NSV time!

For those who may not be familiar with the term, NSV is an acronym that means "Non-scale victory". An NSV is basically something that shows you what kind of progress you are makin, progress that might not be reflected in the numbers on the scale.

Moved down a notch on your belt? That's a non-scale victory.

Ran a block without getting winded? Did a full sit up? Those are non scale victories.

Finally saw your feet for the first time in years? NSV baby!

NSV's are an important thing to recognize and celebrate, because let's face it.. Sometimes those numbers on the scale don't move fast enough for our liking. But that doesn't mean we aren't making progress. No ma'am.

I celebrated a big NSV this week. Previously I spoke of pants and my wear vs my no-wear drawer. Well, this past Saturday, lacking something to wear for a night out, I decided to venture into the no-wear drawer and to my delight, after losing about 9 lbs, I have moved two more pairs into the "wear" drawer, including one pair that at one time were my very favorite pair. I was so happy I ran out to the living to dance around and show off to Guy For Whom I Have Not Come Up With A Good Blog Alias™

I had intended to show a progress pic, and even had the eldest child take a blurry, head-cut-off photo with the iPad but it occurs to me that I still am unable to upload pics to Blogger. I'll tell you what, though, if you follow me on Twitter, I'll go ahead and post it there. Sound like a plan? K.

Back on track again... So far, so good.

It has been a good week, it has.

After my post last week about kicking my own ass, I did just that. I got back to using my myfitnesspal tracker, and I have been tracking the shit out of my food intake.. Last night I had two pretzels while I made my lunch, and I marked it down.

I'm also back to making sure to drink lots of water. I have to pee constantly, which means lots of time spent away from my desk, running to the bathroom every 20 minutes or so. I've lost most of the weight I gained back over the last three or four weeks, which is awesome.

This week for exercise I had an hour and a half kickboxing class, have played three hours of Just Dance 2, and have walked for 2 hours and 20 minutes. I'm really I feeling back on track this week. It's been helpful that the weather has been gorgeous and unseasonably warm for march in the snow belt. I can't help but want to constantly be outside, doing stuff.

Feeling motivated! I love it!

Book Review: All of Me - A Voluptuous Tale

Hey all. I'm kind of phoning it in this week. Long story short, it was pointed out to me that work time should be for work and in an effort to remain employed I'm trying to take that to heart. So between renewed efforts at being productive at work, a more active than usual love life, and the pain that is typing by touch-screen, my blogging time is more limited. This is a repost from October 6th, 2011. I hope you enjoy it.

My mom recently lent me the book All of Me: A Voluptuous Tale by Venise Berry. The cover puts me in mind of something that would be on Oprah's book club. Upon recommending it to me, she told me that the main character reminded her a lot of me.

I had a bit of a"Gee, thanks mom" moment when I began reading as it starts with the main character, Serpentine Williamson, in a psychiatric hospital after a suicide attempt. However, this is not what she was getting at. Serpentine is a black woman who has struggled with her weight all of her life, and recounts the events in her life that led up to her suicide attempt. She deals with fat-shaming from her family, her lovers, her workplace and from society around her.

This book pissed me off to no end, but in the way I think the author intended. I was angry FOR Serpentine and I could understand her frustration at the world around her for treating her like she was a less worthy human being for being fat.

The book also deals with the issue of not only being a fat woman, but a fat black woman. It was an interesting perspective for me to read, being white, since it's my understanding that there can be some significant differences between white women and black women's experiences with fat-shaming and body acceptance. These issues stem a lot from privilege, society's ownership of women's bodies, access to healthy food and activity, and media representation.

I related to Serpentine in her personal life - feeling less than worthy, feeling insecure and jealous of the thin, pretty girls (although in some cases the 'thin girls' were not too far off from me - when I lost the first chunk of weight, I had a few friends point out that we were almost the same size, even though I still felt like the fat girl of the group). I always felt incredulous when someone professed to be attracted to me.

The message of the book focuses a lot of being healthy. While being aware of all the external factors that have affected her, Serpentine also acknowledges her own responsibility in getting where she is, and uses her experiences to better herself and live a healthier life.

It was an enjoyable read. I recommend picking it up.