Of Weight Watchers Updates and Punks

Weight Watchers
I lost 1 1/4 lbs. this week. It was a miracle. I didn't track. Which means I'm not making the best choices. Clearly my choices were not soooo bad but still I'm sure that I could have lost more. I have been tracking online at fatsecret.com. I won a 3 month journal once in a drawing at my WW meeting. I am wondering if I might do better tracking on pencil and paper. I am going to start doing that tomorrow since we will be going camping some over spring break and I won't have internet access. I also know that, depending on the weather, we might be leaving for the woods before my meeting next week. This might also cause a disturbance in the force. I would love it if I missed my meeting, went camping and still lost weight!!!! That is the goal. S'mores are mocking me. I can feel it.

Punks
I call my kids punks. I use it as a term of endearment and of frustration. I can be confusing when I'm raising little human beings. Other times too.

I said of Sassafras on facebook the other day, "I love that punk". A friend was all "what is up with this punk business" and I was like, "hello The Pioneer Woman." Link provided for any of you who have been in a cave (with my friend) and haven't heard me obsess over her blog or her cookbook and then been forced by excessive linkage to actual go to her site and see that she calls her kids punks. She also uses it as a term of endearment and frustration. I heart The Pioneer Woman. She has ignited my passion for cooking.

Anywho, the punks have been particularly adorable lately so I thought that I would share.

Fighter Pilot is seven and starting to get some chores around the house.. beyond keeping his space clean. He now takes the laundry down to the laundry room. The was something I often had both kids do at my convenience but am now officially make it FP's chore. On his first attempt he came up without the empty hampers. He informed me that he was leaving the "hamsters" downstairs for me to empty. I promptly told him that emptying and returning the hampers to there normal resting place is part of his "chore"...welcome to big boy land! Then Sexy and I *rolledonthefloorlaughing* because hampsters...I swear it was funny. Ok, maybe you had to be there. what.ever.

Sassafras was on the phone the other day planning her birthday party. She was on the phone for 30 minuets. The food list included: pizza, chips, ring pops, fun dip, cupcakes, popcorn, skittles, m and m's and an assortment of doughnuts! The activity list includes: wii, ice skating, swimming and watching movies. The guest list included 10 girls. There will be a pairing down. I assure you...but to hear her on the phone was so adorable. My favorite part was this exchange:

Accentia: You might as well plan your breakfast as well (this was before doughnuts was on the list).

Sassafras: Do I have too? (to her friend on the phone) No skittles are fine I was talking to my (wait for it...wait for it) MOM.

People who find out that I am the bonus mom and am called by my first name often tell me that they had no idea I wasn't the bio-mom because the kids both call me "mom" when referencing me. I never get to hear it. It was awesome!

Weight Watchers Wednesday

These post are sooooo much easier when I've lost weight! :) I lost 3.75 lbs this week...woo woo! Most of last week and this week I have been tracking, eating my fruits and veggies, and just generally making better decisions.

I am struggling with the fact that I backtracked so much in February. It makes me want to throw my hands in the air and give up. But I'm not going to. I'm going to stop berating myself for what I did wrong and focus on the present and what I am doing right. Right now I am focusing on getting back down to what I weighed on February 3rd when I made my 10% goal. I've got 12.5 lbs. to go.

For my next trick...

I will distract you from the fact that I am not going to post about Weight Watcher Wednesday (because after all that forgiving and moving on I never got back on track and missed last week due to illness and have now gained even more weight back...like I'm back to a weight I haven't seen since September) by telling you some a cute and funny story about one of my kids.

Fighter Pilot is seven. This was the first time he watched the winter Olympics. He loved them! One Saturday when Sexy was in the garage working on his boat (more post about that later I'm sure) and Sassafras was busy watching the same four shows they repeat on the Disney channel (stop judging me) FP and I were snuggled on the couch watching the winter Olympics. Whatever event we had been watching ended and they cut to the start of the men's 15K mass start biathlon. I don't even understand what I just said exactly but that is what the event was called. So there are all these men who are skiing on cross country skies and they have what appears to be rifles strapped to their backs. We watch for a minute and then FP had a question.

Fighter Pilot: How long do they ski before they can start shooting each other?

I laughed so hard it offended him. The ultimate Olympic sport...where the only one still alive is the winner!

Putting my punks to bed

Bedtime routine is my favorite part of the day. I love that Sassafras and Fighter Pilot are clean and snugly. I love reading to them and having them read to me.

The part that has been complicated lately is the teeth brushing. The kids bathroom in the new house is smaller than in the old house. It is really only holds one person at a time. Since moving we have staggered bedtimes to accommodate the need to have only one person in there at a time. (Also, because Sassafras was offended on a daily basis that she had the same bedtime at a 1st grader and the same bedtime she has had since kindergarten. Nine year olds are so silly!) Sometimes we get backed-up and they both end up in there at the same time.

It is almost always disastrous.


The other night Sassafras was brushing her teeth and Fighter Pilot needed to use the facilities before he got in bed. They were both in the bathroom. I was standing in front of FP's bedroom door waiting to tuck him in and turn out his light. I hear him flush and he came flying down the hall and about the time he gets to me Sassafras makes that sucking wind sound that you make when you just saw something truly terrifying.

Accentia: What? What is it? Are you ok?

Sassafras: Um I'm fine. The toothpaste just got flushed down the toilet.

Apparently, FP had left the counter top wet and slippery when he brushed his teeth, then he used the bathroom and flushed the commode. Next, as if by magic, Sassafras' arm slipped and hit the toothpaste causing it to fly into the toilet just as it was finishing flushing.

As I approached the bathroom I'm preparing myself to reach into the toilet to get the toothpaste. Not sure what I was saving it for because you know it was going straight.to.the.TRASH. But it wasn't in the toilet. Sass wasn't exaggerating when she said that it got flushed DOWN the toilet.

So it turns out a regular size Colgate kid's toothpaste tube goes straight through our plumbing...no worries.

"I'm a pothole"

Geico has this commercial where a pothole talks. The first time I heard it I thought...oh great another hack southern accent. Then someone actually said I sound like that commercial and I thought they were crazytown!

Since then I have been interrupted once in the middle of a story and once at the end of a story by someone saying "I'm a pothole". Completely different group of people and different story same response.

So, I guess I have a hack southern accent!

I am embracing it and can now do the commercial in its entirety. In case you've missed it here is a link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjMUfIKktWU

PSHAW

I gained 7.5 lbs in the past two weeks.  I am forgiving myself, putting it behind me and starting anew.

I intentionally ate out of control. I had a little whycan'tieatwhatiwantandjustbefatandhappy pity party. It didn't end well. Honestly, I knew because of work I would not be attending my Weight Watchers meeting last week. Turned out that the meeting got canceled on account of the treacherous weather anywho. I was going to cut myself some slack and indulge a little. One day turned into two...turned into a week turned into two. what.ev.er (Sexy prefers pshaw and I happily indulge)

So here I am. Basically having undone all the weight I lost since the new year.

I am forgiving myself, putting it behind me and starting anew.


For Valentine's Day, Sexy got me the most beautiful roses. They were 100 garden spray roses. Red, orange, yellow, pink, hot pink, and white. They smell wonderful. I love them. He is a wonderful husband and father. I wish he truly knew that because I feel like he questions it sometimes. Though I certainly have my share of days where I don't' feel like I'm a particularly good wife or mother...mine are probably undeserved as well. I got him a trailer dolly. Yes sir, nothing says I love you with all my heart and soul like a trailer dolly.

I am forgiving myself, putting it behind me and starting anew.

I didn't walk on my two week vacation for living a healthier life. I'm back on track though and still planning on walking a 5K with Middle Sister in March.

I am forgiving myself, putting it behind me and starting anew.

I love the Olympics. I love watching it with my kids. K.D. Lang did an awesome job with "Hallelujah" in the opening ceremonies. Sexy hates watching figure skating. I love making him.
Speaking of music this song spoke to me today. It is by a Christian artists named Katy Kinard. You can listen to it on her website: 

http://www.katykinard.com/icws202w3/index.cfm?ID=6D889660-57BE-4A46-914B2AECC2D52772

here

i've never given up so much for you/ i've never been quick to obey/ but this time i knew the voice was you/ and so i gave all i gave/ i’ve heard it said that when you’re needed most, sometimes it seems that you’re not there/ so it’s been hard to love the choice i chose when it seemed to me you’d all but disappeared (ch) but now you’re here just like the sun after the rain/ and now you’re here just like the calm after the waves/ and i don’t mean to sound surprised that you’d be near/ but yesterday i wasn’t sure/ praise God You’re here. i’ve heard that even in the eaglets’ nest, the mother watches when they fall/ and they would never learn to spread their wings if she came right as they called/ ...and so i'm falling in the open sky/ and it's been hard to even breathe/ i've been waiting for a Father's love to carry me/ to carry me (br) and like the years before i met you, you were still there/ ...though it took so long to see you, you were still there/ and you're still here

I am forgiving myself, putting it behind me and starting anew.

10% GOAL...Yes, I DID!!!

I have lost 29 lbs. I achieved my 10% goal this week and I am over the moon! I had some slip ups but I felt like I was going to lose. I didn't know that I was going to lose enough to achieve this milestone.

I have always heard that support is the key and I have to say that I believe that to be true. The Weight Watchers meetings have been very helpful and full of support. At first I honestly thought the meetings were kind of stupid and wasn't sure they were helping although I felt the weekly weight in (read: accountability) was helping. Then I realized that many of the behaviors I was changing were inspired by comments from our lead or other members.

It has also been very helpful that I have a very good friend who is doing WW and she is the one who inspired me to start. We go to the same weekly meeting and walk there together. She has done a phenomenal job with the WW program. She has listened to me moan and bitch and has helped me through those weeks and months where I wasn't losing. She always takes time to help me try and figure out what is causing me to slip up and come up with a plan to not let it keep happening. She is the person who got me to do the detox which I think was a big break through for me in my relationship with food. She is very ambitious and goal oriented...me...not so much. Having her there to help me and check in with me has made a HUGE difference.

My friends, family and co-workers have also been very helpful. I come back from my lunch WW meeting and announce what I lost...or gained as the case may be. They are always there with encouraging words no matter what my announcement is. My family often checks in with me on Wednesday afternoons to see how I did. They too always say the right things...even when I am beating myself up over a loss.

The key difference so far is that I am not giving up. When I have a bad day...or even a bad meal...I start over. I don't dwell. I'm trying to learn not to beat myself up over it. I am persevering. It is marvelous. I am thankful.

I am going to post my bio from my fatsecret.com account bio below which will give you some information about my struggle with my weight. I use it to help me track my points and for support. If you wanna be my buddy just holler and I'll email you my fatsecret name.

I am 33, married and a bonus mom to two children under 10. I am an attorney who luckily works a regular shift. I have struggled with my weight for what seems like my entire life. I was always round. I thought I was fat. I look back now at pictures from elementary school and realize I never was fat. In 7th and 8th grade I was a normal size but all my friends were size 2's or 0's so I was certain I was fat. Then somewhere along the way I actually got fat. By the time I graduated from high school I wore a size 18. I have not achieved any substantial weight loss in my life. I usually give up after a week or two if I don't see the result I want.

This time is different. I am in this for life. I am not dieting. I am learning to change habits and routines. I am using the Weight Watchers program to help me make these changes. I am going to get healthy and happy. My main goal is to get to a weight I feel healthy enough to have a baby. I'm not sure what that weight is yet but I'll let ya know!

Weight Loss Goals:

5% loss (14 lbs.): September 9, 2009
10% goal (28 lbs.): February 3, 2010
15% goal (42 lbs.):

Activity Goals:

I am currently walking. I started the Weight Watchers walking plan three weeks ago and I have been following it and often walking for longer than required. I am walking after work with my kids and dog. We are really enjoying it and I can already feel the difference!