What a difference a year makes

January 2011 - my son Mitch and I at the annual Ukrainian buffet

December 2011

Today is officially one year since I joined Weight Watchers.  55 lbs down.  When you do the math it's just over 1 lb a week.  Do I wish it was more?  Hell yes!  But I am very happy with 55 lbs.  I don't want it back for a second!  Now to get to goal!!

Looking after my heart

Update on my Dad.  He is still in ICU, he is still on a ventilator.  He had a heart attack along with some other issues.  We are hopeful that he can come out of this but it's an uphill battle.  He is 82 years old.  I am not ready to say goodbye.  I have a very close family and we have rallied together in this.  It warms my heart, it really does.  My parents have been married almost 59 years (in April it will be 59).  They are still very much in love.  She misses him at night, it's sad.  I really hope he can come home to her again.  Sigh....

I have been at the hospital every day since he went in on January 8 th.  Tonight I am not going.  My 2 sisters and I have decided we have to try to take turns so we don't burn out.  My Mom is there every day, all day.  She says she doesn't want to be anywhere else.  She usually gets a ride in the morning, then stays all day (grandchildren or one of us goes up throughout the day), then someone comes up around supper time to stay with her until she can say goodnight to Dad then take her home.  It has been a very long 12 days.

In the past 12 days I have done very little exercise.  There hasn't been time, and there hasn't been motivation.  I am sad and just can't find the umph I need to get going.  Yesterday I made myself go to my Body Pump class (weight class) and it really felt good.  Tonight I did my "couch to 5 K" on the treadmill, and it felt good.  I decided that I have to do this.  I have to make the time to look after MY HEART, and MY BODY.  I know my Dad would want that.  Tomorrow is weigh in day.  I hope I have lost some lbs.  I am so close now and I just want to get to goal.  My husband and I are going to Arizona and Las Vegas on March 2nd.  My plan is to be on Maintenance by then.

my family at Thanksgiving 2011

Life can change in an instant....

My Dad is in the hospital in ICU.  He has shown some improvement today so that's a good sign.  It's been a very long 36 hours.  I am thankful to have an amazing close family.

Weigh in

Weighed in yesterday and I am down 0.4 lb.  Not a stellar loss but I'm pretty happy with that considering at one point this week my home scale read almost 6 lbs more than my lowest weight!  Crazy I know.  I think it was a combination of leftover Christmas goodies and too much sodium but it freaked me out and got me in control.  I was reading someone's blog the other day (wish I could remember who it was to give them credit) that said she was in a rut where she did poorly most of the month (lifetime WW member), then scrambled to try to do good before the next weigh in.  I feel like I do that quite a bit of the time.  I'm not as careful on the weekends, then I spend the rest of the week trying to "undo" what I did in time to weigh in on Friday (or Saturday).  I really need to work on that.  Tracking every day, trying to get my exercise in and working every day on trying to lose these last 10 lbs!

2012 bring it on!!

Happy New Year to everyone!!  I weighed in yesterday and to my surprise and shock I was only up 0.2 lb!  I am very happy with that!  We had a quiet night but it was good.  The boys actually stayed home (which was a shock to us!).  We had Chinese food and wine for supper, then watched most of the World Junior Hockey game (yay Canada!!), then we watched a movie.  Horrible Bosses.  I wasn't impressed, but my 3 males in the family liked it.  There ya go, that is the story of my life.  lol   Rarely do we find a movie that we all like.  It was a nice night, I was in bed before midnight but that's OK.  I was very excited to see the new WW commercial!  One of the blogs that I follow suzistorm.com is on the commercial!  She is so awesome, she and I have even conversed a bit on twitter.  She is very inspiring and has lost 100 lbs.  Check out her blog.  I love the commercial, their theme is "believe".  When I look back over the past year, I have to say that the fact that I believed that I could do this was one of my strongest motivators.  So here I sit, almost a year later with only 10 lbs away from my goal.  2012 will be my year, bring it on!!

Christmas Eve!

Hello everyone!  Christmas is finally here!  Or should I say, holy crap Christmas is here already?!  That is how I am feeling.  I am ready though so bring it on!  It still feels very strange to not have any snow here.  It is currently +7 C ( 45 F).  That is not a normal temperature for Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada for December 24th!  We should be in a deep freeze with tons of snow right now.  It feels more like spring than Christmas.  OK enough of the weather stuff!

Weigh in yesterday went well.  I lost 0.8 lb for a total of 53.6 lbs!  Feels great.  I can only hope that I can maintain that over the next week.  I am not hoping to lose just maintain and not GAIN!  I have worked so hard for every ounce that has left my body.  My plan is to eat what I really, really like and just continue to work out at the gym or on the treadmill at home.  Lots of food will be facing me in the next few days.  I just have to be strong.  That being said, I will enjoy myself and have a few treats it is Christmas and all :-)

I reached a big goal this week.  I went not once but two times to a spin class!!  It was VERY hard but I managed to do it and it felt great!  Lots of sweating and my legs and butt were so sore the next day.  I went twice last week and I would love to start going 2 times a week along with the yoga once a week and the weights class 2 times a week too.  I am determined to get to this WW goal soon!

On that note, I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a very Healthy New Year!!

Finally broke my plateau!!

I have had a good week!  My scale at home finally broke the 170 mark, and today I was actually at 167.8 lbs. I seemed to be stuck in the 170's for so long!  Weight Watchers has made a few changes to their program.  One of them was to decrease the minimum daily points plus target to 26 from 29.  So that's what I did this week, I went down to 26.  And, well, it worked.  I weighed in today at WW and I was down 2.4 lbs.  That's the most I have lost in awhile and it feels so good to have lost.  I was finally able to put some pretty blue stones in my heart shaped glass jar :-)  I have missed doing that.  I now have 11 more pounds to lose.  11 pounds!!  I have never been this close to goal before.  It is a little scary that it's so close to Christmas though.  I have worked so hard that I really don't want to "undo" any of this.  My goal is to maintain over Christmas, not lose and not gain.  Wouldn't that be great?  My plan is to eat a bit of whatever I REALLY want, and to leave the rest.  I promise myself I will do my best to exercise too.  I am feeling so strong and fit these days, I am addicted to the feeling of working out.  I have noticed muscles where I never had muscles before.  My calves, arms and thighs are firming up.

I am still NOT ready for Christmas yet.  And I am getting annoyed at all the people that seem to ask that question at this time of year....."are you ready for Christmas?"  No. I'm. Not.   But I will be :-)  I have 3 days off this weekend and then I'm off Wednesday next week too.  So on those days I will hopefully finish my shopping, do a bit of baking, wrap the gifts, send out a few cards (that likely won't get to their destinations on time...sigh) and clean the house.  I have had a really hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year because we don't really have any snow to speak of.  There has only been one Christmas that I can remember in my 48 years living here that there was no snow for Christmas.  It will be strange if there isn't any. There is still a week until Christmas eve so we will see!

The one sixties baby!!