Five Weeks In: The Moment of Truth

Today was my last weigh-in before my birthday.  The moment of truth to find out if I had succeeded in my (admittedly very aggressive) short-term goal of losing 10 pounds by my birthday, which is Monday.

I had a good/average loss this week, but missed my short term goal by 0.2 pounds.

Still.  A loss of 9.8 pounds in five weeks is nothing to sneeze at.

I'm contemplating my next short term goal.  My youngest daughter turns 1 in a month, and I'm 5 pounds away from being in the next "decade."  I am considering making that my goal, but 5 pounds is 4 weeks is a lot to ask from me.  I'm trying to weigh my emotional stability of being aggressive and seeing how close I can get against me setting goals and never really reaching them.

WWYD?  Be aggressive and probably miss?  (But maybe not by that much?)  Or be conservative and choose a different goal?

Two weeks in

Two weeks into Weight Watching.  Readers... my focus has been laser-like.  Dave Ramsey might call me a Weight Watcher Gazelle.

I've followed the plan to (almost) a tee.  I do usually allow myself one meal per week - Tuesdays after weighing in - where I eat whatever I want.  I never binge, but I just don't count.  Today's meal was a chicken caesar salad and a Dr. Pepper.  But other than that, I've been RIGHT on.

And in the past two weeks, it's netted me a total loss of 7.2 pounds.

SEVEN POINT TWO POUNDS?!  So much of that has GOT to be water weight, right?  Does anyone know the average ratio of water weight to other weight in your basic American female?  Something to investigate.

I wish I knew what the difference is in the past two weeks versus every other dang week ever.  I can remember so vividly how happy I was when I was healthy and fit.  When clothes were fun and I could run half marathons and my legs were BANGIN'.  And I've always known exactly what was needed to achieve that again.  And I've wanted so badly to return to that healthy weight.  But for whatever reason.... I don't know.  I just couldn't make myself follow through.

This time, so far, I am.  I don't know what clicked.  I hope it keeps on clicking.

Until next time, wishing you weeks of diet root beer and Halo Top.
J

Not Today

Being nearly ten months postpartum and 20.8 pounds overweight, I've decided to resurrect this blog in order to track my efforts.

To that end, I weighed in with Weight Watchers yesterday for the first time in months.  It had gotten bad.  Really bad.  And today was my first day counting points and trying to settle into a new mindset.  To be honest, I'm a little surprised at myself.  Last night, I stood in my kitchen talking with my husband about how I wasn't confident that I really had it in me to try very hard, but that I knew I had to at least try since I was so unhappy with myself.  I really expected to half-halfheartedly move forward.  And, now, I know it's only been about 14 hours, but I've done really well.  I walked right by the bowl of fun-sized Snickers bars on the desk outside my office.  And, hand-to-God, right before I started typing this entry, a coworker of mine offered me cookies by literally holding the platter a few inches under my nose.  I politely declined.

Not today, Jesus.

Long-term, I'm not looking to be skinny.  I just want to be healthy.  A good role model for my girls.  I have a very attainable and MAINtainable number in mind for that.

Short-term, I've given myself a pretty ambitious mini-goal.  I have five weigh ins (and almost six weeks) until my birthday.  I'd like to lose ten pounds by then.  I think it's pretty ambitious, because Weight Watchers encourages you to lose .5-2 pounds a week, and that'd put me at the top of the spectrum.  Ten pounds in five weigh ins.  

Y'all, a resident just came in and put one of those Snickers on my desk.

Not today, Jesus.

Not today.
J

Not the update you were expecting?

I'm sorry I haven't updated in a long time.

It's probably because I don't like any of you.

J

The Great Krestel Power Outage: Hour 33

In what they're calling the worst storm in over a decade, Wes and I were one of the over 868,000 ComEd customers to lose power.

And there's also a heat advisory on.
It's 95 degrees out there.
God have mercy on us.

Things I've learned during the Great Outage:

• Lighting candles instantly gives any activity a different vibe. There's something oddly romantic about peeing by candlelight. (I should warn my readers, though, that having long hair and leaving your lighted candle on the back of the toilet tank makes things decidedly unromantic. Exciting, but not romantic.)

• They say things like wearing empire waists, vertical stripes, or dark solid colors can be slimming. You know what works better than all that? Having no lights. I've never looked better!

• The touch tones for "1-800-EDISON1" can sound like part of the melody to that Miami Sound Machine song if you dial it in the correct timing. Come on, baby, shake your body, do that conga.

• I don't want to keep harping on the whole "I think my husband might murder me" thing, but think I should make note of a conversation we had in the darkness:

Wes: "Now they're saying that the Grand Rapids killer did it because he was bi-polar. Is that an acceptable excuse?"

Jacki: "Eh. The only reason I can think of where it'd be understandable.... and even then it's iffy... would be something like self-defense."

Wes: "Yeah... that, or if someone made you really mad."

Despite it all, I am very thankful that power is all we have lost. I feel blessed to have all that I do. But, if you think of it, please say a little prayer that our power is restored as quickly as possible.

J

Wesley says the darndest things.

Last night, my husband and I decided to go on a late-evening walk.

The weather was perfect. Warm, but not too warm. He held my hand and led me to the top of a hill near our home. From this height, we were able to see several different firework displays from neighboring towns. We "ooh"ed and "ahh"ed as we saw fit. I rested my head on his shoulder; he kissed my forehead.

It was lovely. Lovely, indeed.

It was then that my dear, beloved husband looked at me with those big brown eyes of his and said:

"Have I ever told you that I think the Fourth of July is the perfect night to murder someone? Everyone would hear the gun shot, but no one would know the difference."

These are the things I wish he would have told me before we got married.

J

Introduction

Hello, world.

My name is Jacki.
And I think God made me to be pretty awesome.
And I blog now.

You're welcome.
J