Bravo Mr. Roker

I watch the Today Show just about every day. It takes me most of the day to do it since it is a four hour show. Just to be clear, I TIVO it, eliminate the commercials and just stop on the stories that look interesting. I probably end up watching about an hour of the program.

I did stop on the segment that profiled Al Roker, the weatherman. Al has fought a battle with his weight since he was a child. I have watched him balloon up and then drop some pounds repeatedly. At his heaviest, he says he weighed 340 pounds and that is when he went in for gastric bypass surgery.

He had made a promise to his dying father that he would lose weight and keep it off. This was the method he chose to do it. It worked…he lost 140 pounds. And then, it didn’t work anymore. He regained 40 pounds when he figured out that he needed to take the right path to losing weight. He ate less, exercised more and didn’t try any quick fix methods.

He made some really good points in the discussion he had on-air. He is back down to 204 pounds. He pointed out that nobody can convince you to lose weight until you are ready to do it. He actually yelled into the camera that people should leave overweight people alone and stop trying to get them to drop pounds. It doesn’t work until there is a reason inside of you to get you to believe that the time has come.

He also treats his overeating as an addiction and likened it to alcoholism. The difference that he pointed out is the obvious one. You can live without alcohol but you can’t live without food, so you need to be on top of the situation all day, every day, or you will fall back into bad habits.

Al has donated his “fat clothes” to charity. He wore a size 60 suit at his highest weight and now wears a size 40 suit. Just like the rest of us, it was hard to let go of the old clothes, but he knew he had to do it to move forward.

So, what did I take away from all of this TV viewing, you might wonder? I got the reinforcement of knowing that even when you have enough money at your disposal to afford the best food and the best trainers, you won’t lose weight until you are ready to lose weight.

Thanks, Al Roker. You’re one of my heroes.

Talk to you soon.

Pool is open for business

The pool is officially open at my house. I went in, up to my knees, and declared that summer has begun. Our pool is solar heated and the lack of sun warmth, until recently, hasn’t done much for the water temperature. But, a few more days of weather like today should fix it right up.

We finished unstacking the outdoor furniture, and I enjoyed sitting on each piece throughout the day. Some of you know that we had a backyard makeover last summer and that it was done by HGTV’s Color Splash team. Now, we get to see our backyard on television just about every month when the reruns are played and, more recently, we noticed that it is part of the commercial for the new season.

What’s great about all of this is the fact that we can reconstruct the backyard just by looking at the television segment that we TIVO’d last year when the episode originally ran. I am sitting inside now listening to the water babbling in the fountain and looking at the Italian cypress trees with the twinkling lights. I love my backyard, and I love this time of year.

Talk to you soon.

Heading out

Tomorrow morning, we will be setting up the backyard for our summer enjoyment. I have been looking at our stack of outdoor furniture for the last six months and wishing the rain would go away so we could unstack it. Now that we actually believe the rain is finally gone, we are going to make our move.

There is something about spending a lot of time outdoors that keeps me smiling. I could not live in a place that was dark and dreary for very long without resorting to drastic measures…like comfort food. I know that I eat less in the summer than in the winter from over 50 years of experience.

So, let’s lift our glasses and toast the end of the rainy season. It’s long overdue.

Talk to you soon.

Dinner split...savings for all

I was watching a few minutes of Dr. Oz this evening while waiting for my husband to come home from work. The doctor profiled a church congregation of 1500 members in New York City who, on average, are 80 pounds overweight EACH. If I remember right, they needed to lose 60 tons. Now that’s a number that is hard to get your arms around.

The church frequently had a buffet dinner that included fried chicken and waffles. I never really got a hankering for that combination, but I could see how one could easily end up 80 pounds overweight by repeatedly eating it.

Armed with that knowledge, my husband and I went out to dinner. We went to Finnegan’s in Novato and split a salad and a burger. We ditched the bun and the fries, thus saving points and money. I’m so glad I don’t have to lose 60 tons.

Talk to you soon.

Changing it up

All of us get in a rut at one time or another. The need to “change it up” a bit is good for our well-being. Today, I did a minor adjustment for just that reason.

Every four weeks or so, I get a manicure and pedicure. My manicure is always the same, a “French” with the white tips. I use my hands a lot when I speak (not a great habit), and I try to have my nails portray an understated elegance…or, at least look like I paid attention to them.

Today was different. I abandoned the French for a solid color. Light pink is not going to shock the world, but I have enjoyed looking at them ever since I returned home.

The same philosophy works for my food choices on Weight Watchers. It’s easy to eat the same stuff over and over again and when you do, I think you are more apt to get into the boredom rut and make mistakes because of it.

Tonight I changed it up a bit with my entrée. Should I have steak or chicken, I asked myself. Why not have a little of each, I answered. And so I did, and just like my nails, I enjoyed looking at my plate when I sat down to eat.

My husband just called and asked what he was getting for dinner since he got off work late and knew I would have eaten already. I said he had a choice of steak or chicken. He asked if he could have a little of each. I’m now wondering if he was at the nail salon earlier today.

Talk to you soon.

Shedding a toddler

I wonder what I will look like in about four months. If you are wondering why I picked an odd opener to this posting, it’s because I was looking at my itinerary for an upcoming trip to Hawaii with my husband.

Last September, just before joining Weight Watchers, we went to Mexico for a week. We spent every day at the beach and pool and did very little else except wear bathing suits and relax. It was marvelous.

I do remember thinking that between the heat, humidity and my excess weight, I was moving pretty slowly. I don’t think it had anything to do with being ultra relaxed. It had everything to do with carrying the equivalent of a toddler on my back around the hotel.

I also remember that I was thinking that it would be nice to feel good in my bathing suit. I was just a bit embarrassed to take off my cover-up and silently vowed to look and feel better in one year. That’s about four months from now.

As I approach the 30 pounds lost milestone, I feel great. Heat and humidity won’t hold me back. And my bathing suits, all new and ready for summer, feel great, too.

Like I said earlier, I wonder what I will look like in about four months. Right now, I look so much better that I won’t be hiding behind that cover-up.

Talk to you soon.

Hats off to Nora and 30 pounds less of her

You know you are committed to Weight Watchers when it’s weigh-in day and your friend loses weight and you don’t…but you are thrilled for her. That’s what happened today at my meeting.

I knew coming in that I has gained weight. Now that I own that scale, I get a sneak preview before I go to my meeting. But, I also knew that if history repeats itself, my friend, Nora, lost weight. We are like a seesaw and seem to alternate our losses and gains.

Imagine my excitement when I entered the room to discover that she had lost 2.4 pounds and, more importantly, has now lost 30.4 pounds. She has crested our next milestone with room to spare.

So, bravo to you, Nora!

Oh yeah… I gained .2 pounds, so I’m 1.6 pounds from the milestone. I went home and checked to see that my daily point allowance was correct, as advised by Nora, and lo and behold, it wasn’t. In the past, it automatically adjusted on my eTool, but it didn’t, and I lost one point. I’m glad to make the adjustment now and hope it helps me break through to the next step in my journey.

Meanwhile, I’m going to celebrate Nora’s accomplishment by having a Giant Fudge Bar in her honor.

Talk to you soon.