The Pilot Episode

Hi.  I'm Heather.  I've had an on-again off-again relationship with dieting and weight loss for pretty much my whole life.  I am a stress-baker, and subsequently a stress-eater.  I don't handle change very well, I cope by cooking - and therefore, eating.  I don't like to run.  Or be sweaty.  Or over-exert myself.

Clearly, I am a case-study in food and exercise issues.

About 2 years ago, in the midst of a major move and during the heat of an Iowa summer, I threw out my back.  At the time, I had a baby who wasn't yet mobile, a surly 11 year old and we were in a new town with nary a family member or friend for 200 miles.  Oh, and my husband had just started a new job (read: 50+ hour work weeks), I had just decided to be a stay-at-mom and we were valiantly trying to figure out how our new household positions worked (Do I have to do all the laundry now that I stay at home?  When do I get a day off?  Can I consider yoga pants to be my "work uniform?" How do we balance everything now that my work is home and my home is work?).  In retrospect, it was the best thing to ever happen to me and it is ultimately what catapulted me into an exercise and weight-loss routine.  You can read about some of my weight loss struggles and triumphs here and here and here.

I have since lost almost 50 pounds, but over the course of yet another major move, this time from Iowa to Northern Minnesota, and a very, very, very long and cold Minnesota winter, I've only managed to keep about 40 of those pounds off.

I have a hard time motivating myself, so this blog is my accountability tool.  My ultimate goal is to lose another 46 pounds.  And keep it off.  At that point, I am either going to:

1. Go on a fantastic tropical vacation with my husband where I will leave the children at home, wear a bathing suit from Victoria's Secret and enjoy fruity drinks with umbrellas in them while I lounge pool-side.
2. Have another baby - and get back on the weight-gaining track instead of the weight-losing track.
3. Be ready to move into a rest home because I'm afraid I will be so old by the time I finally get that extra 46 pounds off!

So...here's what this little blog is for: motivation and accountability.  I plan to post each Saturday about what went well the week before and what sucked.  I guess we can consider it my open journal of keeping it real in the world of fatty-fats.  I might post a recipe or something motivating or what I'm going to try the next week.  I might just sob incoherent sentences depending on how the week went.

I will not be posting my weight number.  I am not that brave.  But also, because weight is really, truly just a number and if I've learned one thing it is that it will change from week to week and month to month - up and down like a damned roller-coaster at World's of Fun (I hate roller coasters, ps). I weighed myself this morning, so I have a base-line to go off of and based on that I will post weekly (probably on Saturdays, but maybe on Sunday's if I have something awesome to do on Saturday) the number of pounds up or number of pounds down.  Once a month I will post measurements - again, not actual numbers, just up or down in inches.

This week, I have but 3 small goals to get me motivated:

1. Drink water all. day. long.  No soda.  No iced tea.  Coffee before noon only.
2. Take my multi-vitamin every day.
3. Exercise 3 times this week.

I would love it if you joined me on Saturday's by posting in the comments section what your weekly goals were and if you met them, or, if you're brave and you're tracking, was your weight up or down?  What worked for you?  We can motivate each other!  Or you can just read about what I'm doing, which is fine, but it would be more fun if we worked together!




READ THIS, IF NOTHING ELSE!!  I am not a doctor (although I play one in my head).  This blog is about things that work for me.  I am not endorsed by Weight Watchers (even though I could totally have taken Jessica Simpson's place when she got knocked up again) or by Dr. Atkins (because he's no longer alive, so he can't endorse me. Obviously.).  Talk to your doctor if you want to start losing weight.  Mine told me lots of things that would be benefits to losing weight (Smaller boobs! No plantar fascittis! No back pain!) and lots of things that made me want to cry into my ill-fitting paper gown if I didn't lose some weight (umm...death.  And also diabetes.  And also...death. That was a pretty big one.).