One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the importance of movement after meals. I'm not talking about exercise, but even a simple 10-15 minute walk has a noticeable effect on blood sugar levels (for the better) which in turn means better utilization of calories and less storing of them.

One Christmas, my youngest son (age 7) was belting out at the top of his voice: We three kings of Glory and Tar! Bearing gifts we travel so far! 🙂

I like to make a Chocolate Snack cake--no eggs, no butter, cocoa instead of chocolate. It is an old recipe (from depression era) and my go-to dessert anytime I need a quick dessert. Bonus: everyone loves it! Once it cools, I sift some powder sugar on top to give it a finished look.... Here's a traditional recipe: https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/chocolate-snack-cake/4dc98911-1609-4b6c-b34f-545ac7ee8c81

Another helpful site is Full Plate Living which promotes a high-fiber diet by emphasizing fruits, veggies, beans, and whole grains. The site has been around for a long time and the program used to cost money, but a foundation decided to sponsor it and now all the info is free. You have to sign up with an email, but once you do, you’ll have access to some very helpful, very quick video classes (with texts if you are not into watching), the blog, recipes, cookbooks, some scientific studies, and more. One video series outlines their suggestions for learning how to incorporate more high-fiber, water-based foods, another specifically deals with managing diabetes and insulin resistance. They also have a helpful private FB group–supportive–they are very much about celebrating each choice that made the meal a bit healthier–plus answer questions as well. They are all about incremental, doable changes. Additionally, they have recently begun to encourage other healthy habits like sleep, stress relief, and modest fitness--mostly in the form of a one-hour video seminar. There will be one this Saturday on 15-minute fitness. I signed up because honestly, movement (lack of) is my weakest health habit.

I believe this is what you have in mind: Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is the energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating or sports-like exercise. It ranges from the energy expended walking to work, typing, performing yard work, undertaking agricultural tasks and fidgeting. A Google search on NEAT brings up lots of articles, ideas, videos that go more fully in detail. Something as simple as a 15 minute walk after your biggest meal (not intense exercise!) does wonders for regulating blood sugars.....

One non-profit organization that I very much appreciate is Oldways which promotes healthy heritage diets. They do a great job of distilling what pre-modernization diets (with their low rates of heart/diabetes issues) of various nations and peoples looked like and show how very much they have in common and how to translate that to a doable way of eating (WOE). The organization held a very interesting conference a few years ago where they brought together 15+ leading voices of nutrition health from various backgrounds (Harvard Health, Keto, Med, Dash, Paleo, etc). The key take-away, somewhat to their surprise, was how similar the suggestion for a healthy WOE were and really, the differences between them constituted nuances as opposed to major dietary differences).

Definitely something to watch for as well as possible liver and kidney problems. Your body *may* not do well with higher meat/fat even if you lose weight.

Not recently, but once I was giving cooking lessons to my teens and I mentioned needing to get the oil hot enough so food would cook properly. And in a brain glitch, I stuck my finger in there to test the temp! My kids are still aghast I did something so stupid.

A few weeks ago we were visiting our daughter in Germany. We took care of the Rent-a-Car paperwork in the airport, then walked out with the keys to get the car. We could NOT figure out how to open the trunk (and we had big bags). We pushed anything that remotely looked like a button, switch, latch; we searched all around the driver's seat to find a button, but nada. We asked a random couple picking up their car if they had any suggestions. "Just push the trunk button on the key chain!" But ours didn't HAVE that button. They shrugged, said "Sorry" and got in their car and drove off. Just as we were despairing, an car rental person walked by. I grabbed him and asked him how to open the trunk. He rolled his eyes, pushed the tiny car logo decoration and voila! So simple but we had no idea.....

Yes. I think that would be a perfect addition and not too difficult to do.

I think you've got a lovely menu, but I'd appreciate a big leafy salad--especially with the pizzas you are offering. I'm not sure you need to offer a lot more toppings for salad since you have both the veggies + dip as well as "hot dog" toppings--do any of those lend themselves to being salad toppers? May you have a fabulous gathering and celebration!

Our daughter married 3 years ago. There are no hard-set rules any more. They paid for the wedding themselves (although both sets of parents gave cash gifts towards the wedding), dropping things that didn't matter to them (eg. no band/live music, no professional hair/makeup), keeping the things that did (really good food in a nice venue, outsourcing flowers, photographer). Their wedding was smallish (40 people?) and made up of family and friends that were meaningful in their lives. It was beautiful and totally fit them. Because we were coming from three continents (not a destination wedding--just far flung families) and with some of us arriving a couple of days ahead of time, we had two "pre-wedding dinners", the first with just our two families, the second with broader families. We hosted the first, the groom's family hosted the second. Again, perhaps not the "done" thing, but it worked very well for our circumstances! Congratulations to you all!

We went to Gettysburg once years ago--and had just a few hours to spare. We did an audio tour in the car. I think at various points we could get out and walk around. It was an enjoyable experience for the entire family.

I agree with what Katy said--many places in the world (with first class care) are far cheaper than the US. It is also possible if you booked with a credit card that some insurance is an included benefit (esp. if a travel awards card). This site: https://www.gninsurance.com is a broker that specializes in Int'l Health Insurance for Expats.

I got my coffee-loving daughter a 3-bag gift subscription to Trade Coffee and it has been a HUGE hit. The gift receiver profiles what is important to them and then can choose from a large number of small producers to be sent *when* they want them. My daughter choose a different one each time!

Yes, the "dozy" is a play on words of someone who is dozing. Hence: Ring-->alarm which might be around to wake someone who is dozing.

Also, one other little thing to note: many colleges start their second semester in mid-January, and for all of my five kids at five different universities, they started AFTER Martin Luther King day--the actual date of said celebration moves around a bit from year to year. (This always caught me by surprise because that holiday didn't exist when I was a student).

I haven't used this as I just heard about it today, but https://www.momsmeals.com seems to be exactly what you want. Their goal is to provide meals for people just out of the hospital and with special dietary requirements--not an ongoing subscription of recipes and ingredients to make. They are covered by some health plans as well.

Congratulations!!!! Rejoicing with you!

Yes, this! There is a very fair-haired doctor in our church (living in sunny So. Cal) who has had multiple lesions of skin cancer over the years and he recommended to me MOHS surgery for the face when I was diagnosed. As the quoted poster said, they take microscopic skin layers, examine under a microscope, and repeat until *all* cancerous cells are removed. The "ordinary" way is to guess at the extent of the cancer spread (with a good margin of error) and remove that--ending up with a bigger, deeper scar/healing *and* the possibility that some cancerous cells were missed. There is a definite tension between minimizing facial scarring and yet removing all cancer cells.

Wordle 258 3/6 ⬛🟨🟨⬛⬛ ⬛⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 My first guess (with wrong letters) really helped me narrow down my third. Otherwise, I think I'd have had a string of rhyming words.....

I might have missed seeing this author but one Golden Age mystery writer both my husband and I enjoy is Cyril Hare. Although I've not posted much, I've been steadily reading. I've managed to pick a number of long books (500+, 600+, 700+ pages) recently. I'm glad I read them, but it is a good reminder that most people, even accomplished, gifted authors, cannot pull off 700+ page stories without some bogging down..... Some of my recent reads: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2 stars). This started out SO WELL but honestly, the story dragged, the main character lost all my initial sympathy with his repeated stupid life choices, and the final scenes in Europe/America were too unbelievable. Touchstone by Laurie King (4 stars). Sadly, it appears the next book in the series is *much* darker, so I'll be skipping it. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (4 stars). Interesting but you have to invest brain power to follow the five+ people with an intertwining story which arcs over centuries. The One-in-a-Million-Boy by Monica Wood (4.5 stars--I reserve 5 stars for books I think everyone *should* read; 4.5 for my personal favorites which this book is). A very satisfying, unusually written story full of endearing but flawed characters--I love "character" books, so right up my alley.

Me, too! I was honestly shocked a number of years ago when I read about some famous woman making a plea that people wear their clothes more than one time and to work towards a goal to wear a piece at least 30 times. I had no idea people didn't wear things til they wore out (special event clothes excluded).

Wordle 256 4/6 ⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨 🟨🟨🟨⬛⬛ 🟨🟨🟨🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩