Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving 2007 was eventful in our house, as always! After a week or more of preparation, menu planning, shopping, cleaning, cooking and stressing, dinner was very enjoyable. Spending joyous time with family is always the reward of the day.

This year has been a difficult year for my family – a year of “firsts” following the death of my husband’s father, who passed away just after Christmas in 2006. That first year following the death of someone special is most difficult. Each holiday takes on a melancholy feel and emotions remain close to the surface. My father-in-law was all about food and love, and feeding his family a healthy dose of both. Family gatherings are not the same without him here, and his absence is deafening.

It is so important to keep the traditions of our lost loved ones alive – for our sake and for the sake of our children. It would be so easy to just give up and avoid all of those “firsts”; to spare the inevitable heartache, but you must push on and allow yourself to experience the sorrow. Believe me when I say that the spirit of any season is found in the midst of that grief – you soon realize that coming together to celebrate as a family and keeping those traditions alive is the elixir of life. It binds hearts and families through generations. It’s not about the food, gifts or money. It’s the time. Time spent with those you love and who love you.

Enjoy the holidays. As the song so eloquently states, “let your hearts be light”. There will be hustle and bustle and budgets and bumps, but roll with it and always remember what is most important – the priceless gift of time spent with your family and friends.

PEACE

Product Review - Curves Granola Bars

Jumping, fly-catching mouthed, skinny chick aside, these were pretty good. The less-then-explosive fiber content is a gut-friendly 5 gr., which should keep the roughage-induced tummy-gurgling to a dull roar. I love Fiber One BARTs, but at 9 gr. of fiber, those things are a one-way ticket to intestinal distress...

$3.00 gets you six 0.88 ounce bars, which are a bit smaller than my favorite Kashi Dark Chocolate Cherry bars, but at only 1 point each, these bars will find residence in my cupboard from now on!

AUTUMN

It’s fall in the Northeast: The days are getting shorter and the average temperature is falling into the 50’s – a sad realization that my afternoon hikes will soon be a thing of the past.

I love this time of year; the crisp air, fresh produce, fall foliage. Folks will soon “take to their houses” for the winter months.

I lost the first big chunk of my weight while power walking during the late winter months of this year. The weather made no difference at all. If it was snowing or sleeting or windy or sub-zero – I was still outside, bundled up and moving my fanny. The roads were mine and mine alone. My neighbors would see me out there late into the evening, circling my neighborhood’s one mile loop, sometimes as many as five or six times a night. I was bundled up in a teal-colored L.L. Bean down jacket and at times nothing but my eyes were visible. I really enjoyed the whole experience, and I couldn’t get enough! I recall the weird adjustment the first time I took a walk without a jacket. I felt naked.

Well, here we are again. Only this time I am FIT and near my goal weight. It takes a lot more than a power walk to get my heart rate up these days, so it will be interesting to see how I manage to burn calories during the coming winter months. I have plans to break out my old cross-country skis, and perhaps do some ice-skating. Well, maybe not ice-skating - I do not fall well now, so I may stick to activities that are low on the broken bone list of hazards. I also have my eyes on a pair of snowshoes as well. The new ones are a far cry from the bent wood rawhide shoes of my younger days!

I’ll be celebrating my 38th birthday in November. I’m indifferent on that subject. Not really upset or dreading it in any way. I think 40 may require a bit more thought with regard to my own mortality, but I’m in good shape both physically and mentally, so I expect that eventual moment of introspection to be relatively easy.

The cooler temperatures of late have me thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas and what to prepare for food. Holiday food has always been healthy for me – lean meats and seasonal vegetables with a few special desserts. My problem was always that I simply ate too much. It is my plan to tackle the holiday table with portion control and not to deny myself anything. I love to cook and I love to eat! With my newfound knowledge of nutrition and healthy eating, this should be the first of many enjoyable holiday seasons!

PEACE

Joyce and Janet - Race End - 8th and 7th Place!

What a great day! Thanks to all those who supported Joyce and me through your contributions to the American Heart Association.

Our faces say it all - it was FUN!

For the record, we are approximately 105 pounds down in this picture!

Sister - New Picture Needed, STAT!

Dear Sister:

I would like to point out to our tiny viewing membership that
the picture over there ------------------------------------------------------->>>>>>

is NOT how we look today! Holy fat rolls, Batman! We need an updated picture!

For the record, folks, we have now lost a combined total of 103 pounds!

Overeaters Anonymous

So, after our weekly WW meeting, my sister suggested that we attend our local Overeaters Anonymous meeting. I said, “Sure”. I had actually offered it as a suggestion in the past, thinking that it might be helpful given that we both have the tendency (though not much anymore, really) towards compulsive/binge eating.

We went. I won’t return.

First, let me say that I am open to all new ideas and I am certain that OA is a life-saving tool for many, many people. I just don’t think that I am a fit for the program. It follows the twelve steps of recovery utilized by Alcoholics Anonymous. Just replace the word “Alcoholics” with “Overeaters”, and the word “Alcohol” with “Food”. The literature is the same.

The program has been in existence since the 60’s with great success, I’m sure. The members in attendance at that particular meeting were very passionate about the program, and some even said that it saved their lives. I believe that, and I am happy for them. Truly.

The program asks you to give control to “God” or some other “Higher Power”, which is quite difficult for me to do. I am Catholic. I believe in God, but this came off as really creepy to me and I don’t know why. I was not comfortable with this part of the program, and it is the whole gist of the program. I worked long and hard to trust in myself, and to trust that I will make wise food choices. It was not easy. I still struggle, but I have worked very hard to leave my old habits in the past. This may not be a popular opinion, but I believe that you have to be weak-minded to give complete control over any part of your life to anyone else, be they living, divine or otherwise. I understand that this can and does happen, that some people are truly powerless over food and they need this kind of peace in their lives. It’s just not for me. I find the ultimate peace in my own strengths. "Opiate of the masses" springs to mind at this moment...

Now, back to the meeting experience. There is light “praying” that goes on as well. People grabbed my hands for this bit and that put me off. I’m not antisocial by any stretch of the word, but I was not prepared for the level of personal contact at the meeting. I just met these people, after all. My advice? Give the newbie a chance to learn the program before you invite her to the sacrifice.

There is the whole matter of a sponsor as well. You are asked to choose a sponsor that you will call, and who will call you, to check in with regarding your food plan for the day and anything else that may enter your mind that you wish to share. Again, I keep track of my food with Weight Watchers, so there are similarities, but I am not one to share personal matters with a total stranger. I need a minute (or two), for crying out loud!

It was said more than once that most new people never return after the first meeting. I could help them with that issue. The whole experience is very different and personal, and it would be helpful if the new folks were greeted at something other than a usual meeting. They should schedule special meetings for “newcomers” to explain how things work, instead of scaring the bejesus out of them on the first day. You couldn’t get me out of that room fast enough, and when I finally did leave, I felt as though I had just been through something very naughty. I wanted to run and hide in my room under the covers. I couldn’t even look at my sister. I just ran for my car and skedaddled.

I called her later, of course, to discuss my feelings, and that gave me a chance to decompress and to think about what I had just been through. I came to the following conclusion.

I have made great strides with regard to my compulsive/binge eating habits, and I am well on my way to completely changing my bad behaviors. Listen, there will always be buffets, and they will always be evil, in my honest opinion. I realize now that the feeling of being stuffed after an enormous meal is very uncomfortable, downright painful, actually, and it makes me sick to my stomach. I like the way I look now. I’m “normal”. Not fat, not a model, not hideously disfigured. Just normal. I used to pray for normal and normal has found me. I trust in myself. I am who matters. If I let myself down, the healing begins with me once again. I forgive myself and move on. I will never give complete control over any part of my life to some "higher power".

I'm the one with the power. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.

Salmon, Chocolate and "The Crag"

The scale was very good to me this week – I lost 4.6 pounds! Wow!

I celebrated my 18th wedding anniversary on September 16, 2007 at Davinci’s Eatery, and the food was delicious. My sister described the lovely salmon we ate as “heaven on a plank of cedar”, and it was just that – heaven. In fact, I raced to the market the next day to purchase food-grade planks of cedar, salmon, capers, lemons, etc. I’m sure I will never prepare the fish in the same, delicate way, but I don’t care. I loved the taste!

Of course, I had a points-sucking piece of dessert as well. Some kind of chocolate peanut butter concoction that was sure to foil whatever hopes I had at the scale this week, but it didn’t. I counted the points and moved on. It was good, but I didn’t need the entire dessert. It was way too filling for my now smaller-sized stomach.

I did some quality exercise this past week, to include a 2-hour hike with my sister at Thorncrag Bird Sanctuary. This place is a natural gem in the middle of our busy city. We were wringing wet with sweat in no time, and I loved every minute of our hike. I should note that the hills are much easier to climb when I have my darling dog, Ginger, hauling my ass up via leash tow. I did not take Ginger with me for that very reason. I needed to face the ‘crag’ on my own, and I did just that!

I also learned that I am much more active now, and my body needs FUEL in order to LOSE weight. Weird concept, I know, because this confirms that all of these starving models are wicked stupid. Yes, if they ate more perhaps they wouldn’t look so bloody pinch-faced all the time. No food makes for a pissy girl, I always say.

I had salmon and chocolate therefore I am smart. Oh, and smaller.

I’m a hangnail away from 45 pounds lost at this point (44.4), and I have 12 pounds left to lose to reach my goal of a healthy body mass index (BMI). The Promised Land is in sight.

Scale Hoppin'

In the wonderful world of Weight Watchers, "scale hopping" is the term used to describe the action of weighing yourself at times other than your normal, weekly weigh in.

I am a big fan of this practice.

It is said that, when you reach your goal, you should weigh yourself each day so that you have firm control of your weight. Let’s face it – a week of bad eating will have a bigger effect than only a day. If the pants are starting to snug up and strangle your midsection, you should knock of the bratwurst for a bit, and do so immediately. I believe that we should all live our daily lives as though we are already at goal, so I weigh myself frequently.

Anyway, I “scale hopped” this morning and found that I had wooshed off some serious weight, about 5 pounds or so. Stand by….

YES, OOOOOHHHH, YES! YES! YES! (BANGS TABLE) YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!

Sorry, that had to be done. It’s been quite some time since I’ve lost any kind of notable weight, and I’m so bloody happy that my body is finally cooperating. Well, it could be that I am finally cooperating, but let’s not dwell on the negative.

I have two days left before weigh in and you can be sure that I will be working out like a muscle-bound freak on ‘roids. I so want to be done with the 170’s. I so want to be within 10 pounds of my goal weight. I so want to be at GOAL!!!

THE HOLY F'N MECCA OF CAKEDOM

I’m taking this week off a.k.a. I’m not facing the scale. I didn’t start out with that intention, but it just worked out that way.

I am really enjoying the Core Plan, and it works. The food is filling and is quite similar to how (and what) I prepared before joining Weight Watchers. The main difference, of course, is that I am supposed to stop eating when I am satisfied. I get that concept and I have no trouble following this guideline.

Unfortunately, I have found myself with some kind of “strap on the feed bag and chow down” switch this week. I’m always very good with breakfast and lunch, but when I finally get home after a hard and stressful day, I just want to douse the shit in my head with food. It doesn’t even have to be good food.

How dumb is that?

Realizing that you have a problem is the first step to recovery, or so I’ve heard.

Also, I am apparently still swayed by what others say as far as my food consumption goes. Read on:

This week at work, someone was having a birthday. Now, my rule since February 1, 2007 has been that if I didn’t make it or bring it, I don’t eat it. Plain and simple.

So, at said birthday celebration in the break room, there was cake - Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup ice cream cake. Oh, yes. The Holy F’n Mecca of Cakedom.

I was prepared with a light cheese stick in hand and said “no” to the cake. That was, until a woman said, “You know, Janet, you don’t have to be so virtuous.”

Um, what?!?!

She went on to say that my statement that I would not like a piece of lard-cake really said that others should not have one either.

Say what? I never said that, I merely said that I did not want a piece of cake. Shut your pie hole.

So, what did I do? Did I assert myself and repeat that I did not want a piece of that cake (300+ calories, 15 grams of fat)? No. I ate my cheese stick AND had a piece of that disgusting cake. It totally coated my mouth with its transfat fakeness, and made me sick to my stomach.

Lesson learned - the hard way.

_________________________________

So, I’ve also had a monster headache for the last couple of weeks – I think it could be a sinus headache from allergy symptoms. I’m not very good at taking my allergy meds. Note to self: I should add that to my daily checklist right next to my multivitamin. Anyway, because I have not exercised, I have not lost any weight this week; therefore I will not face the scale monster. I have too much respect for my feeble little mind to give it anything else to worry about this week.

Now, next week, I’m back with a vengeance, kicking ass and taking names.

PEACE.

A Woman of Taste in a Tasteless World

I’m nearing the end of my first week on the Core Plan, and I thought I would share a few observations.

The Core Plan is very different from the Flex Plan. On the Core Plan, I am free to eat from an exceptionally healthy and wholesome list of foods, and I eat those foods to satisfaction.

One thing I noticed on the Flex Plan was that I found myself clinging to so-called “volume eating”, whereby I would stuff my face with low points foods, just for the sheer sake of overeating. I was not dealing with any old habits with regard to binge/emotional/compulsive eating, and I was not focusing on portion control. I was obsessed with the measurement and weight of my food as it related to its points value, and I never once asked myself if I really wanted to eat the amount of food on my plate. This forced obsession with points-counting skewed what should have been the normal hunger-satiety cycle. I did manage to stay away from empty calories (100-calorie packs and other assorted “mini-junk”), but as you near goal, your allotted points for the day greatly diminish, and you are forced to find creative ways just to fit in your daily healthy guidelines. On the Core Plan, your healthy guidelines are included in the plan. Amen!

The downside of the Core Plan is that food is presented in its simplest form, and the taste factor leaves a lot to be desired. Let’s face it: fat-free, plain yogurt is just disgusting. It’s wretched and vile. We are free to add fresh fruit and even artificial sweetener to the yogurt, but I choose not to consume artificial sweetener now that I am on Core. This is really tough, because my taste buds were wildly oversexed on the Flex Plan. I ate all manner of tasty little creations (all within my points), but I was not doing much to fuel my body for the long haul. I would end up hungry and craving more in no time – a binge-eater’s downfall, for certain.

On the Core Plan, I am now fueling my body with fiber-rich whole grains, seafood, lean meats, fresh fruits and vegetables, fat-free dairy, etc. This is how we are meant to eat. It is only in the last few decades that processed foods have made their way into mainstream consumption, and it is in the last few decades that humans have busted out all over into what is now an obesity epidemic.

I look at it this way: if my grandparents didn’t eat it, I won’t either.

I cook more. Lots more. I do not eat out. Another new motto: If I didn’t make it, I don’t eat it. That pretty much takes food-on-the-run out of the equation. I am not able to control the quality of the food that other people prepare, or the manner in which it is prepared.

Notice a theme here? Yes, it is PREPARATION.

You have to be prepared on the Core Plan. You have to think ahead. You have to consciously decide what you will fuel your body with and prepare. I believe that this awareness is what contributes to my success. Mindless eating is a dangerous state of being in my world, which found me overweight and on the verge of a heart attack and certain early death.

I’ve made myself the following promise for the long term: I will no longer kill myself with food. Food is not a pacifier or a crutch. It is not love and it is not an antidepressant. Food is fuel for the body.

So, I think I’ll stick with the Core Plan for a while, and give my taste buds the chance to settle down and accept the slow lane.

Summer Break

Ok, Sister, I get the hint. I have been very lazy about posting, but it mirrored what was happening in my life. I've been on a "Summer Break" of sorts. That is about to change, however!

I experienced a stubborn plateau after reaching the 175 pound mark, and I've been stuck for some time. It was a real plateau, but there may have been other forces at work as well.

I think I just got sick of the way I was forced to eat on the Flex Plan. I made healthy choices within my points range, but I was always RAVENOUS. Honestly, why does salmon, an exceptionally healthy food, get such a bad rap with points?!? If I chose to include the healthiest of food choices, I was hard-pressed to fit all of my healthy guidelines in and still be on program and within my points range. The whole thing was very frustrating.

I did some lurking on the WW Core Board, and found the information there to be very interesting. I will eat healthy, fat-free, whole foods to satisfaction. My healthy guidelines are included in the program without counting and weighing. Salmon is not the enemy!

I officially switched to the Core Plan on August 20, 2007. Is it easy? No. Am I satisfied? Yes! Am I hungry? NO! Will I break through my plateau and get the scale moving in a downward fashion once again? YOU BET YER ASS!

I do miss bread, and I still have the same issues of evening binge eating. I am not denying myself the bread - I just use my extra points allowance for the bread. Overcoming my binge/emotional eating habits will be the biggest challenge/reward of my weight loss journey. That behavior is what got me here (that being FAT) in the first place.

In spite of the scale-stall, I am very happy with how I look. I still have a long way to go (I'd like to lose another 35 pounds), but I find that I like my reflection in the mirror. I can see the real me, without the disgusting fat suit screwing up the view.

Yes, I'm a hot chica!

She won't KILL me, will she???

I do love photo slideshows. So in honor of my 50 pound loss, I put this one together. I'll eventually move this to the sidebar, but for now IT STAYS RIGHT HERE. At least until sister-darling gets off her butt and tells you about what she is doing to bust that plateau.

How's that for motivation, Janet?!

These pics also include a few of me, from childhood to morbid obesity. But the STAR of this show is JANET!

The slide show loads and starts immediately. Feel free to press play to restart, and pause to get a GOOD look!

Review: Product News! ~ Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers!

Yesterday I posted on Joy's Amazing Journey about an e-mail I got from Healthy Choice regarding their new product line, Cafe Steamers. That afternoon I picked up two of the dinners, the Grilled Whiskey Steak for me and the Grilled White Meat Chicken & Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Sauce for Janet. I promised you a review once I taste-tested the dinner.

Once I took the dinner out of the box I realized how small all frozen dinners really are, even these. These Cafe Steamers, gram for gram, are the same size as an average Smart Ones and Lean Cuisine. It's the "all in one bowl that looks like a colander" that makes this particular meal seem smaller. But I loved the ease of cooking. No piercing, no cutting little film coverings, then peeling back after half the cooking time, stirring, then zapping for another 2 minutes. You take this baby outta the box, stick her in the microwave for a few minutes and you're done. Finis!

Just lift out the colander, dump the stuff into the bowl underneath, stir with the sauce that was in the bottom of the bowl that was steaming your food, and eat. And it was good! I mean really, really good.

On the plus side:

• WW points are given on the packaging.
• Dietary exchanges are also given (you'll know how many veggie servings you got).
• The veggies were perfectly cooked. And I mean PERFECTLY. The green beans were crisp and vibrant. The red-skinned potatos were tender, not rubbery like other frozen meals. The steak tips were tender and juicy.
• Half the sodium as many of the Smart Ones and Lean Cuisine that I've seen.

On the minus side:

• I haven't seen many "diet" or "healthy" meals with saturated fat lately. These dinners do have some saturated fat and cholesterol. Not much, but it's there.
• The portion size seemed small to me for some reason. With most meals having one serving of vegetables, that is half a cup of veggies. Not a whole lot. But to be fair, the portion size is equivalent to the Smart Ones, just under 300 grams in weight. And it may look smaller because of the unique packaging that steams everything in one dish.
• I paid $3.99 per meal at Shaw's Supermarket. That's more moola than what you shell out for Smart One's and Lean Cuisine. Is it worth it for perfectly steamed veggies and half the sodium??? Perhaps.

I'm not a real big convenience eater. I make it a point to eat clean, so I stay away from most processed foods. Even though I love the idea of a frozen dinner prepared in a unique way that keeps the foods appetising, I'm not sure this is enough to bring me to the dark side. For now, I'll stick to my tried and true diet that has gotten me this far (nearly 50 nasty pounds gone!) and still going strong. But it is nice knowing that if I ever get desperate enough for some steak and potatos I have some options that won't kill me at the scale.

40 POUNDS

Here I am, Miss Janet, documenting that I have now lost 40.6 pounds of fatty patty bo-batty! I'm also showing off my new misses size large jacket with my small-medium running shorts - not the best of fashion sense, but deal with it. I'm having some fun here!

I lost 1.8 pounds this week, and that leaves me 16.4 pounds away from my GOAL! Holy Moley! Boney Maroney is on her way baaaaaaack!

You know, there is nothing like a quick snapshot to make you take stock of yourself. The first thing I notice here is that the stupid bob has to go. It totally drags me down. My boobs take first prize in the drooping department, so I'm cutting my hair next week. Short and sassy, here I come!

Fat Clothes, Fat Minds

I have an enormous walk-in closet. That enormous closet was filled (up until this week) with my “fat clothes”. None of it fit anymore, so it was time to get rid of those old clothes. I bagged up everything – my entire wardrobe stuffed into 5 extra-large lawn and leaf garbage bags.

I wanted to cry as I stood there in my now empty closet, for a number of reasons. One, I had spent a fair amount of money on all my former finery, and that was depressing. Then there was the realization that I had absolutely nothing to wear. My closet is nearly empty (since I am actively losing weight, I’ve been buying only a few things at a time). After cleaning out my closet, everything I own now fits into a single suitcase – even shoes and outerwear. I’m a bag lady. Finally, I indulged a few chuckles and even a silent, teary “wow” when I tried on some of the old stuff – I didn’t realize how much smaller I was until I threw on some old clothes. Even my husband was surprised.

It is clear that I still look the same in my highly self-critical eyes, only smaller. I don’t know what I was expecting from this weight loss; losing weight does not mean that you change as a person. There are no miraculous transformations into supermodels or other fictitious creatures. We are exactly the same, just minus the visceral, puckering, life-sucking fat. This brings up the whole issue of body image and there is where my tears live.

When I weighed 135 pounds, I thought I was fat. I thought that the little pouchy stuff on the sides of my bent knees was fat. I thought that my inner thighs were fat. I thought my arms were fat. I obviously did not approve of my body back then, even though I was actually fit and healthy.

Becoming overweight was just a total fulfillment of how I perceived my body. I made the imagined defects real. Why did I think that losing the weight now would make those ridiculous thoughts disappear? Reaching goal will not be the end of the journey for me. There is much work left to do with regard to my mental, as well as physical, health.

At least I am aware of my negative thoughts, and I am actively working to correct my faulty logic. I so want to be one of those women who strolls the beach, without a care in the world, just enjoying the sunshiny day.

Moving Forward, Always Forward

This is my first blog entry. Ever. Odd, really, that I am just getting to this now, after losing nearly 39 pounds and being within 20 pounds of my official Weight Watchers goal; I just figured that any free time I had should be spent on some kind of physical activity (or at least thinking about physical activity), rather than sitting and writing about the process. My personal free time is very limited, and I tend to save that precious time for very special or otherwise more amusing activities. I am “on task” to a fault. It’s a deep-seated personality trait that has worked to my advantage on my weight-loss journey.

My perspective for “Two Fat Sisters” will be a glimpse into that stage of weight loss when one is nearing goal and beyond to maintenance. Things do tend to slow down and the journey is much more difficult. The beginning of my weight loss was a breeze. I recall saying quite frequently that it was actually “easy”. Not so anymore, people. This is incredibly difficult, but well worth the effort. I am peeling away the ugly layers of my former identity – self-neglect, food addiction, compulsive eating, binging; they fall aside with each pound lost. The real Janet is slowly reemerging as the person I remember before things went wrong – pretty, confident, healthy, and happy.

As I said, I’ve lost nearly 39 pounds as of weigh-in today (38.8). I’ve been a WW member since February 1, 2007, which puts my average weekly weight loss at 1.69 pounds per week. I’ve dealt with a stubborn plateau for the last few weeks, so that weekly weight loss average is down from 2.2 pounds. I don’t fret about the numbers anymore. I used to have a great urgency about this process, but I’ve relaxed a bit in the last few weeks. Why I ever thought this was some kind of race, I’ll never know. Who needs that added stress?

So, I hope that you will check in from time to time to share in my self-improvement expedition. I'll be discussing my day-to-day activities, sharing tips and gripes, successes and misses, but all the while moving forward. Always forward.

Choose Your HARD!

Something that I have discovered over the years: It's EASY getting fat.
Truly. It is just so darn easy. All it takes is mixing a little bit of laziness with a handful of a love for food, mix in some complacency and let it rise for a few years. Presto! You are F A T.

Something else that I have learned: It's not so easy being fat. Being fat is HARD. It's miserable. It's painful, physically and emotionally, and the worst thing about that pain - you don't recognize exactly how painful it is while you are hip deep in it. Oh I knew I was unsatisfied about something, but I thought surely it's not me personally? I pointed at my work, the fact that I hate Maine winters (which is not difficult to understand considering they can last 7 months of the year!), and finishing my degree was - and is - taking forever. The vague unhappiness, that you wear like an itchy shirt, had a number of sources, but not one of them was the fact that I was 130 pounds overweight, and slowly killing myself.

Why? Exactly why I got fat would take far too long to explain. "How" is much easier. One delicious bite at a time. In my years of experience, dieting meant giving up all that deliciousness and starving myself while exercising like a fiend. A sensible diet? What's that??? Moderate exercise? Huh??? I was always an either-or person. Either I continued to eat like a King, or I starved myself like a peasant. No middle ground. Each attempt at weight loss was a sprint to the finish, and always ended in failure. No, worse than failure. I'd gain back everything and then some. Eventually, I simply gave up, and embraced my rotundness in all its glory.

Until...

My sister Janet joined Weight Watchers in February of '07, and hounded me. She was relentless, dog-with-a-bone persistent. I caved in mid-March. Something that I have discovered between March and now...

Losing weight is HARD! It is tedious. The rewards are slow to come. Some weeks, there are no rewards, only disappointment, even when you have done everything you are supposed to do, when and how you are supposed to do it. Eventually though, the rewards do come. The effort begins to show. It gets easier to run. You learn to love and crave healthy foods in appropriately-sized servings. But, it never stops being HARD.

So, to whomever visits this spot to see what those wacky "Two Fat Sisters" are up to, I know I speak for the both of us when I say:

Being fat is hard. Losing weight is hard. Chose Your HARD!