Well, took a bit of a blog breather during the holidays!

I simply felt like enjoying family time, baking stuff (that I mostly didn't eat) and getting caught up on some work.

Two pounds came off in December, and to be COMPLETELY honest, I was OK with that. Like really, really OK. In the past I would have called out my own B.S. because I would have been disappointed AF and beat myself up for not "doing more." But I didn't work out all that much, ate a surprising amount of Hershey's Kisses without ill effects (something to stash in my slippery slope file) and kept buying smaller and smaller jeans.

So I'll update you on my progress with a series of Instagram photos.

I got thoroughly sick of my hair -- between my half-assed DIY dye jobs, grown-out highlights, regrowth sticking out of my head like crabgrass, and the need to do something completely different.

I wrapped up the year in jeans, but I haven't stopped at a 12. I recently bought a couple pairs of Athleta Sculptek jeans in a size 10 petite ... whaaaaaah??? I can actually zip them up, but I'm realistically around 5 pounds away from them being truly comfortable.

I baked a couple loaves of no-knead bread, which was pretty cool. The first loaf was kinda heavy because I used whole wheat flour instead of bread flour. I liked the second loaf better as it rose better and had a lighter texture. I really don't eat very much bread -- maybe a piece once a week or so -- but I look at baking and cooking as more of a useful arts and crafts project nowadays.

Here's those size 10 petite jeans, and the funny thing about this photo is that I looked at it and thought "No one is going to believe these are a size 10 so make sure the tag is hanging off because you do not look like a size 10." For the most part, I haven't had body dysmorphia but this picture keeps messing with my head. For some reason I feel like I look bigger than I really am.

I spent the weekend at Epcot with a couple of awesome friends: Christine (and her husband, William) and Heather. We ate and drank our way through the world showcase, although my contribution was sneaking sips and bites of everyone else's treats (although I did get a great slice of pizza in Italy and ate around a third of it, and split a chocolate-dipped meringue four ways in France).

Finally saw 90 pounds down a few days ago. Couple weeks later than I wanted, but I am TOTALLY fine with that.

Oh, and before I forget, Julia, you are the winner of the Honey Cloudz sports bra inserts! I'll contact you on getting your info.

Not gonna lie -- there was a lot of unnecessary eating going on at the house this past week. The week before Irma arrived it was "perishables week," which meant nothing from the pantry. Lots of omelettes, yogurt, things from the freezer. Fine -- so far we're doing well on the healthy scale. 

Cuban crackers -- zero fiber!

Then my sister and niece arrived with a bunch of groceries that included doughnuts, chips, and other assorted shelf-stable goodies. I had been on a mission to finish all my kale, which I did, but the desire for garbage got the best of me and I ate a doughnut and a couple servings of chips. At the same time.

Bleaaaah. Kale and junk food do not mix. I swear I've had a stomach ache for a week.

Every Floridian's favorite app this past week.

The next few days were a blur of chips and salsa, sandwich cookies, wind, rain and fallen trees. Aside from the trees and a green pool, there was no structural damage to the house. We only lost power for a day and a half, and I was able to wheel the contents of my fridge across the street to my neighbor, who had an extra fridge hooked up to a generator (MUCH THANKS!). I also took some brussels sprouts and carrots to a FWP's house (FRIENDS WITH POWER) where I performed a minor miracle and convinced a bunch of people that brussels sprouts were tasty. All I did was clean up the sprouts, cut the carrots the same size, sprinkled on some chopped scallions I found in my fridge, put everything on a sheet pan with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper and roast them in my friend's oven at 400 degrees for around 25-30 minutes. 

Florida avocados are a lot different than California ones.

My friend (hi, Ruth!) gave us a lovely parting gift of a bag full of Florida avocados, which are all now ripe, so I'm feverishly looking for ways to use them up. I think I may just freeze a bunch for smoothies.

Yay, lights!

That evening we returned home to see the lights shining through the front door windows, which was great because I DO NOT handle heat well. Perhaps it's all the extra insulation in my caboose. That right there was extra motivation to "un-insulate" myself. 

Once the power was back, we were able to eat more normally, although my stash of frozen bananas for smoothies is now a solid blob of frozen goo. I think I may have to dump it.

I made it over to the gym yesterday and it felt GREAT to get on the bike and the treadmill, and heave some weights around. 

But yeah, cookies have been eaten. Like demolished. Like I skipped breakfast this morning because cookies. Like, do I have a picture of the cookies? No, because they're gone.

I found that it wasn't really the stress as much as the boredom that set off the Cookie Monster in me, because when the storm was really bearing down, food was the last thing on my mind. So next time (and, yeah, there'll be a next time) I'll make sure I have more things to offset the boredom.

And less insulation on my caboose.

I used to do a Weekend Wrap way back in the day at my Sun-Sentinel blog The Skinny (which still lives somewhere in the Internet and probably still racks up great pageviews for my former employer). 

So since newspapers still haven't figured out the Internet (yeesh) I figured I'd resurrect it over here, throwing in a mish-mash of things that aren't big enough for a full blog post.

Back to the Fitbit

I had been loving my Fitbit Force, despite the fact that it had been recalled. I wasn't having any problems with it and I'd been wearing it since the end of December.

And then ...

That rash started developing right under where the contact was. So I took it off and filled out the form to return it (boo hoo). I had a couple other fitness trackers in the house and I gave them the ol' college try but I really missed my Fitbit. I used one of my Dick's Sporting Goods $10 reward certificates and bought a Flex, along with some extra bands, because FUN!

Then I found something on Amazon that made the Flexes even more fun -- a set of "safety belts" and extra fasteners in a bunch of colors. (You can find 'em HERE.) You get five different color rings and seven fasteners, and they also throw in a few extra of each as a gift. 

Check that combo out -- I call it Old School Miami Dolphins.

While I wish I still had the time and my stats on my wrist, it Bluetooth-connects easily to my phone and my laptop so I can keep up pretty easily. And it still can buzz me awake.

'Do you even lift, bra?'

Yesterday, I and 16 other women (most of whom I know through FitBloggin') found out that we were in the inaugural group of Enell ambassadors. Cool!

I'm really looking forward to working with the company and ditching a couple of seriously worn-out "other brand" sports bras that threaten to explode every time I put them on. Last year at FitBloggin' I had an opportunity to try Enell's new Lite bra (at right), which is a little more flexible than its Sport bra. I don't do a lot of super high-impact sports so the Lite seems like it'd be perfect for my endeavors.

Wanna hear a funny/awful sports bra story? Back in high school, I decided I was going to take up jogging. As I slowly ran down the main drag (which, coincidentally is my current main drag), a car full of boys slowed down and yelled at me "BOING-BOING-BOING!" Yeah, I could have used an Enell back then.

Prolonged scale holiday

I'm testing out something for my pal, Diet Free Life developer Robert Ferguson, so I restarted his 3-Week Clean Start program this week, which means that I won't be stepping back on the scale 'til the end of the month. I'm trusting the process and hoping all goes well, but to make sure, I'm logging everything, even the 100 calories of seaweed snack that I'm crunching on while I finish this post (way too late). Did you know Costco has its own multipacks of roasted seaweed snacks? I love them -- perhaps it's because I'm a Pisces. 

Yeesh -- did that sound flaky or what?

Wait, did I say lots more?

Actually, I wanted to mention that my sister is starting her "Fed by Gail" meal-delivery plan next week. We decided we were going to start with lunches and I have five meals waiting in my freezer for her to pick up this weekend.

I also wanted to share a great way to enjoy hot dogs if you don't feel like spending your calories on a bun.

I've seen carrots in hot dog buns but I much prefer hot dogs in lettuce buns. Make sure you find good-sized romaine lettuce leaves -- then you can load 'em up with sauerkraut and other fixin's. These were Jennie-O's new Jalapeno-Jack uncured turkey dogs, so they didn't need a lot of fancying up. They're really good and 80 calories apiece. I had two with a side of french fries green beans.

So, that's it (now that it's Saturday!).