6/17/2012: Week 16 Photo

6/17/2012 End of Week 16



2/26/12 Start Photo

This weekend we took our granddaughters back to Denver after their two week visit, so the last time I weighed myself was Friday morning, with the same result as Thursday.  I weighed 194.4 pounds which is 29.6 pounds lost since February 26, 2012.  I am still a couple of pounds below my line and progressing nicely!  Above you can see a photo taken earlier today and the photo taken on Sunday, February 26th, the day before I started my plan.  What a difference 16 weeks makes!!!  I see the biggest difference in my face and neck, but it is beginning be noticable all over my body.  I am now comfortably wearing the size 14s from my closet and have bought a few new things in a 14, meaning I am no longer shopping in the "Women's section," or at Catherines, aka (by me) as the "Fat Lady's Store" and I can now shop in the "normal sizes" for clothes, which is a big milestone for me!  It does not make me unhappy at all that I can now throw the Catherine's coupons away without even looking at them!  I'm starting to get comments at work, as people are beginning to notice the weight loss.  It feels good to know that the hard work is paying off.

Tomorrow is my weigh-in day, and I'm a little anxious about it because my eating was not perfect over the last 36 hours.  We were scheduled to leave at about 4:00 Friday afternoon to take the girls back to Denver.  I picked the girls up from day camp and headed home, expecting to see Jack there, ready to load the car.  When his car was not in the driveway my heart sunk a little, but I assumed he went to pick something up at the store.  When I went in the house and saw that the alarm was still on, I knew something was wrong.  Sure enough, I had a call from him a moment later and he had been in a car accident.  He was only about 3 blocks from home, was making a left turn into our residential neighborhood, and a young man decided to speed past him on the left side.  The car that hit him was moving so fast that it pushed Jack's car off the road and through a chain link fence.  His car ran over one of the metal fence posts, bending it level with the ground and the fence was laying on top of Jack's car.  Luckily, Jack was not hurt.  Unfortunately, it took the police about 3 hours to get there, delaying the start of our drive, significantly.  Also, unfortunately, it looks like the driver of the other car may not have insurance, which means we will have to pay the $1,000 deductible to fix the car.  The young man claimed that it was his father's car and his father has insurance, so maybe that is true.  Jack is going to give all of the contact info to our insurance company tomorrow, so with any luck that may work out.  Our insurance will pay for a rental car, at least, so we'll pick that up in the morning.

The accident added a little stress to our trip.  We wanted to be in Denver by noon on Saturday, so we had plans to make it to Colby, Friday night.  That would have been easy if we had been rolling by 4:00, but with the later start it was a stretch.  I got the car loaded up and took the girls out to eat while we were waiting for the police to take care of things with Jack.  By the time Jack made it home we were fed and ready to go.  Jack was a little shook up, as anyone would be in that situation, and our patience was a little thin.  I decided, rather spontaneously, that I would be better off eating a little extra to keep the edge off, rather than getting testy, so I allowed myself to eat some of the snacks that we packed for the trip.  We ended up driving until 1:00am in the morning and through a pretty fierce thunderstorm.  Luckily I drove the first leg and Jack was driving when it started to rain.  That's lucky because I have so much trouble seeing in the dark and the rain.  When we rolled into Colby we were dismayed to find that all the inns were full.  We finally found a room at a less than lovely no-tell motel, but it got us out of the rain and had two beds, a shower, and a TV (to the delight of the girls).  They got a huge kick out of waking up before us on Saturday morning, getting snacks out of the cooler, and watching TV while laying in bed and eating cheese sticks and yogurt.  Ah, the joys of being 6 & 7 years old!  We climbed back in the car at about 8:30 on Saturday morning and I thought I would be able to be more disciplined now that I had some rest.  But we were still a little tired and patience was still required, and the snacking continued.  After we dropped the kids off we stopped for lunch and I had a chicken sandwhich, but did not choose any sides, and for dinner I had a salad.  This morning I didn't have any problem getting back on track, and had a veggie omelet for breakfast, and ate only a half a piece of toast and did not eat the potatoes.  I think tomorrow's weigh in will be OK, not great, but OK.  It helped a lot at breakfast when I looked around and saw so many overweight women.  I knew I did not want to go back to that, and it strengthened my resolve to get back on plan.  My chart helps, too.  I need to stay below that line!!!

This week, life gets back to normal.  We loved having the girls with us for two weeks, but it was tiring.  When you don't have children at home all the time you forget what it feels like to have no down time.  The girls were great, extremely well behaved and a lot of fun, but part of parenting is being alert all of the time.  By the end of two weeks, I was ready to shut down for a little while.  I've always admired our daughter-in-law for how well she parents her four children, and I admire her even more now.  The girls were amazingly adaptable, settling into their new routines with Jack and I, easily.  They are incredibly smart and observant and we had many interesting and delightful conversations with them.  Their favorite day was Wednesday, when Jack took the day off and took the girls to Crown Center for the day.  There's no doubt that those girls love their Grandpa!! 

Here's to renewing my resolve, getting back on track, and having a great week on my plan.  My nephew's wedding is in two more weeks and it would be great to be close to 190 by then.  It's not the 188 I was shooting for, but it is close.  Oh, and I am closing in on my dad, too.  I talked to him today and he said he was at 192.  By the time we meet in California on June 29th, there is a good chance I will weigh less than he does!!