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!

Gettin' Our Celebration On!

Most of our week seemed to focus on Parks, Parties, and Pies.

In "Parks", we ventured to the park in our complex where Wyatt continued to conquer his trees...



We were bee watching...



And then we were watching our Bea collect flowers...





This week, we also went to a park with our MOPS friends...









In "Pies", Wyatt had worked so hard at memorizing Bible verses in Awana, that he earned the prize (along with about 50 other children), to "Cream the Commander". The kids got to throw pies at our Awana Commander...all in good fun! :0)





In "Parties", Wyatt accomplished 10 perfect scores on his spelling tests so far this school year, and so he earned a trip to Chuck E Cheese!









And this week, I got to celebrate my birthday at not ONE, not TWO, but THREE parties...how blessed am I!? The answer is: VERY BLESSED! :0)

First I celebrated with the "Birthday Crew"...



Where the kids were quite taken with the creature in the cage...





And on another day, we ventured to my Sister-Bestie's (a.k.a. Bester's...a.k.a. Sistie's) house for cake...





And, finally, we celebrated for the last time with the whole family at my Dad and Stepmom's house...







Their house is a LOT of fun!!!...





And when you have a party with a bunch of people who love dessert...



...you are bound to find one person that dips...



...one person who stuffs...



...and, one person who wears their dessert!...



In school this week, Beatrice learned about the letter "T"...



And so both kiddos got to make turtles...





In other happenings this week...

Beatrice looked especially pretty for church...



...and after a 7 year fireplace-drought, daddy finally agreed that the kids were old enough to handle a fire inside the house...SCORE! Perfect on our first real wintery-drizzly-day in sunny San Diego!

Dear Jennifer Hudson (week 3)

Dear Jennifer Hudson,

I had another successful week at Weight Watchers!

This week had many more opportunities to eat poorly, than I had expected. In the past 7 days, we celebrated Rick's birthday as a family, and I had 1 of the 3 celebrations for my own birthday factoring in to this week's weigh-in.

Rick did not make the commitment to stay clear from fast food in 2012...but, by default from the resolution I made for myself and the kids this year, his intake of fast food has been drastically reduced. And in all actuality, he hasn't been to a standard fast food restaurant at all this year. However, for his birthday, he did want a Little Cesars pizza for dinner, and he wanted a homemade apple pie for dessert.

While Rick and the kids devoured this...



I ate this...



I stayed clear from the pizza for 2 reasons...

1. Even though Little Cesars doesn't have a drive-thru, the pizza from that restaurant seemed like a gray area to me, as to whether it would be considered fast food. So, in this case of the gray area, I decided to abstain.

2. The 2nd reason I chose not to eat the pizza, was because I didn't want to spend so many of my points on that, when what I really wanted was this!...



...Except, I didn't eat all of that! That was my hunny's piece. I had a half of a piece of pie, and one of the mini scoops of ice cream.

All 10 points were COMPLETELY worth it, and I didn't have to go into my "weekly points" or "activity points"....hooray!

I wasn't planning on celebrating my birthday with any gatherings, as I did not want to be tempted to indulge in standard party food. But as the (very kind) requests came in to celebrate my birthday, I didn't feel like turning them down. God is so good to me, and He gave me wisdom. :0) He said, "Elizabeth, accept their invitations. Just ask them if they wouldn't mind keeping the menu WW friendly." And sure enough, the first party was PERFECT!

The birthday club gathered together, to celebrate me :0)....



My girlfriend Liane, prepared us the most delicious *light* lunch...







And for dessert...



It was such a wonderful time...I'm so glad I didn't call off a fun tradition like this! We were able to celebrate...AND eat delicious low-cal food! All of that was just 10 WW points!

AND, 2-B surprised me with a birthday delivery of her own!



Fortunately, when I gave the kids the option to pick which ever piece they wanted first, they both pick the pieces covered in chocolate (duh!)...





That meant that there was only one more piece of chocolate covered fruit for me...and it was GOOOOOOD! :0)

My exercise continued to be on point this week. Two things...

1. Bitter-sweet: This was my last week of Spin class on Wednesday nights. I have SO much enjoyed the little break from Awana, and scooting away from the kids while they are at church, and I got to go workout by myself. But 2-B is going back to school on Wednesday nights, and she needed someone to replace her as a table leader in Wyatt's Awana class. This is a program so dear to my heart, and since I have been serving in the program for the past 3 years, and had plans to return next year, I figured, "No time like the present!" :0) I'm pretty sure I will now be going to the Spin class that is offered on Friday mornings.

2. I found a running partner! I have been praying for a running partner! Over the last couple of years when I have prayed for a running partner to come into my life, I have always envisioned it being my husband. But running just isn't his thing. Soooo, at the beginning of the year, I grabbed a hold of my running partner, and said, "Let's start running together!"...and HE said, "Okay Mom!"



The first time him and I went out and did our 3 mile loop around the neighborhood, there was very little running, but mostly walking. Which is fine...he's a newbie...and I'm patient. AND when we first started this journey, he would occasionally whine and complain during the run. But after doing this 3 mile run twice a week for the last 3 weeks, he has progressed so much! He is now up to running a little over half of it, and now he hardly ever complains! I am SO proud of his work ethic, and his strength! The first couple of runs, Beatrice joined us in her jogging stroller...but in the past 2 weeks, Wyatt and I have been able to go out by ourselves, and spend these sweet moments together...solo.



The kid is a rockstar! He makes me so proud! When I gave birth to him, I only envisioned caring for him, and raising him up to be an adult...and even though making sure he gets exercise into his day IS caring for him and raising him, these runs have meant SO MUCH MORE to ME! This time together has been a time for us to talk...about life. To talk about his struggles...to talk about his hopes...and to talk about his need for a "fart break," LOL! I thought parenting for the most part was going to be about me giving, giving, giving...and while yes it has been mostly about me giving...I'm thinking this is the first time that one of my children has unexpectedly fulfilled one of my selfish desires. Thank you Lord for my new running partner!



As far as the scale goes...it was a rather frustrating week. I know I'm not supposed to weigh myself every day (blah, blah, blah...)...but I do. The weight was coming off pretty good at the beginning of the week, but from Thursday to Monday the scale would NOT budge...up or down! It was STUCK (not literally)! I was so frustrated! But I held on to my determination...I tried my best to not feel discouraged...and sticking to the WW plan during those days paid off! Not only did I lose more this week than I have in the prior weeks, but I also reached my first weight loss goal! In WW they don't want your first goals to be your ultimate goal. They want you to initially go for 5% of your starting weight, and then go for 10% of your starting weight. And at my WW meeting on Tuesday...my actual birthday...I had lost another 3.8 pounds, and I hit my 5% goal...I got my 5% sticker!!! :0)

STILL your biggest fan,
Elizabeth

P.S. Everyone has texted me about seeing you on all of these various programs promoting your new book...when can I expect to see it at the library!?