Round

I know you’ve probably heard the expression “Springtime in Paris” but unless you’ve been here during that time you may not know how absolutely glorious it can be. It’s hard to imagine a better environment to go for a walk, get some exercise & generally enjoy healthy living!

My seventh year in Paris

I’ve lived in France for over 6 years now. I spent a year going around town in a daze of falling in love with the city, then my second year here I spent a year in a daze of falling in love with my husband. The third year I gave up my expatriate status to go local when we got engaged. The fourth year we got married. The fifth year we were happy newlyweds, but in the infertility saga. Last year I had a really hard year (endometrial cancer, hysterectomy) and this year I’m really enjoying Paris again. (And now walking for exercise in Paris again).

Lots to love

There are lots of things I like about living here - we have great cultural events available all the time, the architecture is stunning & the food is generally really good. It’s an easy city to get around in (great public transportation, and it’s a compact city too). Even if you take a taxi or car, there is always walking involved. It might be 5 or 10 minutes, not real exercise walking, but walking it is. When I’m out and about & see women in heels I don’t know how they do it.

Springtime in Paris

Spring in Paris is particularly magical because of all the blooming trees and other flowering plants. The weather is mild (in between days of rain to keep it all lush & growing). People are out in parks in droves (makes you wonder why they’re not at work or in school, in fact). Don’t get me wrong - the city is beautiful all year, but it’s particularly nice this time of year - the trees are no longer naked, there are still blooms everywhere & the weather is warm enough that just a sweater will do. In the summer it will be very hot, in the fall it will rain more, and winter can be gray & some days very cold. Right now it’s perfect. Especially for walking for exercise, because the weather makes it very comfortable, even if you go at a good clip.

Exploring Paris on foot

Exercise or not, the best way to see the city is walking. It seems like every building has neat architectural details. There are lots of small parks, benches, trees. Historical plaques on buildings explaining someone was born, died or had some kind of a major Historical Event every where you turn. Walking, you see all of this up close. You have time to see a building from different angles as you walk by. You can stop and look up at an interesting detail, or to read the plaque explaining what happened here (of course, if you do this too much you’ll lose some of the exercise benefits…).

Getting back to exercise

Since a lucky confluence of events have transpired (no travel this week, great weather, willingness to exercise) I’ve decided to spend as much time as I can exploring Paris on foot. Walking in a city is a good first step for training for hiking this summer. Sunday & yesterday I walked in a local park for 45 minutes each day. Today I organized myself to run several errands halfway across town on foot - walked there & figured I’d either have the stamina to walk back or I’d decide to get home another way.

It was a Glorious day. Birds singing, blue skies, bubbly clouds, warm enough that walking at a good pace I took off my jacket & carried it with me. Listening to audiobooks on my iPhone. Passing through beautiful parks, watching kids play, old people chatting & even a few old men playing chess! Certainly a good way to be Enjoying the Process of healthy living & exercise! In the end I upped the exercise quotient up even more, and walked home too.

Picture this

I’m going to try to take a picture of something wonderful I appreciate on each of my walks.

Here’s for today :

Cool fountain

Detail of the horses (yes, that’s a turtle spitting water!)

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Spring Focus Update

My own check-in

1. Eat Healthy : no problem there. Had Korean for dinner which had lots of sodium & meat that I think was marinated in sugar & soy & it puffed me up so…
2. Weigh In : 193 which is up one (see above!)
3. Exercise : went for a 45 min walk

Group Update

Group weekly check in : I decided to give another day to report on last week to the stragglers (although from next week on I will report group results on Tuesdays, and add any latecomers to the following week’s tally).

Interested in a way to help you Focus on being healthy & losing some weight by July 4th? You can still join us here - we’re not very picky about when people join, we want everyone who needs accountability & a little motivation to jump in!

How did the week go?

I’m really pleased to have gotten through a solid week of being on-track.   I set my goals very small last week because just “jumping back in” had failed twice since I’d come back from the States. So last Monday I made a plan only through Wednesday, and then planned again Thursday approach to get through the weekend. Both worked out well & this week I can confidently commit to another week.  That’s the success of the babysteps approach - very small achievable goals that build on success.

Weigh-In

Down two pounds to 192.  That 189 goal is in sight now

Last week I had 3 goals :

1) Eat healthy but not write things down :  DONE. This approach worked well, as did the addition on Thursday to record & report transgressions, so I’m pulling that forward.  

2) Drink at least 10 glasses of water or herbal tea. DONE. This was an easy way to get an Achievable Goal on the list.  It was also a way to direct my attentions to something other than eating & deprivation - I love teas and most days I made at least 2 big pots of herbal teas to drink - which was a pleasure.  I don’t usually need to focus on being well-hydrated, it’s pretty second-nature, but when I’m off track, focusing on it can be a good babystep to get me back in the game.

3) Weigh in Daily. DONE. I did this to up the attention factor and not let myself lose track of where I am.  Still, I got a little freaked out on the days when the scale jumped up for no apparent reason, and while I’m willing to keep this focus a little while longer I suspect I’ll ditch daily weighing pretty soon.

The Coming Week : Challenges, solutions & focus opportunities :

• Now that I’m back on track, I’m going back to my weekly planning routine.  So looking at the specifics of what this week holds.
• I was expecting to be on the road all week but late last week the trip got canceled so I’m home (yeah!).  This weekend is another long weekend & we’re going to our summer place in the South of France with a friend.  It’s our place so I should be able to mainly find foods that suit me, but I’m sure there will be challenges along the way - there always are!
• Since I think this ‘back on track’ thing is still pretty fragile I’m being careful to slowly ramp up my goals, so only one is going to change this week.

Goals for this week :

1) Eat healthy but not write things down.  Report all deviations in the blog.

2) Weigh in daily.

3) Exercise three times this week. Yes, I’m ready to go back to exercise!  I’ve actually missed it a lot & yesterday writing my goals & realizing that the biggest goal is around being fit for our summer vacation in Alaska meant that this goal has to get moving.  I actually started exercising last week without it being a goal, so I’m comfortable I can do this. Mainly I want to be walking - Springtime in Paris is magical & as long as it’s not raining it should be fun.  I’ll probably also go to the gym (elliptical) at least once.

What’s your plan for the week?

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Spring Focus Announcements :

As mentioned above, it’s not to late for you to join (someone else joined yesterday) - just comment here.

Weekly Success Tracking (more than weight by popular demand) will be collected on today via a form which I will email you.  If you don’t receive it please check your spam filters & then leave me a comment.

Disclaimer : This form is an experiment so if it doesn’t work we’ll figure out something else.

Your Weekly Goals : let’s have everyone keep their WEEKLY goals on their own blog.  I posted yesterday about the overarching goals we each have for Spring Focus (if you don’t see yours, leave a comment!).

We are growing as a Spring Focus group, and that’s great!

There are now over 20 of us, and we’re committed to staying focused until July 4th (and beyond, of course). You’re welcome to join - we’ve had people joining every day so don’t feel like you missed out - just leave a comment here.

My own Spring Focus Goals

1) Get in shape to go hiking this summer

We are going to Alaska & I want to be able to happily hike in the Yukon wilderness.  I feel really out of shape right now, so my number one goal is to remedy that.

2) Be back on track with healthy living to stay the course during vacation

I was recently in the US for 3 weeks & went completely crazy & gained quite a bit.  I don’t want to do that again with the vacation this summer.  So the good habits have to be super-solid & I’ll need a realistic plan to manage our summer vacation.

3) Get the weight loss going again

I’m always a slow loser (and a quick gainer) and I emphatically don’t believe in time-based weight goals for myself.  I do, however, believe in setting lots of small goals & celebrating each and every pound.  My next milestone is 189 (out of the 190s) and then it will be 183.  I’m pretty sure I’ll make the first goal during the time of Spring Focus, and hope to get a good distance towards the second as well.

Spring Focus Goals from the group

I’m trying to summarize the goals here & link to a post that talks about them.  If I missed yours (it’s possible!) please let me know in the comments & I’ll fix it.

• Karen@WaistingTime is Focusing on Not overeating in the evenings
• Audri@FlipFlopMama has a goal Goal within 1400 calories a day unless she gets in more than an hour workout, plus she plans to get below 175
• Iniya@SongoftheRoad has a great list of goals for the first 3 weeks - water, sleep, dairy, carb, planned meals, working out, de-stressing & blogging daily!  Wow!
• DietBuddyDaily has a lot of great goals too - planning, tracking, exercising, blogging & not overdoing it with weekends & wine!
• Siobhan@MyLiveLoveLaughLife wants to lose 5 pounds
• Deanna@Cleaner,Meaner&Greener wants lose 10 lbs, eat out less, drink more water
• Anna@AdiosFatPants has just completed a marathon(!) and now is focusing on moving back to regular exercise routine and controlling her sugar intake
• Billie@FatAsMud’s goals are to establish an exercise habit and reach 193 lbs
• Brandie@It’sAllUpToMe is working on eating ONLY for hunger, and also plans to lose some weight
• Vladdie@IShallNotWant is focusing on getting more exercise, and hopes to reach 240
• Maryann@TheFinalCountdown is focused on not eating after dinner, and on not letting 1 bad decision snow ball into a bad weekend, as well as running at least 5 times a week
• Tish@IncrementalImprovements is working on losing 12 pounds during the Spring Focus period
• lackielack@ShowMeTheArmy! has set her sights on drinking water, hitting the trail & using her points
• Tiffany@MarathonMom has a goal to stick to her 100% Raw Vegan Diet

As you can see, a number of people are currently missing, but hopefully you’ll comment to let us know (and then I’ll edit it in)
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My Spring Focus Update

1) Eat healthy : on target, and feels like settling in.  Even adapted (downsized) dinner because I realized I wasn’t very hungry after a big lunch.  My husband & stepson were thrilled because they made pasta (which I never make for dinner) while I had something else.

2) Water : ok

3) Daily weigh in : 193

Extra : walking to several errands around town - it was a beautiful day & it was a real pleasure

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Spring Focus Announcements :

As mentioned above, it’s not to late for you to join (someone else joined yesterday) - just comment here.

Weight tracking will be collected on tomorrow via a form which I will email you.  I had hoped to post a link but it wants to embed it, so I’ll have to email the form instead.  Disclaimer : This is an experiment so if it doesn’t work we’ll figure out something else.

Just a quick update today - I don’t want to spend too long on the computer.

Springtime in Paris

It’s a beautiful Saturday in Paris & we had a nice lunch at a restaurant that has a wonderful greenhouse roof

And a walk home under the blooming trees

Still smiling

I was more than a little nervous waiting for the call from my mom from yesterday’s ultrasound with the gestational carrier / surrogate (my infertility saga is here).  My husband organized well for us to go out to dinner then to watch Pulp Fiction to keep me distracted.  Still, 45 minutes before the appointment I got into the chocolate, but not too much damage.

Finally my mom called from the doctors office with the words we were hoping for - “congratulations”.  I don’t have all the details - it was quite late here in Paris & my mom & the carrier were still at the doctors office, but I know there is a heartbeat, I know it’s one baby.  We were very relieved, and very happy.

The next few weeks of course still hold a relatively high risk of miscarriage - so those keeping us in your thoughts, prayers or crossed fingers please continue to do so.

My Spring Focus Update

It seems rather insignificant to think about my weight in the context of this big news, but I’m still doing well.  The fact that I made a plan adapted to these days has really helped me.

1) Eat healthy : working well. Had Korean (yum!) for dinner & it was easy to make healthy choices there.  The whole family loved it and we agreed to put the restaurant into more regular rotation.  At lunch today I had 2 bites of bread and 4 bites of dessert, but generally pretty good.  Yesterday’s brief chocolate affair was significantly curtailed by the fact I knew I’d come on here & report my transgression.

2) Water : was good yesterday

3) Daily weigh in : 194, which is UP, but luckily I’m in a good mood so it doesn’t matter

Extra : Exercise!  I think I’m ready to add an exercise goal next week.  I enjoyed hiking the past 2 days and today have walked to most of the things I had to do around town (see pic above for proof!).

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Spring Focus Announcements :

It’s not to late for you to join (someone joined us yesterday) - just comment here.

Tomorrow I will post everyone’s goals.  If you made a post about your goals & I found it, I’ll link it (if I miss it make sure you let me know).  If I don’t have your goals yet then you can tell me later & I’ll update the post.

Weight tracking will be collected on Monday : you can email it to me or leave it in my comments.  2 numbers please : how much you lost this past week (whenever you define your weekly weigh in date) & how much you’ve lost total since the start of Spring Focus.  I’ll post the COLLECTIVE result on Tuesday.  No leaderboards, no competition - everyone is pulling for everyone, and themselves!

We canceled our long weekend that we had planned because the weather where we were heading was awful.

24 hours in Fontainebleau

Instead, we did a quick 24 hours to nearby Fontainebleau, which has a chateau (don’t all villages in France?) and a great big forest.

We went for the Forest, and stayed at a nice hotel just a few minutes from the forest edge.  We walked for several hours yesterday and a scant 1 hour today, but it was nice to be in nature.  I’ve previously written that hiking is one of the 100+ Things That Make Me Happy (number 18!) so I was really glad to get back to it, at a very beginner’s pace & terrain.

The hotel where we stayed had a decent restaurant - nothing extraordinary, but solid classic French food.  I managed to navigate the menu for healthy options without too much difficulty.

Reporting on my food detours

I did take a few small detours off the straight and narrow, and documented them in photos as promised in my Spring Focus goals.  I did okay (but not great) on water.  And no scale, so no weigh-in.

I had some bread : not a lot — the missing part in this photo is all I ate - about 20% or so ..

I had some wine.  And champagne.  I had just a few sips of the wine, but probably 1/3 of the bottle of champagne. I was more than a little loopy…

I didn’t order dessert, but I did eat this forkful, another raspberry and half of one of those chocolates you see in the background.

All told, I think I did pretty well managing the food landmines all around.

Breakfast

At breakfast I was greeted by a huge bowl of strawberries that grabbed my eye before I saw the croissants and breads and all the other stuff — so I made good choices, no off-track things to report in photos (which pleased my husband, as he cringes when the camera comes out!)

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Spring Focus Update :

It’s not to late for you to join - just comment here.

Weight tracking will be collected on Monday : you can email it to me or leave it in my comments.  2 numbers please : how much you lost this past week (whenever you define your weekly weigh in date) & how much you’ve lost total since the start of Spring Focus.  I’ll post the COLLECTIVE result on Tuesday.  No leaderboards, no competition - everyone is pulling for everyone, and themselves!

When I am first getting back on track for weight loss after a while off I have two major strategies.

1. Go hard & heavy, giving everything I’ve got & letting the whoosh of the scale motivate me to keep going.  This works well when I’ve only been off track for a few days or a week - with concerted effort usually within a week or so I can get back to the “before” weight even if the scale showed quite a jump
2. Make only a few very small changes, and only commit to doing so for a very short period of time. When I’m off track in a big way the “healthy” life is such a big difference from the “off track” version that the gap seems enormous, too big to tackle, and that fear of such a huge change paralyzes me.  But babysteps to weight loss & healthy living put me in the right direction & help me see that I can accomplish things, and soon the first steps put a few good habits back in place & I’m ready to take on more habits, more days.

In both strategies, I consider it part of what I call “low stress weight loss” - feeling like you can make it work, and gaining hope again after you feel hopeless because you fell off track (yet again).  Finding ways to put yourself back into a mindset & cycle of success is important, and the skill set to do this over and over in your life is what makes for long term success.  None of us will ever be 100% perfect in our diet & exercise forever, so knowing how to get yourself back on track after a step away is really important.

I was off track with exercise for about 6 weeks, and off track with food for 4 weeks.  Both were intentional and not just a falling off the wagon (I did IVF & didn’t want to be depriving my body of nutrients when we were on our final attempt to grow healthy eggs).

But getting back on track has been hard.

Strategy One failed - twice, so this past Monday I switched to Strategy Two.

On Monday I committed to 3 things for 3 days -healthy foods, lots of water & daily weigh ins.  That’s it, but it was enough to get me going in the right direction.

Today is Thursday & I’m ready to extend the commitment out through next Monday.

I’m going to keep the same 3 goals, but some minor modifications to adapt to the long weekend & short trip we are taking.

Goal 1 : Eat healthy foods but no tracking EXCEPT that I will report here any non-healthy choices.  Hopefully the potential guilt will make me choose better when tempted (we are going to a nice restaurant tonight, & tomorrow will be a hotel breakfast full of croissants & other French pastries)

Goal 2 : Water Drink lots of water & herbal teas

Goal 3 : Weigh in daily (but will skip Friday because we’ll be out of town)

Friday is the ultrasound.  My mom is going with our surrogate to the appointment & it feels really weird to not be there.  I’m a mix of nervous & excited, and so so want everything to be okay, but don’t want to get my hopes high & then crushed so I keep trying to put it out of my mind.

How to you handle Getting Back on Track?

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Spring Focus Update :

For my own accountability on my 3 goals

1. Healthy foods : yes.  Took a bit of self-control during afternoon munchies, but I did it.  I hid the organic blueberries from my husband so I could have them for dessert & suggested he open some cookies for himself.  Worked like a charm, we were both happy.
2. Water & herbal tea : yes
3. Weigh in daily : 192, the scale finally dropped.

The Blogroll is now up & growing - based on majority input, I’m
putting in first names so if I don’t have yours, please leave it in the
comments.

It’s not to late for you to join - just comment here.

Yesterday I was catching up on updating my weight log.

I have this recent goal of weighing in daily just to help keep me focused for the next few days, but more recently I’ve been weighing weekly.  Even when I do get on the scale daily I don’t write it down except for that once-a-week weigh-in.  That weekly weight chart is the document I keep - it’s simple spreadsheet where I see change that week & cumulative & have a spot where I can write what was going on that week (travel, anniversary, etc).  I copy that number also to Skinnr (see the weight page) because it makes a cool, updated graph without any effort from me except entering a number.

The interesting thing is the head games that the numbers pulled on me last week when I came back from Munich.  I’d been on the road, and dinner contained a lot of sodium (Asian stir-fry at the airport).  The next morning’s weigh in was 194 and somehow I felt like I was back at square one from my US food fest & that put me in the mindset that caving in to temptation didn’t matter anyway.  But you know what?  I was wrong. I weighed 198 when I came back from the States (IVF bloat & all), not 194, and that Monday I’d weighed in at 193.

Perception shapes reality

But in my mind 194 was my “coming home” weight so I felt like I’d wasted 2 weeks with no progress, which in turn had me digging into things progressively over the next few days - and avoiding the gym & getting serious in general.

Today looking at the document I realized I was only up one pound, and those who weigh daily know that one pound variations are usual - sodium, travel, fiber, air - this is normal variation.  But because in my mind it was a “failure” weight it became one.  And today when I saw the document I had a Homer Simpson d’oh! moment when I realized what I’d done.

My goals for this week are going well - and not stressing me out

1) Eat healthy & balanced foods : yes, although I was lucky to have some nuts stuck in a drawer at the office.  I took the time to have a good breakfast (although it made me 5 minutes late) and chose a nice salad for lunch.  I snacked on green beans when I got home & ended up not hungry enough for a full dinner, so we had cheese & veggies.

2) Drink lots of water & herbal tea : a challenge since I wasn’t at home, but I bought an extra bottle of water & at least hit the minimums, plus drank a lot when I got home.  Not ideal, but passable

3) Daily weigh in : yes, and this public log is keeping me honest.  The scale moved down a few tenths of a pound, but still rounds to 194 (I only use whole pounds in reporting weight to keep myself sane).

Has the scale ever made YOU do something stupid?

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Spring Focus Update :

The Blogroll is now up & growing - based on majority input, I’m putting in first names so if I don’t have yours, please leave it in the comments

It’s not to late for you to join - just comment here.

As for the weight tracking, here’s what I propose (based on the various replies I had via email).   Every Monday I will update with the COLLECTIVE weight loss reported by group members.  Some people weigh in daily, some on Friday, some on Monday.  If you don’t want to give your weight, don’t.  I’ll try to post the collective number on Tuesdays.  There is no contest against other participants.  Several of us categorize ourselves as “slow losers” (guilty!) and a few people don’t want to put a lot of focus on the numbers, so I think this is the best compromise.

Please report 2 numbers on Monday : pounds lost this past week, and collective pounds lost since signing up for Spring Focus.

As always, open for discussion in the comments!

I did well yesterday with my small babysteps goals.

Yesterday I announced 3 goals for the next few days, and not only did I do well on them, I even went a bit above and beyond.

1) Eat healthy, balanced, foods but not write anything down

I ate really well yesterday.  Made a healthy salad with some roast beef & a variety of veggies with homemade dressing for lunch which I ate on the sly during a teleconference.  Snacked on sunflower seeds.  Made a chicken dish with broccoli for dinner (which my husband really didn’t care for).

No pressure either - nothing written down, healthy foods stocked, veggies cut up already.   Easy and tasty, goal met.

2) Drink at least 10 glasses of water or herbal tea

I spent the whole day timing bathroom breaks, made 3 pots of herbal tea, plus green tea in the morning - this went well too.  This morning I peed for about an hour before getting on the scale

BONUS : Exercise

I didn’t even make an exercise goal, because I’ve been struggling too much so I didn’t want a goal I wouldn’t make or one that would make me feel resentful, but I did make it out for a 40 min walk, which felt great.

3) Weigh myself daily

So this is the problem.  Despite being such a good girl yesterday, and peeing forever before the scale, the darn thing stayed the same.  Not even one 0.1 difference, and I don’t even count the details of pounds!

I’m a realist with the scale

I’ve always felt it has a mind of it’s own, is often disconnected to reality, and is NOT a good barometer of what we do, especially on a daily basis.  On a weekly or monthly basis it can be a decent indicator, but don’t you think that we’re ALWAYS better off to focus on our Actions (diet, exercise, motivation, planning) and not the stupid scale?   How many times have you seen someone say that they went on a << vacation / food festival / binge / whatever >> and didn’t gain a pound?  Not that one transgression should show up on the scale, but sometimes we do something stupid & prolonged & then feel like we “got away with” something…

It would be lovely if our weight reflected just our current week’s actions.

Celery week, you weigh 110 pounds, Donut & nachos week you weigh in at 350…   Unfortunately (or fortunately) our bodies are much more stable than that - preserving weight preserves life, and losing in particular is hard for a body to do - especially if you are lucky enough to have the types of genes that would have allowed your ancestors to survive a famine.  You stock fat well, you hold on to it well.  That was once a metabolic advantage, today it means you bust the seams of your pants from time to time…

Anyway, I’m not worried about the one-day weigh in number, but I do think it’s the Danger of the Scale, because all my good effort from yesterday was eclipsed for a few minutes by the feeling of disappointment when I saw the number on the scale.  I suspect I won’t last long in doing the daily weigh-ins, and I’ll go back to weekly before long.

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Spring Focus Update :

The Blogroll is now up!

We are 15 women strong, but it’s not to late for you to join - just comment here.

I sent an email to the participants yesterday - if you didn’t get it please check your spam filter or comment below & I’ll try again.

I am struggling.

I was off in eating-it-all land for too long for it to be easy to slip back into control. I have been off exercise even longer, and it’s appearing even harder than getting diet under control. I seriously frustrated myself this weekend - after 4 really good days while I was traveling, I let one bad decision lead to another and another and another until yesterday (Sunday) looked pretty much like a disaster. Not a Complete Disaster - I did have a healthy salad for lunch, a bunch of strawberries for dessert & I avoided a lot of stuff I easily could have eaten… but I still left lots of room to eat stuff I shouldn’t, and I never made it to the gym.

Stress

The truth is that I am really nervous about how the ultrasound with our gestational carrier / surrogate will go on Friday, and I’m completely preoccupied by that. I feel bad for not being there. I so want everything to be okay, yet I am very much protecting myself from another huge disappointment & so trying to keep my hopes in check. If you’re new to my story, you can read about our infertility saga here, but basically we are using a surrogate & she’s newly pregnant & the first ultrasound is this coming Friday.

My mind has been full of all these timelines for losing weight - how much I can lose by our summer vacation, by the time the baby is born, etc. But a few days of off eating & my weight is as high as when I got off the plane 10 days ago & I feel overwhelmed by the task.

So I’m starting really slow.

3 goals only, and only until Thursday. We have a long weekend here Thursday-Sunday and may or may not be going out of town, so I’ll need a new plan for the weekend. And I have a lot of worry between now and Friday evening so I need to be realisitic about how much I can take on - since I really want to keep my stress to a minimum.

Here are the goals for the next 4 days :

1) Eat healthy, balanced, foods but not write anything down
2) Drink at least 10 glasses of water or herbal tea
3) Weigh myself daily

I go back and forth on how often to get on the scale, but some of the smartest scale advice I ever heard was “if you’re stuck, whatever you’re doing currently with the scale, do the opposite”, so that’s why I’m moving to daily weigh-ins. I’ve been doing weekly only for the past few months, so to switch it up it’s daily for now.

I still think about summer vacation & how hard it will probably be to keep losing weight with a new baby, but the truth is that it will be even harder if I don’t get a little under control, so I’m much better off with the slow start than no start at all…. and since in the past 10 days I tried twice to have a “real” start (and failed both times), I think a soft-start is probably a good choice right now. Plus it’s lower-stress, and you know I’m all about ‘low stress weight loss’. Never mind that my husband gently teased me yesterday that I was doing pretty well on the “low stress” side but not so great on the “weight loss”….

Spring Focus Peer Group

We’re getting organized & growing as a group!  If you want to join, please go to this post & leave a comment (you’re very welcome!)

Thanks to Billie for finding the problem with the grab code - I’m working on changing it now but having trouble, so once I get it working I’ll update this post.

And the special blogroll is going up right now - plus I’m going to come around to visit!

It’s time to get Serious

A few posts back I mentioned that it seemed there were a lot of us talking about getting serious this Springtime.  Several people chimed in that they wanted to join in, so I’m trying to figure out how we can help each other.  You don’t need to be starting, or getting back on track — you can just want a bit of extra camaraderie for a few weeks.

How it will work

How about something simple, like making public goals for the week, and keeping ourselves accountable to how we do on our goals?

We’re all at different stages of our weight loss & our goals aren’t the same, so this way everyone can do what’s right for themselves, but we can all help cheer each other on & give a gentle nudge when necessary.

For myself, the period I’m focusing on is from now until the end of July (when I leave for summer vacation) but I’m thinking we should make it from now until July 4th just so we have a manageable period of weeks - that’s 9 weeks, and we should all be able to lose at least 5-10 pounds in that time (and some of you will lose twice that!).

Does that sound reasonable?

Join In!

If you want to join, let me know in the comments & I’ll put up a special blogroll on the side.  I figured out how to make a button (it’s the first time I’ve ever done one!) & it’s grab code (so you can install it too) :