photo shoot and diets and rumors

Yesterday we went out in our annual desperate attempt to get the perfect photo for the Christmas card.  These three photos are our favorites.  Maybe I should do a poll, because we all have different opinions on which one is the best.  Which is your favorite?  BTW, Ryan has his hand on top of Jake's head in picture #3.

I took at least 25 pictures.  It's so hard to get children to look into the camera, with a nice smile, at the same time.  If I could cut and paste different parts of different pictures together, I could come up with a stunning photo.  Kids!  LOL!  Gotta love 'em.  *sigh*

Now that I've chosen (I'll reveal which one in my next post), I need to work on the inscription.  We used to send out christmas letters a long time ago, and then that went down to long notes scrawled into friend's cards, then to nice religious cards with a photo inserted, and finally to the impersonal photo card.  After the year we've had, I just don't think the impersonal photo card is the way to go.  Not everyone on my card list knows that I had breast cancer (can I say it in the past tense yet?? had).  I don't want to go the whole letter route, and I'm not clever enough to write a poem...  Should I even mention my bc?  Ultimately, I just want to lift up God and express what he's done for me.  I need to pray about it and noodle.  I just wish I didn't feel the time crunch.  Mail is so slow from here.

There are rumors swirling that an earthquake and tsunami has been predicted, so they've had to put messages across the top of the tv screen.  Earthquakes are not predictable...  I guess people are scared because there was another aftershock yesterday.

I'm reading the Oz and Roizen book, You on a Diet.  These are the doctors that Oprah has on and they show organs, diseased and normal.  Anyway, I'm liking it.  Well, I don't like the writing style, it's maddening, but I like that I'm being told how the body works and what happens to the foods you eat, the chemical interactions going on and all that good stuff.  I like to know WHY high fructose corn syrup is such a bad thing.  I think I rebel against all the nutritionists wagging their fingers at us saying "no, no,no" with no REAL explanations.  I'm going to try their two week menu plan.  I went to the store today and bought an unreal amount of fresh veggies and whole grain this that and the other.  I still don't have all that was on the list.  But I like that it's less a diet and more of a change it the quality of food you eat.  No low carbing - complex carbs instead.  Quality foods that trigger the satisfaction chemicals, instead of foods that sabotage you and makes you even more hungry.  Let the foods do the hard work.  Plus incorporate daily exercise.  Normal exercise.  I'm pretty good at that part, plus I'll modify to fit my current limitations.

This appeals to me a lot.  I always thought that I should be eating better quality food.  And I think that's why I liked the Dr. Phil plan, but let's face it, his was a DIET.  You can SAY it's a lifestyle, but at 1200 calories, it's a diet.  And I felt deprived.  Anyway, I digress from what I wanted to say.  I've been thinking ever since the BRCA testing came back pointing to the cause of my cancer most likely lifestyle.  Well, that's got to be my atrocious eating habits.  I have learned over the years that I just cannot get away with anything, and it includes my eating.  I am just too big for my body type.  I'm only 5' 3 1/2" tall and I have a small to medium bone size.  I can't say I'm big boned!  (although big hipped, and that comes by genes!)  I'm not brave enough to post my current weight.  Trust me, I"m not the 108 pounds I was when I got married 18 years ago.  Not even near.

It's late, I need to shut down.  I hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend.