My sister’s water broke about 1:30 this morning. She’s at the hospital. Her last child took 24 hrs of labor though, so this one won’t be easy. As soon as I get more news, I’ll post it.

Okay, if you didn’t watch cartoons in the eighties, you may not get the reference.

Anyhoo, on my daily read list is the Yarn Harlot. Last Friday, she wrote an entry hysterically funny about editing her latest knitting book. Well, she reminded me of PBW, who’s at the top of my daily read list. So I ran down the list of PBW entries, to where she gave her email, and I sent her the link.

Lo and behold, not only do I get a reply in my email, today’s PBW entry comments on the Harlot, and references my name. I’m famous! I have affected the blogisphere! I have the Power!

To be fair, I haven’t kept up this blog, and I’d get more readership if I did, with links to others, for it is with trackbacks and comments to others that one builds their own blog, but still. For little old me to have such an influence, tiny that it is, on such a highly read and respected blog, it boggles the mind.

And I’m still recovering from the birthday party at Chuck E Cheese’s. Luckily, the charge goes on next month’s bill, and since it was the Husband’s idea, I can say I told you so when he yells. 2 hours of screaming kids, lousy covers of pop songs, keeping track of 12 kids and making sure they and the parents they brought all ate and drank satisfactorily, and got enough tokens, then hauling the presents home, the list as she opened them, the baths, the attempt to calm them down for Sunday night bedtime – oy! It’s a good thing I had a quiet work day today, or I might have come across as the witch my kids think I am sometimes.

Time to enforce 8 pm bedtime. Witch practice. Yes, that’s “Witch” - with a W, not a B. I’ll hear that later, in about five years, I expect.

 

 

 

20 pounds. As advertised. However, it would have been more, but I had some bad days at the beginning of last week, so that slowed my rate down. I kept my cal count down, but the food choices on the bad days weren’t the best.

This week, I’ll be adding in the walking, as recommended by Medifast – 20 minutes 3 times a week. Don’t know when, just yet – possibly at lunch time at work.

On the knitting front – can’t find the camera, so you’ll just have to imagine in your mind – I’ve got the triangle blanket halfway done. I bound off the baby sweater torso, only to determine it’s too short, so either I have to go back and add about 6 rows, or scrap the whole thing. Nephew is due on valentine’s day, so I need to decide soon.

Today is the six yr old’s part at Chuck E Cheese. Ugh. But, this is her first big, non family party, with invitations and thank you notes and everything. So, I’ll be listening to screaming kids for two hours. I’ve warned the husband that if he’s home when we get home, I’m going to take an hour off to recover my sanity. He has to work today (maintenance weekend for the govt computers), so he’s excused from party duty.

I had my first off site client visit last week for the new job. I’m definitely out of practice, but I think I did okay. I was pretty nervous, so I told the 4.25 yr old at drop off that I needed to hurry because I had my first big meeting with the new job. So, at pickup, the first thing out of her mouth was “Mom! How did your meeting go?” That made my afternoon.

After 3 weeks on Medifast, I’ve lost 15 pounds. I seem to have settled on 3 lbs a week after the water loss. So this is the real work. Medifast recommends getting used to the program before starting their exercise for sedentary folks (walking) program. So, next weekend, I will begin that. That should help as well. That may increase the 3 lbs a week, or may just help with inch loss.

The 5.95 turned 6 on Tuesday. I’ll have pics from the big Chuck E Cheese party which is next weekend.

The 4.25 has recovered from her cold and has spent the last 6 nites in her own bed all nite. Yes! Remember, this is the child who’s also called the Klingon. (Cling on, for those not aware of Star Trek).

The knitting – well, not so much. New Nephew is due in 4 weeks. Hat is done. Sweater needs sleeves. Still need to do booties and matching blanket. Other blanket (to match nursery) is almost half done. 18.25’s sweater – supposed to be done for christmas – needs sleeves.

I have my first on-site client visit on Tuesday with the new job. I have to make sure I can present a professional enough appearance. Also gotta remember to take my business cards to hand out.

I’m doing some personal coding, but time is short.

I’ve got a new story idea wandering around in my head, so I’m putting some of the stuff on paper, but I haven’t been really writing in ages. I guess I’m not as serious about it right now as I used to be.

We’ve lost the TV Remote (my fault – I put it somewhere, and now can’t remember where) so now I’m off to clean in hopes of finding it under the clutter.

Update: Found the remote. It was in a box I had thought I’d looked in before.

Excuse the housekeeping, but I need to check this from many PCs.

14 girls invited.

3 Cousins accepted

1 Sister accepted

1 Non class mate accepted

4 Class mates accepted

-2 Class mates declined

We have to pay for 11 kids (Chuck E Cheese), so this helps my math. I may send out a bugging email to others.

Down 11 pounds. Ketosis has begun. Water loss has ended, so now the real work begins. Last time, I was able to maintain a loss average of a pound a day.

Lessons Learned/Relearned

• Drinking is necessary. Water is best, but diet soda/ice tea will work.
• Vegetables are necessary. If neglected, system backup will occur.
• Vitamins are recommended.

Tips and Tricks

Whenever I have a meal, I drink at least 16–20 oz of liquid with it. At work, they provide water bottles in the fridge. For liquid meals, I use two – one to drink part of, then use the other half to make my meal, and one to drink with/after the meal.

While they don’t recommend adding exercise for 3 to 4 weeks, especially for sedentary people like me, I try to add in extra stairs trips at home, and park farther away from places to creep walking in.

Clean the shaker/bowl/container used immediately after your meal. Soy has a weird texture, and this is a necessity unless you want stinky dishes.

Use the forums for support. I’m signed up with mymedifast.com, but there are others out there.

It’s important to have your family or house mates supporting you. My kids help, and Hubby helps. If I have trouble with a specific food, they’re good about letting me leave the room. Extended family support is good too, but the day to day people are essential.

Next Sunday, I’ll have another writeup.

(In our fam damily, we do this on purpose. Mostly to hide the fact that we do this accidently, too.)

Yesterday was Medifast day 3, and I peaked at the scale and had lost 7 lbs. Yes, you read that correctly. Now, most of it was water weight, I know, since I was visiting the facilities on average every 45 minutes, but it drives the confidence up.

The hardest part of doing this is not sneaking bites of little girl food. But, I’m keeping to a 1000–1100 calorie diet, and as long as I follow the program I’m not hungry. The shakes and pudding and oatmeals are enough to keep my sweet tooth satisfied, and every 2.5–3 hours, I’m eating. And I get one real “Healthy” meal a day. As long as I follow the rules for “Healthy”, I’m good.

New Years Eve, Hubby was ill, so I entertained 2 4.2 yr olds and one 5.95 year old. We managed to stay up to watch the ball drop, and we toasted with caffeine free diet soda, and they were excited to see Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers standing next to Dick Clark. Fifteen minutes later, they were fast asleep.

Yesterday was day one. My goal is 30 pounds by Jan 31. If you recall, I did this in sept of 06, and was successful at the drop, but not the keeping off part. Some of it was program cost – Medifast meals are expensive – and some of it was holiday eating, and some of it was job stress eating. But, in the long run, it’s better than the surgeries, which was what the doc suggested. I looked at both bypass and banding, and I’d much rather go this route.

I’m going to weigh weekly, and I’ll keep posting the weight loss numbers.

Public Reasons for Losing Weight:

1. Running around with my kids.
2. Looking nice for my husband.
3. My health.
4. Not embarassing my kids – not being the “fat mom.”

Notice this is external motivation, for the most part. I’m better at external motivation than internal stuff. If I’m going to do something, it’s much easier for me to justify actions in terms of responsibility to/for someone else, than it is to do something because I need it.

Anyhoo, I hope you have a good New Year!

 

 

 

Happy Holidays and warm wishes to any readers out there who happen by!

And I thought LOLCODE was different. This would be an excellent geeky exercise – imagine the nerd creditability potential! They wrote an interpreter and everything.