I'm Dreaming of a White Halloween!

Welcome to the wacky weather of Pennsylvania!

For the first time since 1925, we have experienced a snowstorm in Eastern, PA, in OCTOBER. The last time this happened, our area was hit with 2.2 inches of snow. This time: 8 in my back yard. Just in case that wasn't enough to mess up Halloween plans, I would like to present you with 30 hours without power (and counting). Since the power went out at 3:00 pm on October 29, 2011, we have been given the following estimations of the time the power will be restored (in order accordance to the time we called):

• 10/29 - 7:15 PM


• 10/30 - 10:00 AM


• 10/29 - 10:30 PM (for the record, they were right on this one, except it only lasted for about 5 mins.)


• 10/30 - 3:00 PM


• 10/30 - 3:00 PM (given at 4:00 PM on 10/30)


• 10/31 - 3:00 PM
  

*sigh*

Here I am, just a few blocks from my house, in a hotel that jacked up their prices to take advantage of the town being without power. Did I mention that have two adorable little girls with me who are driving us UP A WALL????

My eldest, wants to play in the snow. You don't have to ask her, she'll tell you. TRUST ME, it's the only thing she can think of. The little one, Ms. Autistic-must-have-everything-just-the-way-it-always-is, is having issues. We are rather impressed at how she is handling things, but she hasn't slept in a LONG TIME.

Diet/Lifestyle news: Right, like there's any way to diet when you can't cook and are freezing, and stressed out the wazoo! Friends, I assure you that we went OUT for breakfast, had peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, and PIZZA with DORITOS for dinner. Oh, and hubs and I decided that the best way to save the ice cream in the freezer would be to eat it as it melts. So... yeah... not looking forward to the scale.

As for the child desperate to play in the snow???? She made a snow pumpkin -- with a little help from mom.

Weigh In

Weight: 255.4

Weekly Difference: -0.2
Total Difference: -1.6

Not bad for this week. I've had a full week of chocolate and other indulgences. It's hard to diet with all the Halloween candy floating around!! I also baked cupcakes for a party I threw for my knitting ladies. We always have a good time!

I'm very busy today with school and work... I hope to blog more tonight.

Stay Tuned!

Weigh In

Weight: 255.6

Weekly Difference: -1.4
Total Difference: -1.4

SMALL SUCCESS!

Reflection of the week:

I'm incredibly pleased with this progress. This past weekend found me throwing the diet to the dogs as I participated in a bachelorette party weekend! WOOT!
WHAT A WEEKEND!!! I have to tell you about a wonderful salon in Rehoboth Beach, DE called Bad Hair Day!!! First, I must ask, WHY DON'T WE HAVE ONE OF THOSE IN PA???? I am in love. Truly in love.

Should you ever make your way to Rehoboth for a day of pampering, you must go to Bad Hair Day (BHD) and get your hair washed. I know that sounds silly... but you need to do it.

SKYLAR!!!

Skylar is a young, attractive man who washes hair at BHD (one of many). First, he kicks your feet out like a lounge chair and squirts some lotion on your hands. In his sexiest voice he says, "Rub it in for me, dear." Commence melting into a puddle of goo on the floor. Skylar then wraps your hands with hot towels to allow the lotion to do it's work.

The next step is a simple hair wash followed by the same Skylar voice asking if you would like cucumber slices on your eyes. Over the cool cucumbers, he lays another hot towel over your eyes. At this point, I assumed I would simply relax for a few minutes for the cukes to do their magic... nay nay!!!

As you lay there enjoying the sensations in your eyes, you feel two strong hands beginning to massage your temples. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... Then, Skylar gives the best head massage you could ever image. I'm talking about a curled toes experience!!!

Sadly, it all comes to an end eventually, when he rinses your scalp, removes the towel and cucumbers, and gently cleans your hands. He then walks you to your stylist and brings you a tasty drink (in my case, wine).

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.......

In our group of 5, 4 of us enjoyed Skylar's attentive skills on our heads. We decided collectively that he needed to come home with us. We can rotate him among us so that every 5 days we will have him to wash our hair. He can live in the closet... I'm sure he doesn't eat much! I regret that I didn't get his picture for the blog!!!!

The night that followed our salon experience was a night of reckless eating, drinking, and dancing. I'd like to believe that I danced enough to work off the bad food, but the scale doesn't reflect what I had hoped. We had a great time celebrating the end of being single with our dearest friend, Duckie (a nickname, of course). Bless her, she had a blasty blast!!!!

Stress Eating

Yep... I'm a stress eater. I've known that for a while now. The question is how to combat it. Last night, as is normal for most nights, I put the children to bed and went straight to the fridge. I honestly don't even remember what I ate. (mental note: start logging food intake)

Here's my typical day.....

Butt crack of dawn:

1. Wake up to child climbing in bed with me and chattering about everything under the sun.


2. Get up.


3. Feed children.


4. While they eat, dress myself.


5. Clean and dress children


6. Wake husband (not an easy task)


7. Pry children off of legs while I attempt to leave for work.

At work:

1. Answer the phone and deal with unhappy, screaming person who has lost money in the stock market.


2. Repeat step 1 for the next 8 hours.

Returning home:

1. Greet children at the door.


2. Send husband to bed.


3. Feed children (note: feeding children rarely includes feeding self)


4. Break up fights between children.


5. Follow the bedtime routine to the letter in attempt to not disrupt the delicate nature of my autistic daughter.


6. Wake husband to go to work.


7. Repeat step 6 about 5 times.


8. Put eldest child back in bed.


9. Repeat step 8 about 3 times.


10. Kiss husband goodbye.


11. RAID FRIDGE.

The last few hours of the day are spent doing homework for my graduate level classes, laundry, light clean up, and squeezing in some valuable knitting/TV time. I'm very fortunate that my dearest husband does most of the cleaning while he is home during the day. He's a very good man.

Now... remind me again why I'm stressed? Better yet, give me an idea as to how to NOT eat when stressed? I've avoided a lot of the stress eating by picking up a fiber project when I get the urge to chow down, but it doesn't always work. It's too easy to knit one, purl two , pop a few candy corns, knit one, purl two, etc.

This is my day to day life. I've got to find a better way to fight the stress. Any ideas?

Success and Failure

What exactly measures a success? What is a failure?



Yesterday's perceived successes: Yogurt for breakfast, Salad in the afternoon, Weight Watchers meal for dinner.



Yesterday's perceived failures: Mindless and random attack of candy corn, raspberry shortbread cookies (yes, as good as it sounds), and lack of exercise.



These successes and failures are perceived because I'm not sure how good or bad they were. Yogurt, salad, and diet food are clear enough, but should I be concerned about how much dressing I used or carb contents? Candy and cookies - ok, definitively bad, but I caught myself with the candy corn just as the second piece touched my tongue and thought, "What am I doing?" The cookie... well... they're just really good and my kids and hubs don't like them. What else can I do?



In earlier diet attempts, the key to success was in keeping contraband (sweets, high fat, high carb, etc.) out of the house. With kids, I don't have that luxury. I'm going to have to test my inner strength even more.





On a lighter note: I decided to research Christian weight loss programs. I thought that perhaps the answers could be found in the Bible, since it is God's life lesson book! Every plan I found online bore the same message -- You are a SINNER for being FAT because you are a GLUTTON. One website indicated that the bulk of women in a church family are overweight because the church is the only entity that will accept them as they are. The ideas behind these "plans" involve massive amounts of Christian guilt, fire and brimstone, and the fury of the Father. One book was titled, "You're a big FAT sinner and it's time somebody told you the truth."



I believe that God is patient, kind, loving, and above all, forgiving. I don't know that the BIG FAT SINNER approach is going to be effective for me.

Since I have determined that there is a psychological reason for my obesity that needs to be cured, I have decided to give it to God. Who else can heal the spirit and psyche? I'm not going to follow the GUILT approach, but I am going to pray. A lot.

Can I get an AMEN from the choir??!??

Week 1: Weigh In

Weight: 257

I decided to start today because my dear husband and I wanted to enjoy a nice, fancy, expensive dinner for our 9th anniversary. We went to Emeril's Chop House. Can I tell you that it was the BEST pork chop I've EVER eaten? I also learned that the "new standard" for pork is 145 degrees, or cooked "medium." Yeah. It was amazingly good. Along side of it was a dish called Butter Whipped Potatoes. Imagine making mashed potatoes without milk and 4 times the butter. They were YELLOW. They were GOOOOOD! In all, the meal was so good that there was no room for dessert, which is a good thing.

I'm starting the day right with pineapple greek yogurt for breakfast. I love this stuff! I took the day off of work to spend with the family. I see a carved pumpkin in my future!

Friends, I'm really going to need your support now as my lifestyle changes take place. No more DIETING for me. I need to make a life altering change and it all starts now. Please feel free to comment and ask me HARD questions as I follow the journey. Remember, I'm not even considering surgery as an option, so don't suggest it. Scares the willies out of me!

A Good (?) Start

On Wednesday, as I was driving home from work, the muffler fell off of my husband's car. I pulled into a parking log, looked at it, and contemplated what to do next. I opened the trunk and found a set of jumper cables (not so helpful) and a pair of child's dress up butterfly wings. I grabbed the wings, ripped the fabric and extracted the wires. Then, I did something I NEVER in my life thought I would do. I got down on the ground, on my back, and scooted under the car. I used the wire to tie the muffler to some metal thingie under there that looked like it was made for the sole purpose of tying a wire that is holding up a muffler! I felt incredibly empowered.

This morning, 5 AM, Jeff came home and huffed into bed. He was breathing heavily, wiggling around, and basically trying to wake me without coming out and saying so! I asked what was up and he told me that he blew out a tire on my car and ran off the road. He's fine. The car needs a new tire, but is otherwise fine.

Grand.

So, getting his car to Midas for a muffler fix up now had a drop of hiccup. No worries, the girl on the phone when I made the appointment said they had a loaner. No Problem. Right?

She lied. No loaner.

I walked home. It's not THAT far. It only took me 20 minutes. I think anyone else could have done it in less, but I turned my ankle on Wednesday (for the umpteenth time) and haven't been walking well because of it. On top of that, the limp made my back hurt like mad.

At the half way point between Midas and our house is a McDonald's. I was jonesing for a pumpkin spice cappuccino and decided to stop in. I was tired, in pain, cranky, needed coffee, needed a little rest for my back, and REALLY wanted an Egg McMuffin. I walked in, looked at the coffee menu, determined there was no pumpkin spice (depressing) and started to review the breakfast menu. Wait a second!!! Just because the diet starts MONDAY doesn't mean that I should blow it all out of the water today!!! I turned around and walked out.

It's a little start, but I managed to get in some exercise and won a fight against junk food all at the same time. I'll call it a win, for now.

When I got home, Jeff and sweet little Ava were in full meltdown mode. Erin was telling me all the dirty details of how it was all Ava's fault. I told her that it's no one's fault and grabbed a yogurt from the fridge. I sent the man back to bed and calmed the "baby" (yeah, she's 3, but she'll always be my baby).

Dang it... I still need a pumpkin spice cappuccino!!!!!

Let the Games Begin!

Welcome to Customer Service Week 2011. As a part of the never ending challenge of keeping the morale up at work, the bosses decided to hold a raffle - no purchase required - to give away countless items with the company logo on them.

I won! Ok... just about everyone won SOMETHING. Pens, golf balls, shirts, hats, tote bags, organizers, notepads, and one special person got an ipod touch... I won a shirt. Size XL.

When a co-worker asked what I won, I responded, "A shirt that would only fit me if I dropped a hundred pounds."

He replied, "There's your incentive!"

My manager approached me and offered to get me a different prize because she knew the shirt wouldn't fit. In a matter of 5 minutes, it felt like my entire department knew exactly how fat I am. I sat and stared at my computer, trying to look busy, as I mentally fought away the tears that wanted to come.

There it is folks... the straw that broke the camel's back.

I've been called a professional dieter by family members. I always seem to be doing one thing or another. I've tried every fad diet that came around the corner: Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers, Hoodia, Slim Quick, Slim Fast, Low Carb, No Carb, Acai Berry suppliment, water pills, Dexatrim, Pregnancy (yes, I lost weight while pregnant).... the list goes on and on.

The one thing these all have in common is that none of them worked. Why? Each diet plan has it's own benefit, but it isn't my eating and exercise habits that need to change alone... there's something going on in my heart and head. I need to fix the underlying problems that led to my obesity in the first place. Sure, I could go get my stomach stapled, but that won't fix the problem. I've seen too many people who have taken the weight off only to put it back on again.

I need to fix my brain.

I'm inviting you on the journey as I attempt to fix what has been broken. Once I do that, I'll be on the road to healthy living.

Will you join me??