New Year's: the taller, slimmer Me thinks about nutrition

I can't put my arms down!

Since I'm still working on those 12 pounds from 2005 that come and go (and the neatness issues from 7th grade), I don't want to add any new perceived flaws to be corrected in 2010, I mean 2012. Given choices, I would be taller (not a lot) and thinner (some), I would have sharper vision because squinting makes you look older, and have more energy because feeling tired is very close to feeling old.


Would I be better dressed? I'm having a hard time with that, because among the formerly impossible things the electronic digital age has done is completely permeate the media and the airwaves with self-improvement tips and marketing. I already keep my clothes clean and pressed, and my shoes in good repair, thank you very much. Having watched A Christmas Story at an impressionable age, I have a lasting aversion to over-layering, so I have way too many coats and jackets in different weights so I won't over-layer.  And as for over-shopping: well, web shopping no longer cures a sleepless night,  it just gives me a day or two of "returning errands". I'm sure that in 80% of the world, I'd be overdressed. Opulently so. And to my horror (because I am an unselfish person who worries about the health of others), in large parts of this country I'm considered emaciated by comparison to the local ladies who lunch. On a loaf of bread while waiting for their double hero sandwiches and sweet rolls. At Panera.

Do I "eat healthy"? I think so but that's an empirical conclusion mainly because I have good posture and no vitamin deficiency diseases. I don't know if a Nutritionist would agree, but I don't agree with a lot of Nutritionists either. I once attended a conference at which a Nutritionist was one of the speakers.  She insisted that it is just as easy to prepare a healthy home-cooked meal as it is to defrost something, or pick up MickeyD's, and much less expensive.  She supported this by "costing out" the price of ingredients in a typical healthy meal: 49¢ for half a can of tomatoes, 14¢ for some grated cheese, 13¢ for one egg, and so on. Obviously this deluded soul had never shopped for food in her life. Or cooked a meal for real people. Or cleaned up after it (using 1 tsp Joy and ⅓ Brillo pad, no doubt). Stuff that comes in cans, boxes, bottles and cartons is sold that way. And then you have to store the unused part (where?) and keep using that up. You also have to possess the pots to cook it in, and a place to keep them, and a working stove and refrigerator. No wonder these theories are slow to catch on in poorer neighborhoods. Or countries. A little jar of dried thyme costs $6.95, and a pound of salt costs less than a tenth of that.

One last thing: I've stopped reading magazines that urge me to "select a signature fragrance." Please. Here are the characteristics of the fragrance I seek: doesn't make me sneeze, doesn't make my eyes run or my lids swell up, doesn't smell like cheap artificial flavorings or like flowers that are not native to the continent upon which I dwell. And I don't want to smell like dryer sheets or overripe fruit or air fresheners or.... I realize this eliminates most of what's on the market, and I can't really go perfume shopping for more that a minute or two because of that sneeze/sniffles business, so Himself will have to rely on a guilty conscience rather than a signature scent to know that I have entered a room before he sees me. I just mentioned this to him, and he says his conscience is fine and even if he doesn't see me entering a room, he knows I won't leave without him. Unless I'm really, really annoyed.

And now I have to go pack up the shopping bags for tomorrow's returns: a puffer coat I bought to replace the 2-year-old (is that all? really?) coat from Lands' End sale -- it's not a bargain if it sheds its feathers! -- and a glen plaid pencil skirt with a big bow over the tummy. 'Nuff said. Oh, there's nothing wrong with the puffer, I just decided to buy it a size larger. So I could layer on cold days.

18 comments:

  1. Delightful! (Was that word left in the 2012 dictionary?) No resolutions here. I hate disappointing myself. Happy new year.

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  2. No resolutions for me either, I'm not one for big pronouncements at any time. Fragrance is such a personal thing. I find myself getting more annoyed when people are using it as a marinade. It's offensive to my nose and eyes too.

    It's a shame a coat can't last more than a couple of winters. I was loving my J.Crew stadium cloth peacoat from last year and noticed it is now pilling around the cuffs. My older stadium cloth coats are worn much more and zero pilling. I didn't buy a J.Crew coat this year at all, I think I'm over their coats.

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  3. Hi, Jen, Happy New Year and thank you!

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  4. Hi, xoxo! Marinade indeed - love it! My LE coat was warm and light and cost $40 on sale, so I guess I got my money's worth from it. Still, sad to replace it.

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  5. Happ New Year, WFF! I look forward to 24 hours of a christmas story every year. Resolutions? In typical form, I haven't decided on them yet. Ask me again in February.

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  6. Happy New Year, mommydearest! Yes, between A Christmas Story, the Honeymooners, and the flickering Yule Log, our tv gets a real workout!

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  7. Not sure I'm making resolutions or whether it's about time I focus on a couple root causes for adding more joy. Guess that's the same thing ...

    Happy new year, WFF!

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  8. In cold weather, I have more layers than an onion. Then as it heats up I have the annoyance of having to carry the extra layers around with me so that I look like a pack mule! Resolutions? This has to be the year I declutter.

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  9. Quite agree about costing out a meal. Most food items don't come in bite size quantities, you have to buy the whole tin/packet/bottle. I made some brownies the other day, cost a fortune with slabs of chocolate, bags of sugar, a mountain of eggs etc. Should have just eaten the bar of chocolate and got the same sugar rush.
    Happy New Year xxx

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  10. Hi, TiffanyRose, I'm all for adding more joy and letting the rest take care of itself.

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  11. Hi, Sulky Kitten, you have articulated the dilemma I face every time I pack, in fact, almost every time I leave the house. Tough to stroll romantically romantic in, say, Paris, or even just around the corner, with an extra sweater tied around the waist, a "weightless and packable" raincoat taking up most of the pocketbook, and a "wrap" flapping in the breeze. Maybe I should resolve to become impervious to weather, it would make so many things much easier.

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  12. Hi, Trish, at one stage in my life I compulsively read cookbooks, and it was a great day when I discovered in Julia Child, no less, that one measuring cup of chocolate chips equals 6 ounces, and if melted with a teasoon of v. black strong coffee substitutes for the block baking chocolate. In real life this means that if you lose heart before the chocolate goes in, you can carry the cup of chips over to where you left the latest library book...

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  13. No perfume here either. I have had to leave a room at work b/o heavy scents, eyes running.

    How to get folks to cook more? This has been around a long time-- Fanny Farmers cooking school a hundred years ago was started to help the less fortunate eat better and therefore be healthier. I wonder if a move to help equip people would help ( a proper knife, cutting board etc). Anyway, still love cookbooks and have a ridiculous number of them.

    Bows in tummy area, no.

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  14. Hi, Lane, good theory but I can't see our gov't providing knives and cleavers to the food stamps population. I think that a practical, if not aesthetic, solution could be making tasty healthy fast food outlets available, at least in poor urban areas.

    Not all that long ago a dinner at the relaunched Mère Brazier in Lyon was spoiled by my sneezing fits, not just for us, I'm sure, but for others as well.

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  15. I've made one change and it's killing me already and I think I'm just doing it because I think I should be and people always think it's "a bad thing." I'm trying to live without .....double cream in my coffee, I don't even like coffee it's just a vehicle for double cream but then my cholesterol is fine, ( er I think, it's been a while) my weights fine. Sigh, I don't like this world without double cream one bit.

    Remember : someone in a Madrassa in Pakistan is reading this!

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  16. Hi, Tabitha, I too am a slave to heavy cream in my coffee, that's the closest we can get to your luvly double cream over here. And it must be fresh, not ultra-pasteurized. I can't imagine anyone who's not in a bomb shelter wanting to drink something that will last 15 weeks in its waxed cardboard carton. Oops, all things considered, make that "anyone who's not on a protracted camping expedition."

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  17. I am pretty sure I am a bad eater. I've tried to make personal resolutions, start a food diary, keep mental check, eat out less, buy "better for me" foods - but is it right for me to have Food ( regardless if it is a Big Mac or head of lettuce) floating through my head all the time?! I give up. ;o)

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  18. Hi, Lisa, totally agree that there's just something wrong! wrong! about thinking about eating all the time, or thinking about not eating all the time, or thinking about where to eat all the time (like at lunch wondering if we should move the dinner reservation to a later hour so we can have dessert at lunch) - on the other hand, I think I've just described most of how we plan trips here... .

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