The Results Are In

So, the turkey verdict is...... one pound! My strategy seemed to work for the most part. I ate a real Thanksgiving meal including my favorite green bean casserole, gravy, stuffing, turkey, and even a piece of pie, and I ended up gaining one pound that week.

I know that I really should be grateful, and I am, but of course, part of me is asking myself if it was worth it considering it will probably take me at least two weeks to get this one pound off!

Thanksgiving Day Bummer

Last year at Thanksgiving time, one of our house guests ended up in the emergency room, not due to the food but to other health issues he had. This year, because of a book deadline looming among other things, we opted for a quiet Thanksgiving with no guests and we had hoped no emergency room visit. Alas, poor Nee Nee started having a diabetic episode around 12:15. I had just finished working out in hopes of fighting off some of the dinner I was about to chow down on, when I noticed he was walking around the living room like he had no idea where the heck he was at. This is not the first time this has happened, so we sort of know the drill by now, and we have unfortunately gotten to know the staff at the emergency pet care clinic. You don't even want to know how much it costs. But, what is a cat mommy to do?

He ended up having the stay the night as they pumped him with something to bring him down to normal levels, and as you can see by the picture above, he was home the next day with a not too happy look on his face. He was fine but very needy, making sure that either my DH or I were in the same room as he was all day. I must have picked him up to smooch a hundred times that day, and he just never could get enough.

"That place is a bad, bad place!" he told me.

Turkey Day Tricks

Normally, we have a few guests for Thanksgiving dinner and my DH cooks a fabulous and fattening meal with way too much food that we continue to gorge on for about a week afterwards. However, this year due to our guests having some health issues and me having some work issues (a book deadline that's coming up soon) , it will be just two of us for dinner, and we both want to avoid the Thanksgiving spare tire that normally shows up a few days later. I just spent months getting rid of 15 pounds and I have about 20 to go, so I don't want to undo all my hard work and start at square one just so I can OD-on chery pie.

Therefore, we decided to try to come up with a turkey dinner plan that we could both deal with, which resulted in some pretty tough negotiations around here lately. DH is low-carbing it, so he can eat a lot of foods that I can't and visa versa, but we managed to come up with a compromise that I hope will work for us. My main issue is the amount of food. With WW I can really eat anything, just not large quantities of anything. So, rather than DH make is wonderful cherry pie that I will then have after dinner as well as the next day for breakfast and lunch, I bought us two pieces of frozen chocolate pie pieces. Instead of a huge casserole of green beans (which is a favorite of mine), he's making a smaller version of it. He's opting for faux mashed potatoes for himself (mushed up cauliflower) and I have one small sweet potato for moi.

It will still be a lot more food than I'm used to, but hey, it is a holiday. A pound or so I can deal with. Five pounds, though, means I'm at least set back 5 weeks from where I am now, and that is a place I don't want to go!

May you also have a happy, healthy, and not-too-fattening Thanksgiving!

Back to School Shopping

Because of the new teaching gig starting in a few months and the fact that I'm down a size now and can't imagine myself down another size by the time school starts in a few months, I went ahead and did a little back to school shopping.

I know most women are supposed to love to shop, but I guess I'm not like most women. I love to have the stuff in my closet, but I hate to go out and get it. On-line shopping isn't too painless, so I don't mind that. For example, LL Bean is a pretty decent semi-casual but not too casual place for teacher clothing. I also have luck sometimes with J.Jill, on sale items of course because their prices are normally on the high side. But, I really needed some suit/career type clothing, so I trudged out to Sears the other day.

I pulled out the "new" size I can wear, headed into the dressing room, and was pleasantly surprised that just about all of it was too large. The skirts almost fell off and pants were too roomy, especially in the waist. Could it be I'm really into the next size, at least at Sears?

With this little thrill in me, I headed back out to get the same items one size smaller. As I'm thumbing through one of the racks, a petite woman was also looking and then reached past me for an item, "I need a 4," she tells me. Pop! There goes my little bubble of delight.

New Direction 4 Fatand40

After explaining to a web-friend of mine about all the changes that have happened to my life over the past month or so - good changes, exciting changes, but scary changes as well - she put it like this: "It sounds like you have come to a cross-road in your life."

Exactly!

Here is the short version of what's happened over the past few weeks: I got the job of my dreams, a full-time tenured track teaching gig at a school I adore; I received yet another book deal (in the middle of another book right now already), one I thought wasn't going to start until January but is starting now instead; I realized I'm going to have to cut down on some of my smaller writing jobs, my blogging especially.

Granted, none of this should be that much of a surprise to me. I went back to school so that I could get a job just like the one I finally landed. I sent in the proposal for the book because I knew I wanted to write it. I went into blogging on a lark, thinking it would just be a fun way to earn a little cash but mainly with the idea it would be a good way to promote my other writing work, which it has.

Still, I've had to make some really difficult decisions. I love the blogosphere. I love writing blogs and getting paid to do it, even if it's not a huge amount of money. I love the people I've met and worked with as a pro blogger.

But yet....I know that I want to teach and write my books as well, and I just can't do it all. I also know I'm very lucky to have to make decisions like this, even though, hey, I've earned it. As I explained at one point in my interview for the job when asked if I really thought I was ready to teach full-time: "I went back to school and got my Ph.D. so that I could teach here full-time. Yes, I'm ready, and I want this job."

Though it took years to get here (actually 9, but who's counting?), it still feels like everything is changing for me overnight. So, I'm walking down a new road, but I'm taking very small steps because I'm just trying to get my bearings. I know I'm headed in the right direction though.

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14.5 in 16

Yes, I know. I have been a bad fat and 40 blogger as I've not had time for fun blogging these days, but I have been a good fat and 40 weight watcher. In 16 weeks, I've lost 14.5 pounds and I'm comfortably down into the next size. I still have to weigh in this week, and I don't feel too confident, but I've learned it is really hard to tell sometimes when it comes off so slowly. And, it is coming off, so that is what I have to keep remembering.

I can't say that I've been one of those people who have tried a zillion diets. Most just don't appeal to me because I'm a little bit of a picky eater, but that's what I like about Weight Watchers. You can really eat the foods you want for the most part, even if you are like me and have a number of foods you don't like that are required on most diets - like milk. I can't tell you how many diets I read tell you to drink milk - ick, gag me, barf-0-matica! While WW does suggest you drink it because it's healthy, the reality comes down to the points and what you total up at the end of the day. So, what would I rather drink, milk or a lite beer before going to bed? Errr...nuff said.

I had someone comment awhile back about how she was having a hard time with the WW program, and I agree that the first few weeks are rough. Heck, it just is not easy to watch what you eat - period - the end. But, after the first few weeks, you can get into the groove and find little tricks that work for you, so I hope she stuck with it, at least to get over the two week hump.