Week 3 with no weigh-in!

Well, Eileen's surgery went well, and she is now home recovering on her sofa with her family fluttering around her. The surgeon was unable to do the hysterectomy laproscopically, due to the condition of her lungs, so they ended up doing it surgically instead, which at least meant she got to spend 2 nights in the hospital - still not enough in Mom's estimation, but better than the one night they had originally planned to keep her in for!

Mom is back from her trip to England, and by all accounts has had a really good time. She CLAIMS to have eaten like a horse while she was gone, but she is still looking very slim, so I'm thinking she might be fudging a little on how much she really did eat! Either way, the important thing is that she had a good time - weight gain or no - and made it there and back safely!

As for me, I really have eaten with abandon this week, and sadly it has been largely junk - although I did munch my way through an entire bag of baby carrots one evening! I really, really need to get back on track with this FRP: I was doing so well, and I really do want to make it to my target weight this year. I stepped on the scales this morning - it showed me at 207.5lbs - which isn't TOO bad: it means that I've only gained about 6lbs in the last 2 weeks! Groan...

The general consensus, however, is that we will have one more week of not weighing in: Mom wants a little time to recover from her trip & to hopefully lose at least some of the weight she gained back; Eileen is in no state to come over to weigh in, and is not allowed to drive herself anywhere anyway, so that counts her out. And that would leave just me! So we will have a third week of reprieve before getting back on weigh-in track - hopefully by then we will all have made some changes again and will be back on the losing streak of this FRP rather than a gaining one!

Thank heavens we're not weighing in

I am so glad we're not weighing in this week - I dread to think what the scales would reveal! I seem to have done little more than eat my way through the last couple of weeks; stress has definitely been a factor, and I do have to concede that since Mom FINALLY managed to fly out on Thursday, I have had less desire to devour everything in sight - although I haven't cut down on doing so quite as much as I'd have liked to! It also doesn't help that I'm supposed to be in Honduras right now, except that my dear friend invited me to come, offered to pay half the ticket - then promptly stopped talking to me for 2 months. I did finally get an email from him this week; apparently he has a new GM who is running him ragged and he's very depressed / unhappy. At least he's finally contacted me - but I'm still disappointed to not be in Honduras right now!

The third thing going on with me is a potential new job. I have the 2nd interview on Tuesday - weather permitting - for a position as Quality Evaluator for hospitality; it would mean traveling 95% of the time through Europe in 2-week (sometimes 3-week) blocks. On the one hand, I'm very interested / excited about it - I'd get to use my languages, see lots of different places, earn a lot of frequent flyer miles, see my friends in Europe again, network with a lot of different hotels... On the other hand, it means leaving home & Mom / Eileen & the Davises again. I so enjoy being home & getting to spend all this time with Mom - and being near enough to my sister to actually have a relationship with her, and spending time with my niece & nephews. Going so far away again means giving all of that up again - and I'm not sure I want to do that!

So guess what? I eat... And gain weight... and eat some more. Time to break that cycle, make some decisions and basically put my big girl panties back on!!! Watch this space to see how well that works for me...!!!! :0)

Well, this has not been a good week!

Talk about eating because you've been depressed / stressed / in the wrong mood to NOT eat! This past weekend has been just... tense... to say the least. Mom was supposed to leave on Friday for London; due to the weather, the flight was canceled. I have spent countless (well, ok, circa 8) hours on the phone to Expedia so far. I got Mom's flight moved from Friday to Sunday, only to then find that Sunday's flight was ALSO canceled. Joy of joys!

Sad to say, I have indulged my feelings all weekend in food - way too much of it, to begin with, and really nothing at all healthy (except for a few carrots) either. Potato chips, lots of bread, candy, desserts, appetizers, way too much soda, chocolate puddings (ok, Jello ones - but even so...), popcorn, yogurt... The list just goes on. And now, to top it all off, we WILL be having a weigh-in this week, since Mom is not able to leave the country after all (Dulles is STILL closed, not scheduled to reopen until at least Tuesday & even that is doubtful, given that we're expecting yet more snow Tuesday into Wednesday). So instead of this week & next week being maintain / no-weigh-in weeks (Mom was supposed to be gone this week, then Eileen is having her hysterectomy next week), we will now be weighing in on Wednesday or Thursday... And I GUARANTEE I will have gained a ridiculous amount of weight back!

Oh, and to top it all off, not only am I now not going to Honduras after all, but it appears that Rafael has also decided we are no longer friends & he doesn't want to talk to me anymore - I have absolutely no idea why. He just has suddenly stopped responding to my messages, and I have not heard from him since before Christmas. So I've not been able to book flights and I'm not going - and I was supposed to be leaving this coming Friday. ***SIGH***

What is it with me right now????

Honestly, I do not know what is going on with me right now. I just want to eat-eat-eat.... Everything and anything. And I'm not even hungry. I mean, I just went into the kitchen to get a drink, and in the time it took to make a cup of (LOW CAL) hot chocolate, I thought about having a jello - no, an apple - no, a slice of bread & butter - no, some raisins (they're healthy, right?!) - no.... And I'm really, really not hungry!

I wish I could say that's just the way it's been for the last 20 minutes, but it's not - it's the way it's been for at least the last week (ever since I started feeling better). So I cheated this afternoon and stepped on the scale - half-dressed, and after breakfast - and that darn thing said I'd gained 10lbs & was now 211 lbs - so my reaction was, what the heck - in for a penny, in for a pound, and I took myself to McDonald's for lunch!!!

Tomorrow's weigh-in is not going to be good, regardless.... Groan!!!

Ugh... Food everywhere!

Oh dear. I'm really not having such a good week, and am dreading stepping on the scales on Wednesday morning. I'm willing to bet that I've probably regained the 5lbs I lost while I was sick last week - and that's just not a good thing, as it will mean that I've bounced up & down 5lbs every week for the last 3 weeks or so.. The thing is, it's not even like I'm hungry... I just seem to want to devour almost everything in sight - I say almost, because it's really junk that I'm craving: potato chips, candy, chocolate, french fries, burgers... all the things I'm not supposed to eat any more, and certainly none of the things I should be eating - although I did enjoy the salad at lunch this afternoon....

The saving grace is that I'm back at work & moving, so at least I'm working off SOME of the calories I keep insisting on putting on!

Food, food, glorious food...

Ah, it's so easy to see that I'm feeling better.... Everywhere I turn there seems to be food - and since the idea of having to CHEW my food no longer turns me off (for the last two weeks it's just seemed like way to much effort to have to chew - soups, bread & milk, yogurts / jellos have seemed so much more appealing), I'm afraid that temptation has somewhat gotten the better of me today! Oh well, tomorrow is a brand new day!

We're going clothes shopping for Mom tomorrow; she's so excited to be getting new outfits for England, it's almost like watching a child anticipating Christmas! It's been a really, really long time since she bought herself anything new though, so this is going to be a great trip! Plus we're going to have lunch at TGI Friday's - hopefully Eileen's going to be able to join us for that too - which is always a treat!

I go back to work - at last! - on Saturday, so I'm not too worried about my calorie intake right now - going back to work means going back to exercising, so that should be good!

Weigh in yesterday. Down one pound to 187 - actually a pound and a half, if I remember rightly. I had expected to gain, having eaten chicken fettucine alfredo not once but twice and then discovering that it is LOADED with calories! But all's well that ends well, and I am well on track for looking svelte and slim for England! We figured that this loss averages about five pounds a month, which is healthy and may mean that it will be easier to keep it off. Hopefully!!

Don't you just love doctors??

You know, I am convinced that doctors simply tell you it's all in your head if they can't figure out what's wrong with you. I went to see an ENT specialist today for my ongoing (13 days and counting) and recurring voicelessness. He stuck a camera up my nose & down my throat, looked around for a minute, then told me that there's absolutely nothing wrong with my vocal chords & therefore the only explanation for my (ongoing, and recurrent) voice loss must be that it is psychosomatic - although that was the word my mom used, because the doctor was "reluctant" to use that particular word. But cut it however you want to cut it, what he was basically saying is that I am somehow making myself voiceless! As if!! I mean, what logical - or for that matter, illogical! - reason could I possibly have for making myself lose my voice - thus making it hard (and sometimes impossible, as in the last 10 days, impossible) for me to work, and potentially lose my income for a period of time???? That makes absolutely no sense to me... but hey, I'm not the genius with the medical degree hanging on the wall that gets to make such lofty pronouncements!!!

There, now that I've got that off my chest.... !

The diet / FRP / whatever you want to call this experiment is going really well for all three of us, and I am so proud of the progress that each of us has made so far. I know I've been lousy at blogging - I keep starting out with such good intentions, then getting nowhere with them! - but I really am impressed with the fact that we're all still dedicated to this experiment, at least! As Mom posted last, we have all lost quite a bit of weight: Eileen is doing really well, given that she is surrounded by children and temptation all day every day - her 18lb loss is great! She is about to undergo surgery, too, which will doubtless give her a great advantage over the rest of us: I have no idea what a uterus weighs, but I'm guessing she's probably going to lose about 10lbs pretty quickly!

As for Mom, she has made her goal weight for her trip to London, and is SOOOO psyched about it, it's really fun to watch her! She's actually pretty close to meeting her overall goal, which is fantastic - especially given that we've technically still got about 5 months to go on this challenge! She's also looking fantastic: she doesn't remember the last time she was under 200lbs, so this is really a great time for her. We're going shopping on Friday to get her new - SMALLER - clothes for her trip, and we're both really looking forward to that!

Then there's me... I would NEVER have thought that I would lose this much weight quite this quickly. At the last weigh-in I was down to 201 lbs - that's a loss of 33 lbs in 4.5 months!! I don't think I've been that weight since I was a teenager - and THAT'S a long time ago!!! I finally gave in and put a new hole in my belt just before Christmas - and I'm just about at the point of needing to put another one. My new jeans, also bought shortly before Christmas, as beginning to feel a little loose around the waist... I so look forward to fitting into a size 14! That really will be a first since high school - and possibly even before then!

Anyway, tomorrow is weigh-in day, so we'll probably find that I've gained 10 lbs since the last one - although I sincerely hope not! I will update the weight chart tomorrow with all the latest data, so watch this space for more news!

TWENTY FIVE POUNDS!!! HOORAYHOORAYHOORAY!! I weighed in at 188.5 this morning, which means I can go to the UK with a real sense of achievement. And I can eat Boosts - and hot cross buns - and beef pot pie - and cream meringues - and and and - and then I can come back home and LOSE again! Esther Marie has now lost 33 lbs, and Eileen is down 18. Hey! this WORKS!!

In view of the devastating news from Haiti this morning, it seems truly sinful to even be worrying or concerned about our RFG - or whatever the acronym was. But be that as it may, I was pleased yesterday at weigh-in to discover that I am now 192, well on my was to being under 190 by Feb. 5. This is the lowest I have been since we started - well, it MATCHES the lowest before the holidays. And I am just glad that it was as easy as it was to get rid of it again. I have 13 lbs to go to my goal, but each one gets a little more difficult to achieve. Still, soldier on!

Ah, a new year - how can it be 2010 already! I have to admit that I didn't do too well at the end of the OLD year - I have gained back 4 1/2 pounds. But I am resolved (NOT a New Year's resolution!) to lose that plus another four before I fly off to the UK on Feb. 5. I am so excited at the prospect of seeing so many of my dear friends - Stan, Pat, Nancy, Bulbir, Denise - that I am off right now to fill in my new calendar with the dates! Bless, bless, bless my dear daughters for this wonderful gift! Well worth shedding 8 more pounds!