Saturday, January 7, 2012

I Need Your Help

I’ve been meaning to write about a blog I follow. It’s a fashion blog, and the author is curvy. I love her!! Mostly because she has a very unique sense of style, but she seems to really own her curves and uses it to her advantage. I’m sure she has some insecurities, (who among us doesn’t?), but it sure doesn’t show in her posts, and I SO admire her for that! Not to mention that she puts together some amazing outfits.

The reason I am FINALLY writing about her is because she posted this blog:
Hems for Her
And in this particular blog she showed a dress that I absolutely fell in love with.
I can’t stop looking at it. AND it’s on sale, I mean deep-discount sale, $25.00! My first reaction was BUY IT, even if I don’t have any place to wear it! But my dilemma is two-fold:

1.     I’m VERY picky about clothes, probably because I am difficult to fit. I’m afraid the fabric isn’t quite what I had in mind, and I’m afraid that the chiffon looking skirt might make my already too big hips look astronomically big.

2.     And they do not have the dress in my size, but they DO have it in one size smaller.

So, I’ve mentioned that I’m currently following weight watchers, and I’ve been having some slow, but successful results. I’ve already lost over 10 pounds (YAY!) and that’s over the holiday season!!  So, I’m thinking that perhaps if I bought this dress, with continued success I will be able to fit into the smaller size, therefore I’m thinking I should buy it!

But, the real reason I would buy this dress is strictly for our annual Holiday party. My husband and I host one big party a year, it’s our Holiday party. And each year I dress up. Come to think of it, it’s probably the ONLY time I ever dress up. But, I was thinking that this dress would be PERFECT for our next party, but that’s 12 months away. What if in the next 12 months I lose way more than 10-15 pounds which would allow me to fit into this dress one size smaller?

I’m SO torn! I want the dress, but I hate the idea of buying a dress I will never wear. I already have one of those in my closet. I too bought that dress thinking I would wear it to my Christmas party, but unfortunately, I gained weight before the party, and never got a chance to ever wear the dress.

And I suppose there is another option available, to buy the dress in a much smaller size in the hopes that it will motivate me to lose 40+ pounds. But for me, that’s not an option. I’m much too pragmatic for that. I know some people do that for motivational purposes, but I also know myself, and realize that type of motivation won’t work for me. It will more likely force me to beat myself up for not reaching the goal of fitting into the dress. And who needs any other motivation to feel bad about themselves??

So, given this information, I’m asking all my readers for their advice on this dilemma. Should I buy the dress a size smaller or not at all?


Monday, November 21, 2011

Colonoscopy…a Diet Aid?


I’m not a fan of bathroom humor. Like that scene of Bridesmaids when they’re all in the bathroom wearing the expensive bridal couture, not my favorite part of the movie. I tend to like more sophisticated, spontaneous humor kinda like…my blog? Ok, don’t want to be too full of myself here (although I probably already passed that line), but I hit a milestone birthday earlier this year, and for achieving such a monumental feat, I was rewarded with the obligation of going through a routine colonoscopy. Oh boy!

Having never experienced one before, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Now…well, I guess I’ve lived to tell the tale, so to speak. But rest assured I will NOT tell the tale. Well, truth be told, I don’t remember a THING about the procedure itself, which is how it SHOULD be, but the most disgusting part of the tale was the procedure prep.

But, true to my word, I will NOT go over the excruciating details. Let’s just suffice to say it was GROSS!! Aside from the gross part of the prepping, there was the day prior which I thought was going to be the hardest part, fasting. They advised only liquids, juice with no pulp, no milk products, soda, no food except clear jello. So, knowing how I obsess over my weight and dieting and all, I took this as perfect opportunity to use this as a dieting aid. I ate….nothing. I did cheat and have the usual two teaspoons of half-and-half in my two cups of coffee that morning, despite the fact that they said NO MILK in one’s coffee. I didn’t think they’d mind, so I guess I cheated on that front.

And I had planned to indulge in some sugar-free jello I purchased specifically for the occasion. I’m not a fan of jello. Even as a child when I Mom used to make the jello with banana slices suspended in it, I was just never a fan.

However, what I missed on the procedure instructions was the warning staring adamantly at in me, IN ALL CAPS stating not to have anything RED OR PURPLE. Well, gee, my choice of sugar-free jello was pretty limited to begin with. I had the option of purchasing either cherry or strawberry. I know I am probably the only person on the planet who does not like strawberries, and while I LOVE real cherries, the taste or smell of anything artificial cherry makes me want to gag! So, I picked the lesser of evils: strawberry. What I failed to realize was that strawberry was indeed RED!! So, I had to give up on the zero calorie ingested day and I broke down and ate two of my husband’s real jello in orange flavor. Man, did you know those little sugar filled jiggly things are 70 calories each?? I would NEVER waste calories like that on any normal day!

One of the things that surprised me about this day of fasting was that it wasn’t nearly as miserable as I thought it was going to be. Yes, it did mess up a perfectly good Sunday, one of only two days a week I get to get stuff done or goof off. But surprisingly, I managed to get quite a bit done around the house, before my husband and I ventured out to get our Thanksgiving turkey (fresh, not frozen!). And I even dragged the aforementioned husband out to do a little shopping for house stuff, which is highly uncharacteristic of him. I know he took pity on me both for not being able to eat, and also because I had “the procedure” ahead of me. Fine with me, got me out of the house, and FINALLY got those frames I wanted for these adorable little watercolors I picked up at an estate sale a while ago.

Anyway, I digress. My point was... it wasn’t so bad fasting. I found diet coke to be a very suitable companion during this time too. It helped me to keep moving and forget the fact that I didn’t get to eat anything! While my husband heated up the leftover spaghetti and meatballs I left for him, I ate those two 70 calorie orange jellos. But then the nightmare really begins. It’s not the procedure, it’s the prep that kills you. All the stuff you have to drink, and the subsequent outcome (no pun intended) of drinking all of that stuff. I will NOT give you details on the outcome (no pun intended) of the stuff that you drink, but the stuff itself that you drink is just disgusting. I mixed mine with sugar-free crystal light, and at first as I drank it I thought, ok this isn’t so bad, it just tastes like lemonade, but the more you drink it, the more disgusting you feel. And this concludes the details on this end (again, no pun intended).

After the procedure, my husband took me out for breakfast. I wasn’t really hungry so I had a cup of coffee and a pumpkin muffin. OMG it was the BEST pumpkin muffin I ever had!! But that’s not the point. The point was that I was still kinda tired and groggy so I didn’t want a real breakfast. After the coffee and muffin we went home and the FIRST thing I did when I got home was to weigh myself. How pathetic is that? I go through all the crap (again, no pun intended) of prepping for this procedure, then actually going through the procedure, all of which is EXHAUSTING but what’s the first thing I do when I get home? I strip naked and weigh myself. And lo and behold….I was down three whole pounds!! Kinda makes it all worth it?

No…no it does not!


Sunday, November 20, 2011

Respectable or Just…


In my last blog I commented about my friend’s .8 loss as being a “respectable” loss. Now that I had a .8 gain this week, does that make it a substantial gain? Is there a double standard when it comes to the amount we lose, vs. the amount we gain?

Last week Amy lamented about her .8 loss. I told her to buck up and be proud. This week, BTW, she lost 3 pounds, to which I responded with, “You suck!” Naturally, she knows I’m kidding, but am also a tad envious. Truth be told, I talked her into joining, so I DEFINITELY want her to be successful.

But let’s not dismiss the double standard we have about weight loss vs. weight gain. I made a cardinal mistake this week. I engaged in a social type activity the night before weigh-in day. Crucial mistake. I should know better, I’m no weight watcher virgin! I’ve been down this road time and time again!! But, in an effort to get together with friends, I agreed to make dinner for them. I figured it was the lesser of evils. If I cooked, I could make a weight watcher meal and still stay on track. Good in theory, not so good in practice, however.

I had high aspirations, though. I made pork cacciatore, a dish I made previously which was a weight watchers recipe. I made a salad, tossed with a light vinaigrette, which I precisely measured before adding, I even made an apple and cranberry concoction to serve over light vanilla ice cream. It was quite good, actually. I added cinnamon and sweet ‘n low to the concoction, my guests were none the wiser.

Here’s where I missed the mark. In an effort to be the perfect hostess, and let’s face it, anyone who knows me even a little, knows I LIVE for that kinda thing! I am always lamenting about how Martha Stewart has my career!! So despite the fact that I wasn’t planning to eat any of the hors d’eourves I put together for them…I did anyway. And I don’t think it was the actually calories that did me in, but my old nemesis salt, aka water weight! Gets me every time, and typically, I avoid it like the plague before I weigh in, but it lured me in under the guise of olive tapenade. I may have only been 25 calories per serving, but what I failed to calculate was the nine million grams of sodium it so obviously included as well!

Thus, at last night’s weigh-in when I was up .08, the woman who weighed me in said, “it’s only .8” Yeah, ONLY! How do I justify that after my “respectable loss” lecture I gave Amy last week? Truth be told…I can’t. I gained, pure and simple. Was it a “real” gain, I guess we won’t officially know till next week, but unofficially, yeah, it was just water weight, cause this morning, not only was my scale down the one water weight pound, but also an additional pound, which was about where I was the day before weigh in. Now I know, NEVER engage in ANY social activities the night before a weigh in. NOW I know!

Monday, October 31, 2011

Long Time No Blog…



Ok, I realize that saying “long time no blog” is the understatement of the year, since it’s been well over a year since I’ve taken pen to paper or more literally, finger to keyboard in an attempt to post something. And I’m not quite sure what finally motivated me to come back to this. Ok, I do know. My husband and I recently went to a Halloween Party with my friend Jesse. During which Jesse continued to make reference to being “Fat and Happy.” Jesse was referring to a blog I wrote about that subject. He LOVED that blog. Truth be told, I think Jesse is the biggest fan of my blog. He thinks I’m hysterical, and a “great writer.” Naturally I will forever adore him for those words alone.

But, it has been far too long since I’ve blogged, although I wish I could say it’s been far too long since I’ve obsessed on my weight. That seems to happen whether I write about it or not.

In the past year lots of things have happened. I got a job, a contract job that lasted 10 months. Since I was working for the state, there was no additional funding to keep me on, so I had anticipated joining the ranks of the unemployed yet again. But alas, the job fairies were good to me, and I landed yet another contract job, for another 8 months. While I’m still too new at this job to discern if I actually like it or not, I do have to admit I am LOVING the 15 minute commute!! Sure beats the 45-hour commute I had at my last job. But, I did leave behind some very good friends at the last job, in addition to a certain sense of comfort and security there. But mostly I miss my friends. Plus, as you can imagine, I hate being the “new chick,” which is where I am right now. But, in this rough economy, you gotta do what you gotta do. So, I will stick it out and hope for the best. I do think I need to start looking for a permanent job, though. Not wild about contracting. The money is GREAT, but I’m not really that good with change, so I very much don’t like looking for a job every year.

But, let’s not get off topic here. This blog is about food, self-image, and all things diet. So I know what you REALLY want to know is, where am I diet-wise? Well, ironically, I’m probably almost exactly where I was when I wrote my last blog. But true to form, I also lost about 20 pounds, and then gained it right back.

I do want to confess that I did a diet I am not proud of myself for following. It’s called the HCG diet. You take this stuff, and limit yourself to 500 calories a day for anywhere from 3-6 weeks. I did one six week round and lost 25 pounds. I gained most of it back, then did another round and lost some again. I can’t even remember the numbers. The last 3 week round I lost 17 pounds. After that I started gaining again, and true to form, I gained back ALMOST all of it, yet again. So, I broke down and went back to my tried and true way to lose weight…Weight Watchers. It’s kinda like an old boyfriend the way I always go back to it. It works, it’s there for me after I have dallied with other diets, it takes me back, no questions asked, and it does its best to keep me on track. Wait a minute; I do not recall any old boyfriend being like that!! Perhaps that’s the way I would like to remember my old boyfriends.

So far I am doing ok. Not fantastic, but good, acceptable. I convinced a friend to join with me, which is always a good thing for me. Plus, it’s nice to see her once a week. Now, SHE’S doing phenomenally well!! So when she whined about her .8 loss last week after her stellar first week loss of 7, SEVEN pounds, I told her that .8 was a “respectable” loss. And it is. It’s not the 20 pounds per week we all want to lose, but it is respectable. And I know if I continue on this path, I will someday get back to a “respectable” weight, living in a “respectable” size, and I guess for me, that’s really what it’s all about.

Anyway, I imagine this blog is not one of my best efforts, but I did want to at least make an attempt to get something out there to get me back into the routine. Hopefully I will have lots of new fun things to report, including some really good recipes I am coming across.

If any of my readers (and I so hope you’re still out there!!) has any comments, feel free to comment away. I love feedback, but only if it’s glowing . I love feedback! And thanks for reading.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Trigger Foods and the Women Who Love Them

Ok, I hate to be sexist here, but when it comes to weight issues, I always think of it in terms of women. I know men suffer from weight problems as well, as my gay friend emphasized to me recently, but I still see weight issues as more of a female thing. Maybe it’s because I am married to an impossibly skinny man, who has trouble putting on weight, a concept I STILL can’t grasp after 13 years of marriage. Or maybe it’s just that I don’t hear men whining about weight issues like women do. While I admit that some men have issues with weight, I don’t think they let that define them, like so many women do.

Here’s an example: I recently watched the movie “Couples Retreat” with my husband. There was a scene where the couples were instructed to take off their clothing leaving them in their underwear. All four of the women had perfect bodies as they stood in their bikini looking underwear. The men, however, ranged from not too bad, to downright fat. Not one of them looked hot, like ALL the women did. I pointed this out to my husband, who didn’t find this observation nearly as interesting as I did.

Anyway, on to the topic at hand. I have been dieting for the past five weeks. It’s a very restrictive very low calorie diet. I’ve lost weight, which is good, but naturally I am still obsessing on how much I still have to go. But, that’s not the topic of today’s blog. Today’s topic is about trigger foods. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, then you must not be a three time veteran of Weight Watchers like myself. Let me explain via a website called Fitshack:


Trigger foods are any foods that trigger you to overeat and/or binge. They are foods that you just can’t get enough of; one bite is never enough and one helping isn’t enough. Trigger foods can also lead you to overeat on other foods that initially you weren’t even thinking about eating if you feel guilty for eating your trigger foods in the first place! Some people could have just one trigger food category like ice cream, and others could be triggered by anything sweet, salty, or fatty.

So I am asking my readers to come out of the woodwork and tell me what their trigger foods are. I have several, mostly in the “carb” family, while I have friends who are totally addicted to sugar (you KNOW who you are, Susan!) But I will start off the confession:


Hi, my name is Donna, and I am addicted to carbs. Some of the particular items that torment me on a regular basis are as follows, and not necessarily in any specific order:

  • French fries
  • Chips (preferably the baked variety, but Jalapeno chips are my ultimate favorite, and they don’t come baked)
  • Pasta
  • Rice
  • Mashed Potatoes
  • Pizza
  • Ice Cream

Truthfully, there are probably 20 others that are just not coming to mind at the moment, but these are the most predominant, for me.


French fries: OMG I could live on nothing BUT! I adore them. I guess I have a love affair with potatoes in general, cause I love potato salad, baked potatoes, twice stuffed potatoes, au gratin potatoes, potato chips. Yeah, perhaps I never met a potato I didn’t like. There’s a burger place that I like to go to JUST for their sweet potato fries. They overcook their burgers (I like my meat still mooing) so I order their chicken sandwich, with melted cheese and then I eat ALL of the sweet potato fries. YUM. My mouth is salivating, just thinking of it.

Chips: I originally listed this as potato chips, but beneath that I included tortilla chips. And you know, let’s not forget those veggie chips I always sample at the “healthier” food stores. I could sit down with a bag of family sized chips and EASILY eat the whole thing. If I manage to save half the bag for the following day, then I am doing well!


Pasta: Oh baby…come to mama!! I love it!! I don’t care if it’s a veggie pasta, white pasta, wheat pasta, any kind will do!! And almost any sauce over it will also do. I don’t discriminate when it comes to food! I will tell you this, when I was successfully following Weight Watchers, there was recipe I tried with elbow macaroni and lean hamburger, and tomatoes. I can’t remember exactly, I guess it was sort of a diet beefaroni (a non-diet version my Mom used to make from scratch!), but I recall eating the entire 6 portion casserole in less than two days. After that, I realized that I could no longer have pasta in my house. If I chose to eat it, I would have to order it at a restaurant, and not bring home ANY leftovers.

Rice: Well, it’s pretty much the same thing with rice that it is with pasta. I thought going from white rice to brown rice would make it less…palatable, but not so. See, I am not a fan of plain rice, white or brown. But I love, love, love any kind of flavored rice. My mom used to make two varieties of fried rice, which were not really “fried rice” but they sure were good, and come to find out VERY fattening as well. She also made Spanish rice, which I also adore. Now I make a garlic brown rice which is pretty tasty, but whenever I make it, I want to eat the entire pot of it. So, needless to say, I don’t make it much anymore.


Mashed Potatoes: I don’t know, doesn’t this sort of fall under the French fries category? While they come from my same beloved potato, I still see them as totally different dishes. There’s something amazing comforting in mashed potatoes. And much to my husband’s surprise, I am more than happy to eat mashed potatoes with absolutely nothing else. He, on the other hand, will ONLY eat mashed potatoes if accompanied by gravy. In fact, I kinda think he pretty much uses the mashed potatoes as a vessel in which to contain his gravy. Personally, I can’t stand gravy. I find it nauseating. I think gravy may be, perhaps, the only fattening food I find distasteful.


Pizza: Seriously, what more is there to say besides…pizza. The warm, crust, the melted cheese, the sauce, and the toppings of your choice. My ideal pizza is pepperoni and onion. But my husband doesn’t care for that, so we never have it. I pretty much like a pizza with a lot of toppings, and I am perfectly happy for those toppings to be all veggie. Despite my adoration for all carby things, I still do like my veggies.


And lastly….ice cream, how do love thee, let me count the ways. I have had a lifelong romance with ice cream. While it’s not a relative of my bready, potato-y, carby other loves, it still ranks right up there with them. I like desserts. Truthfully, I like to bake them more than I like to eat them, but I do like them. Let’s put it this way, I wouldn’t kick a chocolate mousse layer cake out of bed, but I would always opt for ice cream over cake or cookies. I’m pretty sure it’s a family addiction. I remember Sunday drives with my family. These drives were ALWAYS a quest for the best ice cream places in the greater suburban Boston area. This was led by my Dad. If he had his way, he would have eaten ice cream every day of his life. Hell, he would have probably been happy to eat it at every meal too! But I remember the hour long drives in the country to try out his latest homemade ice cream stand find. We had lots of local chain ice cream as well, but I know he was happiest when he found one of those perfect homemade ice cream stands.


And thus, my life long love affair with ice cream began. Both my sisters are the same way. I even recall one of my sisters telling me about vivid dreams she had about the ice cream going down her throat. You know, I have a vivid memory as well. I was in the fourth grade, and we had an assignment to write a paragraph describing ourselves as an inanimate object. I wrote about being an ice cream cone, and I was melting. That was the very moment I knew I wanted to be a writer. Somehow, it just doesn’t surprise me that my ultimate career goal in life is intertwined with food, and a trigger food no less!


Ok, now it’s your turn, tell me what your trigger food is. And any other information about said food that you wish to share!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Do You Want to Know a Secret?

As some of you know, I have recently been laid off. That in itself has caused some ups and downs for me. I am currently looking for a job, and also trying to explore any other opportunities that may come my way. So if any of you know of any job openings for incredibly talented writers, please be sure to let me know.

Meanwhile…it’s been kinda tough to try to be funny and entertaining as I usually am in these blogs. Ok, as I am in general. But I am hoping just the act of writing, and putting it out there for everyone to read, may help to motivate me to post more blogs.

I do have to admit that four separate people have asked what happened to my blogs, and I was very flattered to know that some people are actually reading them, and more than that, enjoying them.

Here’s a secret…I am embarking on a new diet adventure. But, I want to make a little headway before I reveal the details. So, hopefully I will be able to regale you with some interesting info on the weight loss front soon.

In the meantime, I just wanted to fill you in on what’s going on. Let you know that I am still alive and blogging, although perhaps not quite at my best just yet.

Here’s another secret, I am sort of at low point right now, weight-wise. My weight is higher than it has EVER been! I am beginning to think that unemployment does NOT agree with me. And the other part of this secret is that I am not wild about being unemployed. While my last job may have been less than ideal, there were certain benefits I derived because of it. I made some great friends there, I gained some valuable experience, and earned enough money to pay at least some of the bills.

Now, however, I am ready to move on. Ready to take on new challenges and adventures. I am not adverse to finding a job both in my field or perhaps in another direction. So, remember, if you know anyone who wants to hire a slightly chubby but VERY talented writer, please send them my way. Ok, but did I happen to mention VERY talented writer?? Ok, just trying to drive the point home.

So, have you been wondering what I’ve been doing since I’ve been unemployed? Well, it’s not the list of things I had planned to do, that’s for sure. I have not cleaned out one drawer of my bureau, or any closets. I do have to admit that I went through a brief period of cooking and baking (which may have more to do with my additional pounds than I care to admit), but I have STILL not pulled out my sewing machine and made all the nine million Christmas gifts I planned to create and give to all my family and friends. Oh well, perhaps they will just have to settle for my usual tin of cookies. Although…I don’t recall any complaints last year, except for a few groans about weight gain. Still, some of those homemade ornaments would be nice too.

I have been looking for a job, scouring all the job boards and sending out resumes. I have also been networking my brains out! I joined a professional organization, and was talked into becoming a board member. That has actually turned out to be a very good thing for me. I am the Director of Public Relations, and I am having some fun with it. So far I like the creativity of it, and I look forward to the social aspect of it as well, something that was severely lacking in my last job. And who knows, perhaps this may turn out to be a good career path for me. One never knows, does one?

But let’s get back to the issue of dieting and weight loss. Food has always been a huge source of comfort for me. Well, except for that brief period when I actually enjoyed exercising, cause then working out did calm me down somewhat. But, since I’ve been home, I think my hobby has been food. Need to cut that out before I can’t fit into a door, thus the reason I am embarking on a VERY strict diet. Ok enough for now. I want to post this, and I promise more details to come about my latest diet adventure!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Let's Get Physical

By now you may have noticed that I have yet to discuss…exercise! Let me reiterate the fact that I was a fat kid, so I was never exactly…athletic. And while I did play the occasional kickball game with my brother in our backyard, exercise, or anything physical, was not exactly…encouraged in my family.

I remember the dreaded mandatory gym class. And one of those experiences still haunts me. I don't recall the name of the game, but we as students followed the commands of the gym teacher kinda like a musical chairs sort of thing. The last one to follow the command was "out." I remember one particularly humiliating experience, where the sadistic gym teacher had me paired with a small thin boy, and she ordered us to do the "piggy back" command. There was no way in hell he was going to be able to support my bulk, so being that he was one of those smart geeky kids, he jumped on MY back. That was perhaps the beginning of the humiliation concerning my weight. So, with an experience like that under my belt, you are probably beginning to understand why I was not naturally inclined to do anything physical.

During my final semester at college, I agreed to take a phys ed class with my friend Maureen. The deal was Maureen took an English class with me, and I took a phys ed class with her. Since I was an English major, I had to take a class for English majors, while she merely needed to fill a core requirement. So, being the good friend that she was, she took a Major American Author class with me, and I took a basic exercise/aerobic class with her.

To be honest…I didn't hate the class. I didn't love it, but I don't recall hating it either. Plus, I HAD to go! I wouldn't let something as simple as a phys ed class ruin my grade point average, so I never skipped the class since attendance was the only thing we were really graded on. You know what, in my four years in college, that was the ONLY phys ed class I ever took.

After college I took the occasional gym class with my sister who worked at the YMCA and therefore got me in for free. And I recall joining a gym once called "Woman's Word" in an attempt to keep my weight down. I remember pouring myself into a leotard and tights for those aerobics classes. Funny to think back on that. But it was the 80’s so I guess leotards were in!

Somewhere along the line, I gave up on all things physical, and settled into an incredibly sedentary lifestyle. This lasted for years, and many, many pounds!

During my last "real" WW attempt, I came across something that motivated me to exercise like nothing else ever could: Activity Points! I remember thinking the people at WW were truly ingenious! They motivated me to exercise with food, or the promise of MORE food!! Based on my weight and time spent exercising I was allowed to eat more food. I LOVED it! It really worked for me. I then started walking!

After getting into a semi-regular walking routine, only to allow myself to eat more, I finally realized I actually started to enjoy those walks. I especially liked the early morning walks, when it was kinda cool and quiet outside. Somewhere along the line I added music to these walks. That made the experience even better! I can't tell you how much I grew to enjoy my morning walks with John Mayer. He and I had a regular date, and I actually started to love it!

I had my Saturday morning routine, get up, have coffee, head out for an hour and a half walk. When I came home I would shower, go grocery shopping, then clean the apartment. When I think back on it, my husband had it pretty good, cause he would sleep through the bulk of that, until I got to the vacuuming part. But walking in the morning used to give me so much energy, I got all my chores done early, so he didn't have to any. Yeah, life IS pretty good for him. And, I would go through the same routine on Sunday morning, except for the cleaning of course.

I kept this up for several years. Somewhere along the line I stopped walking, though, and started going to the gym. After all, my husband made me join the gym after we got married, and he even dragged me there, kicking and screaming for the first year of our marriage. Eventually he got out of the gym routine and thankfully, so did I. But, in an effort to burn more calories in less time I moved from the outdoor walks to the treadmill at the gym.

At one point, I was lured into signing up with a personal trainer. I admit, the fact that he was young and cute probably had more to do with it than I want to admit. But I got it in my head that I needed a trainer to get me into a good workout routine, then I would stick with it. I didn’t stick with it. What I did get out of it was a certain liking for the elliptical machine that he forced me to try.

Don’t ask me why, but for some reason that machine was not quite as excruciatingly boring as the treadmill. And, the more I did it, the more I liked it. I went from BARELY being able to make it through 20 minutes to doing a solid hour doing intervals, and bumping up the resistance.

I don’t know how long I did that, but I went to the gym about six times a week for several years. I fluctuated with my weight within five pounds, ten at the most, during that time. I realize now that it was the constant, almost obsessive, exercising.

Somewhere along the line I tapered off. I think it was when we bought our house. It needed much work, and I didn’t have the time to spend at the gym. That’s when I really started to gain weight too.

I realize now, that there’s a certain association in my head, Maybe it’s just that if I am spending this time exercising, I better be eating healthy as well. Either way, they seem to go hand in hand for me.

I am gearing up to get back into a solid exercise mode. I guess that means I need to start eating healthy again. And then, hopefully I will have some real progress to report to you!!