I have just spent four days at Jasper Park Lodge. For those of you who don't know it, JPL is a posh Fairmont property nestled in the Northern Canadian Rockies. I went with my husband. He was in a conference and I was "wife of...", not a role I'm very good at for lots of reasons, and we won't talk about the heated argument over oil and gas drilling vs environmental damages to Mother Earth. Suffice it to say, I need to learn to zip it when I'm with people who make their livelihood doing resource based work.
The Lodge is beautiful. But the challenge was copious amounts of food and drink. Besides building pipeline and drilling leases, this group of surveyors really know how to lay it on in the eating and drinking department.
Today, back home, I was nervous to get on the scales. I was afraid I may have gained back the 13 pounds I'd worked so hard to get off, but I'm pleased to report, NO, I have remained the same despite eating and drinking more than usual. And here's how I did it...
I only ever tasted desserts, one taste, enough and that way I never felt deprived. I substituted extra veg for the potato or rice portion. I asked for " only a drizzle of hollandaise sauce on my fish, please, " and I tried to totally avoid the bread basket that circulated first at each table.
Sitting down in a lovely dinning room and eating with strangers helped too, as did dressing up for meals. It slowed everything down and just helped me enjoy not just exquisite food, but fine and interesting people and the mountains all around. And, yes, I did a real full-fledged work out in the hotel gym complete with my weight training and cardio!!
The last night -- at the ball -- I danced. And oh, how I danced. So there are strategies for things like this. I walked, thought about calories vs exercise, danced my feet off, did a really good work-out on Saturday afternoon, and generally had a good time. I didn't shedweight but, hey, I didn't gain any either, and I feel energized to go back at it. Onward...tomorrow is crash week.
And for those of you who are posting comments, thank you. I love the encouragement.
Margaret
Ok. It's hard to lose weight. That is the one thing I know for sure and, for me, anyway, it hasn't been a steady downward drop the way I imagined. It's more like descending a staircase...with lots of landings. Plateaus have plagued me since I started this endeavour, but I'm okay with them now. I've lost about 12.5 pounds in 15 weeks and that's not too shabby. It's starting to show on my old body, too, and certainly in my motivation. I'm thinking...can I be down 20 pounds by the end of June? Can I? And my answer to the Universe right now is "Yes, Yes, Yes!!" I have an August wedding to attend and I LOVE weddings. I have a periwinkle silk dress with a broken (read: damages, actually, honestly, read: split) zipper. I wore that dress for my Nellie McClung book launch in 2003 and it hasn't fit since, although I've tried it on a number of times just "to see" (hence the - ahem - zipper). Well, now (or in a few more pounds) that beautiful little summer wedding dress is going to fit like a charm. I just know it. I'm confident now that I will wear it again. I'm even taking it into the tailor today to have the zipper fixed. Why not? Love is in the air and silk against the skin feels like nothing else. It hasn't been easy, these last, what, three and a half months, but the rewards are starting to appear. Wearing a beloved old dress again is just one of them. Feeling more energetic is another. Feeling optimistic even when the scales aren't moving is another. Steady on, steady down, that's my new modo. Later
Margaret
I've turned a corner. At least I think i have! I went to my WW meeting after deciding I would eat more and lo, I dropped four point two pounds. In one week. It made such a difference to my attitude. Suddenly I feel like this thing is actually do-able. I think I'm about 12 pounds down from my starting date but because they are slow coming off and because I feel like I have worked really hard to loose each and every one of them, I have a sense that this will be weight lost for good. Good-bye, gone type of weight loss, rather than the "I'll see you (plus your damn friends) in a few months."
And here I must tell the story of the silk pants.They are blue grey, quite lovely, purchased, oh a good five or six years ago. I really like them. I call them my cigarette pants. I'm not sure why.Maybe because they're raw silk, maybe because of the cut, tapered at the calf and stopping just above the ankle, I don't know. Maybe just because I feel elegant and sort of classy in them. They are also pants one would only wear in the spring or summer but this time last year, Easter morning, indeed, 2009 I put on my elegant blue silk cigarette pants and saw to my dismay that my thighs were touching the outside of the fabric clear through the lining. My legs looked like sausages packed into casing. The blue spring silk lovely trousers were put away last year until....last week, when, again, to my surprise, I tried them on and lo, two full inches of fabric between my leg and the outside silk fabric. They didn't exactly bag on me but they did fit and with room to spare. I wore those blue trousers to church Easter Sunday and I got about three comments: "You've lost weight. You look great" etc etc. And even though I haven't lost weight quickly, I've toned up the muscles that have to hold all that weight. And, it feels good. I'm well on my way now. My mantra is "Put only good things into your body."
Ashley gave me a new routine.I've stepped up yoga from twice to three times a week and I'm even getting out on the running trails once in a while. It's spring and there's a spring in my step, because I feel prettier, more alive. The body that houses my spirit feels like it's just had a good spring cleaning and it's putting energy into my step and light into my eyes. Away we go into the whirlwind world of feeling good. It's all happening and I am glad. Namaste.
