Been Knitting....and other thoughts...

Yep... getting ready for Christmas, don't ya know! Still haven't put up the tree...hopefully it will happen this weekend. Still haven't wrapped a single present...probably won't have the mojo for that until the tree is up. But I have been knitting! Christmas is already special for me this year for lots of reasons... We're all healthy...and happy...I've had the awesome experience of being able to garden and can this year...(I'm already planning how much of what I want to plant for spring!)...I've been blessed to be able and have time and finances (thank you hubby!) to make most of our gifts for the first time in ages... and for the second Christmas in a row I'm not clinically overweight. That is a huge deal for me! One summer, at about 13 years old, I went from 115 to 145 lbs. By the next summer, I was over 160 lbs. Granted, I'm tall for a girl...I'm 5'7.5" now- down from a majestic 5'8.5" in my youth---taller than any of my siblings or parents, but Christmas 2 years ago, I weighed just over 200 lbs. and was officially in the clinically Obese range. Fighting my weight has been a most frustrating journey that has gone on for at least 40 years of my almost 54. The last two years has taught me volumes about  eating right and exercising--- and the consequences of neglecting to do so! I watched 'Super Size Me' last night after our hospital Christmas party. This man ate McDonald's 3 times a day for one month. In that time his blood work results changed dramatically, with the surprizing addition of impaired liver function! It was as if he had become an alcoholic (sp?) In this one month he gained 25 lbs. It took him 8 weeks to get his blood work back into normal range and 9 months to lose all of the weight back off! Besides all that, he was sick with all kinds of aches, pains, headaches, stomach trouble...etc. I wish for everyone this year the gift of health... No, it doesn't require a BMI of 20... but it does require effort each and every day on our part to conciously make good decisions about what we put in our mouths. It also requires us to not just think about exercising, but  to actually get up off the couch and move!