Your Mission, If You Choose To Accept It

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it in my blog, but I'm a leader of my daughter's Daisy (Girl Scout) troop. Last night we were discussing one of the parts of the Girl Scout Law – "Respect Myself and Others". My daughter's school has 3 Core Rules; Be Safe, Be Responsible and Be Respectful that gets drilled into them constantly, so my co-leader and I decided to focus on the part of the Girl Scout law of respecting myself (as opposed to others since they do that at school). We talked to the girls about ways they can respect themselves (respecting their bodies, liking their selves, no negative talk) and then did an activity where they wrote down things they liked about themselves or things they were proud they could do. Once they were done we glued all the statements onto a foam thingy with a mirror attached. They can look in the mirror and see all the great things about themselves.

 

While we were doing the activity some of the girls had trouble thinking of things and we had to remind them "are you a good dancer/reader/friend?" or "you have pretty eyes/hair/skin".  Even at 6 and 7 the girls were reluctant to say positive things about themselves. My co-leader and I were talking later about how all women should do this activity because most of us we are not encouraged to think positively about ourselves.

 

So here's your mission if you choose to accept it – think of at least 5 things you like about yourself. If you're up to it post it on your blog. We all need positive reinforcement and while I have a lot of great friends who support me and think good things about me, if I don't think them about myself I will never believe them.

 

So here's my list:

 

1.      I like my hair

2.      I am strong (emotionally and physically)

3.      I am a good mother

4.      I am funny

5.      I have pretty eyes

6.      I am a good friend

 

I hope to see lots of positive things today!

Revisiting the Rules

Hi all! Hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day (or anti-Valentines Day - which ever you choose to celebrate). We had a nice low key holiday with flowers and some gifts.

So, I don't know where I'm at in this battle to get to goal. I had 2 really good weeks of tracking on Livestrong and felt things were going well. Last week I had a bit of an emotional meltdown (as we are all prone to do for different reasons) and turned to my old friend Haagen Dazs for comfort that was enough to throw me off of food tracking, but I'm officially back on today.

I'm not even going to discuss my weight because I still have my POS scale - I've seen between 174 and 180 in the past 2 weeks - that is not right (unless my body is made up of 80% sponge). I did order a shiny new scale and waited anxiously for it. Finally over the weekend I got notification that my package was returned as being "undeliverable" by UPS. WTF?? Just to clarify we have lived in this house since it was built 4 years ago - I have recieved hundreds of packages via UPS. We live in a hugely populated area in a very busy development where I see at least 3 or 4 UPS trucks everyday- why is it they couldn't suddenly find our little townhouse? They didn't even leave those we tried to deliver a package notes. So (rant over) I reorder my scale and when I get the email it's been shipped I am going to put a huge sign on my door telling UPS they better leave the package or at least a note so I can follow up.

I have been thinking a lot about restriction. I have not had a fill (or unfill) since April of 2010- yep that's right, almost 2 years. I have thought about, even made appointments but in the end never got one. For weeks I've been thinking of getting a little unfill because I felt like I was getting stuck and turning to sliders too much. All of the sudden I feel like I have perfect restriction ( I am really sensitive to stress, so right now I'm at a low stress time). I'm not experiencing any discomfort and I'm getting full from very little food. My issue now is I have to go back and really focus on following the rules. Small bites, really chewing and the one I struggle with the most is STOPPING when I'm full. I always want to take a few more bites, shove a little more down my gullet. I know I've done this before so I can did it again.

When I get my scale I will give it a review and hopefully see some lower numbers.

Random Stuff

In an attempt to live up to my promise to blog more to get out of my weight loss rut, it's me. I hope everyone had a good weekend.

 

Cate and I had an impromptu girl's day on Saturday. She needed new tennis shoes (which she hates to wear and shop for) for PE at school, so we went out in search of a pair. We were unsuccessful, but I ended up spending a fortune at Costco, Target and Trader Joe's (food is expensive). Cate also got Rapunzel and Flynn dolls at the Disney Store since she had a stellar report card last week (last night Rapunzel and Flynn were both naked each laying in a sock on my coffee table- they were kind of disturbing and looked like they joined a weird cult). We decided at the last minute to get manicures (Cate had never gotten her nails done in a shop). We went to a new place and the woman was so nice – she did Cate's nails for $3! I can be an indulgent Mom, but I love a bargain too. While we were there the crappy rain changed to big beautiful flakes of snow, it was so pretty.

 

I have been logging my food daily on Livestrong and I might be making some progress. I'm definitely aware that there are days where my protein intake is super low, so I need to focus on that. I've had good and bad days, but I track everything. I'm honestly not sure what I've lost – the highest I've seen in the past month on my scale was 180 (that was panic mode weight), the lowest in the past 2 weeks was 174. Today I was 175. I know I have called BS on other bloggers who have said this – but our scale is whacked. At first I attributed the radical up and down swing to my period, but I asked Rick if it had been accurate lately for him and he said he'd seen like 6 pound swings too. So today I'm ordering a new scale from Amazon. I don't think our old scale is completely out of range (like I don't expect to see 150 when I get on the new scale), but want some consistency. I have a hard time staying motivated without the numbers.

 

I have a full physical scheduled for Thursday of this week. I know it sounds crazy but it's been about a year and a half since I've seen my Dr. and I'm really excited. I need to get major blood work done. I know I'm low on some vitamins because I'm so tired all the time. I really love my Dr. – she had her own new practice when I started to go to her in the summer of 2008. She recorded my highest weight ever and diagnosed me with type 2 diabetes at the age of 37. It was truly my wake up call. She was very thorough in doing all my documentation for WLS and really supported my decision. She had to close her practice at the end of 2010 because of the economy. She's been working as a traveling Dr. for Johns Hopkins, but she finally is one location enough of the time to make appointments, so I can see her again. Yea!

 

Along with my scale order today I'm going to order some PB2 and Chocolate PB2. I'm getting them with the idea I can use them to make a good smoothie in the morning to up my protein. I know I've read about other people trying these – any thoughts or feedback?

 

I hope everyone has a good week. I plan to give to give updates on my scale and how my physical went later in the week.