The roadbumps of life

Today I was given quite the bump. It's too much to write out all here, but if you're interested, I posted a thread about it on the WeightWatchers.ca forums. The thread is a little backwards because of a glitch in the forum software; it starts on the fifth post down.

It's exhausting to think about it much more but I am feeling better. Whenever someone says there is no support on the forums, I just grit my teeth. Though there are some bad apples, the majority are wonderful and caring people. They all came through for me and there's no words to describe how grateful I am.

Thankfully, I don't feel like drowning my stress with bad food. In fact, it was indirectly because of all this that I made the decision to lose weight way back when. I needed something to focus on. It amazes me sometimes that there's a bright side to everything and that some things happen for a reason.

Let me in

I'm really tired today. I didn't have a good sleep last night. It seemed like every hour my kitty would paw me in the face to be let in under the covers. He'd snuggle in for half an hour, then decide it was time to do kitty jobs around the house (drink, eat, chase his sister, get in trouble). But after all his jobs were done, he'd be right back. *paw*paw*paw* until I let him in. Rinse and repeat for the whole night! Usually he isn't that needy. But how can I be mad at him? He's soft and he snuggles in the crook of my arm and purrs like I'm the best momcat in the world.

My heart rate monitor isn't in yet either. I know I could go to any number of stores in town and settle for the man's version or a pink woman's version, but darn it, I want the green one!

I'm still reading You on a Diet. There's a few things in it that I'm trying. For example, they say you should walk 30 minutes a day, even if you happen to do other exercise. They also say no eating after 8:30. They don't actually say why you shouldn't eat after that time, but what the heck. It can't hurt and I've heard other people say the same thing. If anyone is interested, they have a "99-second edition" of their book online. It's not very well named though. It's more like the quick version of their diet/lifestyle plan.

Anyways, I'm falling asleep at the keyboard now and it's only mid-afternoon. Time to make some green tea!

The boy is the one with his head on the top. His sister is on the bottom and she likes to pester love my husband more.

If you can hold on...hold on

Yesterday was the last day of my beginner's spinning class. I'm already missing it! Which is a strange thing to say considering we did a full hour of spinning which was really tough at times. But the tunes were good and I dug in and found it within myself to keep going during the 80% tension portions, hehe.

Speaking of tunes, the song I've posted above was one that our instructor played. Aside from a very good biking song, I really like the lyrics. Especially the part that says "If you can hold on...hold on." Now I know this song is about something entirely different, but I like the meaning of that phrase. It applies to many things in my life. Weight loss for certain, and my battle with depression, too.

Holding on is hard. But you know what? The very act of holding on is sometimes the only thing preventing us from letting go.

Progress Pictures: One year later

Though I'm not much further down since the last time I posted a progress picture, I felt like I needed the boost just to see just how far I've come in a year. And how far I've come!

The one on the left is me at around 204lbs, a month before I joined Weight Watchers. The one on the right is me today.



I didn't know I had a double chin. Fortunately, I lost it and gained something else...a jawbone. Ha!

Fifty-second Weigh-in

It seems rather anticlimactic to post this particular weigh-in. I stayed the same this week. But you know what? I'm okay about it. I kicked up the exercise like crazy and I know the loss will eventually happen. As a very wise WeightWatchers.ca member said to me, "Just know it will break. If you stay on plan. It won't ever break if you don't." Thanks Amazon. I big puffy heart you!

And thanks everyone for your well-wishes on my one-year anniversary. I couldn't have made it this far without you! Next up...progress pics!

Happy Anniversary

Can you believe it? It was a year ago today that I walked into my local Weight Watchers and said "I gotta lose me some weight!"

In that time I've come a long way. It's also hard to believe how quickly the time went. I remember when I was bugging out after only two months and thinking a year sounded like an eternity! But here I am, hopefully a bit wiser, and most definitely lighter.

Here are some of my favourite moments from the year past:

• Feb 16 – I start to think exercise doesn't suck
  
• Mar 13 – I eat all my veggies before dinner
• Apr 29 – I walk a 10k and don't die
• May 26 – I achieve my 10% goal
• Jun 19 – Old tight clothes are fitting again
• Jul 5 – I update my look and start to think I'm not half bad
• Aug 1 – I no longer have to shop at plus-size stores
• Sep 7 – I donate 28lbs of baggy clothing and go fall shopping
• Oct 8 – I walk a half-marathon and don't die
• Nov 22 – I discover cheese is only 1pt more on a Subway sub
• Dec 1 – I get my 50lb charm
• Jan 10 – My Curves report says I've lost 47.25" since Mar 07

Lastly, a special thanks goes out to you, my readers, who've suffered through my long-winded posts, supported me when I was down, and gave me high-fives when I succeeded.

Here's to continued success for one and all. If I can make it this far, anyone can :)

Me on a Diet Book

So yesterday I finally bought You on a Diet and spent all evening on the couch, in the bedroom, and yes, even in the washroom reading it. It's a very interesting and enlightening book and I'm wondering why I didn't buy it sooner. In a nutshell, it tells you in simple terms the science of hunger and digestion and what goes wrong when you fill your body with crap.

The book is written in a very accessible style. It uses funny metaphors instead of jargon to explain how the body works. I can see how some people might be put off by this style, but I prefer it to techno-babble. I laughed more than a few times!

The only thing so far that I don't like about it is their occasional referrals to you, as the reader. It's hard to explain it, but it's almost a little rude and condescending. I think they were just trying to be funny in a "we're laughing with you, not at you" sort of way. Fortunately, it doesn't happen too often and the rest of the info is more than worth it.

I'm not even a quarter of the way through the book and there were so many lightbulb moments that I've lost track. The biggest thing (no pun intended) I learned is why many health professionals are saying that we should be more concerned with our waist size than our BMI. Part of it has to do with this thing called an omentum that we all have.

Omentum is belly fat and it literally hangs off our stomachs. The bigger it is, the more dangerous to your health it is and the more problems it causes. Take it from me, after seeing their diagram in the book, I'm completely grossed out by the thought of how big my omentum was and how it's still too big.

If you want to know what a normal omentum looks like compared to a big omentum, try the following link (WARNING: GROSS, GRAPHIC, AND TMI, don't say I didn't warn you), courtesy of Oprah. If that isn't an incentive to not to fill your body with crap, I don't know what is. Yuck, yuck, and more yuck.

There's much more to the book than our omentums though. It also talks about inflammation due to poor eating, how our small intestines are like a second brain, the work our poor liver has to go through, and much much more. Presumably the book will also go into what we can do to retrain our eating habits, what to eat, how to exercise and so on. I haven't gotten there yet, so I'm only going by the table of contents.

There's also a diet plan in the back of the book. When I get to that section, I'll see how it meshes with Weight Watchers. I'm hoping it'll give me a better idea of nutrition. I think I'm doing pretty okay with it so far, but I know I can do better. Fortunately, any cravings I've had for 100-calorie packs are entirely squooshed...for now ;)

So far, two thumbs up. I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars if I were reviewing it on Amazon.