Shhhhh It's a Secret

“Secrets are made to be found out with time.” ~ Charles Sanford

I have had a secret for a couple of weeks.  I was going to keep it a secret, but at the meeting I attended Monday evening, they said we would have more success if we made ourselves accountable for our actions.  So my little secret is that I have been attending Weight Watchers.  Yeah I know, not life shattering but it hopefully will be life changing. 

I started to gain weight eleven years ago when I quit smoking.  At first I was very aware of the fact that I might gain and watched for it.  But slowly I let that slip away when I was finally able to quit working and become a full time mom/housewife again.  Then it just got worse taking care of my mom, eating hospital vending food or McDonald's while she was getting chemo or we were going to/from appointments.  Then I would come home and make comfort food because I needed the comfort.

I would also gain more during all the cold months and lose some during the warmer months.  Some being the key word there.  It doesn't help that we have more cold months than warm either.   When winter arrives I tend to hibernate like the bear, unfortunately I also tend to pack in the extra calories to get me through the cold.

After finding out I was going to be a grandmother I decided I need to literally get off my ass.   I still have issues with my left side since I had the mini stroke so I needed to stop working around them and exercise to change it.  I want to be able to carry my grandchild all over but more importantly I want to be part of my grandchild's life.   My  family history has cancer, heart problems, high blood pressure and diabetes.  Right now I don't have any problems, except migraines which triggered the mini stroke,  but I need to keep it that way.  I was going to wait until the new year but then asked myself why I was putting it off.  If I fully intended to commit why delay so I attended my first meeting on December 6. 

I ate my way through a friends dinner, a company dinner that included an all you can eat seafood buffet, (NOTE: I LOVE SEAFOOD)  and another friends annual Christmas party.  Then I baked and baked and baked some more.  Christmas arrived and I pushed out a buffet dinner on Christmas day and a big duck and ham dinner the following day.

On top of that, out of the last 29 days only 3 were average temperature, 23 were below average.  Which in a nutshell means that all I have wanted to do is hibernate even more and eat stick to your rib foods.

Each week I walk in to those meetings and cringe while they read the scale.  Thankfully I can announce that through it all I have lost over 6 pounds and #2 daughter who joins me has lost 10. 

Now that the holidays are behind us I won't have the temptations and hopefully the weight loss will continue.  The plan is easy and allows a lot of leeway.  So I have approximately 18 weeks to go before my grandchild enters this world and my goal is to be 18 - 20 pounds lighter by that time.  Very do-able at 1 pound a week, two pounds would be wonderful but I also want to bet on a realistic goal.

When I left PA in 1982 I was 124 pounds, when I returned after two kids and a divorce I wore a size 3.  Life continued for 17 years and  my current weight we will keep a secret but suffice it to say I will never go down to either of those sizes again but would be perfectly content with 150.  That is my long term goal.  I will leave the cleaning off t of he grandkid's plates to the parents and my contribution will be to  chase him/her around!  Hopefully this works and I will be able to chase and not roll after him/her.