Hi - first and foremost I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy, Healthy and Sweet New Year. May you be blessed in this year with all good things, a lot of joys and simchas and few, but manageable, challenges. Now, how do we go about pursuing such a year? Davening, of course, but it is important for each of us to do our part as well. If we are incapable of doing something, we cannot be expected to do it, but if we are capable, then we are obligated. This means healthier food choices, healthier emotional choices, asking ourselves before every action "Is this the way I want to live?" "Will I be happy tomorrow with my choices today?" After all, today is tomorrow's past, and so much of our future depends on our decisions and actions of today. THIS IS YOUR YEAR!! This is the year that you GET IT - it's the year you take yourself off the back burner and start to take care of yourself FIRST, so that you can better handle anything that comes your way. This is the year that you will lose that weight and learn strategies for permanent weight control. This is the year that you get happier and healthier!!
It's Yom Tov time - full of beauty and newness and FOOD CHALLENGES!! And it's a month-long event!! What to do? First, think of the "salami method" - just take one slice (one day) at a time. Dont think about Yom Kippur till after Rosh Hashannah. During Yom Tov think of
Marcia's Yom Tov Rules:
1) Stay dressed when you eat - you eat differently with something around your waist. Feel every bite.
2) Sit down to everything you eat - especially if you are the server and preparer. It is so easy to eat the equivalent of a meal in the kitchen just preparing the meal 3) Drink water - even though you are out of routine and are not carrying around your bottle - find time, make time to drink
4) Eat breakfast - it focuses your mind and your day and
5) NO CAKE and its' relatives - once you start, it's so hard to stop. The sugar addiction takes over. And yes, it's addictive - that goes for sugar, honey, barley malt, rice syrup, maltose, fructose, all the -oses. Not any one is better than any other one (to answer your question , Anonymous).
So, while you are busy shopping, cleaning, inviting and preparing, please think of yourself- preparing for you, shopping for you - it will only enhance the season for you.
NEXT BLOG: How I handled the Rosh HaShannah Seuda for 20 people....

Again, A "SHANA TOVA" or "GIT, GEBENCHT YOR" to all. Thank you for all of your support, and I look forward to STARTing FRESH with you next year (5769)

Hi to all of you, and thanks for being there. I can so relate to "I was off and now I'm back on", "I was off and now I need a jumpstart", "Yom Tov is coming so I'd better lose a few pounds to give myself some leeway" or "Yom Tov is coming I will start after...." Those diet conversations are so embedded into our consciousness that they are almost apart of us. I also know that there are 2 rules: begin and continue. This isnt on and off like a light bulb. It is one continuous journey-so we are either journeying forward or backward. When we think about starting over, or starting from the beginning it is with something "really strict" so we can lose those few punds that we "just put on". Sweet, you are so right - if we are continuously looking for a jump start we will be on a restrictive "diet" always.
We dont want to start "from the beginning" - what we want is the determination and enthusiasm that we started with - when the program, or any program, was a novelty,something new, something exciting! Please, please, please -dont look for excitement in the food or in the food plan. None of it is meant to be exciting - look for that somewhere else. The program is meant to teach us SELF-CARE, PRIDE, DIGNITY AND SELF-RESPECT. And that happens a soon as we decide to abandon those old self-defeating ideas and behaviors, cut up that salad,sit down and eat it, get a tall glass of water and drink it, toss out those trigger foods, put on a pair of sneakers and take a walk.
So loseweightima and sweet and all the others out there who tell me you much you love my blog: Yom Tov is a week and a half away - what you do on Yom Tov will be dependent on what you do NOW UNTIL THEN!!! If you have a "good" 11 days, chances are you will be fueled with some determination to work harder on Yom Tov - if you dont you are not beginning your healthy eating journey on September 29th.
Let's give ourselves what we daven for and what we wish for - good health, and happiness - it all starts with YOU!!

Good Sunday morning to all!! As I look outside my window I am amazed - it looks as if there were no rain, no howling winds, and no flood in my hallway (yes, there was one - more about that later). What a difference a day makes. And to carry that over into our lives we all know that circumstances can change very quickly - so enjoy what you can today and fix what you can today because tomorrow everything can look vastly different. Now for my flood and what I learned from it.
I was so grateful to be home yesterday when it started to pour. All of a sudden I heard something strange right outside the door to my apartment and sure enough it was raining (pouring really) from the skylight above the second floor (I live on the first). The harder it rained outside, the harder it rained in. As I checked every few minutes there was more and more water everywhere (BH it never got into my apartment).
BUT IT WAS SHABBOS! No one to call, nothing to be done, couldnt mop - just had to accept what was happening, make the best and be grateful that it wasnt worse - it didnt hit any electricity (came close, though) and no one was hurt and no damage in anyone's house. What a lesson in accepting what cant be changed. The other thing that resulted was all the neighbors were in each others apartments all afternoon - and of course it was Shabbos so all the cakes, candes, cookies, nosh was being served in abundance. The more nervous the neighbor, the more eating she did. (Didnt help, it still was raining in the hallway) Amazing, isnt it, how everything boils down to food?
And after Shabbos, as soon as we could, we got in touch with the landlord, who fixed the problem temporarily and when I get home today I expect the halls to be dry and the skylight window to be fixed. What are my chances?