My Pal, Elli!

Meet Elli! She is my faithful exercise friend! In case you're not catching on yet, Elli is short for Elliptical. I finally made it back to her today after two weeks on the road. I used foreign treadmills, bikes, and other ellipticals. I swam and snowshoed. I walked. And it was all good. But there's just nothing quite like Dear Ol' Elli! She worked me hard today!

Meet Cal. He is my arch nemesis! In case you're not catching on yet, Cal is short for Calorie-Laden-Treat-Cupboard. Cal is more a friend of my husband. (In fact, as I'm typing this, my dear husband just called from the other room to happily announce he found a "jackpot" under the sofa--a bag of peanut butter M&M's he stashed there prior to Christmas and forgot about.) I live in a war zone. These pictured cupboard treats are located high up and out of sight so that I really only see them in moments of desperation. It's really hard living with Cal, but I do my best to work around him. You can't even see all the treats in that cupboard--it is completely stuffed this time of year. K goes a little crazy with all the Christmas mint products out on the market. He's gotta have some of this and some of that because you know, 'tis the season! And then there are my students. Although I try to tactfully discourage treats, some of them creep onto my desk anyway. And some of those actually make it home to K. He delights in them. And then there's Christmas. Our stockings are somehow stuffed with more and more sugar. However, this year, I did find not one, but two jars of pickles in my stocking which I thought was amazingly perfect. First time in my entire life that Santa brought pickles!

And then there's all the heavy food associated with the holidays. Cheese ball, steaks, sugar cookies, BAKLAVA (worth every bite), Blue Bunny ice cream, big ham dinner, fudge...you know how it is. I ate a lot of oranges and cracked peanuts out of their shells. I kept drinking water. I tried. But sometimes Cal still beats Elli! This is my daily battle. Which is why...

I made chicken soup for New Year's Day. Lots of water with bouillon. Lots of onion, celery, and garlic. Here's to a healthy 2014! GO TEAM ELLI!!!