OmegaMom

Saturday night, OmegaDad snuck into my office, opened up a plastic bag from the local grocery store, and showed me the bag of miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups that was inside.  “These were on sale–half off!  Hide this!” he commanded.  So I slid it into the drawer to the left of my computer.

The plan was, of course, that he and I could share it, and it would be safe from the dotter.

In the picture above, you see the reality of things.  OmegaDad should be a pusher.  I can see him now, dressed in a trenchcoat, leaning against an alley wall…as I walk by, he hisses, “Pssst!  Hey, there.  Want some cho-co-late, little girl?!”

The only thing that makes me feel better about this is that a serving size for these little diet busters is five pieces.  So, in reality, this is only two servings.  Only 440 calories–the majority of which come from fat.

And there is still one left in the bag.

Really.

And it will still be there tomorrow.

Really.

What am I doing?  Oh, I’m just going to get my coat and car keys.  Why?  Oh, no real reason.  Oh, no, I’m not driving off to the grocery store for more Reese’s.  No, no, no!  Not at all!  Perish the thought!

When I visited GrannyJ in Arizona back in June/early July, and hung out with my bro and his family, I realized–with a sort of bemused horror–just how much weight I had put on.  My mom took many, many pictures, and there I was in them, looking zaftig.  Or maybe more than zaftig. 

I found it wearing to climb the steps of her house, so I was out of shape, too.

The pictures, and the lack of energy, made me take stock.  Then, too, there was the fact that all of my summer clothes were just too tight–my shorts, my T-shirts, my sleeveless shirts, everything.  I felt awful.  Fat, fifty, out of shape–I felt like an archetypical Amurrikan.

So after we returned home, and after OmegaDad’s brother’s visit ended, I decided to Put An End To That.  I started “dieting”, which mainly consisted of no longer eating entire bags of Fritos at one sitting, no longer snarfing down three to four Frappuccinos each day, eating more fruits and veggies, eating more slowly at each meal, and cutting back on the multiple helpings of carbs at dinner time.

I also started exercising, using some DVDs I had lying around, always meaning to get around to doing them; I’d do cardio one day and toning exercises the next, with a day off on the weekend.

It’s been slow, but kind of steady.  OmegaDad claims he has noticed.  My “fat jeans” are now loose (one pair I can no longer wear, two pairs are baggy in the butt and loose on the legs, and one pair I can pull down over my hips while it’s still buttoned and zipped).  I was able, today, to squeeze into my old size 10 jeans in preparation for a hike with the dotter.  (Yes!  We went on another hike!  I will report on it tomorrow.)

While we were on the hike, OmegaDotter took the following picture of me:

(It really should be a picture of me in those same shorts, but while it’s been nice and warm for Alaska, it hasn’t been “shorts weather” to me.)

It’s not a lot; about ten pounds over the past two months.  But I intend to keep going.  I feel a lot better, I can run up and down the stairs without feeling like I’m about to expire on the steps halfway up, and it definitely looks like I’ve lost weight.  I especially like being able to clamber up and down steep hillsides with the dotter, and run around the back yard with her kicking a soccer ball around.  In addition, some ongoing aches and pains in my neck, arms, and hips seem to have disappeared, which is all for the good!