First Week's Travels and Travails

It's been a complicated week. On the one hand, I have a fully planted garden complete with home-made trellis for the vines to creep on (thanks to the Hubs) and a newly painted Ladies Lounge.  On the other hand, the usual family life: who isn't talking to who, who's sick, how can we make life simpler, and will we actually let each other do that? Hard to say. In the midst of all the fun stuff I actually did manage to make some modest changes. So here is the Sunday confessional:

I am creating the WATCH list.  It's like this:  Waist, Arm, Thigh, Chest, Hips. On Sundays I am going to weigh myself, retake all my measurements, and write to you awesome folks about what happened and how I pulled anything off or failed to do so.  If any of my intrepid readership would like to participate, please comment along--we are here for eachother, after all!  On a side note, you do need a Wordpress, Google, AIM or Website account to make comments. Not sure if there is a workaround but it was pretty darn easy to set up a Google account (and they are not paying for my sponsorship).

Here is the WATCH list for today:

Waist:  36 inches (at the narrowest point)
Arm:  13 inches (at the mid-bicep)
Thigh: 25.5 inches (yep, right at the chunky rubby part)
Chest:  43.5 inches (across the bust)
Hips: 45.5 inches (at the widest point)



Here is my fat face in Week 1. There is a ghost of a double-chin starting to form, my cheekbones are well disguised, and my skin is spotty. These are things that really started to change with my previous weightloss.



And as of this moment, 213 pounds.  I only made some modest changes this week--no soda, added more veggies instead of more meat to our family meals, tried to eat less processed ingredients.  Although I have not started my WW food diary, or tracked any points, they did lower my daily allowance to 34 which seems reasonable.  I will let you know if I score any good info.  I have my target weight on WW set to 185 pounds, I was so excited to reach that milestone last time and I really hope to do it again.  Exercise was something that eluded me again this week but I did work up a sweat out in the garden, in the pool with the kids, and while painting the house. I am hoping to really get down to it soon...my own excuses are making me sick!

The kids are adapting pretty well to eating what's cooked...occasional negative feedback but so far we are pushing forward.  Hopefully this can carry through their lives to when they are the parents. As far as eating whole foods goes, I am thinking it will be a work in progress. I have no intention of turning my whole pantry inside out so as we use the products, they will not be backfilled. I am not going to just chuck my hard earned $$ in the trash. I believe that these small changes will have cumulative effects and that moderating our intake of processed foods will be a big help.

So a summary and disclaimer:  I am not being too critical of myself, I love myself and so I need to take care of me. The changes I notice in my face and body are merely clinical observations rather than a deep criticism. Every Sunday I hope to post a new photo of my face, a new set of measurements on the WATCH list, and my weight fluctuations.  Monday hopefully will be Menu Day as long as I can sit down, comb thru recipes, and shop accordingly. I don't have any plans for the other weekdays but you never know when my mental cup will overflow on to here. I am hoping to show you some of my home improvements and crafts some time as well!  Drop me a comment if you wanna see anything else!