Holiday Weight Gain Time Begins!

DH was off work yesterday, and settled in to a frenzied day of working in the kitchen. The end results are wonderful to taste and horrid for my waistline - a huge pot of chex mix and a container of hand-made caramels, chocolate covered caramels and cashew-encrusted caramels. The dish drainer is filled with a grouping of drying pots and pans and my weight will start an upward climb that I'll be working hard to get back off. It's two weeks of indulgence for the holiday season and that starts now. 

Holiday weight gain is no myth. Celebrations tend to
revolve around food, and often we'll have things to
eat that we normally wouldn't indulge in. 

I know that weight easily put on will also come off easily, but I'll still have to be careful. Within the next two weeks we have Solstice, Christmas, DH's birthday, the family after-holiday get together and New Year's. That's five major celebrations within two weeks of time, and there are foods and treats associated with each of them. ACK! 

We might get some snow. Additional exercise would help
keep my weight gain to reasonable levels. And I'll
still be swimming. I will miss two days in the pool
for each of the two weeks, but I'll still be there
the other four. 

I'll be taking DH to see "The Last Jedi" for his birthday. I purchased the tickets late last night. It will be a day filled with movies and TV shows for him and he's already looking forward to it. I suppose I could do worse. I'll be enjoying a rare day off from work, so that's a total plus for me at this time of the year. 

Most of my gain will be water because I eat a lot of salty
foods during the holidays. Chex mix, ham, and beef - all
contribute to water weight gain. Still, it will have to
come back off quickly. 

I spent part of the day yesterday working on my end of the year sale announcement that will be sent out on Thursday. Next week will be super hectic because I only run one storewide sale where every single item (with a few rare exceptions) are discounted. We've actually had a strong past two weeks, and I'm hoping to carry the year out with a continued strong showing. 

Nilmandra was a writer of great talent who
supported the Tolkien Fan Fiction community
and started the Stories of Arda archive.
She'll be missed. 

And, in a final and sadder note, I received news that Nilmandra passed away yesterday. She was the pivot for my getting involved in Tolkien fan-fiction with her essential and wonderfully written "History of Middle Earth". She set up the fan-fiction website StoriesofArda for authors to post their stories and readers to comment on them. It was through the pages of SOA that I got to know so many other Tolkien scholars and aficionados. My holidays will now be booked by the deaths of two I knew on those pages - Nilmandra in December and Fiondil in January. My life was enriched by both and I will not forget them. 

Have a great Wednesday. I have a TON of stuff to do today, the beginning of the wind-down to Christmas on Monday. Here's hoping your Wednesday is productive and loving.