Try and Try Again- A New Month's Resolution

On January first I decided on a resolution, to lose five pounds. I amended it to a "new month's" resolution, to lose five pounds by the end of the month. The very next day I was up a pound and a half. Not a good start. Now I had to lose 6.5 lbs to reach the goal.

At the end of January I'd lost 4 lbs. I set the goal again for February. I wasn't very clear if it was for a new five pounds, or just to get to the original goal. Vague was good. The ultimate goal is ten lbs from the high point, but I wanted to break it down in monthly chunks.

A week into the new month I'd lost another pound and it was staying lost. A week later, the weight pretty stable-neither up nor down, I saw an orthopedist who said I had tendinitis in my right bicep and prescribed an anti-inflammatory to be taken on a full stomach. You know what that meant, I'd forget to take the pills with dinner so I'd have to have a hearty snack at bedtime which lead to regaining all the weight I'd lost.

Now, here it is, the first of March, I'm ready to try again. I'm off the anti-inflammatory, my shoulder is feeling better, I have no excuse. I weighed in this morning at a lower weight than I'd had for a couple weeks, but still above the goal.

So, here it is, my goal, down in writing. I will lose the rest of the original five pounds by the end of March. (This will be harder than you think, I'll be Europe for a week this month.) I will keep it off in April and start working on the next five in May.

It really bugs me when other women say I look fine, that I don't need to lose weight. I always thank them, but I know, my pants know I do. I need to learn where the breaking point is on the food intake now that I'm, uh, not a kid anymore. I need to retrain my brain about not needing snacks. I'll never be a size 4 again, but it sure would be nice not to ever become a size 14. Hence, the goal, to break it down, a couple pounds at a time, no crazy crash diets, get it off, keep it off.



 

Rounding up November

Wow, I've got two weekends to round up. I'll try not to forget any of the good parts and summarize the boring bits.

In this Issue:

• Gadget Corner


• IEP Season


• He did What?


• Teen Drama


• Thanksgiving vs. Mendoza


• High Def Rain

Gadget Corner

A while back on John's blog he got a comment from a fellow trucker who runs. I checked out her blog and she had written about a GPS pedometer. Since I walk every morning I wanted one. I want to know how far I really walk and how fast. I was thinking the $150 model would suit me fine. When I didn't get one for my birthday I used the Costco coupon for $40 off the model they have and got the $300 model for $160. I'm loving it, it's a fun gadget. It draws a trail where I walk and beeps at me when I drop below a 15:20 mile, which happens a lot when the three of us talk too much in the mornings. I've logged over 27 miles so far and end up finishing the 3.06-mile loop in about 44 minutes. Not too bad.

IEP Season

For some reason they wanted to change Kevin's IEP schedule from spring to fall. So last Monday I went in and met with Kevin's team. It was actually the first time I'd met his current teacher because the one who started the school year quit. The meeting was lead by the head of the Special-Ed department and not the new teacher.

Most of the plan was the same as last year, but I didn't think they had enough math concepts covered so I had comparisons added (less than, greater than, before, after) as well as a component of measuring. I also inquired about shop class. Kevin loves to put things together and I think with some supervised instruction, he'd do well. I'd like him to transition from pictorial instructions to reading and comprehending written assembly instructions. My inquiry was a general question, Is it possible in the future Kevin could take shop class, maybe next year? He's now signed up for Tech-ed for next semester. Ohmigoodness, that scares me and thrills me at the same time. He'll be in the regular-ed boys every-other day. I'm sure I'll report how that goes.

He did what?

Kevin caught a cold last weekend and by Monday night his voice was gone. We kept him home from school on Tuesday. Kevin hardly ever gets sick, Tuesday was his first missed day of school in several years. But that's beside the point. We don't stock a lot of liquid cold medicine for him since he doesn't usually need it, and had nothing to give him for all his symptoms except gel-caps. Which he swallowed without ceremony. I was stunned, Dan was shocked. We were both happy with this new skill.

Teen Drama

Applications for First Choice High (FCH) were due on the 21st by 2:30 pm. The application packet consisted of the form, copies of the 7th grade final report card and the first quarter 8th grade card, and an optional essay. I'm not sure how the whole thing went down but I found part of the packet for Fern's neighborhood friend on our kitchen counter on Saturday the 22nd.

I asked Fern why Amanda's application was in our house. She starts flipping out. "Dad was supposed to turn that in, Amanda's gonna hate me, her mom's gonna be mad at her and she's gonna hate me.....," talking fast and anxious like only teen girls can do. We can't ask Dan, who turned in Fern's packet on Friday morning, didn't turn in Amanda's. He was on a road trip to La Grange, KY for a college roommate's surprise 50th birthday party in another college friend's car and his phone was in his car parked at that friend's house.

No one specifically said to Dan, "here is Amanda's application, will you turn it in too, please?" But Fern swears we said we'd take it and knew about it. I left for work early that day and knew nothing about special requests. I turned it in to the high school on the way to the IEP meeting.

As it turns out, the head of the special-ed is good friends with one of the chairs of FCH and emailed her my story when I was there for the IEP meeting the following Monday. (FCH, is a special application-only honors program within the local high school.) In the mean time, I called Amanda's mom to explain what happened on our end and where the application was. She wasn't mad at us or at Amanda. It was her responsibilty after all. Amanda's not mad at Fern, and Fern is not mad at us. The FCH chair called me and accepted the app late anyway. Now, if Amanda gets in and Fern doesn't, heads will roll, baby, heads will roll.

Thanksgiving vs. Mendoza.

I'm still above my Mendoza line and am not happy about it. I get so close, then go and do something stupid like have cake at a birthday party Saturday night. Grrr. I'll be doing the "on the ball" class at the gym at lunch and I'll be back to my water aerobics class tonight. There were no classes last week, which didn't help the cause any.

High Def Rain

Three weeks ago I negotiated a fabulous deal with DirecTV for high def service and picked an install date of yesterday, it was the first Sunday appointment they had. I hate taking off work to wait for someone to maybe show up in a 12-4 window. The guy showed up at 2:00. Except it was raining. And the tech wouldn't climb up on the roof in the rain for an hour and install a new 40lb dish. Grrr. I complained and got free Show Time for several months. They are supposed to be coming back today and Dan, the great guy that he is, is going home to meet them when they call so say they are on the way. I bet they forget to call. Scattered showers in the forecast for the afternoon, too.

What the ... ?

Winter weight.

I just heard the cringing and moaning of all the women who read me. Sorry, but I gotta unload about this.

I haven't been under my Mendoza line in ages, maybe two or three months. I'm so tired of seeing that middle number on the scale every time I get on. It haunts me, it taunts me; I hate it. Every time I get close to the line, with just one more pound or even a half-pound to go, something will interfere with my progress: a birthday, a wedding, a house warming party, Halloween, and I'll have to start over again. One day recently I saw a number on my scale I hadn't seen since I was pregnant. Seven months pregnant. So utterly depressing.

I'm trying to be more aggressive about getting in shape, getting the weight off. I enrolled again for the deep water aerobics classes and try to do the weight class at the gym at work. I'm trying to be more proactive about weight-loss than just doing the 40-minute walk in the mornings, "eating better," complaining, and crossing my fingers hoping I'll lose the weight.

This morning I was pleased to see I'm back within striking distance of my "never-ever-want-to-go-over-that-weight" line. I could be under by the weekend!

Put all that aside for a moment.

Nordstroms is having their half-yearly sale and a couple weeks ago I found myself in the lingerie department after perusing the other departments' sale racks. I was tempted by a pair of $100 dress pants that were long enough for my 34" legs on sale but passed on them because I really don't want to buy clothes until I get well under the Mendoza line. Anyway, lingerie department. There was a huge rack of bras unmentionables, designer ones, pretty $50 ones, marked down to something I could consider. I tried on several and they all seemed to fit except they were a bit tight in the band. Once again I think, all I have to do is lose a couple pounds, do a couple more lat-pulls, get rid of some back fat and these will be golden. So I bought three. They still sit in the shopping bag in my closet.

Another day, another store, and as one thing lead to another as things tend to do, I got a bra fitting. Because of the weight gain I was mentally prepared for the fitting specialist to tell me I need to go up a band size to a 36. But she didn't tell me that, she told me I needed to go up a cup size. Or two. What?! She had me try on a 34D and it fit. I was stunned and stood staring at the tag. I had to see it with my own eyes. I was wearing a 34D. Me? A D? No way. I don't look any bigger than what I've looked like forever. I'm still stunned.

So, after all these twenty-something years of being a B-cup girl, I can forgo augmentation surgery, and go from a B-cup to a D-cup by getting a $79 dollar bra!

 

 

 

I gotta get under the Mendoza line soon, I can't afford a new wardrobe of $79 bras and the new clothes I'd have to get with them.

 

Another day, another diet.

Yesterday I attended CG's Memorial Day picnic/pool party. And I ate too much. A lot of it was CG's sister's mango salsa. Great stuff. So I'm telling myself I had a lot of fruit yesterday. And the chips were corn, therefore, vegetable. I just need to walk more and eat better. I'm not liking the number I'm seeing on the scale recently. Clothes are tight again and my watchband is snug. It's funny how and where five pounds can make a huge difference - before spring break my watchband was comfortably loose. I don't like being old(er), weight is harder to remove than it is to aquire.