Marathon Mom

Weight: 158.6

Today is my one year anniversary at 3FC. I looked at my first post from a year ago. Weight: 157.4 — Awesome. Over the course of one year I’ve managed to gain 1.2 pounds. Maybe I should market this fabulous weight loss program! *snark snark*

My lowest weight was 144.4 and my highest was an unrecorded 170.2. Yeah, I just couldn’t stomach putting that on here, that I’d fallen so far off the wagon! And now, I’m basically right back to square one.

So, the questions is: do I feel like a failure?

And the surprising response is: no, I do not. Because I’ve managed to keep the  52 lbs off that I’d lost over the previous year. And that is success! So I’m not at goal weight yet, so what! I haven’t given up. And THAT is the measurement of success. My favorite quote (I know it as attributed to Jon Bon Jovi, he said it in a commencement speech a few years ago, but he may have been quoting someone else) “Success is falling down 9 times and getting up 10.”

And here I am, a year later, getting back up again, brushing myself off, standing strong and saying “BRING IT ON!”

I’ve created a new challenge page for myself, to keep me focused through the end of the year. It’s not super hard-core. Just like medium core. Stuff I SHOULD be doing, that I need to make a habit. If I do these things, the weight has to come off. It just does - that’s the law of physics (or at least Weight Watchers!)

There are 52 days left of 2009 (including today.) I’m going to make every minute of every hour of each day count!

UPDATE 8:07 PM

Today’s menu:

4 granny smith apples - 200 calories
1 fuji apple - 80
1 Eating Right Turkey, Broccoli & Cheese Stuffed Sandwich - 230
1 Eating Right (Lucerne/Safeway) Thincrust Bbq Chicken Pizza - 340
1 whole acorn squash - 172
6 cups airpopped popcorn, plain - 186

Total calories - 1208

Today’s Exercise:

43 minutes elliptical - 491 calories burned

Normally I’m a I LOVE MONDAY person. Start of a new week, kids are back to their schedules, I’m back to my schedule, everything is structured and organized. All the things I love. Only, today sorta sucked. And for no particular reason other than it’s the 12th and I have hardly gotten anything done at work that I wanted to have done by now. It’s January and I already feel behind. That is NOT what January is supposed to be about. So, I’m feeling a little half-empty-cupped right now. And I’m really a glass-half-full kinda girl. In other words, I feel off. I don’t feel myself. I hate that. I’m in a funk. So totally non-descriptive and yet totally accurate.

Foodwise I did good today. I’m over my daily calories by 133 according to The Daily Plate - but my daily calories are only1200, so I’m not all upset about it. However, I haven’t exercised today and I probably won’t. My quad is still hurting from dropping the dryer on it the other day. It’s sore. And not in a good way. Plus, the whole cold/sore throat thing that I’m clinging too. So I’m going to go home, yell at my kids to do their chores for a bit and then snuggle down in bed and watch some tv shows that I’ve recorded but haven’t gotten around to watching - like most of last week’s Oprah. I have a baby blanket to finish crocheting by Saturday and I’m nearly done. I’d LOVE to cross that off my 101 things to do in 1001 days list!! Then at least I’d feel like I was accomplishing something useful. We won’t mention the fact that this blanket was started a year ago, and originally attended as a Welcome New Baby gift. And now he’s going to be a year old. Nope, we’re not mentioning that one AT ALL!!

I’ve been doing a juice cleanse off and on for about three weeks now. I’ve dropped 9 pounds in that time, which is great. But I’ve totally f***ed up my metabolism. I knew that going in, but I was at a plateau and needed to break thru it no matter the cost. I was stuck in the 160s. Now I’m down to 157.4 as of this morning. That’s good. I guess. I haven’t managed to get thru the 150s. I was at my lowest, 150.8 the end of April. I was in a radio station weight loss contest. I came in 2nd. I’ll blog more about that at another time.

I would just LOVE LOVE LOVE to see the 140s before the end of the year. Who am I kidding? I want to see them before  Thanksgiving! But I’m TRYING to be realistic. At this point, losing 8 pounds in two weeks just isn’t doable. Not without more extreme dieting. And I’m too damn old to keep doing this to my body. I should just focus in on 2 pounds a week. That’s real. That’s doable. That’s what’s “recommended”. So why can’t I be happy with that? I mean, 2 pounds a week would have me in the lower 140s by New Year’s.  That would be awesome.

I should mention a little background here. Last year at this time, I was over 200 lbs. I think somewhere just under 210. I’d been a member of Weight Watchers for over 6 months and I remember the first meeting after Halloween, I weighed-in and was shocked (but not really surprised, not really) to see that my weight was a couple pounds higher than my starting weight. Yep, I’d gained during six months of WW. Not really workin’ the plan, was I? That was it, that kick in the butt I needed. I mean, how EMBARRASSING! By Christmas, I was in the 190s. And by the first weigh-in for the radio station contest February 1st, I was 186 full clothed and having had a HUGE breakfast to help boost my starting weight number (I weighed in 181 nakkid and starving on my scale that morning.) By April, I was down to 150.8 (again, nakkid and starving.) The official weigh in was 158, which I was NOT happy about. But I know what my scale said, and really, I was pretty happy.

My stats are: 5′2″ with very tiny bone structure. My goal weight is 115 and that’s really in the middle of my goal range. So I’ve got about 40 pounds to go. My heaviest was 220. Which means I’ve lost over 60 pounds in the last year and a half. I don’t work out as much as I should. And I don’t get that. Cause I don’t hate exercise. In fact, I love exercising WHILE I’m doing it. But getting myself to do it is a whole ‘nother story. I have a pretty strong lazy gene. Paired with my tendency to procrastinate and whoa nelly, it’s amazing I get anything done at all!!

But I’m committed to doing this. To FINISHING this once and for all!! I’m going to lose the last of this weight. And I’m going to do it the right way. There is no try, only do. (Thank you, Master Yoda!) Skywalker Ranch/ILM headquarters is just down the road, so I blame it on proximity!

As for me, I’m the single mom of 5 kids. My oldest is 17, my youngest is 4. I have 3 boys and 2 girls. Three of my kids are on the Autism spectrum and my 7 year old Sean has food allergies, asthma, eczema and currently a broken wrist.  He goes to a special day class for autistic children and really gives me a run for my money! Princess Skye is my 4 year old and about as high-maintenance as they get. She often wears tutus, feather boas, tiaras, earrings, lip gloss and sunglasses - all at once and just as part of her everyday wear. She takes her Princess title seriously. I mention them specifically cause they’re the ones you’ll hear about the most. Trust me!