STARTING OVER AT ALMOST 50

I survived the summer. My daughter is happy back at college, sans car, which now, I realize made so much sense. I really stuck to my guns on this. She is not used to hearing the word ‘no’ I have to admit. She was wearing me down and brainwashing me to the point where I was wondering, yeah it makes sense to cosign a 13,000 auto for a sophomore in college. Luckily I snapped out of that and she is in her dorm and happy as a clam to be with her friends again.
This was a pivotal summer for me. I got to my weight goal and have lost more weight since then. I achieved Weight Watcher lifetime status last week. I also am now an apprentice at my yoga studio to be a yoga teacher. My daughter is probably gone for good. Life has certainly changed. And all of this was possible thanks to – ME.
I don’t ever want to go back. I have no problem with people who are happy with themselves at whatever weight or shape they are in, but I am not one of those. I was never happy when I was fat and nothing made me truly happy when I was fat. I was not living to my full potential and I was using the fat as an excuse to hold myself back. I did this for years. I had even almost accepted I would be fat forever, but there was also this part of me that didn’t really feel like a fat person. Part of that was denial, but another part was a resistance to being like ‘them’. One of the fat outcast people.
Now I am not that. One word you can no longer use to describe me is fat. I am not a fat single mom. Now there is an ugly label. I had it for years. At my family reunion I noticed hey everyone is getting fatter! The whole country is getting fatter. I work with a lot of huge heavy women. Who get heavier every year. Lately it seems as though everyone I run into that I haven’t seen for a along time has gotten heavier.
But I won’t be doing that. I am on to the next part of my life and I am not going back.

BACK TO HELL

The family weekend was not as bad as I thought. It usually isn't. Only two snide comments, one from my mom and the other from my sister, but I can handle them. Two strange things though.
Although I got complimented up and down for my weight loss, no one wanted the magic beans. No one asked how I did it. I thought that odd. Usually people want to follow you around. I did eat no sweets or yucky snacks they had. I was pretty much starving all weekend because the only healthy choices were what I brought.
The other surprising thing was that everyone had gained weight. I would say 80% of the people in my family are overweight. Even nieces who had been thin all their lives are now quite chubby. Is this a reflection of our country? I knew the statistics showed that Americans are heavier and getting heavier every year, but can 80% of the people be overweight or is my family just special. It actually saddened me since I saw people the whole weekend stuffing themselves with sweets and alcohol. I have a grandniece who is 9 and she will be a fat adolescent. Both of her parents are heavy. Hey my own daughter is heavy so who am I to talk.
Tomorrow I finally get to take her to college. I won't miss her. She has been on my case about cosigning a car for weeks. I think she gets it now. It ain't gonna happen. She needs to get a lot of stuff in line for that to happen. My fiance is down in the dumps and that is getting on my last nerve too.
So the solution is, spending time to myself. This weekend I am cutting out on him and his kid. I am tired of everyone at this point and just don't need everyone's drama.
Here is some good news. I am apprenticing at my yoga studio to be a yoga teacher. This I am excited about. I have been hoping for an opportunity like this for ages and here is it. I will be a yoga teacher! I am going to be mean too. No easey quiet classes from me. In my class, people are going to work it!

A NEW COUNT DOWN

My weight loss and maintenance endeavors and focus have taken a back seat to my daughter's relentless pursuit of having me cosign a car for her. This is almost a 24/7 argument. I am waiting for the phone to start ringing this morning when she gets up. It continued until late last night with her crying about it. She fluctuates between rage and veiled threats down to begging and groveling. I don't know what it will take to convince her I am absolutely not doing this and what a horrible idea it is. She is stubborn and won't give up.
I am going out of town to a huge family reunion that she is refusing to go to. I told her a year ago when this was being planned that if she didn't go, she should not expect a heck of a lot from me. I was going to buy her some back to school clothes but that isn't helping either. She is sort of holding this cosign thing over my head, like if I go ahead and sign it, she will go, but that isn't working either.
I have worked out this week and eaten right. Don't get me wrong. All this stress is not driving me to eat and exercise. It is emotionally draining and depressing that I have this spoiled daughter who has no gratitude for anything I do for her. Whatever I do never seems to be enough. I have explained to her that her immaturity in dealing with these issues just further reflect that she is not ready for this responsibility and she would have to work 40 hours a week at school to pay for the car. But she refuses to see that and just insists I just don't want her to have a car and be happy.
Yup. That is what the past 19 years were about. I have only wanted her to be unhappy and miserable. Geez.
Will this kid ever mature past the leve of a nine year old? I think it is going to be along time before I figure that one out.

Nine More Days

Until my lovely daughter is back in college and I don't have her in my face any more.

I am really challenged with food right now but actually am not eating enough. Last night I was too stressed to eat dinner and nothing sounds like what I want to eat except the tomatos in my garden. I have been eating those and cucumbers. So delicious.
After the family reunion this weekend I have a lot going on next week. We are moving to a new building so things at work are in flux right now. I actually am working home one day during this. I love to this. I could stand my job if I could work at home a day or two a week.
Next Friday we dump her off in her dorm and then my life will be a little more normal and I can retreat into Joan's world. As predicted the "boys" came back so I woke up this morning to dirty dishes, crumbs on the floor, and filthy counters. Couldn't complain to df though. He is supportive with my daughter crap, but daughter will be out of the house and the boys will be there all the time.
So, like I said, I will just have to cope by doing a lot by myself and staying away from them. The youngest started cross country high school team this week and was already dead after the first day practice. His eating habits are horrendous. He basically eats nothing. He is getting taller and weighs nothing. He always has this malnourished look about him and df had to get him up early for practice today and I did not notice him preparing anything for him to eat. There is no water ready. Sigh. Well, I have my own problems but make the kid some eggs. There wasn't even any cereal for him but he will only eat sugary cereals with additional sugar on it. I have a feeling he won't last this season. The workout schedule looks brutal. At least I can pat myself on the back for taking care of my kid and making sure she has what she needs. Sigh. Got my own problems and can't worry about his stupid kids.
Ate my lunch already. Not a good sign. I will get to the gym today. Yesterday my nerves were wrangled between work commotion and my daughter so just went home and went on a long wonderful walk for my exercise. Felt wonderful and the weather was perfect. Think I will work out some anger on weights tonight too.

SPIRALING OUT OF CONTROL

Well the situation with dd is worse than I thought. Had another scream out with her. She thinks I am being mean by refusing to cosign a car with a higher payment than my own and with about a 500$ per month insurance payment with mine, since it tripled due to her three speeding tickets last year. Of course she doesn't account for nor have money saved for the inevitable maintenance and repair bills. Don't even get me going on the price of gas. All I can see is how could she even think she can handle all of this with school full time.

I am so mad I could spit. But I will NOT eat my way through this. I WILL exercise today. Because inevitably, this will pass and I am willing to live through this somehow even though she will hate me and not talk to me the rest of my life and never let me see my grandchildren. Those are her usual threats.

I mean it isn't hopeless right? Some day this kid has to grow up and be responsible and reasonable and logical right? It might be a few years but I do now me gaining weight will NOT solve anything.

FAMILY REUNION

It is approaching and I am trying to anticipate what it will be like with my weight loss and then my lovely daughter throws a new wrench into the situation. Like, she isn't going. Well, she is practically not going. She is using the work excuse but I think there is more to that and I think part of the reason she doesn't want to go is that she is heavier, way heavier than she used to be and the reason I think that is that....

I used to do the same thing. In my family it is kind of damned if you do damned if you don't. Some of them will persecute me for showing up thin, but showing up heavier is a disaster and someone will bring it up to me that she is heavier and that person would be.......

My mom. Who last summer pointed out to be that I had a roll around my waist and two months ago screamed at me to not lose any more weight. She is also upset about my lovely daughter not showing up, because she is her favorite grandchild.

Also my daughter, who has been nothing but a huge financial drain on me and caused me a lot of financial problems, me a poor single mom and now she wants me to cosign a loan for her to get a car. Which basically means to me that I will end up, at some point, having to pay money for it, which I am not willing to do due to the fact that her college right now is costing me so much. Her rationale is that she will pay for it all by working 25-30 hours a week, which I doubt will cover her expenses. She is also a shoe addict and a nail salon addict and I have not seen her lessening these activities over the summer.

She is causing me so much emotional strife now I can hardly bear her, plus the family thing coming up. I am kind of at my wit's end. Plus fiance's boys are back today which means, no doubt about this, that I will be coming home to a messy house tonight.

I have two alternatives. One is to eat my brains out and the other is to run away from home, from all of them. I love my fiance to death. I know the situation will be better for me next week when daughter is back at college because she won't be in my face about something all the time. The weird family reunion will be over, but I still have to put up with his kids and somehow that just seems unfair right now. I know I am not really justified in feeling that way because obviously he can't get rid of his kids to please me but last winter was difficult. I could hardly stand to be home because to be honest, after a day of work and stress from that bs, I hardly want to go home and hang with the boys. So I spent a lot of winter on my home.

What I need are new coping mechanisms because eating my brains out is no longer an option like it used to be. It seems like all I have right now to feel good about is my weight loss and the new goals I have associated with getting the perfect body I want and to be a personal trainer and yoga instructor. I hate my career. My kid drives me nuts. My friends are always whining. I love fiance, but his kids distract him from me a lot.

So new coping mechanisms are it. What other choice do I have. I feel the best thing I can do is to continue on working on the things that will make my life better. For the first time in my life I have a weight loss that I feel I can maintain. That is huge, after 50 years of being fat and yo yo dieting. I can lose more. I can be more than this.

I have choices.

More Pics Coming

I just posted that because I joined photoshop and wanted to experiment with the only photo I had. I will put up a before and after soon. I found the before and have to get it scanned and upload it. It is pretty bad. Will be a good laugh.
My weight watcher scale showed me up .6 last week but I know I didn't gain. I am looking at my statistics but at least once in every decade, I have a gain that is unsubstantiated. From looking at these stats I also see it is usually followed by a big loss the week after either because the loss is unsubstantiated as I believe, or that I just work harder since I hate gains. I have a weight I am shooting for for next week which is my family reunion.
My family is a bunch of major alcohol and food addicts. The only thin people have married in. I am not looking forward to this reunion since my mom is already driving me crazy. She said something so mean to me on Sunday it almost sent me reeling into food and lazy land. I almost talked myself out of my workout yesterday and am starting the same thing up today.
See the problem is that I broke the family contract of being out of control as a foodie and a drinker. That usually means everyone will be uncomfortable and when people get uncomfortable, they attack. Because they are scared of what they are seeing.
Yup, there is me, proof that it is not genetic. Proof that it can be done. Proof that everyone in the family is not like THAT. Plus I won't make it easy for them because I will not give in. Nope I won't do it. I won't cave.

Experiment

SO YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD GET EASIER

But nope, that doesn't happen. The goal weight is really not some magical number on the scale that sets your life right. Actually you kind of look at yourself and think, this is not where I want to be. I am two pounds under that goal now and there is room for improvement. So I am working even harder.
Also the week after I reached goal some major stresses appeared wrapped in something that looked like my daughter and her financial aid issues with school. I am really stressed to the max and on top of it have decided to quit drinking diet soda. This is a minute by minute struggle where I keep trying to convince myself to have one and then talk myself out of. I had been spending way too much money on it and yesterday I read a post about a woman who quit and said that subsequently her diet coke bulge went away. Now I am sitting here thinking this is odd. Is THAT what that is still around my waist? A diet coke bulge. For the past few days for some reason, there seems to be a lot of loose fat around my waist. Hmmm. Must be that diet coke bulge.
Some of days are including double workouts now. Cardio and bikrams or cardio and weights. Today I am somewhat tired so will just do cardio after work. I was thinking about weights, but I am really tired and the stress from my daughter and the other kids in my home is getting to me. It seems there is always a kid there and there isn't supposed to be. My fiance's oldest son is almost 20 and quit his job in May and hasn't looked very hard for another. He is with us half time so I just put up with two weeks of coming home to him camped in front of the tv. Today I kind of let fiance have it, since he is so willing to condemn my daughter for all of her transgressions. He claimed he told the kid to get a job but I doubt he did it forcefully or as forcefully as I would have. I would have been all over his lazy ass in June. All this kid does is watch tv and I am sick of him. I hope he gets an apartment and moves out. Mine will be gone in a few weeks and she needs to be on her own too.
So just stressed and not being fat any more does not alleviate the stress, but makes it more manageable since I don't have to manage self-loathing for being fat on top of it.