Community Chest

I LOVE the community we live in. Tonight we had a community dinner to celebrate Thanksgiving. It. Was. AWESOME.

One of the elder members of our group played the Sitar and sang a song giving thanks for all our blessings... that she had written herself. It was off tune. Her voice cracked often. Yet, it was moving and lovely that she wanted to share it with all of us.

Another older gentleman gave a blessing that was heartfelt and pithy.

We had Turkey and Ham. We had stuffing, dressing and sweet potato casserole. There was macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole and broccoli cheese rice. Oh there was so much more. The food was great.

The company was even better. I watched as everyone went from table to table conversing about the holidays, their kids or whatever came to mind. I found myself being called from table to table, group to group, only to hear the same question.

"How much weight HAVE you lost? You're looking SO much better."

First, it shocked me that so many were asking. Then I started thinking about it. Many of these folks have known me since I was a senior in high school. That's 22 YEARS. They've seen me gain weight, get married, gain more weight, have a kid, gain MORE weight, get separated from my husband, gain MORE weight, get back with my husband and... yes.. you guessed it... GAIN MORE WEIGHT. Bleh. OF COURSE they're noticing me loose it.

I have to say, it felt pretty damn good to say, "I've lost 53 lbs since July." I couldn't stop grinning. I have a LOT to be thankful for this year. The most important is the silent support and cheering section I have. I know they're out there rooting for me to loose all the weight I want and it feels great.

Dog Days of Summer

We are taking a day off from our exercise routine today. Mom is exhausted and I'm in some rather... intense pain. Instead, we're going to town. Going to shop at Wally-World, Walgreens, then moving furniture up stairs and cleaning it to get that area ready for the new beds being delivered this weekend...

Yeah.. Day off my arse! lol. Why does it seem there's ALWAYS something more to do.

You would THINK living at a lake, in the country, with my retired parents, would be... peaceful. Relaxing. Dull even. Ummm you would be WRONG. Dad has been busier since he retired than he was when he worked full time! He built this house on the lake. He runs a Daylily Farm called Dolollies Daylilies. He's constantly making work for himself. Mom runs the house and stays very busy with that. There's ALWAYS something to do. Its amazing how active these "old" folks are!

Every morning, around 9am, the community starts to come alive. You see couples walking for their daily exercise, kids riding golf carts, 4-wheelers, Rangers, bikes... whatever they can get their hands on. Often, instead of birdsong and other nature sounds you hear hammering, electric saws, tractors... its amazing. I thought it would be quiet, boring maybe. That'll teach me to think.

Everything Old is New Again...

This has been a wonderfully weird arsed week. I got an email from MySpace... and yes... I have a MySpace Page... bite me... that someone named "Prom Date" had sent me a message. Now, seeing the full first name of Prom Date I thought to myself, "Who the Hell is THIS?" (I get a lot of spam messages and friend requests from the Almighty MySpace) I read the message and it was from Prom Date!!!! Now, my Senior Prom was a long, LONG time ago *cough21yearsagocough* but my date was my very best friend and someone I loved with all my heart. I was completely stoked to have heard from him! We are now communicating through MySpace pretty much daily and I've now "met" his wife online and am looking forward to getting to know the woman that impressed him enough to take the plunge!

On the same theme, with a twist, I'm going to be living with my parents for the next year or so. R and J and I and my folks have all been talking and NONE of us really want me to have the gastric bypass. It scares us all witless as I don't heal minor injuries well much less something that invasive. Sheky and I are going to live here. I'm going to continue past the two months I have on medical leave from work and try to loose the weight by exercising in the water and dieting. With Mom as my nutritionist (She's lost well over 100 lbs herself) and Dad as my D.I. HOW can I loose? errr... Not Loose??? Oh, you know what I mean! R and J will visit as much as they can on weekends so I don't feel cut off from human kind living out here in the sticks (heh) and Sheky gets his wish to live at the lake. Should be interesting, no?

Tomorrow is weigh in day. I cheated and weighed Thursday and I was a bit annoyed. I had gained 3 lbs. However my clothes are DEFINITELY fitting differently. I think the weight gain is probably a combination of building muscle (My back and legs are supporting me MUCH better now thank God) and the water retention from the impending Aunt Flo visitation. Goody, eh?

The Amazing KLUTZO!!!!!

I... am a YOOGE... KLUTZ! Today, during my morning "Swim", Mom of NotAMeanGirl was cautioning me NOT TO STEP IN A HOLE IN THE SAND. That would be REALLY bad as it would cause me to fall and potentially break part of my body that I've grown quite fond of over the years. My reply to her? "I'm FINE!!!"

I then proceeded to find the dreaded low spot in the sand with my Amazing Hole Finding Foot and fell face first into the water. I twisted my ankle and wrenched my knee trying to keep from falling. (I SAID I was a Klutz!)

However, said accident did NOT stop me from partaking of a 75 minute long session in the water this afternoon. It hurt like HELL every time I flexed my foot but I felt GOOD because I hadn't let it stop me.

Tomorrow is our "official" weigh in! Anyone wanna make a bet on how much I've lost my first week?

Back.. and Badder Than EVAH!

Hi everyone. I know I've been a bad Bloggy Momma. I haven't posted in a while. There was, however, a REASON for my absence.

I am at the lake. It is now Day 5 of my exercise and diet program and its going well. I purposely haven't posted about it because I figured if you wanted to listen to someone bitch and whine about how sore they are and how hungry they are you'll talk to your kids... or spouses... or whatever. I HAVE been sore! Holy Hell have I been sore. Today its better though. We've been swimming twice a day for a cumulative time of about 2 to 2.5 hours a day. We're not ACTUALLY swimming. Doing standing squats in the water and kicking our legs constantly as well as flailing our arms about in the water is more like it. You wouldn't THINK that would be very effective, would you? Well, LEMME TELL YOU SUMTHIN' BUB! Yer WRONG. My whole body is feeling the effects of if it. I'm actually walking a little better despite the achiness and the fact that my legs get so frickin' TIRED when I'm on land its unreal. Though, I guess carrying around almost 1/4 of a ton will do that to ya!

The diet portion of things is going well also. We've been following the WW Core program. I haven't been hungry due to a lack of food at all. Its all whole foods and healthier foods and I'm feeling better without all that fast food and junk food in my system. I'm tired as hell though.

Yesterday, after 3 days of exercise I weighed. I couldn't help it. My legs SEEM weaker. SEEM to get tired faster and it was bothering me. I needed a sign that this stuff was actually WORKING and wasn't all in vain. In 3 days I went from 463.8 to 455 lbs. I lost 8.8 lbs in 3 frickin' days. I'd say... that's a sign that it's working... and then some.

I'm excited. I'm elated. I'm sore. I'm tired. I'm scared.... but... I'm ok. :)