Life's Challenges

Wow, what an unsettling last few weeks.  I have been trying to stay focused on my weight loss but life threw me a curve ball.  On October first my daughter started complaining about pain on her right side.  We first thought is was her appendix.  But, having gone through it himself, my husband didn't think the pain was in the right spot. Well, he was right, it turned out she had a cyst on her ovary.  Mind you, she is only 12.  This kind of thing usually doesn't happen in adolescent girls.  We waited a couple weeks to see if the cyst would go away on its own and it did reduce its size (it was 7 cm, which, I was told, was pretty big) but her pain never went away.  So my baby had surgery to clean up the cyst and check the ovary to make sure it wasn't damaged.  All was good, she still has two ovaries.  Whew.  Also, since they were working on the right side, they took out her appendix as a precaution.  Watching my daughter being wheeled into the operating room was the worse moment of my life.  I was surprised by the wave of emotion that took hold of me when she was out of my sight.  I am tearing up as I write this just thinking about it.  My daughter is now recovering very well and returned to school right before Thanksgiving.  A couple more weeks and she will be back to PE class (which she is not excited about) and dance classes.  Life is good again.

Needless to say my weight loss goal hasn't been a priority.  In fact, there were several days were I caught myself stress-eating.  You know, that mindless bingeing on anything that's in the house.  My daughter was doing it, too.  And we talked about it and enjoyed eating comfort foods together.

Thanksgiving came and went and I was very thankful for my mother's delicious cooking.  I did eat whatever I wanted but I planned ahead and made sure I only ate low point foods before the feast.  My husband and I also went for a 30 minute walk around our neighborhood.  During dinner, I realized that the sweet potato casserole my mother makes is a dangerous food for me.  It was right in front of me and I kept taking a little and putting in on my plate.  I completely stuffed myself but I also enjoyed every bite,  including the pumpkin pie my 15 year old son made.  He is taking culinary arts class in high school and likes to show off his new skills.  I would be so proud of him if he became a chef.  He would be great at it.

Now I feel like I can focus again on me.  Even with the holidays fast approaching and my in-laws coming to stay with us for a couple weeks I feel like I have to find a way to be focused and stay on track.  With Weight Watchers, the key to success is tracking every bite.  I often think I can keep track of my points in my head but that is just a lie I tell myself in order to eat what I want.  It's amazing how people lie or justify their actions to themselves.  I do it all the time with food.  I am starting to recognize when I do this and change my thinking.  It's okay to have the snack, I just tell myself to track it.  It helps me realize just how much I eat and I usually end up eating less.

My husband has also jumped on the weight loss band wagon.  He is watching his carbs and doing very well.  In just three weeks he lost 25 pounds!  They just fell off him!!!  In three weeks I went up one pound then down two then up two.  I know, I know, it's easier for men, and I am very proud of him.  He does joke about how I'm mad at him but I'm not.  I think it's great and it is inspiring me to keep with the program and get some exercise.  I even got him to walk with me again Sunday.  He goes faster and I have to work harder to keep up with him, but I get a better work out in that way.  Yeah us!

So, to bring you up to date on my weight loss, I am down 7.8 pounds since I started Weight Watchers and down a total of 11 since I started this blog.  That is not the progress I was hoping for at the beginning of the year when I made my New Years resolution to get healthy.  Wow, as I write this, I am thinking thats not good at all! I'm very disappointed in myself.  I was hoping to have lost 10 pounds by Thanksgiving and I was very close.  I was down 9.6 the week before.  Then last Wednesday, I gained 1.8 to put me at the 7.8 I'm at now.  I was very discouraged.  I really need to get my act together and focus.  Next week will be better.  I can do it.  I can do it.  I can do it.

Peace and love,

Karen