I say gardening is great...works a whole different set of muscles!  May not be a big cardio work-out but deffinitely works you out!

I have been totally slacking on my elliptical work...no excuses...just slacking...gonna do my 36 minutes tonight!

Same here...no Christmas cookies!  I think the one big baking thing I'll do for the kids is to make the walls, etc.  for them to put together a gingerbread house.  It is a fun project they love and then I always let them break it apart and eat it on Christmas day.  Sort of our own tradition.

 Have been buying a lot of choc. chips for that 5-minute fudge myself and have some cute containers to put it in for gifts.  GMTA! 

And speaking of that fudge....someone please talk me down from trying to replicate it in a sugar free version, huh?  Hershey's makes a sf choc. chip now that tastes soooooo good and doesn't make me dump.  HALP!  My devious little brain is already churning with how I can make a sf homemade sweetened condensed milk with splenda.  (I actually have a recipe for the regular version of that...I'm in trouble!) 

I shouldn't do it, I shouldn't do it, I shouldn't do it! 

After all, there is Melissa's Protein Fudge to keep me chocolate-happy, right???

Today I was planning on getting on the treadmill, but may just use gardening as my exercise today.  Is that ok?  It seems a bit of a cop-out but today I am so blue after our local election results that my heart just isn't in it.  Plus, tomorrow is the kitten's surgeries and I am worried and nervous about it...sigh.  Add to that some extended family drama and I am worried about surviving eating let alone getting in my exercise.  So I'll keep going outside and working till the toes are too chilled then come in to warm.  It is good, hard work and should generate a good feeling of accomplishment, right? 

Eats didn't start out well but I did make one smart choice....fed tempting things to the dog! 

B: 3 sf homemade oatmeal cookies (not Heathers, these were from a Splenda mag.)
S: protein coffee latte
L: will have 1 slice meat-crust pizza
S: 2 turkey patties and 2 T lf ranch dressing
D: ?  Cornish game hen half?  Thawed some yesterday, need to roast them today.
S:  ?  Maybe another mini bag of popcorn...crunching is good for nervousness  (dubious choice of coping mechanism but it's honest)

Sorry to be a whiner. 

A friend gave me some ham yesterday and that is what I ate for dinner instead of my chili...it was yummy (homey glazed)!  But boy am I retaining water today!

B- 3 protein balls
S- coffee w/SF creamer
L-more ham , who cares about the water retention right?  the way I see it...the quicker I get rid of it the quicker the water retention goes away!

S- maybe some warm tea with milk...
D- chili
S- yogurt w/ BB&granola (almost out of BB's and time to go to the store!)

That is a GREAT day!

Ice cream was a serious downfall for me pre-op and I just can't go there post-op...protein or not, I know I will over-do it and like any addiction...I just have to cut it out.