The Ingredients of the Pudding Are Not Promising

A quick update on how my very-low-carb life is progressing!

As we speak, I am on... let's see... day 111 of the diet! Isn't that wonderful? And no cheating, either! (Except for taking communion... and tomatoes. I'm guessing that tomatoes are technically off-limits, but I'm eating them in small quantities anyhow. But other than that, no cheating!)

I was successfully able to make it through Thanksgiving on the diet as well, which was no small feat! I made zero-carb gravy and mashed cauliflower, plus a few other vegetables, and got through reasonably well! My main goal, which was to disguise my maneuvers from my sweet in-laws (this is not something I wish to discuss with family) were almost successful - alas, I was not able to hide the fact that I did not eat any of my wonderful mother-in-law's famous stuffing. Ah well, I tried!

A side-effect of the VLC diet has been that I have lost all of my extra last-baby weight! This was, of course, not my main objective, but I'm very thankful for it. The modern advice of "exercise and eat a sensible diet" has never produced one ounce of weight loss for me (though it does produce a lot of frustration!), but going VLC is very effective. Now I'm working on the extra weight that never left after babies nos. one and two!

An amusing sequel to the above is that most of my skirts have gone from "a bit too tight" to "waayyy too loose" in a short amount of time. Combine that with the fact that pulling up on mama's skirt is now baby's favorite way of getting from sitting to standing, and you'll have an idea of some of the very amusing incidents that have occurred around here - thankfully only in our house! In other words, it's time to head back to Goodwill.

I am continuing the diet with unabated enthusiasm (even though that means no Lepkuchen or Santa Lucia bread for me... boo), and will keep you all updated. One thing that HG has produced in my life is an undying thirst for knowledge on the subject of health, and I have learned so much in the past seven years! I'm very thankful for that, because my diet and my health would probably still be pretty abysmal without that.

I found this interesting story yesterday on the use of the very-low-carb diet in regulating women's hormonal issues. I always love finding evidence that what I am doing works on some level, whether or not for hyperemesis! However, since hyperemesis is most likely a hormonal issue, it does seem like it might all tie together. What do you ladies think?

My next project is.... Christmas. (Dum, dum da da dum.....)

Last week I thought that we were having a small Christmas with one side of our family only. And then.... various things happened, and now it appears that I will hosting a (for me) huge Christmas for both sides of the family. Can I say.... that I am stressed out about this? I am indeed. I dearly love both sides of our family, but I do not like mixing them. For some reason it's always horribly uncomfortable to me. Does anyone else experience this, or am I just weird? Love the family, just prefer to experience them separately.

And not only will we be mixing family this Christmas, but we will also be having one family couple over who are divorced in all but legalities, so we'll be dealing with family politics as well.

And not only that, I now must come up with a Christmas dinner that is, after you mix various needs and preferences....

- High-protein, very-low carb
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
- VEGAN

And that "vegan" part (from one half of the family) is going to have to mix with the other side of the family, who would consider anything without butter, cream, and bacon grease on it to be something along the lines of mortal heresy.

The ingredients of the pudding are not promising!

But we'll get through it - hopefully peacefully - most likely with a lot of side dishes. I should probably start cooking now!!

By the by, though, to tie this back... Do you ever remember making promises (during pregnancy) like I do?

"God, if you can just make me stop feeling nauseated, I will never, ever, ever complain about anything again so long as I live!"

And here I am, complaining about having to do extra cooking! Folks, it's what you call sheer hypocrisy (or forgetfulness). So I will roll up my sleeves and dig in - and come up for air sometime in January.

Here's to complicated menu-planning! Off to get started!