bikinis & thrift store mayhem

Erin is right, not all suits are created equally...and I just bought my first true bikini top ever. Robyn is so jealous. Which is funny because she is sooo much skinnier than me, and she has killer legs, but I have killer abs, and so I can wear my bikini top around camp. I don't really know how I look in it (Robyn looked at me, I didn't actually get to look in the mirror) but I do know that I feel super sexy in it! You guys should see it, but you probably never will because it's a camp top all the way. I will wear it with a sarong this weekend and the boys they will be a droolin'....at least I will pretend that they will be :)

In other news, Robyn and I spent too much money at the thrift store today, but we both needed summer clothes pretty badly. I wish I had Robyn's legs, but at least I didn't buy any pants that were under a size 14 - so claimed the tags. Some of those 14's are mighty big, but I like my clothes bigger, in the legs anyway. Robyn and I fought over some of the tops. She doesn't know it yet(shhhh), but that yellow top is sooo ending up in my closet. It looks way better on me than her anyway.

How to deal with a hangover

As annoying as the ww forums can be, sometimes people say really insightful things. Here's a quote from someone trying to help someone else who wanted to know what to do "the day after" a bad points day:

Start over. Tell yourself it is your first day OP. Our leader talked about that last night. She told a story about a woman who dropped one piece of her fine china, and as a result, because the whole set was not perfect, she smashed the entire set of the china. That is an absurd way to deal with it. Don't smash your whole program because you mess up one day. Look at all the good things you have accomplished instead of the one day of going over the points. That will help you keep from turning something into a disaster that does not need to be turned into one.

That's advice that we are given a lot in our meetings, but it never hurts to be reminded, and I think that this is a very clever metaphor and way of thinking about it.

I made it through

Yesterday was the first time ever that I was forced to eat a salad for dinner because I had one - count it ONE - point left at the end of the day. And what did I spend all those points on? GRANOLA BARS.

Yes, you read that right. So it's not even like I had chocolate or cake or french fries - something that is yummy and fattening and worth it. I was beating myself up so bad towards the end of that day Robyn actually had to talk me off the ledge. It didn't help that I was having a horrible day emotionally. I wouldn't even answer any in company calls. I just ignored the rings and let people leave messages, I just couldn't deal with people yesterday. But I could deal with GRANOLA BARS just fine.

So I did what I've seen Robyn do many times, I had a salad with 0 point dressing and a spoonful of fat free cool whip for dessert. And then Robyn and I went to the gym, just in case I miscounted the number of GRANOLA BARS I ate.

But you know, I got through it. I still had something like 28 extra points as of yesterday morning, and guess how many I have left today? 28. Since we are going to Mad Mex tomorrow and I know I want a margarita and chips & various kinds of salsa, I was really good all weekend and then I thought for sure that those GRANOLA BARS would be the death of a good number of extra points. So I don't even have to do the whole "today is a new day I will start over and get back on plan" Because technically, I never got off plan. I adapted and came through unscathed. And I learned a valuable lesson about what food I can bring to work and I learned that I will not die if I have only a salad for dinner.

from the diary of a charlatan

I can say honestly that for the past year and a half, very few week days have gone by where I didn't get some sort of comment regarding my weight - in a positive way. And this is fantastic, it has really kept me going sometimes when I had a hard time keeping faith in myself.

And today is one of those rare days where I actually feel "thin". It's not what I'm wearing - I'm actually weraing sort of baggy clothes today- it's my frame of mind. (and I really hope that somehow, some way, my frame of mind will transfer it's light feelings onto the scale tomorrow)

Yesterday I had one of the best weight-related compliments I've gotten. This woman said "I don't even rememmber you from before, I just think of you as one of the skinny people" Woah.
I don't know if I've brought this up before or not, but in the past couple months, my compliments have morphed from "you're looking really good" to "you're looking skinny"
Now, I KNOW I am not skinny. Skinny is one of those things that other people are but I never will be. I always say thank you, but I always think that they're just saying that to be nice.

Because I am a fat girl, and a lot of times, when people use words like skinny and thin around me, I feel like a big ol' fraud.

Addicted to five pound stars

I hit the 80 lb mark!
WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
80.8 to be exact. So it's 8.4 lbs to the next goal I really want (which is to be down 2 more points a day - 22 ack!)

Today's meeting was awesome - my favorite part was learning about phatonmithy(did I spell that ok?) It was smaller - I imagine because of mothers day a lot of people probably went out of town- but it was still a blast. We missed those of you who couldn't make it!

Stupid board posters.

Ok, I check the WW message boards every day, specifically the Ask Questions Share Ideas one.
The one that's really common lately is the dairy serving question. Ok, I was wondering about this myself not to long ago, so I emailed our leader and asked her. This is what she said:

"When you look at the label it will tell you the % of calcium is in it. If the number is 25% or higher it counts as a whole serving."

She also said that yogurt is not the best thing to have for a milk serving because it's not that high in calcium. So I am constantly telling people on the boards what she told me when they ask about calcium. And this chick is always saying this:

"WW has already done the background work on what constitutes a milk serving and we are supposed to go by the list in the Week One Book or list Online, not by the percentages of calcium , protein etc."

Ok.....I mean technically she's right, but what's wrong with wanting or knowing how to figure it out on your own?

chocolate. So tasty, yet so dangerous

At the risk of creating another sympathy binge on Joanne's end, I feel the need to own up to my horrific weekend. It was extremely similar to Robyns, but instead of a really bad dinner including face-cake Sunday night (I decided not to go, I didn't want the temptation - hah!) mine consisted of a second box of chocolates (a gift from the cast and crew) while curled up in bed catching up on TV. I had big gradual long term plans for those chocolates! Oh well, at least they're gone now and cannot tempt me from ANY location. And damn they were good! So I have been back on track the past couple days - I didn't go over my points at all! I inadvertently dipped into my activity points, but at least I had activity points, since Robyn and I went on a 3.4 mile walk with our favorite tall skinny blonde Weight Watcher. I was worried going out that I wouldn't work as hard as I do the gym on the treadmill, but we walked at a good pace, there were those pesky hills, and we walked much further and longer than I ever would have at the gym.

I've (possibly) converted another one!

Ok, so today I am having a bad day. co-workers are pissing me off, some lady borrowed my dolly and then duct taped it, and I am getting generally slammed with requests.

Then this perilously I have been doing work for came up to my office to talk to me about some stuff I'm keeping in here for her. Someone must have told her I'm on WW (she's fairly new) because she starts asking me about it and taking about how she is seriously considering joining. I guess there's some promotion going on now where you can go to a meeting for free? Turns out she lives in abalone, so I invited her to ours and really talked it up and then I dropped the pompously - it's at 8am. After much more conversation, she might be there tomorrow. She says she'd feel more comfortable going to a meeting where she knows someone, so I gave her my cell phone and she'll call me when (and if) she's on her way.

I finish with her, and I remembered that I told the woman I talked about a few days ago in another post that I would remind her about the meeting today. I stopped by her office and turns out she is for sure going there - she is even picking up the other woman so they will both be there. She's chatty so I stayed there talking to her about WW and all things WW related and suddenly this intern who has been working in the next office pops her head in and asks me a question about WW. Turns out she lost 30 lbs last summer and is a little bit above where she wants to be (like 5 lbs above) and wants to come back to get back on track.

And now, I am no longer as grumpy as I was! Who knew talking about WW would cheer me up so much? Maybe I should be a leader in the end after all.

Inspiring others

I received an email today from a friend who joined Weight Watchers a few months ago. He joined largely because of Robyn and I. He was amazed at how good we looked and wanted to loose some weight himself, so he and his husband decided to join. We got a few emails from him at first, asking questions and talking about his initial experience. Then nothing. He's not someone either of us really talk to on a hugely regular basis. We see them both at parties and gatherings, but that's about it. This this morning, he sent Robyn and I the most wonderful email. Here's part of it:

Yep, as of tonight I'm the proud owner of a Weight Watchers (tm) key ring. I reached my 10% target goal!

Two of us got our key rings tonight. Lorrie [their ww leader] asked us if there was anything that inspired us to join WW and stick with the program. So I had the opportunity to tell the group about my friends Robyn and Andrea, and how fantabulous they looked after doing WW, and how whenever I'd gotten frustrated I just thought about how well they'd done.

And Scott's doing even better. I'm eating his dust. He's like the Olympic Champion of weight loss in our group. 13 weeks and he's dropped almost 35 lbs.

How awesome is that? I am so excited and proud. It's one thing for people to tell you how great you look and how they wish they could have the willpower that you have and blah blah blah (and btw, to quote someone on the WW boards...willpower is HIGHLY overrated). But to actually inspire someone to go after what they want, to become healthier and happier.....that's just awesome.

2 new possible members at the next meeting!

There is this woman at work who talked to me about how she wanted to join WW back around the beginning of the year. I remember because I told her about the season pass at the time. I hadn't heard anything since, and since weight loss is a touchy subject, I didn't approach her about it. Then a few weeks ago, she tells me that her doctor told her that she needs to loose weight. She had talked to him about joining ww and he highly encouraged it and told her that since she had another apt in 4 months, that gave her some time to loose some weight before she saw him again.

So again, she approached me to ask when my meetings were since she lives down the street from where our meetings are, and plus I had really talked them up, how fun they were, how fantastic my leader is blah blah blah. Ok, so a couple weeks go by and still she doesn't show up for a meeting. Her office is right across the hall from mine, so it's not like I hadn't bumped into her (pretty much every single day) . Still I don't say anything because I don't want to make her feel bad if she's decided not to join.

A few minutes ago, she comes into my office with another woman (who was in my original WW meetings, someone I really like a lot) to ask me AGAIN about the time of our meetings. Apparently this other woman had had a stern talking to from her doctor and was looking to rejoin. She doesn't live anywhere in the North Hills, but I think she wants the accountability of my meetings since I'll be going and she wants to go to a good meeting (because again, in the past I have told her how wonderful my meeting leader is and how fun my meetings are)

This time I told woman #1 why I hadn't asked or reminded her about the meetings and told her I would remind her on Friday. This might be it for at least her(I hope for both of them). I really hope to see both of them this week. I just want everyone to have the same wonderful experiences I've had with WW. And these women deserve to be happy and healthy. They are both just great people and I will be looking for them (again) this Saturday at ass-o'clock in the morning.

Lovely

This morning, I went to Subway to get lunch since we didn't have any left overs in the house. The girl behind the counter was this girl Nikki who used to work there when I would go to Subway every Tuesday for lunch. I haven't seen her since before or right around the time I started WW. She gave me this look when I walked in like she knew me but couldn't quite place me. I said hi and that it had been a while, and she gets this look of recognition on her face and said "You've lost a LOT of weight" I was all "Yes, I have" and then she says "You actually look good now!"

Um....thanks......

I took it the way it was intended, but wow....

In other news, I look super cute and thinish today. I spent a whopping $8.50 on a new outfit at Kmart Saturday after the meeting (the sale rack there rocks!) . Also, Saturday night I fit comfortably into one of the size 12's I bought purposefully too small at Good Will a while ago.