1fatdiva

Saturday an old classmate of mine called to say her connecting flight had been cancelled and she was stuck at the airport and would like to stay over night with me then catch a flight home the next day. I was delighted as we had not seen each other in years. Then reality set in and I remembered she had always been a size 10. EEEK!

Me with all my low fat high fiber foods, what was I going to feed my normal size friend? Before I could figure it all out she arrived and it was soon time to fix dinner. As I washed the salad greens, my friend grabbed the balsamic vinegar and some olive oil and started making her own salad dressing. I must have frozen with my mouth open, because she said “I hope you dont mind but I never eat those store bought dressing, too much fat and sugar for me.” I smiled and said me too. While I steamed some mixed veggies, she found the smart balance spread and said I just love this stuff, its so much better than plain butter. I said me too. I was about to pull some steaks out of the freezer when she spied some 98% fat free turkey breast cutlets and said, “Can we have these instead? Steaks are okay but I’d rather try these.” I said me too. As I poured us both a tall glass of ice water with a lemon wedge I told her that I try to drink at least a quart of water a day. She smiled and said me too.

Yep, I found out that Ms T.H.I.N. - Totally Healthy, In-charge and Not-hungry - had spent a lifetime doing what I have just learned how to do. Eat healthy, exercise, drink lots of water, and read the labels on everything I buy. Feels good to be T.H.I.N.

I am so excited!!!! I was just going to let everyone know I will be out of town for a week but I have to tell this story. I have not lost much weight lately but I keep eating right, walking, yoga, and lifting weights. The scales aren’t moving but I feel so much better, stronger, leaner. So today I decided to try doing something I have never had the nerve to do before. Heck even my DH gets nervous when its time to do it… Change the dreaded air conditioner filter! I know this sounds like no big deal, but the crazy person who built this house put the vent at the top of the only room with 15 ft ceiling. To reach it, my DH who is 6ft 3 has to extend our ladder to its fullest which makes it very shaky, while I am putting all my considerable weight on the bottom half of the ladder to keep it steady while he slowly nervously makes his way up. Then you have to lean over sideways, unlatch the vent, pull out the old filter and force the new one in that is always some how too big. All while keeping one hand on the top of the shaky ladder. Well today I did it ! Little 5ft 2 me! I said to myself if you can do Tae Bo you can do anything. Its all about balance and core strength. I Founf out the ladder was only shaky because my husband was so shaky! When he got home from work he couldnt believe it. The old me could not have lifted the ladder without straining my back, the new me used my stronger muscles and not my back. The new me had yoga balance and didnt make the ladder shake. The new me had a hard time being humble today!!!!!!!!!!!!

Had a wonderful time Buddies. The best part was people watching. I learned a lot about myself while interacting with the other people staying at my hotel. There were 2 very different groups I learned a lot from. I call them the THINS and the THICKS.

 The THINS were already at the spa no matter how early I got there. They had enjoyed an early morning workout before they headed off to breakfast. The THICKS were not seen until lunch time, they always had breakfast in bed. At the lunch buffet, the THINS marveled at the wide variety and fresh taste of the fruits and salads available. They had steamed veggies and grilled meats. The THICKS decided the plates were too small so they needed three, one for fried chicken and fried catfish, one for bread and pasta, the other for desserts.

The rest of the day the THINS were busy walking up and down the 5 miles of the strip eager to see and experience all that Vegas had to offer. The THICKS sat at the same penny slot machines all day and filled up on free drinks. By the end of the week the THINS were refreshed, invigorated and ready to go home. By the end of the week the THICKS were feeling sluggish, bored and ready to go home.

I learned that it’s all about choices.Do I choose to spend hours grazing at the all you can eat buffet, or do I choose to grab a quick salad and walk down to the wonderful free dancing waterfall show. Do I choose to call room service for breakfast in front of the TV or head down to the spa and sip on a fruit smoothie while the best looking man I ever saw massages my feet…..I choose to become one of the T.H.I.N.S. T.otally H.ealthy I.n-charge and N.ot S.uffering.

I know I can’t keep my weight off if I’m suffering and feeling deprived of the foods I want to eat all the time, so I have to come up with rewards, challenges, new recipes, new work out routines that will make life fun. That’s how the T.H.I.N.S. do it and I can do it too!

One of my buddies said we are suppose to do something nice for ourselves to celebrate our new healthy life-style. Let’s see….. Should I get new running shoes, a new exercise tape, a new hat???? Heck no I’m going to LAS VEGAS baby and hang out at the spa, and get a herbal body wrap, and loss some money, and get a hot rock massage, and loss some money, and get a mud pack facial , and loss some money.

See you in a week

At first I was disappointed with myself. All that hard work and I only lost one #%@! pound !!! Why do I torture my self for one doggone pound? Shoot! I could have pigged out on pizza and beer and sat my fluffy butt on my comfy couch instead of getting all sweaty on the treadmill. But you know me, I got a grip and said I gotta look at this half empty glass again, maybe it is half full. As Sandy says I’m My Own Best Forever Friend. So here is what I would tell my friend who only lost one pound after trying so hard all week:

Look at the size of a pound of butter, its the size of a brick. You just threw away a brick of unhealthy living that was trying to make you eat bad and feel bad and look bad, but you got rid of it so you are eating good, looking good and feeling good!!!

Imagine a stack of 4 quarter pounder greasy cheeseburgers. That what’s not in your body anymore. You gave them away to some poor skinny person who is desperately trying to gain a pound.

Imagine the doctor told you you could choose to die tomorrow or live an extra year by eating healthier and getting more exercise. What you have chosen to do is LIVE. Good choice! Now stop whining and celebrate your weight lose! Hooray for the one pound losers, like me!!!!!!!

Well okay maybe not but that’s what it felt like. Most of you are too young to remember this but in the good ol days when you were past due, and your baby seems happy to stay in your beach ball belly, the grandmas and great aunts always had good advise for you. They would bring you a tall cool glass of lemonade and say stop worrying that only makes it worse. You just need to get busy so your baby knows you mean business. They would tell you that you just needed to clean house really good or wash a big load of cloths. And sure enough before you could complete your big project your water would break, and the wise ones would smile and say told you so!

Its the same thing with my weight loss. I just could not get that baby to move. Two weeks of trying so hard, and nothing was happening, not even a 1/2 a pound would come off. I was getting panicky am I gonna start gaining it all back! Will I never be thin!? Then my buddies said stop worrying. Weighing yourself every day is just making you stress out, that’s not helping you. Other buddies said drink more water, change up your exercise routine. Others said write down what you want to help you get remotivated. So I took every ones advice. I stopped weighing every few hours, and drank more water. I tried a new workout routine - One day cardio; next day treadmill; next day weights.

I wrote down and read aloud to myself what I want. I want to look good in normal cloths sizes not the XXXXXL kind. I want to be able to run if only a block or 2. I want my husband to look at me and be proud of what he sees. I want to live long enough and be healthy enough to dance at my grandbaby’s wedding, she is 3 yrs old now.  I want to eat because I’m hungry not because I’m _________ ( all the other excuses I find for overeating).

And it worked! I got on the scales today and at last I am no longer stuck at 180! My water broke! Now all my wise buddies you can say told you so. And I can say thanks for the good advise you were right!

I knew it!  Every time I get down to 180 lbs I get stuck. I tell myself its not fair!!!! I haven’t eaten any of the things I love like big macs and french fries and chocolate donuts all week and not even a single pound? Come on now how can that be fair! And I’m getting more exercise and drinking my water, and not even one tiny pound not even a half of pound. What to do now??????? Well I’m going to take one of my buddies good advise and go back and read all my old post, I have come toooo far to give up now. What had me so motivated a month ago when I lost 15 lbs ? I cant remember, but I’m going back down memory lane and find that stronger me who was shouting I WANT TO BE HEALTHY. Today I’m just whimpering iwannadonut.

What made me think my old fat butt could do Taebo just like Angie? Thank you Angie !!! You made it sound so easy and so fun, I couldn’t wait to try for myself. Now I am standing up and typing this post because the second time I kicked my leg out to the side like I knew what I was doing, I got a cramp in my fluffy BUTT! I have never had a cramp in my butt before. I know this means I need to be doing a whole lot more than just sitting on it like I have been doing. So since I cant sit down I guess I’ll limp over to the frig and get some ice cream I mean ice water !!!!!!!

Okay buddies, Sandy challenged us to eat fish yesterday…Did you? I did. I has some salmon with lemon pepper it was great!

Our challenge for today was to do something nice for ourselves. Sometimes we are so down on ourselves for not losing as much weight as we wanted to or for giving in to that junk food we said we would never ever eat again. Or somebody says something about our fluffyness that hurts really bad. But just for today … What did you do just to be nice to yourself? I went to the Half Price second hand book store and spent an hour just goofing off and looking at old record album covers - yep back down memory lane. Then I found an old Sci - fi moving I love on the $1.00 table. WoooHooo what a fun morning, now I’m going to lift some weights while I watch my bargain movie. So what did you do for yourself today Huh ???????

One whole week without access to a computer!!! My cell phone never rang, no e-mail, no weight loss buddies OMG! After I recovered from my lack of computer access withdrawals, I settled down to enjoy life in the country. Now that I’m back, I realized that everything I needed to know about healthy living I learned last week from my mama.

I learned:

Yesterday is gone, forget about it. You can’t do anything to change it so why sweat it. I was afraid my mother would be beating herself up for becoming a diabetic, but she says she cant go back and change how she usta eat, so why sweat it. Let yesterday’s mistakes go and go on with you life.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life so what are you doing today to make the rest of your life better? Every morning Mom, tapes a blank sheet of paper on her refrigerator. She writes on it in big letters ” Today I Will Do Something Good For Me” beneath that heading she writes out everything she eats and the exercises she does. Three times a day she reads it all out loud to herself. No matter what kind of day she has, the last entry at night is “I Did Good Today”.

You are never to old to learn something new. My mother didn’t know what a carb was until a few weeks ago when she was diagnosed as a diabetic, now she is the carb counting queen. She has learned to read the label on everything she eats and make substitutions based on her total carb intake per meal.

If you slow down you really can smell the flowers. Mom puts fresh flower on the kitchen table before she sits down to eat. She arranges her food on her plate like a fancy restaurant work of art. Her ice water is in a fancy glass with a lemon twist. As she slowly chews each bite she inhales the scent of the fresh flowers, pauses between fork fulls to admire their beauty and smiles. She eats longer, and feels fuller, while eating smaller portion of food.

All this from the lady who raised me on biscuits, gravy and fried chicken. Will wonders never cease!