Losing It! An Urban Mom's Weight Loss Blog

Oh, I'm Losing It, All Right!

First things first: I lost 0.6 pounds last week, which puts me under 180 lbs, which is where I wanted to be. Well, if you want to get technical, I weigh 179.6 which would actually be 180 if you were rounding up, but I (and Weight Watchers, incidentally) am not, so there.

So, whew, that's just over 7 down, 15 more to go until I get to my goal. Yay, me!

But speaking of Losing It, can we talk about my daughter's eighth birthday party yesterday? I should tell you first off that it was a great success, in that all the kids had a great time. Yay, me!

I'd love to post some pictures of the party, but I seem to have lost! (OMG, NO!) my camera's USB cable. I have one that looks right, but just doesn't fit. And when I looked for a logo or brand name on it somewhere, all I found was "28AWG SPACE SHUTTLE" written all over it. Space Shuttle? Is it just me, or is that a weird phrase to find on a USB cable?

That being said, however: Oh. My. God. Fourteen kids for two-and-a-half hours is a GARGANTUAN undertaking. Now I know, I know -- I used to be a teacher. I regularly managed classes of 30+ kids with no trouble (or mostly no trouble, anyway). But put them in your home, add cake and juice and chips and string the letters P-A-R-T and Y together and it spells TROUBLE (well, we both know very well it spells 'party', but you know what I'm getting at).

Once the whole thing was over I literally collapsed into a chair and ate leftover Hallowe'en candy for dinner. Honestly, the Hubster and I were asleep - ASLEEP! - at 9:30 pm, and that's after switching back to standard time!

Oh, and you should know that we didn't even do the whole darn party. We had a magician for the first hour or so. Although even that was stressful because two of the guests were significantly (as in more than 30 minutes) late, so I asked the magician to wait a bit to start, but he was impatient to get going, so we started without 2 of the guests. So I had to keep listening for the doorbell and running off upstairs to collect the tardy ones. And one of the little tykes kept calling out after every trick the magician did, saying, "I know how you did that!" And even though she didn't, it still seemed to faze him a little bit, and he'd give this nervous giggle and everyone felt awkward. Personally I was silently rooting for him to retort, "you do? Well come on up here and show the other kids...I bet they'd love to learn how to do a magic trick!" But to his great credit he didn't, and in the end, I just put my hand on her head gently and said, "let's just watch the show and enjoy it," because I've known her since she was in diapers and I really do love this little girl, just not at that moment. No, not at that moment.

And then there were the games: freeze dance and soccer and four-kids-on-the-trampoline (yes, that dangerous game that kids love and orthopedic surgeons hate) and the noise, oh the noise, oh the noise, noise, noise, NOISE! (She says in her best Grinchy voice.) Another little girl whom I've known for years and whom I also dearly love, well, she was so darn loud that I nearly clamped my hand over her mouth. It's just that she wanted to talk to me all the time. She had to give me a running commentary on what all the other guests were doing, with frequent inquiries as to whether their specific activities were permitted or forbidden (forbidden; I think she secretly hoped). She also wanted to RUN THE PARTY. "Can I press the button for the music for freeze dance? Can I tie on the blindfolds and say go for the games? Can I tell the other kids when it's time for cake? Can I hand out the presents?" How about this kiddo: can you keep your mouth shut for more than a nanosecond? But of course, I didn't say that out loud, either. No I did not. I calmly breathed and doled her out some responsibility to let her know I heard her, and asked her, very nicely, not to scream please, because it might frighten the guinea pig.

And then my daughter -- paragon of ungratefulness as all eight-year olds are at their own birthday parties -- had to be forcibly reminded to thank her guests for coming and for their lovely gifts. Thirteen reminders to put the presents down now and say thank-you to your guest. Thirteen! You'd think she might have picked it up after the second or third or oh, let's say TENTH! reminder. Sheesh...talk about being a proud parent.

And you just know that one of the parents was 15 minutes late, and then the guest ran off and hid and the parents were all: 'hee hee, isn't that cute...she wants to stay' and I was all: 'get your f***ing kid out of my f***ing house now!' only I didn't say it out loud.

Oh! And then there was the guest who tried to walk out with one of my daughter's presents - the bat Webkinz, no less. That was a fun one!

And one of the moms congratulated me on having the party at our house, because she so dislikes how all birthday parties these days seem to be big events planned elsewhere. And I felt like such a freakin' hero. And I'm ready to put down a deposit on next year's party: anywhere but here!

Down 3.6!

Yeah Baby!

I might have gained 1.6 pounds during my spectacular Mediterranean Cruise, but last week I took off that 1.6 plus two more for good measure! I am down 3.6 pounds this week, which brings me to 180.2 - next weigh-in I will be back in the 170s fo sho!

Oh yeah, oh yeah...(excuse me while I indulge in a little happy-dance, here).

Yes, I am proud of myself. Yes, I am happy to be in a good weight-loss groove. And yes: as before, it seems almost effortless. But this time, I am more experienced. I am not taking anything for granted. I will not gloat. I will not rest on my laurels. I will be utterly, completely, undyingly grateful for every last tenth of a pound that I manage to get rid of.

That message was brought home to me (and Hubster, my silent partner in this journey) at our last Weight Watchers meeting. One of the newer members asked our leader what she could do to get out of a rut...of course the suggestions were what you would expect: are you still journaling? No? Well do that again. Are you eating all your points (including discretionary points)? No? Well make sure you do. Are you keeping active? No? Well get moving.

You get the idea.

The chorus of suggestions went on for so long that our leader finally had to cut it short and get on to the rest of the business of the meeting, but on the way home Hubby and I both agreed that the number one advantage the lady who asked the question had was this: she was still coming to meetings. I wanted so badly to put up my hand and say,

"Please...just keep coming to the meeting. Even if you gain a pound or three or even ten...just keep coming and remember that this is the one place where you won't be judged. You see, I lost 50 pounds once, but then I got stuck and had trouble losing any more. And that got me discouraged. And that caused me to gain some weight. And that got me embarrassed. And then I stopped coming to meetings. And now I'm here again, because I gained back nearly 30 of those hard fought-for 50 pounds. So whatever you do: don't stop coming to meetings."

So, my fellow Weight Watchers member: if you're out there anywhere, I hope you get to read this.

Okay, so...

I went to Weight Watchers this morning. For the first time in - oh - three weeks. Yeah.

During those missed weeks? Well, I traveled to Europe for 12 days, seven of which I spent on a CRUISE SHIP in the Mediterranean. And three days in Italy, home of amazing food and wine.

And I didn't track a damn bite, the whole time.

So...how'd I do?

I did gain weight. But not too much. Just 1.6 pounds.

So overall, I'm still down 2.8 (which is nice, I'd hate to think I threw out all that money, plus two weeks of hard work).

Final analysis? I'm happy with that. I'm back on program, journaling in my tracker and ready to lose those 1.6 (well, well-earned) pounds again.

In my absence, my hubby managed to keep losing, and he's down 16 pounds overall now. I'm so proud.

Yo-Yo, See-Saw...Call it What You Like: I'm Along for the Ride

If you've been following my progress for a while, you'll know that I originally lost fifty pounds. Then I sort of evened out, and found a good groove. Then, slowly, more and more came creeping back. Until I was back up to 188 and really needed to drop a good twenty pounds.

And so I re-joined Weight Watchers, and started to lose again.

And then I went to Europe for two weeks with my family. And gained back most of the weight I'd just spent several weeks losing.

So the Hubster and I re-re-(re?)-joined Weight Watchers, and week one went really quite well. Can I just say how impossibly EASIER it is to do this whole weight loss thing with someone else? Especially when that someone else is the person you live with and eat almost every meal with?

Well it is. So impossibly easier that it's basically impossible otherwise. In any event, yesterday was our first week weigh in, and we did well. Really well! I lost 4.4 pounds and Hubster lost 7.6 pounds. Of course, he is a man, and he exercised like a maniac all week long, whereas I just walked the kids to and from school and took two yoga classes. But hey, that's more my speed, anyway. And there you have it...I am down, now to 182.

And I'm very, very happy with my 4.4 lb loss. I hope to add another pound (at least) to that during this week but, heaven help me, I leave for a Mediterranean cruise on Friday morning.

I KNOW!!! How lucky am I? Let's tally up this, my year of European travel:

APRIL: a week, on my OWN! of pure, unadulterated by myself, all growed up FUN with my sis and her fiancé, super-hosts extraordinaire in London, England. With no husband and no kids I did exactly what I wanted. All day. Every day. Except the last day, when I boarded the plane to come home, instead of hiding under the bed in my sister's guest room and staying in England forever!

SEPTEMBER: two weeks of super-amazing-excellent family fun and daily learning opportunities in London, Tallinn and Helsinki. Not one of us was even nearly ready to come home when it was all over. No, not one little bit.

OCTOBER: 11 days of European traipsing, with a girlfriend, on a cruise ship. Here's the list of ports of call: Barcelona, Malta, Naples, Rome, Florence, Nice, Barcelona. Then we pop over to England for two more days before returning home.

CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT????

So, the only fly in the ointment is, of course, that cruises are notorious for being the absolute number one way to gain weight on a vacation. But here's the other thing: I don't want to spend my vacation counting points, either. I want to enjoy it, I want to experience it, I want to LIVE it. I want to try Spanish and Italian and French cuisine in their natural habitat, and I don't want to feel guilty about it. And the girlfriend that I'm going with just really, really needs a great, fun, carefree vacation, 'cause she's been having a hell of a year, and I plan to make sure she does. And saying 'no' to parmesan cheese is NOT a good way to be carefree. No it's not.

So, it's count, count, count and journal, journal, journal until Friday, and then we'll be drinking our way across the Atlantic Ocean, and hopefully the fine Spanish, Italian and French wine won't cause an adverse reaction with the Gravol (we're both notoriously seasick).

So look for more from me over the next two weeks as I say ¡Buen apetito!; Buon appetito! and Bon appétit! every day.

Long Weekend: Fat Weekend

We had a really nice family trip this long weekend. We drove up to Edmonton to stay with friends, and we managed to cram a whole bunch of really fun activities in. We visited a few new places on our way north from Calgary, checking out downtown Red Deer and stopping for a super-yummy ice cream at a quaint antique country store in Leduc. We spent hours browsing the stalls at the St. Albert Farmer's Market, and the kids picked up a few handmade treasures with their allowance. Also purchased were a dozen homemade cookies served out of rubbermaid bins - yum! We also took a bike ride, a trip on Edmonton's heritage trolley, a stroll down famous Whyte Ave in Edmonton's Old Strathcona district and stopped for mini-donuts at the gorgeous Old Strathcona Farmer's Market. What else? Oh, just a few hours at World Waterpark in West Edmonton Mall, a trip to the movies for mom & her bud (btw, Mama Mia was FAB) and more of the local cuisine in the form of Donair Pizza and Wok Box specialties like butter chicken, teriyaki chicken and wor wonton soup.

Do you see the theme? Food, food and more food. And that's not including the car snacks (chips, anyone?) Although I will give myself credit for ixnaying the timbits when the Hubster suggested coffee at Tim's (I grabbed two solo javas at Starbucks instead) and resisting McDonald's on the way home (the rest of the fam indulged, though).

But despite my two minor victories, all-in-all it was a gainer of a weekend, and I'm in major recovery mode now. So what's my weight-loss strategy between now and Weight Watchers weigh-in tomorrow evening at 5:00 pm? Two sessions on the proellixe (one down, one to go), some heavy-duty cardio (looks like an hour on the stationary bike) and a two-day Isagenix cleanse. The cleanse has worked before (to the tune of 5+ pounds) so I'm hangin' my hopes on that one!

Check back with me on Thursday to see if I manage to pull it off...at this point, I'll be happy not to gain as of Wednesday.

Oh, and huge props to my friend C (you know who you are) who hit her goal weight this week! Woohoo! You rock!