I'm Back

By Christine

Within the next six weeks I'm moving, my son is coming home from his mission, I'm giving a major presentation and I'm turning 50. I've totally let all thoughts of my growing midsection fly out the window during this time of unemployment and stress, but now that my hubby is back among the employed, maybe its time for me to try again to pull my act together and really work on this.

I'm going to weigh in on Monday and start my road. I'm sure the last months have added another ten pounds to my figure and its time to work on this. I'm always better with short-term goals.

I'm hoping to work on improved behaviors from now until my birthday on April fifteenth (my birthday.) I'll hone down the details tomorrow but any suggestions would be great.

I'm still HERE

So I haven't checked in in a while and was having fun reading all your updates. Congrats to Melissa and all those who have had success.

I weigh the same which is miraculous but I learned something new about myself. With my eighth baby I got CMV which turned to GB, and I was in bed for the most part of a year partially paralyzed. I recovered but still get very tired and have been told by physicians that I just need to build up my strength up by more exercise. I believed them but every time I do, I'm exhausted!

So I start a new diet plan and can't understand that after a few days I'm literally bedridden. Well, I found out after reading some medical abstracts yesterday that because of my condition (my nerves are ragged and can get swollen- its called CFIS) that high stress exercise is the worst thing I can do! They suggested, yoga or Tia chi (sp?)

That is so great because I went to the PT the other day for my knees, and he told me the same thing, that all the exercises I'd been given were actually deteriorating my knees rather than helping them and that I need to do low impact exercises the surrounding muscles instead of putting more stress on my already pathetic knees.

I guess the trick is to figure out my personalized owners manual for this body of mine and stick with it. I'm excited to start AGAIN with low impact so I don't wear myself down and see where I go. Hopefully it's all uphill and down on the scale.

Another Birthday!

Today was my hubby's birthday and we had snickers cake. My piece was small but I'm not holding my breath. Tomorrow the missionaries come over for dinner and Friday is my son's b-day but in between I'm planning on being great!

I'm afraid to stand on the scale so I'm waiting until next Monday. Now I'm just trying to stay happy and maybe eat breakfast. This morning I had breakfast at 10am (up at 5am).

I'll do better.

My Weird Dream

By Christine

So last night I dreamed that my husband bought a new house for us that I had never seen. He showed me around and I opened the first door and there was a jacuzzi in the bedroom. I was surprised. So I opened the next door and there was a glass door leading to the backyard where a huge pool shimmered in the afternoon sun. The last door I opened led to an indoor swimming pool. Do you think my subconscious was telling me something?

Yes, I got up and swam today. First time all week.

Where Has Christine Been?

I know, I know. I've been AWOL the last few days. After a great beginning, I sort of fell off the wagon. On Thursday I was finishing up my Christmas story for http://www.ldspublisher.blogspot.com/ and didn't get out of my room until noon. Then my teenage son called from downtown. He had been sleeping at a friend's house and they decided to walk a few miles but didn't have the energy to get home. What he failed to tell me is that he had gather four other friends together on the way.

I picked up the six fourteen year old boys and spent the afternoon driving them over town as they prepared to decorate the Bishop's lawn that night with forks, TP, plastic gravestones and stuffed dummies representing each of them. With a boatload of junk food and a handful of videos we headed back to my house so they could hang out until it was dark enough not to get caught.

Amid all this activity I still hadn't had breakfast. At five o'clock when I was going to have a salad, the Doritos looked too good. I admit I was awful because I was STARVING- which is why I'm supposed to eat every ninety minutes.

So Friday is writer's group. After being up most of the night making sure the teenagers didn't get out of hand, I dragged myself from bed and raced over to critique group at ten without breakfast again. It went well. They liked my story with very few changes but we did go through other people's chapters and it took a long time, for some reason. I didn't got home until 2pm, still having not eaten and had two bowls of Cap'n Crunch. It went down hill from there.

Sunday I was great (again no breakfast first meal at 5pm- do we see a pattern?) then I remembered it was my friend's birthday. Well, actually I forgot and visited her and then remembered so I ran to the store (yes, on Sunday but it was an emergency) and bought her a cake and we had to share it.

Yesterday my George turned 19. His mission papers are almost in and we had fun but I went to Panda Express and had cake.

Bottomline, today I'm back on the program and after my evil weekend, I'm back up 2lbs which still means I lost 2lbs last week. I'm at 255.

I'm going to weigh in on Mondays, although next week is my husband's birthday. We'll see how it goes. Cross fingers.

And I NEED to start exercising... well, I can only improve, right?

Set Backs, Already?

By Christine Thackeray

Okay, so eating-wise I've been PERFECT!! Well, sort of. This morning I didn't get out of my room until noon (up at six but playing around.) I ate breakfast at 2 pm. Not quite my every 90 minute thing. I think I'm the only person on earth that gains weight by only eating once a day, but my body just shuts down and hugs on.

Exercise-wise I've been awful. The first day I was good, then Tuesday I slept in and had meetings at night. Yesterday my husband was working on his masters and asked for my help when I had planned to swim. It was fun because we shot over to "The Coffee Cottage" which has internet and had slushies while we worked on his assignments. He thought he was in a den of iniquity because it has "coffee" in the name.

Today I planned on getting out but decided to put some finishing touches on a story and missed swim time. Then I had a dental appointment during the noon swim and tonight I've got Cub Scout Committee meeting. Am I really up to getting to the pool at 9:30pm?

We'll see, but don't hold your breath. Ugh.

Day One

When I woke up this morning, I was in a great mood. I stood on the scale and was down FOUR pounds which was shocking but probably a result of staying in the jacuzzi talking to friends for so long that my face stayed red for about an hour afterwards. (Water weight.)

I swam yesterday, was great with eating and even jumped in the pool in my backyard to play with the kids which I have never done before. (I was afraid the cheap ladder would break.) Today, I've been alright but not really. I was going to swim in the morning, but my husband needed me to be his secretary.

I've got a mountain of laundry and a boatload of things to do, so I better get running. Cross your fingers that today's as good as yesterday.

Yesterday's Success: It would have to be the hour I spent swimming with the kids. I had a blast. Or it may have been the fact that we actually had FHE. Yeah!

The History of Dieting

Hi, I'm Christine and I've been dieting all my life. I'm the little shorty in the back row and there's a reason you can only see my face right now. In third grade I weighed 103 lbs. but was also over five feet tall- freakishly tall for that age. (That's why it is so nice to marry tall and have big sons.) By the time I hit high school I could lose weight for a while if I focused, but it always found me again, consistently bouncing up to the 170's. I'm 5'9".





During those years I tried-

• The Cambridge Diet - The first of the powder drinks


• The Grapefruit Diet- Eat a grapefruit before each meal


• The Scarsdale Starvation Torture Diet- Starve for two weeks eat for one, then repeat

In college I had good friends and between working and going to school full-time should have worried more about my waistline but didn't. Still, for weddings and such I'd try more diets.

• The Cabbage Diet- gives you really bad gas


• Ten Day Juice Fast- The first three days aren't bad and then it's heck


• High Fiber Diet- My sister and I attempted to drastically increase our fiber for one diet. Not only were we miserable but everyone within a few feet of us was also.

After my first baby I lost thirty pounds magically. I was busy and happy and weighed less than I did in high school. Then I got pregnant with my second, retained water, didn't see my feet for three months and sobbed when I stood on the scale at the end of the the experience. Not only had I gained back the weight I lost but for the first time I tipped the 200 mark. ACK!!!! Once my baby was six weeks old I joined Weight Watchers and lost fourteen pounds my first week. (I doubt that would happen today.) I continued a few months and didn't reach my goal but made good progress. Still, WW was very expensive, so I quit and tried a few other diets.

• Weight Watchers- Good but how long can I afford $8 a week


• Slim Fast/Lean Cuisine- Slimfast for breakfast and lunch and a lean cuisine for dinner while you cook normally for the rest of the family and hope they don't can't you stealing bites of real food in the kitchen.


• E-diets- Which I also really liked but spent so much time on the computer that it soon outweighed the benefit.


• Sugarbusters- Got the book, tried it and decided that life was too short to live that way


• GI Index- Too much math and I like math


• Fen-Phen- Okay, I never tried this but remember watching all these friends of my that suddenly began to lose weight. It was unbelievable. They didn't look sickly or starved, in fact, they looked like models. I was tempted to do it and then the reports came out. One of my close friends actually died from that.


• Cosmopolitan Lady- Joined the gym, they gave me a meal plan, hated going because everyone else there looked like they were anorexic.


• The Ten Day Diet- A great diet but the food is through the roof on price. Totally worth it because you get to eat Red Snapper multiple days.

During this time, the needle on the scale kept going up until today I'm 257 lbs. You think by now I'd realize it's not the diet that failed, it's me- I'm the failure. I simply need to accept that I will never be a Greyhound. I'm a soft lovable St. Bernard, right? Sort of.

There are a few things I've learned along the way

1. Diets can't be temporary- I will always need to limit my intake. Believe it or not, my jelly belly is a lot like credit card debt. When I spend too much, I carry around stress in debt, and when I eat too much, I carry around stress in poundage. Just as budgets aren't temporary neither is the mode in which I chose to watch my eating.


2. Stress causes me to gain weight- My weight is like a little stress barometer- the more stress, the more I weigh. When I was recovering from an illness a few years ago I started working out multiple times each day at the YMCA and seriously restricting calories for two months. You know, I've got a great system because it countered the assault but hunkering down and not letting me lose any weight at all. Instead, if I take a lower key approach to exercise and weigh loss, it may give me more success.


3. I have no control over loss of weight only over my behavior- Setting weight loss goals aren't really goals at all because we have no control over them. The year I lost fourteen pounds in one week on weight watchers was cake compared to the weeks I fought at the gym and ate very little a few years ago and had ZERO weight loss success. In my short-sightedness I abandoned my efforts because I was not achieving my goals. If my goals had been based on behavior, instead of weight loss, I may have had the verve to keep going, knowing that no matter what the scale said, I was keeping up my part of the bargain.


4. All I want to do is feel better- I recently went to a knee specialist who told me that all I needed to do was cut my calories to 1500 a day. I've been there, in fact, I was there last week and gained three pounds. Extreme diets wipe me out and are very rarely successful for me. I want to feel good while I'm dieting so that I keep it up. I'm not going to kill myself at the gym or starve myself. I'm going to stretch but not too far and try to be gentle so that I'll want to keep healthy rather than feel like it is some awful medicine.


5. Blood sugar control- After having such a bad week last week I have to admit that blood sugar issues can play an important role in weightloss. For me, that's a large consideration in how I'm putting my plan together. Like Steve Carell on Get Smart who was opening that granola bar when they were supposed to be staking out someone, consistant small meals are important.

SOOOOO- Here's my plan-

I'm going on a HAPPY DIET.

Eating- I need to eat every 1-1/2 to 3 hours with meals consisting of 350-500 calories and snacks 50-150 calories. The lower limits are as important as the upper limits so I need to eat as much as I need to limit my eating.

Exercise- Each weekday I'll participate in three types of activities. If I'm perfect during the week, then Saturday is free! Otherwise, Saturday is a catchup day.

1. Cardio for 20 min.- Because of my knees that means swimming


2. Stretching and abs- I've got a morning and evening routine that I've let slip lately


3. Fun with the kids- As part of my efforts, I've got to do something physical with the kids each day

Extra Corners and Limits- There are a few more edges that will help me. Each week I may tweak this section a little but for now it consists of

1. Fast food once a week- This summer I've gotten lazy. I'm determined to only resort to fast food once a week so that when I get it, I really want it.
2. Water Intake- I've got to down two glasses in the morning before exercising and 16oz. with each meal. Sorry, that's it. I'm not going to drown myself.
3. Morning Affirmations- I'm going to say nice things about myself to myself each morning as I get ready and rather than whine about what a pudge I am.
4. Daily Success- I'm going to capture a daily success and write it down so I'm grateful for my day and increase endorphins. Maybe this blog is my one for today.
5. Weighing In- Monday morning I will record my weight but remember it doesn't count. If I'm perfect and don't lose pounds it's because I'm becoming the most muscle bound woman on earth- so there.

Sorry, it's been such a mouthful. Well, I'm off. I've already been to the gym and swam for fifteen minutes. Then I sat in the hot tub with four close friends laughing and having a great time until my face was so red from the heat that it didn't go away for almost an hour. Oh well.

I also made a great brunch for everyone and have to run and get my snack now. Cross fingers. Remember, success is based on my BEHAVIOR not on weightloss so I'm hoping for a perfect day.