Funny Thing

This morning I started a new project.  It's the Wonky Houses from Jenny of Elefantz.

I'm hoping that by the time I'm finished with this, I can gift it to Erik and Mae...that would mean they have found a house to buy, and are going to move in.  Somehow, I think I'll finish the project first, but you never can tell.  Yesterday, I traced out the four little house motifs, and this morning I got a good start on the first one.

It's kind of fun stitching on that lemon yellow, which is brighter than it looks in this image.  Usually I'm working on something white or cream colored.  

That was as far as I got before I needed to head out.  I returned to doing my Curves workouts this morning after getting distracted for pretty much the entire month of May.  May is always so busy with three birthdays, mother's day, and our anniversary in the same month.  It makes for lots of celebrations, and therefore, lots of eating.  I like the eating part.  I don't like the getting fatter part.  Actually, I didn't gain any weight, but I didn't lose any either.  So I'm back to working out now, and hopefully, I can keep my momentum going at least through the summer.  (Yes, I like to aim big.)

Regarding dieting and weight loss, I read something totally liberating the other day...at least, to me it was liberating.  I saw this blog post on a blog called MindBodyGreen.  I haven't been reading the blog for long, but I started following it after reading this post.  I really liked what she had to say about healthy eating and dieting.  You can read the article for yourself, but the takeaway (for me) was this:

I think many people out there are just like me. They’ll do well to drop the diets, and all the labeling of foods as “good” and “bad,” and to simply work on eating for nourishment (and joy!) instead. 

Listen to your body, not to the author of the diet du jour. Eat plentifully of wholesome stuff and don’t eat so much of the stuff that’s not. Your body needs food (all different kinds and plenty of it) to do everything it needs to do. Don’t eat too few calories. Or fats. Or carbohydrates. (I’m serious about this: there's a good chance you're not eating enough, especially if you're a woman.) 

Don’t deny yourself real foods that you enjoy. Make sure to move your body, get lots of deep sleep, and work on managing the stress in your life. Strive for balance instead taking healthy habits to extremes. 

Do these things not because you are trying to change yourself into a more perfect version, but because you respect and love yourself. Do them because you deserve to be healthy and happy.

Lately I've been crabby when folks make suggestions about what I should or shouldn't eat, or what diet plan I should adopt, or what entire food group I should eliminate.  I think it's the biggest reason I wasn't happy on the Curves Complete diet.  For me, it's a good rule of thumb to say I'm going to make healthy choices more often than not, but not deny myself wholesome foods that I love.  And I heard something else the other day from Michael Pollan, whose newest book is "Cooked".

It's next on my list of books to read as soon as I finish what I'm currently reading (a tome about the civil war--I love historical fiction).  Anyway, Michael Pollan's philosophy is that the single most important thing you can do for your health is to eat food cooked by a human being rather than a corporation.  Since I'm a person who loves cooking, that's a very easy lifestyle for me to adopt.  In fact, I'm already there.  No changes necessary.

But enough about food.  You're probably wondering after all that griping and whining about food what the "Funny Thing" is.  Well.  The prompt for the Photo A Day Challenge tomorrow is "Something Funny".  Generally, those prompts are kind of hard because one person's funny isn't necessarily humorous to the next person.  To try to photograph "something funny" is harder than it sounds.  But then I went to the grocery store this morning, and as I was walking past the wine section, I was reminded of the many clever, funny, and creative wine labels I've seen lately.  Here's a sampling of what I saw today:

See the cat?  Who remembers Figaro the cat?

It was hard to fit the whole label in a picture.  TATT stands for "Tried and True Tablewine."

For you dog lovers.

For you rooster lovers.

For you apple lovers.

Fun, huh?  Are they funny?  Which one do you suppose I picked?  Well, it isn't shown here.  For that you'll have to wait for tomorrow's post.

As for the rest of the afternoon, I'm hoping to finish the June block for the Hello Moon BOM.  

What about you?  Did you do anything fun or funny today?