Jean's Musings

Busy year!

2008-03-29T05:40:30Z

Last weekend was Norwescon 31 in Seattle and it was fabulous!

robwas in the Art Show again this year and I think he did rather well for only his second year there. We're hoping to get him into the Art Show in Dragon*Con in Atlanta as well. We are definately attending! We are also attending San Diego's Comic-con and Seattle's Dragonflight this year. Tomorrow we are attending the First Annual Fairy Spring Festival in Tacoma.

We're not quite sure yet - we have to talk with the merchant coordinator again - but we may also be doing the last weekend of the Washington Renaissance Fantasy Faire. We probably will. *g*

Anyway, it's going to be a very busy year - but also a lot of fun and very exciting. We've met two of our favorite authors this year - Kim Harrison and naominovik. Both are absolutely wonderful people and we look forward to both meeting them again and MORE BOOKS! =D

I'll try to keep up with the posting this year.

Week 2

2007-06-17T00:53:53Z

Well, my grandmother passed away last Saturday - my other grandmother passed last January...so I have been in a bit of a funk this week and not doing what I should to lose the weight. I am not making excuses - just recording why I did not lose a pound this week. However, I did lose .8 of a pound. As of approximately 5:20 this evening, I am 257.3 and have lost a total of 2.5 pounds in two weeks.

Week 1

2007-06-10T04:18:51Z

Well, I can now see why they suggest that you weigh yourself only once per week. You normally go through fluctuations and weighing yourself more often can be discouraging. I wasn't sure I was actually losing weight...but, at the end of the first week, I have lost 1.7 pounds! I weighed myself at approximately 6:30 pm today (I was asleep at five) and I weighed in at 258.1! Woo Hoo.

Day 0

2007-06-03T00:26:56Z

Well, we just did a lot of running around and it's hot today for us at this time of year. We're not used to 80 degrees and I don't do well in heat. But we did get the scale! I did not get new athletic shoes yet, but I figured the scale was more important. My daughter's 16th birthday is next week and funds were a little tighter than anticipated. That's okay. I have shoes, I just thought new shoes would help motivate me. ;)

Base weight for week zero: 259.8 pounds - higher than I thought, but this is my own scale and not at the doctor's office.

I am planning on checking my weight every Saturday at about 5:00 pm. I'll record them here.

I am a bus commuter...and I found another route that doesn't drop off right outside my apartment complex, but 1.3 miles away. I am going to start taking that bus home in the evenings and do that walk. When I lose a bit more weight and am in better shape, I may consider doing the walk in the morning as well (but I really hate getting up early and I already leave the apartment in the morning at 5:40-ish am). We'll see what happens.

My apartment complex has a fairly nice gym set up at our clubhouse. My daughter was interested in starting an exercise program with me. I think we may start going down there on weekend days and any day I don't walk...so three days a week. I've been cutting down (almost out) on soda and replacing it with unsweetened tea...which I drink a lot more of. We've also been trying to cut down on our starch and carb intake...that's not going to be as easy, but I think we can at least make the portions smaller until we are at a reasonable level.

My next step is to look into Weight Watchers. I'm not sure if I want to do this or not, but I do want to keep my options open. I know that Weight Watchers is recommended by a lot of people in the medical community (including my doctor) and has two programs: meetings or online. If I do go with their program, I am pretty sure that I'll be doing the meetings. I think it's a psychological commitment that I will need to make if going the Weight Watchers route becomes necessary.

I posted that my mood is sleepy, but I think that's really just the heat getting to me. :) I'm going to take it easy until later this evening when it starts to cool off and then go with my daughter to the gym. I'll post again next week, if not before!

I wasn't always fat...

2007-05-31T17:27:06Z

When I was 13, I had a 23 inch waist and my father was telling me that I was starting to get fat. (It should probably be noted that my mother is heavy and my father was an Army officer.) The summer between my Junior and Senior years of high school, I hit 152 pounds at a height of just slightly over 5'4". I do hide my weight well (unfortunately), but I was getting pudgy. I managed to get down to 136 by the time I graduated.

A few years later I was married and got pregnant. I was 22 and 134 pounds at 5'4 and 1/2". I actually look good between 130 and 135 pounds. I can carry more weight if I'm in shape (when I was at my best physical condition, I weighed 143, but looked 125). Unfortunately, I had some medical situations when I was pregnant and ended up being 202 when I delivered my daughter. That was almost 16 years ago.

Since then I did a little yo-yoing. 10 years ago I had managed to get my weight back down to 168 pounds after being stuck above 170 for a while. I was walking 4 miles a day and felt great. I was so excited getting below 170! I met my second husband at that point. Six months later I was 202 pounds. I didn't understand it! I ate the same and was still walking quite a bit...why the weight gain - especially of soooo much weight in such a short amount of time! I went to the doctor and found out that I have Hashimoto's Disease. What is that? It is an auto-imune disease where my body thinks my thyroid doesn't belong and creates antibodies to distroy it. My thyroid was (and still is) in the process of shutting down. That explained the weight gain.

Between that and having Fibromyalgia and also being hypoglycemic, I gave up. I made excuses for myself that I couldn't lose weight because of my medical situations...but I really just gave up.

Last Friday I went and saw my doctor for my physical. He didn't say anything about my weight (they rarely do), but I did get weighed in. I am now 5'4 and 3/4" and 258 pounds. 258...add 10 pounds and I'll be double the weight I was 17 years ago when I first got pregnant with my daughter! ACK! There's TWO of me! One of me has GOT to go!

When I was in the Army, they considered 2 pounds a week to be an exceptable rate of weight loss (when necessary). Any more than that was not considered healthy. I started talking to people. One person told me that a friend of theirs lost 22 pounds in four months simply by becoming more active. 22 pounds in four months...that's a good amount of weight in a time frame that is healthy and doable. So I thought about it. I should be able to drop a pound a week. In 14 months I'll be 40 years old. If I lose a pound a week (on average), I can be below 200 pounds by the time I turn 40 (I'll also be getting my MBA around that time - but that's another story). Okay, so now that is my goal. As a present to myself, I will be below 200 pounds when I am 40.

I quit drinking. I quit smoking. I quit biting my nails. I can do this.

This weekend I am going to buy myself some athletic shoes and a good scale. I'll keep you posted.