Hi, Turtles,
Judy, I think it's too bad that so many companies that hire exercise instructors think they have to have perfect bodies. I think more people would keep at their programs if the instructors had regular, but fit bodies. Good luck with the Wendie Plan.
Kathy, I used to have that situation come up a lot--the spontaneous decision to go out to dinner. What I did was to start counting my day's points at dinner every day. Then if we ended up at a restaurant, I'd have my full day's points available. I could eat sensibly and still have enough points left for the rest of my meals. A lot of people count that way and find it helps them stay within their point range more easily.
My other suggestion is re: your impending family guests. I'd continue to prepare healthy meals and if they want to eat junk, they're on their own. You do them, as well as yourself, a real disservice if you change your way of eating to a less healthy food plan in order to be polite, nice, and a gracious host. My family knows that if they don't want what I cook, they can (and do) fix themselves something else.
Lauren, congrats on the pound! Remember, it's not the specific number that's important, it's the direction. That's what I kept in mind when I had an evening meeting. Plus, some of the stuff people did to try to get the number lower at the scale was so ridiculous, that I laughed to myself, and learned to put that in proper perspecitve. I didn't get to goal, but I sure learned a lot!
Thanks for your good thoughts re: the Bake-Off. I hope I will be eligible for the contest, but a lot depends on what happens with some of the other things going on in my life right now. If I can get some culinary training and a job in a kitchen, I will not be eligible to enter. But I could enter professional cooking contests. I'm going tomorrow to find out if I qualify for any job training like this.
We went to the Department of Social Services today. It really wrung me out emotionally to do that. I learned some interesting stuff. They have, as you might guess, some insane rules. And the form contains the penalty for food stamp fraud. It really makes you wonder about the values in our culture to learn that the fine is up to $250 THOUSAND dollars and up to 20 years in prison. You'd think it was one of the most heinous crimes a body could commit!
This is emotionally difficult, as I said, but the alternative is to give up our place and move in with my mom. (I need to vent. Thanks for listening.) I appreciate the help, but I wish she would help us the way I would help my sons if they needed this type of help. I would move the cat box and extra stuff out of the second bedroom and let my kid move his bed, maybe his TV, a chair or two, and have some privacy. But what she's planning is to let Chris sleep on the small cot in the bedroom (with the cat box right next to the bed). Paul and I will blow up an air mattress each night and sleep on the living room carpet (which still stinks of all of the years of smoking in the house. They've both quit, I think. They keep threatening to start again.) All of our stuff will be in storage. I hope we can bring our computer, but if she won't let us, we'll have to find a public library computer to use for Paul's job search. I don't know where we'll store our e-mail!
The other thing is she's informed us that her boyfriend said that the only way we can move in is if we find full time jobs--any job, no matter what it is. Paul can turn down a job if it doesn't pay more than unemployment, but I'm not allowed to turn down a job because I don't qualify for unemployment. They expect me to find a job as soon as I get back to the valley. Somehow, he seems to think that working in fast food (which is what they suggested I do) will get us out of their house faster.
They're putting conditions on us because they're punishing us for our financial situation, which they think is my fault. (Not Paul's fault because he's perfect. They're both traditional Italians who think men are like gods and women are to blame for everything.) They don't blame me for Paul being laid off. They blame me for not being able to support the family while he looks for work. They think I'm lazy because I didn't do the supermom thing and put my kids in day care while I worked. (My creative kids didn't do well in day care. We tried that a couple of times.) And then I went back to school instead of working when they got older. The thing is that I tried working. I quit and went back to school when I discovered that no one would hire me for a job that would pay the rent, food, and utilities, let alone such luxuries as toilet paper, shampoo and clothes! My boss in one job told me that I could get promoted if I got a degree, but couldn't if I didn't.
Anyway, we'll see what happens. If we can't get enough gov't help to keep our place, we'll have no choice but to move in with her. And I won't be able to enter food contests because she won't let me cook in her kitchen. Besides, she'd consider the ingredients to test recipes a waste of money we should be saving toward moving expenses when we move out. What she can't seem to understand is that we need Paul's income doubled to afford a place there. He's probably going to have to take a pay cut and I can't make up that difference without an education. This leaves me feeling a bit trapped.
A good thing is that we'll be able to go back to our church and have some of our old life that we missed since moving here again. But, if the only way to do that is to live with my mother, I'd rather stay here.
This has rambled along long enough. Thanks for listening, ladies. You kept me from eating everything in sight. I'm not following WW very well, but I'm doing much better than I ever have in bad situations before. I'm not eating a ton of junk, only a little. And I'm not gaining weight. Thanks for being here.
Happy turtlin'!
Lin
I felt a little guilty when the weigher told me what a great job I'd done, but it passed quickly.