Campaign Weightloss 2009

This is a sad day for Friendship Night. I am announcing to the world wide web that I'm fat.

Yes, I know I'm not morbidly obese. But I'm just shy of my all time peak weight and that ain't ok. I hit my all time peak weight in 2003, Pepper's first year in the army. I remember going down to San Diego and stuffing my face with easy cheese and crackers and cookies and I hit peak weight. It was so gross but I immediately shed 10 pounds by curbing the bad habits. I've never been close to that weight since.

My all time low weight was when I graduated from Arizona. That's a 41 pound difference from my peak weight. That's HUGE, especially for a person that's not tall. I don't need to be that thin again but I do need to shed a good 20 to be in a reasonable zone. And let me tell you, this shit is hard!!

I was somewhere in the reasonable zone when I moved to Hongkers. A weight gain is definitely expected since I've been drinking heavily for the last year, and with that comes late night eating and comfort hangover meals and no time for the gym. But my weight did not budge, not even an inch in the 7 months I lived above Pizza Hut.

2008 was the year of my 10 year HS reunion, and like anyone else, I wanted to look good. I was as awkward as they come in HS, so I wanted to be presentable at the least. I was very ambitious with the Campaign Weightloss 2008 until, just under a year ago, I took a nasty spill down the stairs and was out of commission for a long long time. My right ankle is still pretty weak. I think the fall was due to a first attempt at a spin class the night before. I survived it and it was great, but the next day I was so weak that I couldn't even hold myself up as I walked down the stairs. I don't wanna make that same mistake again but it is highly likely that I will fall down no matter what I do.

Then, somewhere in the middle of summer, all the weight that didn't stick added up in a matter of 2 weeks. Yes, literally overnight my clothes stopped fitting. The above picture was taken in August, and if you can see me sitting in the back with my gut hanging out... ugh, it aint pretty. And the sad thing is, I'm heavier than that now.

My new all time peak weight was reached in October. 2 pounds on top of that old peak weight. When November hit I took drastic measures and quit drinking. It wasn't a big deal for me, but was quite bothersome to just about everyone else. Whatever. I dropped 6 pounds doing this.

And since then I've been OD'ing on the fruits, veggies, and fish, and been hitting the gym regularly. I haven't cut out anything specifically from my diet because if I did that I would only obsess about what I can't have. So I just try to think about what I can have. I've been hiking. I've been able to jog more that I ever have. And yet, nothing is happening. I've put 3 pounds back on.

Bathing suit season is already here. The hot and humid temps and the teeny weeny flats leave us no choice but to hang out at the beach every week. I'm not about to traipse around with everything hangin out. So. I'm starting over.

Today is day one.

I am one pound away from old peak weight. I was running late this morning so I didn't get a chance to pick up breakfast, nor did I have time to sneak away for a minute at work to grab some fruit. So late morning I had a little frozen pizza that was in the kitchen. And lots of water. For lunch I had some baked salmon and veggies. Bought some berries, cottage cheese, and yogurt for breakfast for the rest of the week. Then had a walnut bread thingy as a snack. Lots more water. Then two pieces of chocolate because there's tons still leftover from CNY. For dinner I had a veggie sandwich and soup, which would have been acceptable if it weren't on cheesy focaccia bread.

I hit the gym with a jog and weights. It seems like a decent workout... very close to what I used to do with Jay and Meredith in college. But I don't have a workout buddy and it's therefore terribly boring. I'm going to try and go to more classes. Did Pilates for the first time last week and it was serious. I can't make it this week because I have some conflicting appointments in the evening :(

I hate talking about this because it shouldn't be an issue and we should all be happy and not feel bad about eating. And that's exactly my problem. I'm so happy that I've stopped caring. I don't feel bad about eating and I take such joy in it. But, it's time to throttle back just a tad.

So, feel free to skip my campaign weightloss 2009 blog entries, because they are for me and not you. But if I put it out there then I'm making this promise to you that I need to do better.

Oh yeah, and I live in Hong Kong where the population is smaller than a size 0 (including dudes!) and therefore NO clothes fit me. No joke. I don't think anything bigger than a 6 exists here, and you can forget about plus sizes.

I need to drink more water.