Monday, March 12, 2007
Weight Watchers Week 2
Believe it or not, I lost 3 lbs. last week. I was amazed. I've never lost that many pounds in one week on any "diet." And I don't really even feel like I'm on a diet. Despite my whining last week, I adjusted to the measly 1 pt. cut-back with no problem. After reading lots of info on the message boards, I discovered that many people use all their "allowance" points, and that I definitely should use all my activity points (users are alloted points for exercise; these points can be swapped for extra food points). During week one, I was not using all my points every day and not using any of my activity points or exra points. I thought I was going to lose more by staying under my points goal. During week 2, I used all my activity points and some of my extra allowance points. I actually ate more last week, and lost more. Amazing! I'd never have dreamed I could lose weight without starving myself, but it's working so far.
Friday, March 9, 2007
The "S" Word
This week, I’ve been trying to break my decades-long habit of uttering the word “sh#t” whenever I am frustrated. It’s a hard habit to break. There are a few other curse words I’ve been known to use, but this is the only one that it has been hard for me to stop saying in front of my daughters. I noticed they had started saying it, so I gotta stop it! We made a deal that any time I catch one of them saying it, I will say “Uh oh” and take 2 pennies out of the guilty party’s piggy bank. If one or both of them catch me saying it, I have to put 2 pennies in both their piggy banks.
It’s been an uphill battle. Today has been particularly difficult because of the free-lance project on which I’m currently working. Long story short, some screwed up files that I am cleaning up are making my computer crash noga times. Every time it crashes, I say sh#t before I even think about it. A little while ago, Bridget said uh-oh to me again and I said, “I know I said it and I don’t care anymore. Grrrr.” To which she replied, “Maybe we just shouldn’t do it anymore today.” Good idea.
I feel like Huckleberry Finn after he moves in with the Widow Douglas and has to behave himself. He has to sneak away and cuss a whole lot just to get the taste back in his mouth. I’m sitting here thinking about how my own mama and even my sainted grandma both said this word in front of me when I was a kid. Is it really such a bad word? I didn’t think so until I heard it coming out of my little angels’ mouths. I’ve tried saying “shoot” but that just don’t cut it. I tried thinking of the funniest word I could use in its place, something like “tarnation” maybe. But tarnation just doesn’t automatically flow out of my mouth like sh#t. Maybe if I practice it enough, though, it will become a habit. i do so love the word tarnation.
I’m not giving up yet. Even if my efforts fail, at least I’ll make a dent in their college funds, 2 pennies at a time.
It’s been an uphill battle. Today has been particularly difficult because of the free-lance project on which I’m currently working. Long story short, some screwed up files that I am cleaning up are making my computer crash noga times. Every time it crashes, I say sh#t before I even think about it. A little while ago, Bridget said uh-oh to me again and I said, “I know I said it and I don’t care anymore. Grrrr.” To which she replied, “Maybe we just shouldn’t do it anymore today.” Good idea.
I feel like Huckleberry Finn after he moves in with the Widow Douglas and has to behave himself. He has to sneak away and cuss a whole lot just to get the taste back in his mouth. I’m sitting here thinking about how my own mama and even my sainted grandma both said this word in front of me when I was a kid. Is it really such a bad word? I didn’t think so until I heard it coming out of my little angels’ mouths. I’ve tried saying “shoot” but that just don’t cut it. I tried thinking of the funniest word I could use in its place, something like “tarnation” maybe. But tarnation just doesn’t automatically flow out of my mouth like sh#t. Maybe if I practice it enough, though, it will become a habit. i do so love the word tarnation.
I’m not giving up yet. Even if my efforts fail, at least I’ll make a dent in their college funds, 2 pennies at a time.
Tessa's 4th Birthday
Tessa celebrated her 4th birthday on Wednesday, March 7, the same day her Dyehdooshka celebrated his 65th! I hope someday we can celebrate their birthdays together. We had Tessa’s house party on Saturday, March 3. She got some really cool stuff and everyone enjoyed the Strawberry Shortcake cupcake cake that she chose. On her actual birthday, she received her gifts from Mama and Papa. She got a Moon Sand castle building set, some tracks for her GeoTrax train, Polly Pocket dolls with career clothes, Kelly and Friend’s Playroom Playset, a talking tea mat with dishes, Wizard of Oz dress-up clothes, a hippity hop ball, and a Polly-Pocket-sized Little Mermaid doll. Bridget also got a hippity hop ball and a Polly-Pocket-sized Belle doll as “just because” gifts (I don’t want the non-birthday sister to ever feel left out).
The weather’s been so nice this week that the girls have been outside a lot and not playing with the new “inside” toys. It’s bumming me out because I was so looking forward to playing with some of these toys! I finally got to play Polly Pockets for a little while with Tessa this morning, but she and Bridget have jilted me once again for the outdoors and the neighbor girls. Maybe I’ll just sneak in there and play with her stuff while she’s outside (hee, hee).
Little Miss Organized
About a month ago, I introduced my children to the House Fairy. She is a nice fairy who leaves gifts for children who keep their rooms tidy. She is Santa Claus’s sister and also reports to him on the children who are keeping their beds made and their toys picked up. The House Fairy can put you on her list if you go to her web site (www.housefairy.org) and sign up. The web site has all kinds of videos about things like how to set the table, the House Fairy’s magic telescope, etc.
For some inexplicable (to me) reason, Bridget repeatedly watched the video about how to organize your dresser drawers. I thought this one was pretty boring compared to the ones where House Fairy talks to Santa, and thought this task was really too advanced for a 5-year-old to do anyway. One evening, Bridget got sent to time out. When I told her it was time to come out, she stayed in her room. Then, Tessa went back there to see what she was doing. They were back there for a good while and were being awfully quiet. I figured Bridget had found some way to retaliate for being sent to time out. I could just picture the two of them trashing their room . . .
When I went to their room, I was amazed to find that Bridget had taken out her dresser drawers and was re-organizing them!! She actually did an excellent job, too! Maybe this kind of task, like washing dishes, is something that is actually fun when you are a kid. Two weeks later and Bridget’s drawers are still immaculate. She even chides me if I don’t put her things away neatly when I do laundry.
The House Fairy rocks! And so does my little Bridget!!
I Have Noga Powers
Tessa’s 4th birthday was on Wednesday. On Monday, she came to me and told me that she knew one of ther birthday presents was a “boincy ball” (a hop-on ball). I asked her how she knew and she said, “I saw it in a bag.” Now, I was pretty confident that the little one had not actually infiltrated my hiding place, but her comment did shake my confidence a bit, since the ball in question was indeed still inside a Toys R Us bag.
“Where did you see it?” I asked. “In here,” she replied, pointing to her head. “Huh?” I said. “I have noga* powers,” she explained. Then, it hit me. She and Bridget had been watching “Escape From Witch Mountain” the night before. This old 70s gem revolves around a brother and sister who have telepathic and telekinetic powers. The sister closes her eyes and puts her hands at her temples when she’s communicating with her brother or having a psychic vision. My little tot was just using her imagination. Or maybe she really does have noga powers. She was right about the present, after all . . .
* noga means “many or a lot” in Russian.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Metabo-death
A couple of weeks ago Bridget and Tessa pulled up chairs and sat eating Doritos and watching me struggle through an exercise video. Bridget kept saying, “Good job, Mom,” but the Dorito-munching detracted from her words of encouragement. Ah, to be a young Dorito-eater again.
My metabolism has been dying a slow death the past year. Without doing (or not doing) anything very much different, I’ve put on a chunk of weight in the past year. This isn’t the first time my weight has yo-yo’d. I’ve lost the same 20 lbs. at least 4 times in my life. The difference this time is that I need to lose 30 lbs. And my BMI is getting dangerously close to the “obese” level. EGADS!
I really, really want to avoid having this happen again in the future. The older you get, the harder it is to lose weight. In an effort to learn portion control, I’ve signed up for Weight Watchers online membership. It’s cheaper than the standard membership (only $4 a week) and I don’t have to go to weigh-ins or meetings, just log my weight on my online tracker. There are lots of neat e-tools to help in tracking food and activity points. There’s even a recipe builder that allows me to input favorite recipes and see their points values. I looooove technology, so this aspect of the program is making it fun for me. I’ve also picked up some good hints for tasty low-points foods from the message boards.
My first week on the program went pretty smoothly. I really haven’t felt hungry at all and am eating many of the same foods I usually eat – just not as much of them. When I weighed this morning, I had lost 1 pound. This isn’t bad at all for me – I always lose weight slowly. When I logged in my new weight, however, I noticed that my daily points have also gone down by 1. Ouch!
I’m feeling pretty hungry this afternoon and am wondering if it is all in my head because I know I have one less food point today. I’ve been distracting myself by surfing the net while the girls are outside playing. I found a hysterically funny website called “Nick Rhodes and John Taylor – Masters of the Universe.” (http://www.geocities.com/ladyxanax13/MainPage.html) The chick who does this page has a truly weird (in a great way) sense of humor. She has a list of “101 Things To Do with Nick Rhodes”, one of which is “put him on a diet.” Ethereal as he is, it is true he’s put on a bit of weight. He was always so preternaturally white and thin that I just figured he was one of those people who could eat anything and stay skinny. I can’t imagine him ever dieting or exercising. I found a really funny quote from him: “Don’t give me any of that healthy bread. I want fat, white Wonder bread.” At any rate, he is, at age 44, dating an attractive, 30-year-old chick, so I don’t think I’ll meet up with him on the Weight Watchers message boards any time soon. Still, it’s a bit comforting to know that someone as dapper as Mr. Rhodes is also fighting middle-age spread.
Must dash – it’s finally almost dinnertime . . .
My metabolism has been dying a slow death the past year. Without doing (or not doing) anything very much different, I’ve put on a chunk of weight in the past year. This isn’t the first time my weight has yo-yo’d. I’ve lost the same 20 lbs. at least 4 times in my life. The difference this time is that I need to lose 30 lbs. And my BMI is getting dangerously close to the “obese” level. EGADS!
I really, really want to avoid having this happen again in the future. The older you get, the harder it is to lose weight. In an effort to learn portion control, I’ve signed up for Weight Watchers online membership. It’s cheaper than the standard membership (only $4 a week) and I don’t have to go to weigh-ins or meetings, just log my weight on my online tracker. There are lots of neat e-tools to help in tracking food and activity points. There’s even a recipe builder that allows me to input favorite recipes and see their points values. I looooove technology, so this aspect of the program is making it fun for me. I’ve also picked up some good hints for tasty low-points foods from the message boards.
My first week on the program went pretty smoothly. I really haven’t felt hungry at all and am eating many of the same foods I usually eat – just not as much of them. When I weighed this morning, I had lost 1 pound. This isn’t bad at all for me – I always lose weight slowly. When I logged in my new weight, however, I noticed that my daily points have also gone down by 1. Ouch!
I’m feeling pretty hungry this afternoon and am wondering if it is all in my head because I know I have one less food point today. I’ve been distracting myself by surfing the net while the girls are outside playing. I found a hysterically funny website called “Nick Rhodes and John Taylor – Masters of the Universe.” (http://www.geocities.com/ladyxanax13/MainPage.html) The chick who does this page has a truly weird (in a great way) sense of humor. She has a list of “101 Things To Do with Nick Rhodes”, one of which is “put him on a diet.” Ethereal as he is, it is true he’s put on a bit of weight. He was always so preternaturally white and thin that I just figured he was one of those people who could eat anything and stay skinny. I can’t imagine him ever dieting or exercising. I found a really funny quote from him: “Don’t give me any of that healthy bread. I want fat, white Wonder bread.” At any rate, he is, at age 44, dating an attractive, 30-year-old chick, so I don’t think I’ll meet up with him on the Weight Watchers message boards any time soon. Still, it’s a bit comforting to know that someone as dapper as Mr. Rhodes is also fighting middle-age spread.
Must dash – it’s finally almost dinnertime . . .
Tender Hearts
My daughter Tessa is definitely a tender heart like her mom. The little sweetie recently broke down in sobs watching two movies that are supposed to be comedies.
We were all watching “Over The Hedge,” an animated movie whose plot revolves around the efforts of a raccoon to procure enough junk food to replenish the stash he stole from a large and quite angry bear. He journeys to the suburbs and finds a group of animals whose forest has been invaded by a subdivision while they’ve been hibernating. He teaches them the ins and outs of stealing and eating human food. Long story short, at one point a victim of their burglary hires an exterminator to get rid of the pests. He captures them and puts them in cages. Tessa was absolutely wailing when this happened. I tried telling her, “I bet they’ll get away. Don’t worry,” but she was inconsolable. She recuperated after the animals escaped, but we didn’t watch that movie again.
My next effort at humor was a movie called “The Great Outdoors.” It’s a silly movie about not-so-friendly in-laws spending a week at a cabin where they have an encounter with a bald-headed bear (who also winds up with a bald butt at the end). There’s a really funny scene where John Candy is giving his son pointers on water-skiing and winds up being pulled behind the boat. He goes for a really wild and hilarious ride. Tessa was mad and me and her Pop for laughing at his antics. “It’s not funny. He’s gonna get hurt.” I could have given her a long discourse on how most humor is based upon the misfortune of others, but I just said, “It’s supposed to be funny. He’ll be okay.” She wasn’t buying it. Then, she felt sorry for the bear when it winds up with a bald butt. “That bear was nice,” she opined. “It’s not nice to shoot his butt.” Yes, she did shed a tear or two at this part.
Then again, me criticizing her sensitivity is definitely the pot calling the kettle black. I cry at the drop of a hat and have been called “oversensitive” many a time. I usually think of Bridget as being the strong type, but she has her weepy moments, too. The other day we were watching another comedy, “Honey I Shrunk the Kids”. The girls were really liking it, up until the part where “Anty” (an ant who aided the kids in their efforts to cross the back yard) gets killed by a scorpion. This time it was Bridget who was crying really hard. Tessa was sad but, curiously, did not break down this time. Nope. This time, I was the other boo-hoo’er. It really was touching because Anty had saved Ron’s life. Sob.
Maybe we should stick with horror movies. Damn! I just remembered how Tessa broke down crying when the police came and took “Bad Ronald” away at the end of the movie. Guess there’s no cry-proof entertainment with three tender-hearts in the family.
We were all watching “Over The Hedge,” an animated movie whose plot revolves around the efforts of a raccoon to procure enough junk food to replenish the stash he stole from a large and quite angry bear. He journeys to the suburbs and finds a group of animals whose forest has been invaded by a subdivision while they’ve been hibernating. He teaches them the ins and outs of stealing and eating human food. Long story short, at one point a victim of their burglary hires an exterminator to get rid of the pests. He captures them and puts them in cages. Tessa was absolutely wailing when this happened. I tried telling her, “I bet they’ll get away. Don’t worry,” but she was inconsolable. She recuperated after the animals escaped, but we didn’t watch that movie again.
My next effort at humor was a movie called “The Great Outdoors.” It’s a silly movie about not-so-friendly in-laws spending a week at a cabin where they have an encounter with a bald-headed bear (who also winds up with a bald butt at the end). There’s a really funny scene where John Candy is giving his son pointers on water-skiing and winds up being pulled behind the boat. He goes for a really wild and hilarious ride. Tessa was mad and me and her Pop for laughing at his antics. “It’s not funny. He’s gonna get hurt.” I could have given her a long discourse on how most humor is based upon the misfortune of others, but I just said, “It’s supposed to be funny. He’ll be okay.” She wasn’t buying it. Then, she felt sorry for the bear when it winds up with a bald butt. “That bear was nice,” she opined. “It’s not nice to shoot his butt.” Yes, she did shed a tear or two at this part.
Then again, me criticizing her sensitivity is definitely the pot calling the kettle black. I cry at the drop of a hat and have been called “oversensitive” many a time. I usually think of Bridget as being the strong type, but she has her weepy moments, too. The other day we were watching another comedy, “Honey I Shrunk the Kids”. The girls were really liking it, up until the part where “Anty” (an ant who aided the kids in their efforts to cross the back yard) gets killed by a scorpion. This time it was Bridget who was crying really hard. Tessa was sad but, curiously, did not break down this time. Nope. This time, I was the other boo-hoo’er. It really was touching because Anty had saved Ron’s life. Sob.
Maybe we should stick with horror movies. Damn! I just remembered how Tessa broke down crying when the police came and took “Bad Ronald” away at the end of the movie. Guess there’s no cry-proof entertainment with three tender-hearts in the family.
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