Week 35 – Seattle – 147 lbs – June 17, 2012

Left for my annual Girl’s Trip last Wednesday and on my layover in Honolulu I realized that there was really nothing I could eat at the airport, mainly because everything is so expensive and I refused to pay $10.00 for something I would eat 3 bites of. This is when I realized I packed some protein bars but they were in my luggage, not my carry-on bag. Still learning how all this works even after 8 months. So I opted for a Starbucks and a half a cookie……not a great start for my healthy eating week! On the plane, I took the ham and cheese out of the sandwich they gave us and it was good! The bun they gave you was HUGE! So I’m down one more lb. and happy to report that the scale said 147 this morning.

 

I feel good, have lots of energy and of course, being with my 3 closest friends is the best. This is our 18th annual trip and every one is a GGT (Guaranteed Good Time). We laugh constantly, have long meaningful talks, and lots of silly ones that only we ‘get’. We get our exercise in every day, we drink wine and play a lot of cribbage! Our first full day in Seattle was one of those picture perfect, blue sky sunny days…..(not always the case here). We took the ferry from West Seattle to downtown, walked all around Pike Place Market, had lunch at an outdoor cafe, and even managed to get a bit of shopping in. I can finally shop in the same section of the store they do so that part was much more fun than in the past.

 

I’m ‘out of the closet’ with these 3 friends, but one of the things I love about them is that they are curious, supportive, interested, but we never focus on any one of us for too long. On the surgery and weight loss, they find it just one more interesting thing about our collective journey as a group of friends. As strong as I feel about my decision not to tell most people about my surgery, I can’t imagine NOT telling these dear friends something so important in my life. They are supportive and complimentary but I also can count on them to tell me if I am veering down the wrong path and none of us are shy about giving each other advice. Once again, I feel like the luckiest person in the world to have these women in my life, AND an amazing husband and marriage.

Something one of my friends brought up is my ability to not bring attention to what I eat when I’m in a social situation. It’s something that I’ve just learned to do over the past 6 months, but if I think about it, there are a few tips I can share:

• I don’t talk about my diet or weight loss much. When people bring it up, I basically say I had to make some changes because my hip and knees were failing me and now I eat a lot less volume and exercise more without going into detail, although I might mention that I stay away from pasta, bread and rice.
• When I serve myself, I tend to put a little more on my plate than I know I’ll eat and I will spread it out a bit more, just to avoid the comments on how little I’m eating.
• I talk a lot during meals, and I’ll also comment on how delicious the food is.
• I try to eat slowly although I need to get better at this.
• I’ll sometimes take something I have eaten part of and slip it to my husband when no one is looking (but I did this when I was fat too!).
• If I know there’s dessert, I always say I’m leaving room for it (and I do!) so people won’t get the idea that I’m on some starvation plan.
• My husband and I and the ‘Girls’ and I have always split dinners when we go out to a restaurant so that part is easy; I just eat a little less than they do.

This seems to be working for me and I haven’t felt weird in social situations for a while.

 

I have to say, it’s been fun this week to partake in conversations about diet and exercise and food with the three of them and not feel like a failure for once. I feel like I have something to add that’s of value in fact! Although they are all petite and not overweight, they think about gaining weight and when they do, they watch what they eat and exercise faithfully to keep themselves in good shape. Now that I feel successful about getting my weight under control, I can learn a lot from them. And I do, I learn so so much about so many topics.

 

They all just left for their walk / run along the beach on Alki Ave in West Seattle…..so I’ll sign off so I can go join them! Tomorrow we take the ferry to Victoria for the night, and next week I’ll write my blog from San Francisco. But before I leave here I’m hoping to meet up with a friend from the VST forum! So check back next Sunday for that.

 

To all you fathers out there, hope today brings you lots of happiness from your kids and family…..I love hearing your stories on the forum and so appreciate your perspective on this journey. Rock on!

 

A hui hou,

Queen of Crop