Dear Jennifer Hudson (Week 4)

Dear Jennifer Hudson,

I am embarrassed to admit that I don't have good news to share with you this time. :0( At my WW meeting this morning, I recorded the opposite of a weight loss...I unfortunately had a weight GAIN. Sigh.

And it wasn't a small gain either. We are talking 4 big whoppers! Eeek! That makes it like this past week, and the prior week never happened, and I am back to my total loss of 7.2 pounds since joining WW. I suppose that is not TERRIBLE in the long run, but I did have moments of sacrifice and hard work in these prior 2 weeks, and to think that those great moments of self control and determination are erased because of some continuous bad choices over a 36 hour period, is unfortunate. :0(

During the week I was great. I had even gone over to my sister's house for my birthday, where I was given a delicious cake...



And compared to "someone" else's piece of cake, my piece was rather small. :0)



That piece didn't hurt me on the scale at all...I burned off the calories at the gym that same night. :0)

But fast forward myself a few days, and we had my 3rd and final party celebrating my 31st (yikes!) birthday with my family on Saturday night. I had asked that the menu be WW friendly, and my stepmom did a WONDERFUL job of making that happen! We had grilled chicken, and a sort-of salad buffet for dinner. And before that, there were tons of fresh veggies and fruit for us to snack on.

The trouble came at dessert time.

My stepmom planned to have chocolate fondue, so others could have a treat, while I could enjoy the fresh fruit.



But as a total surprise to everyone, my brother had also brought a dessert...my ULTIMATE favorite dessert...my kryptonite...Ice Cream Cake...from Baskin Robbins!



And then, as a total surprise to everyone, my dad had bought a cupcake cake!



And THEN, because 3 desserts weren't ridiculous enough, my stepmom decided to bust out the 1 pound Reeses Peanut Butter Cups!



As the saying goes, "I was a fat kid in a candy store!" LOL!

I wish I could say I was strong...but I wasn't. I ate some of all of it. :0(

That night, we also had the opportunity to look through some old family photographs...





The younger ones were so special to browse through.

And then we reached a different pile. That's me in the red...



I remember the above picture, like it was taken just yesterday. But being at THAT weight seems like forever ago.

But, wait. It gets worse! I'm not sure if this was just a bad "angle"...Please Lord, let it have been a bad angle...but I NEVER remember being THIS large...



And yet, that's me. :-0

On one hand, I'm totally sad for that girl.

On the other hand, it produced a few chuckles when we began quoting the sitcom, "Friends"..."Some girl ate Monica!"..."Some girl ate Elizabeth!"

And then on the other hand (how many hands do I think I have!?), after the "shock and awe" of the picture begins to fade, there is some appreciation for the fact that at some point I stopped living that life-style...at some point I must have eaten less, and moved more.

I'm still a bigger girl, but compared to that picture, I am a smaller-bigger girl. ;0)

I'm so glad God gave me that photo this week. Because when I am tempted to drown in my sorrows of the 4 pound gain...it's kind of hard to do that when you see how far you've come from THAT day.

Don't go back there Elizabeth.

You lacked self confidence.

You felt physically sluggish.

And apparently, you didn't have good fashion sense either...what's up with the dumb blue T-shirt!?

Humbled,
Elizabeth

P.S. I watched you on Dateline this week...what an inspiration you are!