Funny For the Day

Alex, my 13 year old son, is a riot. He has his Dad's sense of humor. Dry, witty, and comes out of nowhere to pull you up short. It gets him in trouble at school at least once a week. But I have one dig in particular that really gave me a laugh.

I've been eating so much fiber that I'm actually competing with the males in my household for farting records lately. The sugar free weight watchers candy isn't helping my musical backside much either. So I tooted (I thought it was going to be a quiet one. NOT)a bit during homework hour. Alex looked over at me, grinned, and said:

"Dang! No wonder your butt looks smaller!"

The last day of January

Hooray! I'm officially a Lifetime member of Weight Watchers. My meeting felt so good. Granted, I only had 27 pounds to lose. But I couldn't shift it myself. I tried - walking and riding my bike every day, eating a salad for lunch and limiting calories per day. The result of this torture? I gained and lost the same 5 pounds over and over for 3 months. I was so discouraged and angry at myself!

Knowing what I know now, my failure lay in portion control. I simply ate too much at one sitting. Then I'd hop on the scale, get frustrated, and take everyone to McDonalds for dinner. Okay, so my failure also lay in the fact that I love cheeseburgers. :p

Not until I sat in on my very first weight watchers meeting did I put it all together. My true "duh" moment came when the leader showed us newbies how to estimate portion sizes using our hands. A teaspoon and 3 ounces look so very small. Especially when you are hungry. Or you use one of my enormous plates every single meal. Little lunch size plates (I bought a huge supply of paper ones) have been a great visual tool. That way my brain doesn't yell "QUIT DEPRIVING ME" when I'm dishing up my meal.

And these were the first tiny steps into my weight loss process. I know it's not over and that's why I'm writing. But 27 pounds lighter and wiser feels great.

Day 1 - A Fresh Start

I sound so trite . . . like "today is the first day of the rest of your life." But it fits, so what the heck?

At 4pm this afternoon, I'll be on the scale in my weight watcher's meeting. Today is the 6th week of maintenance for me. Down 27 pounds from my original WW starting weight of 170. A total loss of 33 pounds.

I've always weighed around 140, (I'm 5'7") and was very happy with the way I looked and felt. I gained a few pounds about 7 or 8 years ago which came off easily with a few salads and some bike riding. And a brief foray into a "no-carb" diet plan.

But (as my fantastic but too honest nurse practitioner pointed out) I'm into my 30's now and the weight doesn't come off easy any more. That's for sure!

When I started the whole weight watchers process in July I was just looking for something solid to start with. A set plan that I could follow without too much thinking on my part. I was tired, depressed, and very discouraged with myself. I'd had a miscarriage the previous year, wound up on antidepressants, and gained weight without really caring. As my body recovered, I realized that I didn't like myself any more. And I weighed a good 30 pounds more than I wanted to.

Those thirty extra pounds are behind me now. (Bye, guys!) And so are the meds. (Bye, girls!) My psych specialist and I worked together to wean off of them. So now I have to walk a very thin line with maintaining my weight loss and my sanity without turning mindlessly to food for comfort.

It's been a journey for sure, a growing (and shrinking) process. Now I just have to maintain it. Easy to say and hard to do. So here are my goals for blogging regularly now: to be accountable for my actions because I have to post the bad and the good, to regain some of my lost sense of humor, and to never look like my "before" picture again. Wish me luck!