Friday, May 31, 2013

Week Two - Weight Watchers


Today marks the second week of my transition to the Weight Watchers lifestyle (you'd think I'd joined a swingers club...lifestyle?  who am I?  The Godfather!?).

As of today I have lost 9 pounds total and am transitioning fairly well.  I haven't had soda in over two weeks and for the most part have stuck to water, though I found that HyVee carries Huberts Lemonade and it's only 3 points for the whole giant glass container so that is my special something when I need something more than water.

One time, a doctor told me there is no room in my life for soda and she was right.  It's actually not hard for me to quit soda, but I find that I REALLLLLLLYYYYY want one when I'm:

1)  Eating Pizza
2)  At a restaurant where the pop is included with the meal.  who does this.  don't get crafty, food establishments of America.  I see your, "it's included with the price of the meal" and will raise you a, "water, with lemon, please"
3) At QuickTrip

Somewhere along the road my parents started a "lets order pizza because it's Friday night" and for whatever reason, Travis has always agreed with it and thought it was the best idea ever.  What goes great with a greasy, oil covered, loaded-with-cheese pizza?  Pepsi.  Cherry Pepsi.  Cherry Coke.   What doesn't accompany pizza well?  Water.  Lame.  Also, what can't I "afford" to have (points budget wise) when I'm eating pizza?  My Lemonade.

When I go to a restaurant and they tell me that the soda is or is basically free when I get the meal.  Listen, I realize it's free.  Listen to me when I tell you that it was hard enough to JUST order whatever I ordered and not order what I WANTED to order.  What I WANTED to order, my dear friends, would make Jillian Michaels blush.  So no.  I do not want the free pop. 

At some point and time Kum & Go and Quick Trip started their war over 32 ounce fountain sodas.  THIRTYTWO OUNCES?!!  That is TWELVE points.  Do you know what I could EAT for 12 points!?  So!  I stay out of QT or Kum & Go.

This is a budget.  This is a numbers game.  I do well with budgets and I do well with numbers.  I can figure out a way to make the square peg fit in the round hole, without compromising the integrity of the peg or the hole.  It's a numbers game.

Game-Frickin-On.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Harsh Realities

My first week on Weight Watchers was filled with sobering realities.

Did you know that the "healthy" subway that I order was worth 22 points?  That's the one I get when I don't want to feel bad for getting the one I usually get .. the one I actually want.
Did you know that the B-Bops I used to order was worth more points that I'm able to have in a day?   Used to.
Pizza?  One large slice from Pizza Hut is 10 points.

WOW.  Gross.

And please don't mistake what I'm saying - I'm not saying these foods are gross.  I'm saying it's gross to think about eating three-four slices of pizza after I had the nearly 40 points in bbops for lunch.  That's what I'm saying is gross.

This was a harsh realization for me.  To realize that I've been eating my entire day's points in one sitting and refusing to stop there.  Refusing to pay attention to what it was doing to my body or my soul.  What impact it has had on my relationship with my husband, what impact it will inevitably have on my relationship with my children.

Any questions on why my weight went up by nearly 70 pounds over the past 10 years!?!  Because it wasn't having the three kids, and it wasn't the exercise/activity level.  It's exclusively related to my diet.

This was a HARD week for me when learning to calculate and learning what everything "costs" me.

I didn't cry this week...but I wanted to.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Watching Weight

I have never really dieted - and it shows. 

I had a physician one time that I LOVED tell me, "Hollie, you either live to eat or you eat to live"  that was 5 years and 50 pounds ago, when I was considered 20-25 pounds overweight.

I have spent roughly six of the last eight years pregnant or nursing and told myself that it was pointless to focus on my weight while I was pregnant or nursing ... now?  Unless God has another plan for Trav and I, we are done having kids.  We have a 7 year old, a 5 year old and an almost-3-year-old - they are beautiful creatures who are happy and healthy and cared for...he and I? we are unhealthy and overweight.

step one:  Drop soda. 
step two:  Start Weight Watchers  (*gulp*)
step three: Buy a scale (tonight on amazon, because I have gift cards at home)
step four:  Weigh, Measure, Modify and repeat

Notice how I don't have exercise on there?  My company pays for a gym membership for my entire family.  Exercise isn't going to fit into my life right this second.  I'm going to focus on this part, because that same doc who gave me those fabulous words to live by also mentioned that while exercise is important for your organs and you will burn calories in the process, if you can only focus on ONE area, start with diet.  So I am.

I'm nervous to hit publish because it seems like people will constantly be scrutinizing me for just putting it out there, but I feel like publishing it will also add an accountability factor that might help me to look back and see where I'm at.  

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Mortified.

So, Monday at baseball, Aaron had a mellllllllttttt down.  You've seen the kind...where at first, you're annoyed at the kid's mom because if she was a better parent, she would have reeled that child in, and redirected him and he would be sitting calm and patient waiting for his brother to finish up his hour long baseball game that started 4 minutes ago...but then by the end of the game you're about in tears for the mom because she's clearly doing the best that she can based on the circumstances.

Anyway, I finally timed out and took him to the car, under my arm - kicking and screaming all the way to my mini van.  don't be jealous.

We had parked at the back of the field, and Austin went with me and Aaron. Travis was collapsing our four camping chairs and fitting all four back in that iddy biddy bag that comes with it.  Aden got done with his game a few minutes later and headed to the car.  Like any other soccer mom, I pushed the button to open my not so fancy 2006 Chrysler Town & Country's doors and they gracefully open.  This little boy walks behind Aden and takes a long look in our mini van.  His eyes get wide, his jaw drops, and he hardly utters, "woah.  your car is messy, messy, messy"  I give him a look that tells him to shut his pie hole and push my button to shut the door.  He reaches his hand out right as the door is about to make it's signature whirring sound (to seal me and my family in our safe haven of mess) and grabs the handle.  The door, with its incredible safety features opens back up because it doesn't know that I don't want it to stop for anyone's limb at this point.  He continues, "why do you have all of that stuff in your car?  shouldn't it be in your house?  it looks really, really gross in there"  I push the button again, the door closes because I snarkily tell the kid that it's not nice to touch things that aren't his.

Mortified.

Little Shit.

On Tuesday someone in the world of baseball thought it was a SWEET idea to schedule Austin for a double header - "TWO hours of baseball right in a row, Mom" so I didn't have time to address the van in all of its awesomeness.

Wednesday, I took my dad to cardio-rehab and made it a point to tell him, before he told me, that I'm cleaning out my van after work.  I cleaned it out and probably lost more weight doing that than any workout on a treadmill - haha - well, theoretically, since i don't work out on the treadmill - just ask my jowels and gut.

Either way, this morning I finished and it's beautiful - smells great, is clean and the only THINGS in there are: Sunblock, spare Pull-ups, four camping chairs (because the 5th person is always IN the game and doesn't need a seat), a giant, oversized umbrella that has a stake that goes into the ground so I can shield my albino babies (and self) from the sun anywhere we go, 5 cd's and a cell phone charger.   There are also 3 yak-sacks that I snagged the last time I was at Methodist West ER because there are AMAZING and at the time, Austin was puking every 15 minutes.

I would love to finish with some make-you-jealous line about how there will be no more food/fast food/cups/gatorade bottles/spare clothes/a partridge/a pear tree in my vehicle, but it's not going to happen.  I have three kids and a BUSY life.  You may not see it as an excuse, but to that I would offer you the opportunity to suck my big toe.  And my big toe, dear friends, is a lot more G rated than what I was going to tell you to suck.

So for the kid on Aden's baseball team who has a mommy with a clean car, good for you.  Judge me again, and make my kid feel sad about the words your filter failed to absorb, and I'll tell you the real reason that your mommy has a clean car is to impress her boyfriend not her husband. 

Monday, May 13, 2013

The Percocet Poo

I have been an avid supporter of massages/backrubs since I was a teenager.  It wasn't about an excuse for some boy (or girl) to touch me, it wasn't about something sexual, it wasn't because I wasn't hugged enough as a child - I just LIKE being massaged.

I think we are so hard on our bodies and we never realize it because we rarely take the time to let ourselves relax long enough to realize that we're sore.

I have a lady, Karmen.  She's wonderful.  I have been seeing her since November of 2010 and have LOVED her.  I don't cheat on her.  She is a genuinely wonderful person!  She is thorough, she actually cares about what you say, she listens, talks, and even prays with you before the session (if you're me).

Anyway, she has been begging me to let her try a stomach massage out - said something about if my lower back is ALWAYS bothering me, it could be because my ab muscles (haha.) are too tight and by elongating them it will relieve the persistent back ache that every MD has told me was because I'm not skinny and I don't have small boobs.

So this time around, I told her we'd give it a go.  I also told her that my bladder/kidney has been feisty and has been trying to be infected for awhile now - and I would've gone to the doctor, but I don't have health insurance...so...homeopathic, right!?

She is excited.  She tells me all about how she will use Shiatsu massage to help with the kidney and bladder and I'm all for it.  I'm not all for the stomach part, but that's simply because it's a whole lotta surface area and I don't like to think about the amount of lotion that would be involved in moistening that quantity of flesh. 

SO - she's working on my feet, kidney one and kidney two.  and working on other meridians - and i'm like, "holy lord, what is THAT and why does it feel like my bone just popped through my skin!?!"  she is laughing, because I may be exaggerating - and she's telling me that this is my liver meridian, my whatever, my whatever else and we're still on my feet here people.  I don't have sensitive feet.  At all.  I felt like I was going to crawl out of my skin and hide in a corner!!!

Eventually, she proceeds with the rest of the Swedish/Shiatsu massage and I'm re-freaking-laxed.  It was amazing!  Then she drapes a sheet over my chest and starts working on my stomach.  It was nothing like I expected, didn't feel weird at all, but she was working with my breathing and was getting pretty deep in the fat tissue and I was pretty relaxed. 

Now, she DID ask me if I have any issues with constipation or IBS or anything like that, and I don't.  I thought it was odd that she was asking me, until yesterday afternoon, when I had what I affectionately call the percocet poo.  (percocet is a fabulous pain killer they give you post csection to help with pain, only bum deal is that it is a HUGE constipatory, so by the time your stool softners get the memo your first REAL poo post csection is almost as big as your baby was...no?  just me?  oh, okay - my bad).    I ALMOST called Travis in to look at it, I was so proud of myself!!  Don't judge me.  I thought that was kinda cool at the time, less cool I've had three more percocet poos in the last 24 hours.  I'm pretty sure I shat out food I ate in the second grade.  I was floored.

My biggest regrets (surrounding this massage) involve:
~ not weighing myself before the massage to be able to compare the numbers
~ not having the stomach massage sooner
~ not taking ibuprofen post massage - it's been 48 hours and I feel amazing but am SUPER sore in SUCH a good way (like when you have amazing sex all night long and you feel like walking is too much work for the next day or two)

Having said that - whatever she did with my meridians worked.  No more bladder issues and I wouldn't lie about that.  Also, I have been CRAVING water - yay for my guts/body/soul/weight issues.