So I am not DIEing yeT

First week down and I did pretty good.  I will admit to a moment of weakness Tuesday when Alice was over and I split a bag of M&M's with her despite having eaten a chocolate bar earlier that day.  Otherwise I was able to stick to my goals.  This coming week I will be cooking on Thursday when I have Alice and I will let you guys know how THAT goes.  I will also be refraining from candy while Alice is over to make this week a bit challenging.

Diet is just the word DIE with a "T" at the end

I will be changing the way that I eat.  Which also means that I will be changing the way that I cook... By actually cooking.  It will be an interesting experiment which I hope JD and I will survive.  However, I am not starting by jumping into cooking, I am starting much smaller than that and I welcome my readers to join me on this quest [and to include any questions/suggestions/thoughts in the comments on these diet posts] to slowly conquer eating healthier.

So this week will be week 1 of the new diet plan.  Joy.  The mid-term goal is to cut out artificial sweetener as it is a migraine trigger for me.  I will also be ensuring that I do not purchase peanut butter with xylitol as that is toxic to dogs.  This week's short term goal will also be no more than 20oz of soda [real sugar cherry Pepsi] per day and only 1 candy/sugary snack item per day [ie chocolate, hard candy, sucker, anything that isn't considered a food item - honey is a freebee].  I realize that this does not sound like a lofty goal but I find that results are easier to accomplish when the steps are smaller.

Reflection

So yesterday's post was the more immediate response to my father's passing.  Today I'd like to reflect on this past 4 months without him.  I had my first Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year without him.  Holidays are weird because he was really the only reason I got excited about the holidays.  Thanksgiving I stayed home because I did not want to go with JD to be with his family because [as I suspected] my mother made an appearance there hoping that she could force herself upon me but I was not even there.  [As an aside, JD did capture her disappointment at discovering I was absent on video and assured me that she was miserable for the 20 minutes his family engaged her until she could escape.  I'll admit that made me smile a little - it is the small things in life, after all.

Here is to a Happy 2016!

Because this past year has been so epic, I am promising an entry per day to my blog. I have been busy writing the last two and a half years but not posting after somebody threatened to expose my identity [and my dad passed away, and JD and I are living together again... many things have happened]. Also, in 2015 the Colorado Revised Statues saw an overhaul of 24-34 Part 8 that made life for disabled persons (having disabilities aside from visual or hearing impairments) with service dogs SO MUCH EASIER!!! Oh, and that reminds me... I got a service dog!!  [See, many things have happened.]

In celebration I present you with 366 brand new entries which will cover: 

     · My classes [which I'm currently taking a hiatus from]

     · Alice 

     · Training my service dog Max 

     · ADA issues

     · Effects of the alteration of Autism criteria under DSM5

     · Random thoughts!
     · The new diet I'm trying... [help me!]

On the ride side of my blog you will see the calendar where I will link each day's post [as some will be published with past dates] making all my new entries easy to find. I am so excited for 2016!