I need a favour

Meet my Facebook and various forum friend, Shannon.  She is a mum of nine (like me), is the same age at 25 plus a few years (like me) and she's beautiful.... (yeah, well, two out of three ain't bad, like Meatloaf once said).

However, wonderful as Shannon is, we're not interested in her.  Look at the guy next to her.  That's her husband and childhood sweetheart, Gary.  Gary is one in half a million*.  As well as being a fantastic husband to Shannon and brilliant father to their nine children ranging in age from 18 to four-ish months (our kids are even the same ages!), Gary also helps to protect his country within his role in the US Army.  

Shannon and Gary celebrate their 20th anniversary this year.  They never had a honeymoon.  I think they deserve one, albeit it a little late.  So here's the plan.

Gary has made it in through to the final votes for Redbook's Hottest Husband of 2011 Contest.  Now, I have to say that it's a good job that he's in America and my dh is here in the UK as otherwise Gary would be upset to lose to Mike, as, I'm sorry to tell you Shannon, he is the best.  But as we're in different continents we can all still get along.  So if anyone reading this would please CLICK HERE AND VOTE FOR GARY W we can hopefully play our part in getting Gary and Shannon the long awaited honeymoon they both deserve in the form of an all expenses paid trip to Mexico!  

PLUS... if they win, they'll send me a postcard!

What are you waiting for?  Click here!

Thank you.

*One in half a million because Mike is the other one in the other half.

What do you think?

I am in the kitchen setting the table for dinner when I hear one of the boys in the next room say to the other, "When I punch, you duck."


Should I be worried?



PS They just watched Rocky I.

Monday Weigh-In (Free Skinny Me): Week 13

I'm still managing to stick to Weight Watchers ok.  I haven't felt like I couldn't have anything or that I'm depriving myself.  I know I have the extra weekly points to use if I want to but I haven't felt the need to dip into them.  It's nice to know there's that cushion there if you are close to your daily points yet fancy a little treat.  I do find though, that I'm thinking about whether I truly want something or not before eating whereas before I'd just grab whatever I fancied and eat it.  That, my friends, is why I'm in the position I am in now!  Thinking about whether it is worth using up valuable points on the latest craving is certainly helping to keep me in check.  I hope I can keep this mindset up!

Exercise wise, yes I'm still at it.  I find it easier to work out during the week and take my rest days at the weekends.  I completed my Wii Active 30 Day Challenge on Friday and did feel like I'd achieved something.  I wasn't so worn out by the time I'd completed exercises that, when I first began the challenge, almost killed me.  That is not an exaggeration.

Today I began the Wii Active More 60 Day Challenge.  Day 1 and again it has become apparent that EA Sports want to end my life.  It's nice to switch to a new set of exercises though.  I wouldn't have been happy to re-start the 30 Day Challenge again as it is time for a change.  Some days I really have to push myself to do  the workouts, so I daren't let boredom set in as I'd then very likely start slipping.  You can also weight yourself using the balance board.  While I do so twice a week so it can register on my profile and because I like looking at the downward slope as I lose weight, I don't really take too much notice of what it says.  This morning, for example, it stated I had lost 2lbs more than my bathroom scales said just seconds later.  Now, even as a self confessed serial weigher I know not to take any notice of several times daily weigh-in results.  Weight fluctuates even within minutes.  You know the story, you weigh yourself once and take note of the result.  You have a cup of coffee and you weigh four pounds more than you did half an hour ago.  Really, it's no good.  Why put ourselves through the torture?  The best way to do it is to only weigh yourself once a week on the same day at the same time with the same scales.  If you're doing it right you'll find yourself losing regularly.

Oh and the other thing I hear a lot of is that muscle weighs more than fat.  You know when people say "I Put on two pounds this week but I worked out three times so I think I burned fat and put on muscle instead."  Umm, the thing is, a pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of muscle.  A pound of whatever is equal to a pound of whatever else.  A pound is a pound.  A pound of one thing cannot be equivalent to two pounds of another.  Fat is f-a-t-t-e-r and wobblier.  Muscle is leaner and more toned.  So, if you haven't lost weight but you've eaten healthily and haven't overdone the sweet treats, and you've exercised regularly, make a habit of measuring yourself and even if the scales say you haven't lost you will likely find that you're losing inches instead.

I decided that I would take my measurements every four weeks.  I took the first lot when I started my 30  

Day Challenge and my second lot of measurements this morning - three days after completing the challenge.  The results will follow the weigh in results which are coming right up.

My report for this week is as follows:

Starting weight: 13st 1 (or 183lbs)

Week 13 results: Lost 1 lbs (that's okay.  Remember what one pound of fat looks like?)

Current weight: 11st 8½lbs (162.5lbs)

Total loss to date: 1st 6½lbs  (or 20½lbs)

Amount to lose before freeing Skinny Me: 2st 11½lbs (or 39½lbs)

And my four weekly measurement results are as follow:

Bust: Lost 1½ inches

Waist: Lost 3½ inches

Hips: Lost 1 inch

Thighs: Lost 2 inches from each

Upper Arms: Lost 1 inch from each

Calves: Lost ½ inch from each

Are you trying to lose weight too?  How are you getting on?

What makes a child happy?

The children are happy today and it's not even lunch time yet.

So far they've helped bake a loaf of Flowerpot Soda Bread and helped prepare two more plain loaves. They've carried out an experiment to make crystals and they're currently drawing, colouring, cutting and writing up posters explaining what they've done.

Later on they'll help clear up after lunch and then we'll probably set the kitchen table up so that we can sow some vegetable seeds in trays. Daddy will tell them what he learnt this morning on his bee-keeping course and they'll probably hover around while I make dinner too.

Why are they happy?

Because today is Saturday and they don't have to do any lessons and learn anything.

If only they realised!

Monday Weigh-In (Free Skinny Me): Week 12

Despite a not-good-at-all-week that would normally have me reaching for the chocolates (then again, I don't need much of an excuse to reach for the chocolates), I've had yet another fairly good week.


I continued with the workouts every day, even though I wasn't in the mood to start them at all.  I didn't allow myself the break though, thinking that it would be harder to get my motivation back if I took a break than it would if I just continued.  As it stands I only have another four days of my Wii Active 30 Day Challenge left. Next week I'll be measuring myself as well as weighing. It will have been four weeks since I took my measurements and realised just how big I was.   


I can see a difference in myself now.  My lumps are becoming smaller and I do notice a little more definition in my thighs than there was a month ago.  Best of all were the words, "You are losing weight!  You can see you are!" from Mike.  That made me very happy :-)  Especially since they were unprompted by me and came completely out of the blue.  


My report for this week is as follows:

Starting weight: 13st 1 (or 183lbs)

Week 12 results: Lost 2½ lbs 

Current weight: 11st 9½lbs (163.5lbs)

Total loss to date: 1st 5½lbs  (or 19½lbs)

Amount to lose before freeing Skinny Me: 2st 12½lbs (or 40½lbs)


And so on to next week with the battle cry,  "Onwards and inwards!"

Sometimes you just need to ask for a prayer

My father-in-law passed away on Friday.  Please, if you are inclined, would you spare a prayer for my husband and mother-in-law?

Thank you.

Not good but reassuring nonetheless.

After yesterday's post I heard from lots of people.  Some offering hugs, some sending their thoughts and prayers but the thing that struck me was how many people had contacted me because they were familiar with what we are going through.

I already knew of the struggles a couple of you have been through while several messages came from people who had written to me for the first time.  One email from a very old friend (old, as in "known a long time" and not aged, I hasten to add), in particular had no chance of stopping the sobs that were stuck in the back of my throat.  This friend, who first hand had seen me make a great deal of my own life's mistakes, and with whom I gradually lost touch with over the years, still has the great knack for knowing exactly the words to say to me.  Heck, she gets me every time!  Relaying her own challenges and experiences, I'm sure it was no accident that she came across my self pitying post yesterday after a long time away from the techie world.  God knew that I needed her, I'm sure of it.

All the stories and experiences from people, both strangers and friends, have given me reassurance.  Reassurance that it's not our fault, as we often question ourselves over and over with what we could have done differently or should have done differently so that the mess we're facing now wouldn't exist.  Reassurance from those that are also going through the same.  We are not alone, even though sometimes you can hear your own thoughts echoing, so lonely and isolated do you feel.  And, finally, reassurance that it ends.  The ones that have emailed or messaged me to say that they too went through it, in some cases over years, and that no matter how dark the journey was they made it through and they are out of the other side.  There is reassurance and hope and that is just what I needed to know yesterday.

So to everyone that took the time to email, message, send a hug or simply thought of us, I want to say a heartfelt thank you to you all.

Thank you.


And let us all be safe in the knowledge that one day most of these troublesome teens will have children of their own, and we can pray that their own little angels will become teenagers just like they were!

This is what a pound of fat looks like

In yesterday's post I wrote about how I was okay with the weigh-in results for the week.  I'd lost a pound and was fine with it.  Well, I was fine with it by the time I sat at the computer to blog.  When I first weighed myself and saw that it was a pound loss I was disappointed.  After all, I'd stuck to the ProPoints plan like superglue and  did an hour and a half of workouts a day for six days of the week.  Even though I knew it was TOTM and was expecting a slow down of weight loss I still dared to hope for at least two or three pounds to have magically disappeared.

Then I went to the fridge and took out a pound of butter.  Didn't seem like such a big deal.  Then I put them into a pyrex measuring jug and put them in the microwave.  A great deal of splattering later and the whole pint jug was full of a hot, yellow, buttery liquid.  Still not convinced, I put it in the fridge.

When it had solidified enough to turn out onto a plate I was finally convinced. It no longer looked like a beautiful, smooth block of butter that makes yummy cakes but resembled more something I could imagine stuck to my thighs making the crater sized dimples on my once fairly toned but now extremely wobbly skin.

Bigger and wider than an apple.  That's what my "just one pound" looks like.  Weighing almost four apples.  That's what I'm carrying less of this week.  The first couple of weeks of dieting normally shows a speedy loss.  That's mostly water.  It takes a couple of weeks before you get to the nitty gritty important stuff.

Shifting the fat.

So next time you get on the scales and your heart sinks because you've only lost one pound, come back and look at this picture, or just look at four apples and imagine them as oozing, greasy lumps of lard.  It's not only a pound.  It's much, much more.

Monday Weigh-In (Free Skinny Me): Week 11

I have stuck to the plan well again this week.  I haven't found it difficult, especially after discovering an evening  treat saved for after all the kids are in bed, of a couple of meringue nests topped with a spoonful of 0% fat greek yoghurt and a handful of grapes. Mmmm, now that is something to look forward to of a daytime!  And all for just 1 ProPoint each.

I've been continuing with the exercising too having worked out six of the last seven days.  I'm over halfway through the Wii Active 30 day challenge now, and also do a fast, high intensity step workout for 30 minutes a day too.  I've now introduced a 3 times a week abdominal workout and let me tell you, after three caesareans, it's not easy trying to find those abs again.  I remember the days they were strong and firm.  Long, long ago...

Despite my efforts I was expecting little difference this week, if any at all, thanks to the dreaded TOTM.  I have noticed that weight loss slows down considerably, often staying the same or even showing a gain during this blessed time.  Water retention has a lot to answer for.  The good news, and something I do try to remember, is that it is only temporary, and as long as I continue positively following the ProPoints plan and stubbornly endure the exercises each day, I am pretty certain that next week will make up for the slowness of this week. 

My final results this week then showed a 1lb loss.  At first it doesn't seem like much of a difference but come back here tomorrow for something that may surprise you.  Once you see it, you'll think differently about "only" losing a pound at a time.  Now I need to lose another 1½ lbs to have lost 10% of my starting weight.  Hopefully next week I'll hit it, or even better, surpass it.

My report for this week is as follows:

Starting weight: 13st 1 (or 183lbs)

Week 11 results: Lost 1 lbs 

Current weight: 11st 12lbs (166lbs)

Total loss to date: 1st 3lbs  (or 17lbs)

Amount to lose before freeing Skinny Me: 3st 1lbs (or 43lbs)

Remember, you can join in or just follow my efforts each week.  Sign up to the full feed here so you can catch up with my efforts through your reader each week.