Happy holidays, everyone! I hope you are all warm and snuggly in your beds reading this on a laptop or an iphone and enjoying a day off, except for the people at the coffee place who I hope are working because I really want a Peppermint Mocha Twist. In the spirit of the season, here are some people who are doing good or need some help.

Help Heather help girls with eating disorders

Heather at MamaVision is encouraging people to give to the National Eating Disorders Association via a link on her site. The funds will be matched by an anonymous donor. You can also leave a comment about why you donated which she’ll send to the NEDA.

Be Barb’s weigh-in partner

Friend of the blog, Barb, is looking for a weigh-in buddy. Here’s how she put it, “Do you know somebody from blogland who would be willing to let me report my weight daily — starting now and going to through January, and perhaps to be extended beyond that if it proves to be an effective self-monitoring system?…Unless [...]

• Continue reading "Spread the cheer"

Those are my feet, as funky as ever. Those are my toes, still gnarly from the half-marathon two months ago. And there is the issue of Women’s Health my book was reviewed in this month, proving the photo is recent.

It’s July 2, 2008 and I weigh 179 pounds. That’s exactly what I weighed on July 2, 2007. And that’s good enough for me!

When I started this journey back in…the stone ages? The bronze age? Okay, maybe it was just 2005. I set 160 as my goal weight because I wanted a number to aim for, 160 fell in the “normal” BMI range and it ended in a 0. Since June of 2007, I’ve been hovering below or above 180. Sometimes I’ve been really psyched to get to 160, charting out how many months it will take if I lose a pound every week. Sometimes I’ve looked at 175 on the scale in the morning and thought, “I’ll have a chocolate éclair for breakfast!”

So, let’s scratch out that “160″ next to my goal weight because I. [...]

• Continue reading "Weight: 179 – Pounds to lose: 19 179, good enough for me!"

Two weeks ago, reader Christine asked me “I’m just wondering how it’s going not weighing yourself every day?” Well, Christine, I’d be happy to tell you if I’d actually stuck to it. Yes, I totally cheated. I’m a cheater. I also used to hide notes in the source code of programs on my TI-82 calculator back in high school math class too, so I’ve been a cheater for years now.

I did hold out for a week and a half. I was really tempted to hop on the scale after I had food poisoning because I’m sure the dehydration sucked off several pounds, even if they weren’t “real.” But I kept my ass on the couch. And when I saw my little kitty looking so slender in the kitchen, I was tempted to weigh myself and then weigh myself while I was holding him to determine his weight in the difference. But I resisted that urge to and got my mother to do it when we went out to lunch that weekend. Every time I opened [...]

• Continue reading "Weighing-in on January"

The more observant (or obsessive) readers among you may have noticed something. I have not posted my weight today. No, this is not because I’ve removed my scale’s batteries in fear. It’s actually secret step four in PastaQueen’s Super Cool Strategies to Get Her Groove Back! I’m changing to monthly weigh-ins.

There are many different philosophies on how frequently you should weigh yourself: monthly, weekly, daily, or not at all. Now that I’m switching to monthly, I’ll have tried them all. My philosophy? Choose what is best for you at the time. Different approaches work for different people depending on your situation and your state of mind.

Not weighing myself at all led me to gain 200 pounds. I do not recommend this method.

When I started losing weight three years ago, I weighed myself weekly. This worked well for about a year and a half. My body was so huge that it burned a lot of calories. I could easily lose 3 or 4 pounds a week and do a happy dance every Saturday as I stepped [...]

• Continue reading "Weight a month"

November was so insane that I forgot to weigh in on it until six days into December. Oops! And what a wacky month it was. First I discovered the common cold was the secret to losing those last two hundred pounds. Then I discovered the stress of which I cannot speak was a good way to gain back five. Then there was Thanksgiving. The net result? In November I lost and then regained about ten pounds. I’ve never ridden a roller coaster like that without wearing a seatbelt.

During the time I was excreting half my bodily fluids out my nose, I went four days without exercising, the longest period of non-activity I’ve experienced since the days when I had to rock back and forth to heave myself off the couch. When I was stressed, I ate about three pints of ice cream, the most dairy I’ve eaten in a week since I was breastfeeding. I didn’t eat much for Thanksgiving dinner, but made up for it during dessert by devouring several helpings of [...]

• Continue reading "Weighing in on November"