally finished up my Laura Geller Baby Cakes Blush Palette. It took me a long time to finish it! But its totally gone. I am pretty darn proud of myself!! Now on to all the other blush I have collected over the years. One by one.... and they are getting done WOOHOO!!

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Wow, that is a pretty great accomplishment. Sometimes those products feel like they will never end.

[aprilskies]

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@just bee wrote:

I complained bitterly that we were eating more than usual over the holiday, but I noticed something: I didn't touch my white cheddar popcorn while the house guest was here.

I think I've conquered my addiction.  Told Better-half to stop enabling me and keep the white stuff out of the house.

I can give it up.  I gave it up back in the 80s and I can do it again.

So... what are you prepared to give up in 2017?

---

I am interested in seeing what everyone has in mind.  For me, I dont plan on giving anything up, however, I am now on working on drastically cutting back my junk food so I am hoping by the time the New Year rolls around, I will have that under control.  It is proving to be harder than I thought.  I would like to get to the 80/20 rule. As of yesterday, I have gotten most things out of the house.  I still have a few but I am no longer going to bring it home. I was trying to exercise moderation, but that doesnt work for me so I finally accepted the fact I cant keep it around.

It is interesting though, sugar is just rampant.  I have chai lattes and hot chocolate mixes in the house and the sugar content is high, so I am going to treat those as treats.  It really is amazing how much sugar we consume.

And how hard is it to find regular whole fat yogurt in a small container that is not greek style. I need a small one for a recipe and I wasnt sure if the greek style was going to be too thick. I found a bigger container, barely, but didnt want the whole thing.

Have a nice week, ladies.

[just bee]

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@aprilskies wrote:

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@just bee wrote:

I complained bitterly that we were eating more than usual over the holiday, but I noticed something: I didn't touch my white cheddar popcorn while the house guest was here.

I think I've conquered my addiction.  Told Better-half to stop enabling me and keep the white stuff out of the house.

I can give it up.  I gave it up back in the 80s and I can do it again.

So... what are you prepared to give up in 2017?

---

I am interested in seeing what everyone has in mind.  For me, I dont plan on giving anything up, however, I am now on working on drastically cutting back my junk food so I am hoping by the time the New Year rolls around, I will have that under control.  It is proving to be harder than I thought.  I would like to get to the 80/20 rule. As of yesterday, I have gotten most things out of the house.  I still have a few but I am no longer going to bring it home. I was trying to exercise moderation, but that doesnt work for me so I finally accepted the fact I cant keep it around.

It is interesting though, sugar is just rampant.  I have chai lattes and hot chocolate mixes in the house and the sugar content is high, so I am going to treat those as treats.  It really is amazing how much sugar we consume.

And how hard is it to find regular whole fat yogurt in a small container that is not greek style. I need a small one for a recipe and I wasnt sure if the greek style was going to be too thick. I found a bigger container, barely, but didnt want the whole thing.

Have a nice week, ladies.

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I probably have the same mixes here.  Way too much sugar so they sit unused in the cupboard.  Brought one to work -- I don't know what happened to it.

Oh, I know about the yogurt!  I wanted a whole milk plain yogurt and it's like the Yeti of the supermarket.

Ingredients: Organic whole milk, organic nonfat milk powder, L. acidophilus LA-5®, S. thermophilus, L. bulgaricus, L. casei, L. rhamnosus, B. bifidum cultures.

This is what yogurt's supposed to be: Just milk and bacteria.

[KaySD]

December Greetings, Gang! I love the way we all keep lurching forward...

I had a huge "lurch" last month--in Paris! I would move to that city in a heartbeat, it is so beautiful. I never want to come home. My agenda for this trip was to eat croissants every morning and drink Champagne every evening. I pretty much nailed it. But I think I overdid it on the croissants. (One can't overdo Champagne  so good for you.)

@just bee, everyone knows keeping an up to date resume at all times is a good idea, but most of us don't do it. It feels so good to know that if an opportunity presents itself, there's no barrier to applying. So, hooray for you if you get your resume all spiffy and ready to use. After all, it really doesn't matter what you do, or where you do it--it only matters how you feel about it, right? Resignation letters are almost as comforting IMO--writing them helps clarify how you feel, even if you don't use them. 

I bought a beautiful, amazing palette of eye shadows from Dior for my trip. The last palette I bought was years ago, and it isn't used up, but I got the new one anyway. It was crazy expensive, and I just love it. However, I didn't buy a single thing in Paris, except a book for myself at the Musee d'Orsee and a few small gifts at the Christmas Market, which had just opened when I got there. Fun! Champagne by the glass right out on the street. Couldn't do that here! Parisians have some awesome ideas.

I also bought more new clothes than I needed for the trip, and I enjoyed them very much, thank you. But even my Alegrias weren't able to protect me from the rigors of that much walking. Foot and leg pains were the only blight on my otherwise amazing days. Now I am suspecting that it was at least partly due to eating all that bread. No, seriously. All those different gluten type proteins in grains, and none of them really necessary for human consumption as far as I can tell, just tasty.

So my answer to what I'm "giving up" is grains. All of 'em, if I can manage it. Maybe that gets me in the healthy eating club, too?

 Dawn is breaking in California, and I'm off to an early start today. Hope you all had wonderful starts to your weeks!

[just bee]

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@KaySD wrote:

December Greetings, Gang! I love the way we all keep lurching forward...

I had a huge "lurch" last month--in Paris! I would move to that city in a heartbeat, it is so beautiful. I never want to come home. My agenda for this trip was to eat croissants every morning and drink Champagne every evening. I pretty much nailed it. But I think I overdid it on the croissants. (One can't overdo Champagne  so good for you.)

@just bee, everyone knows keeping an up to date resume at all times is a good idea, but most of us don't do it. It feels so good to know that if an opportunity presents itself, there's no barrier to applying. So, hooray for you if you get your resume all spiffy and ready to use. After all, it really doesn't matter what you do, or where you do it--it only matters how you feel about it, right? Resignation letters are almost as comforting IMO--writing them helps clarify how you feel, even if you don't use them. 

I bought a beautiful, amazing palette of eye shadows from Dior for my trip. The last palette I bought was years ago, and it isn't used up, but I got the new one anyway. It was crazy expensive, and I just love it. However, I didn't buy a single thing in Paris, except a book for myself at the Musee d'Orsee and a few small gifts at the Christmas Market, which had just opened when I got there. Fun! Champagne by the glass right out on the street. Couldn't do that here! Parisians have some awesome ideas.

I also bought more new clothes than I needed for the trip, and I enjoyed them very much, thank you. But even my Alegrias weren't able to protect me from the rigors of that much walking. Foot and leg pains were the only blight on my otherwise amazing days. Now I am suspecting that it was at least partly due to eating all that bread. No, seriously. All those different gluten type proteins in grains, and none of them really necessary for human consumption as far as I can tell, just tasty.

So my answer to what I'm "giving up" is grains. All of 'em, if I can manage it. Maybe that gets me in the healthy eating club, too?

 Dawn is breaking in California, and I'm off to an early start today. Hope you all had wonderful starts to your weeks!

---

Wow!  Now that's my idea of a perfect vacation: Travel to a large city and eat and walk my way through it.  That's what we did in New York and Boston -- eat and walk.  Mostly we walked to the Carnegie Deli.  Blintzes, bagels, pastrami on rye.

Giving up grains is HUGE!  Bread is my go-to comfort food.  I seek starch.  Bread and butter, bagels, sopaipillas and honey, chips and salsa, crackers and cheese, toast, pizza, pasta, cookies...  I've cut down on pastry and donuts, but I still consider them close friends.

And I'm very fond of barley.

Giving up grains would be a spectacular idea!  I'm giving up the white cheddar popcorn.  We'll see how that goes before I part ways with baguettes.

[KaySD]

Giving up grains IS huge, no doubt about it. Turns out there are so many different gluten type proteins, there are really no grains that don't have them. There's no way to test for sensitivity to any but the main one in wheat, so I don't know whether I'm "officially" gluten sensitive. So I'm only going by feel here--how I feel is the lab test.

I don't regret a single croissant or baguette from Paris. The bread is so fresh and the butter is delicious...

And I'm with you, @just bee, starchy carbs are comfort. Popcorn. Rice. Oats. Noodles. The only thing I can do is cultivate the belief that these things are NOT FOOD--like there's no essential difference between eating bread and plastic bread bags. (Remember when bread from the store came in waxed paper wrappers?)

My compromise to the gods of satisfaction is to eat root vegetables, including potatoes. And enormous amounts of green veggies. And lots of meat. Not breaded, of course!!! Today I baked a big chicken breast and a yellow sweet potato, and steamed a big head of broccoli. I had that for breakfast and dinner. For lunch, just a slice of cheese and a couple of dried apricots. I'm full as a tick, but not quite satisfied. I want crackers! I want a cookie! Grrr. I'm settling for a glass of wine. Well....that's nothing to complain about...

Champagne! That's what I need! Champagne fixes everything.They should reconsider prescribing it instead of all those dangerous painkiller pills! Alas, Medicare doesn't cover it.

Ahem. Okay, I'm sobering up now. I have a compacting goal for this month, and it involves getting one of those big wheeled dumpster bins delivered by the city and filling it up with all the collected junk in my garage and elsewhere--whatever can't be donated and isn't hazardous waste. I may invite the neighbors to top it off. Thatt would be a spectacular compact, don't you think? 

Only a month until the days start getting longer!

[aprilskies]

JB, I agree with you on the yogurt. Things just aren't the same.  I ended up buying a big container. All I could find for what I needed. Enough with the no fat/low fat foods. Bring back real food. 

Kaysd, Paris, ooh la la.  On my bucket list.  I would eat and drink my way through there too guilt free. Sounds like you had a great time. 

So, for the grains, are you guys tossing them out or just eating your way through them and just not repurchasing?

[just bee]

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@KaySD wrote:

Giving up grains IS huge, no doubt about it. Turns out there are so many different gluten type proteins, there are really no grains that don't have them. There's no way to test for sensitivity to any but the main one in wheat, so I don't know whether I'm "officially" gluten sensitive. So I'm only going by feel here--how I feel is the lab test.

I don't regret a single croissant or baguette from Paris. The bread is so fresh and the butter is delicious...

And I'm with you, @just bee, starchy carbs are comfort. Popcorn. Rice. Oats. Noodles. The only thing I can do is cultivate the belief that these things are NOT FOOD--like there's no essential difference between eating bread and plastic bread bags. (Remember when bread from the store came in waxed paper wrappers?)

My compromise to the gods of satisfaction is to eat root vegetables, including potatoes. And enormous amounts of green veggies. And lots of meat. Not breaded, of course!!! Today I baked a big chicken breast and a yellow sweet potato, and steamed a big head of broccoli. I had that for breakfast and dinner. For lunch, just a slice of cheese and a couple of dried apricots. I'm full as a tick, but not quite satisfied. I want crackers! I want a cookie! Grrr. I'm settling for a glass of wine. Well....that's nothing to complain about...

Champagne! That's what I need! Champagne fixes everything.They should reconsider prescribing it instead of all those dangerous painkiller pills! Alas, Medicare doesn't cover it.

Ahem. Okay, I'm sobering up now. I have a compacting goal for this month, and it involves getting one of those big wheeled dumpster bins delivered by the city and filling it up with all the collected junk in my garage and elsewhere--whatever can't be donated and isn't hazardous waste. I may invite the neighbors to top it off. Thatt would be a spectacular compact, don't you think? 

Only a month until the days start getting longer!

---

Ah, bread.  Tortillas, naan, breadsticks...  I just watched The Idolmaker for the zillionth time and all I could think was how much I miss Stella D'oro breadsticks and cookies.  I'd kill for one of these right now:

Wait a minute.  I'm Italian.  I can't give up bread!  Better-half still remembers how I practically wept on my breakfast in Boston when the server handed me a plate with an enormous chunk of Italian bread (torn, not cut) covered with the over-easy eggs I'd ordered.

Exactly the way my mother would have prepared breakfast.  Simple and perfect.

And how am I supposed to eat sausage and peppers without a substantial roll to mop up all that goodness?

How am I supposed to eat butter, creamy Skippy and honey without a base of toasted sturdy bread?

How am I supposed to bid a fond adieu to linguine?

And, as someone who lives in New Mexico, how am I supposed to abandon tortillas?  Breakfast burritos are the law.

P.S.  The dumpster idea is an inspiration!