skinnification

When I weighed in yesterday, I was down five pounds. Or maybe four or three. I couldn't tell; when I bought a scale last year, it was the cheapest one I could find at Target. If I was going to get serious about losing weight, I figured I'd have to get serious about the scale I was weighing myself on (or something like that). So Jason and I stopped at Target last night to get some detergent, shampoo, and a new scale.

I wanted a digital one that could store values for me, and the first one I saw was the Health-o-Meter HDM500-01. Great name, right? It's got a nice big readout, and it lets me store a starting weight and a goal weight (you can store numbers for up to four users). So I press my button, step on, and it tells me how much I've lost and how much I have left until my goal. So far (which, let's face it, is less than 24 hours) it's been great. It was really nice when I first tried it out and it told me I weighed 157... when it was resting on carpet. Putting it on the kitchen floor gave me more accurate results. I started last week at about 208, and last night I was 202.8. Whee!

Remember me? I've *gained* about 15 pounds since you last saw me. I've been lazy, overworked, underpaid and stressed out. But thankfully, all that is changing. I'm back on Weight Watchers. I've started working out again. And, thanks to Christine's brilliant idea, I'm planning to lose five pounds a month for the entire year. Which should put me right about my goal weight, if all goes well. I'm back.

Craziness! House-buying and work and craziness! But the weight is still coming off. More soon...

One more pound gone. Hi-YA! Fat-fu, that's what this is. One more pound and I'll pass five percent of my body weight in the "lost" category (so, you can do the math for about what I started at).

I'm surprised I lost any at all. I weigh in on Mondays, Jason's dad was here until Thursday, which means I ate out no fewer than four times last week. Actually, five, because Jason and I ate out Friday night. Must crack whip on self! At least I left every place (except Red Robin) with a box filled with half my meal.

Speaking of take-out boxes, the waitress we had at the Olive Garden a couple weeks ago pissed me off. I got manicotti. I don't much care for the tomato sauce, but I figured it was better for me than what I usually do (replace it with alfredo sauce), so I just scraped in off when I got my food. I finish my half of the meal, and the waitress asks if I need a box. I say yes, so she brings one. And then proceeds to scrape my entire plate, including the tomato sauce I had obviously scraped off, into the box. So I was back to where I started. Le sigh.

Mr. Happy Scale told me I was down another two pounds this week. Which is incredible considering Jason's dad has been in town and we've been eating out for practically every meal. In between, though, I haven't been snacking. I've been too preoccupied with... *drumroll* ...buying a house!

We went out to look at a new development on a whim this weekend. Jason and I hadn't really considered new construction as a home option for us; we'd always thought we'd find a house we liked and then change it to suit us better. But this development has the perfect floor plan for us, and we'd get to pick out all our options and such because we're getting in before building has started. It's a great deal, and with all the upgrades we'd like, it's still cheaper than most homes in the are. I've posted more detailed info (and photos) over there. In any event - we love it and we're happy and excited. I talked to the sales rep at the development yesterday when we put the hold on our lot, and she said she expects the block to be released for contruction in three or fours weeks. We're heading to the bank Saturday morning to get all our ducks in a row, and once the block is released we'll head back to get our pre-qualification letter; we have to have that to sign a contract, and we have to sign a contract within 48 hours of the release or they can give our lot to someone else. Which is bad news. I'm hoping we can qualify for enough of a mortgage on Jason's income alone. My credit score is much lower, so even if we could get a larger loan we'd be paying a ton more interest. And having my student loan and other debt tacked on could negatively impact our debt-to-income ratio, so we'd end up getting less of a mortgage than if Jason's income alone was on the application. We'll see how it goes.

I'm looking forward to sending out cards that say "We've moved!" with us standing in front of our new house and me not afraid to show a little leg next to my skinny husband.

This week I said goodbye to yet another pound. I also noticed this week that I've had virtually no hunger; usually, I know it's time for a low-point snack when I start to get a mid-morning or mid-afternoon hunger pain. This week, no such pains. I've even been able to unconciously put off eating lunch until 2 or 3 p.m. because my stomach doesn't tell me it wants to eat. And the true test was when I made White Trash Ramen the other night and could only eat half of my bowl - half of my usual serving. Progress is being made! Woo-hoo!

The next struggle I'd like to tackle is the weekend. I find myself having trouble sticking to the plan on Saturday and Sunday - I keep track of the points in my head, but I don't write them down or record them in the Points tracker. And I seem to eat more frequently, probably because the food is more accessible. It's completely an issue of discipline - just because there's a full pantry in the kitchen doesn't mean I have to eat something out of it - and it's a challenge I'm tackling head-on.

Next week I'd also like to add a crucial element to my program - exercise. I've lost the weight so far just by cutting back on what I eat. It makes me giddy to think how successful I could be if I eat less *and* work out.

At the end of week two, I'm down another pound. At first I was disappointed it wasn't more, but then I remembered 1-2 pounds a week is actually healthy, so I stopped feeling sorry for myself. : )

I got a disturbing e-mail from my brother last week. Apparently he reads my other site and had seen that I was starting WW, because he felt the need to send me a message. The whole thing can be condensed into the following two sentences:

"I'm on Atkins and I can basically eat a freaking tub of lard and still lost weight because there are no carbs in them. I predict that you will be starving to death on Weight Watchers and you will be miserable."

Most of that is his words; the last sentence is his verbatim. He also brought up the family history of diabetes, of which I'm well aware. Yes, my mother has diabetes; she was controlling it with her diet until just recently, when she had to start taking insulin. My mother has also been overweight for most of her life, so I'd wager that was a contributing factor. She's losing weight now and eating right, and I'm really proud of her. My brother seems to think that avoiding carbs is the only way to avoid diabetes. But if I lose the weight by a healthier method, I tend to think I can get the same benefit because, either way, I will weigh less. And I won't run the risk of dying from a heart attack at age 40 because I spent my twenties and thirties eating tubs of lard.

My first weigh-in was this morning, and I'm down a whipping four pounds. Woo! It felt good to get on the scale this morning, and that's not something I'd ever thought I'd say. And the loss is just a motivation to keep it up. Luckily, with all the zero- and one-point snacks I've got around the office, stay on plan won't be much of a challenge.

A sour note on the day: the hospital, the doctor's office, the various technicians involved... everyone has begun calling asking for their money for my surgery in February. And since I don't have $13,000 in my back pocket, I have very little to give them. To catch everyone up - I had to have emergency surgery to remove an ovarian cyst that was interfering with the blood supply to my ovary, and even though I was insured at the time, my insurance company claims it was a pre-existing condition and is refusing to pay. I'm trying to appeal, but in the mean time I have to give all these people something so they don't send my bill to a collection agency. That's the last thing we need just a few months from starting to look for a house and a mortgage. I've been handling it pretty well, but something snapped today and I had a good cry about it.

Anyone have a few thousand dollars I can borrow?