Distractions, distractions.

So, I has a little secret.

Okay, not a secret per se, but I'm not one to advertise my personal life (this is where you, the reader, go "wait.. Aren't you a blogger?"). Seriously though, I tend to keep my mouth shut and keyboard quiet when it comes to the love life. But yeah, I've been seeing someone. And it's been good, and continues to be good.  For the sake of considering the privacy of others, I'll leave it at that.

I will, however, say that it's been distracting. Sometimes in a good way. On one hand, I've been absolutely negligent in my tracking and weighing in. Terribly, terribly negligent.. I logged onto my MyFitnessPal account for the first time in about a week this past Monday. My bi-weekly Just Dance dates have been sporadic and I'm pretty sure that's mostly my fault.

However when I weighed in on Monday, I was down 0.8 lbs from my last weigh-in. So that's good. The upside, weight-loss wise, has been less opportunities for boredom eating, especially as I don't tend to snack as much when there are people around.  And more.. Um.. How to put this delicately? More activity.

*whistles nonchalantly*

Where were we?  Right.

I've been told of a phenomenon that sometimes occurs with people in new relationships.. it's called Happy Fat™.  Sometimes caused by an uptick of dinners out, an increase of niceties like wine.. (dear God, the wine..)

In case you haven't picked up on this.

...and a greater sense of not giving a shit because, hell, life is good so let's enjoy it and I'm not going to beat myself up over an extra treat here or there and who am I to turn down this lovely meal that has been made for me? I'm glad that said person in question is aware of my efforts and takes this into consideration when being so considerate.  This may be one of the reasons I have not, thus far, fallen into the Happy Fat™ trap, along with the lack of boredom eating and well.. *koff*

So I'm trying to make a point of tracking as I should and even if I end up saying "Screw it!" by the end of the day, I'll wake up and try again.

For me.

Andie: Been There. Done That. Got the T-shirt but the T-shirt No Longer Fits.

Well, I guess I should get the formalities out of the way.  I am called Andie and I am aka'd as Yandie, Goddess of Pickles when I blog at my regular blog at Inspiration Strikes. In The Kneecaps.  I'm a 30ish, musically inclined, vaguely eccentric Canadian single mother of two girls who has struggled with body issues for most of my life.

Gross, right?  I know.
(God, I was such an idiot.)

I say "body issues" rather than "weight" because in retrospect, I think the "weight problems" I had as a child and a teenager were grossly exaggerated.  I equated being bigger than my peers with being fat.  I also spent a lot of time internalizing my parents concerns with my shitty nutritional habits as more evidence that I was terribly fat.   Considering where I found myself years later, I have to reiterate that my fat concerns at the time were more than a little unfounded.

The nutritional concerns on the other hand? Totally Not Unfounded. I'll be dead, straight, spit-in-your-face honest when I say that for the first 25 years of my life I was probably the pickiest eater imaginable. I don't mean that I had a sophisticated palate. No ma'am. Picky like a five-year-old. Kraft Dinner (that's Mac 'n' Cheese for those south of the 49th parallel), grilled cheese and Zoodles were my staples. Vegetables were not a part of my vocabulary. To this day, people can list the individual ingredients of hot dogs to me and my response is still likely to be a Homer Simpson-esque "mmmm... Reconstituted pork hooves" complete with drool. Heck yes, I loves me some processed shit.

So what got me onto this health kick? For starters, some severe health issues that reared their ugly heads just after my 18th birthday. These issues, that include some occasionally severe colitis and multiple blood clots, and their various medications also resulted in my weight fluctuating wildly for the next ten years or so. Second, the realization at the age of 27 that no matter your feelings on the beauty and diet industry, when you wake up with 230 lbs on a 5'5" frame and your legs hurt every day, well, son, there's nothing cool about that AT ALL. Third, the idea of dying young didn't appeal to me at all and I became concerned that may be a very real possibility.

myself, early 2007, at 232 lbs

I started Weight Watchers in 2007 and over the next four or so years managed to lose 65 lbs. Yeah, I'm kind of a veteran with this stuff. I started eating better getting more activity and ended up about 20 lbs shy of my goal. I left WW due to disillusionment with the rampant corporatism and within a year I had gained back 20 lbs.

Which is why I am here. I've got a lot of pants that I'd like to wear again and a pretty vested interest in not getting back to my unhealthiest weight. Pretty clothes are pretty and no meds is all kinds of awesome.  I recently signed up at www.myfitnesspal.com which basically uses the same 'calories in, calories out' ideas that are used in Weight Watchers but without me having to shell out my hard-earned cash.  I'm looking forward to writing with these lovely ladies and keeping y'all up to date. I may also touch on subjects such as HEAS (Health At Every Size) and how the media affects our body image and self-worth. Did I mention I have a background in sociology? So yeah I kind of get off on analyzing such things.

Not literally, of course. Ew.