Julie Pippert: Using My Words

Recently we took a little trip. We get the joneses fairly regularly where we feel the need to travel. Ages ago, pre-parenting, we used to hop planes and go all sorts of wild places. Because we could. Once upon a time I took a job just because they offered me free air travel anywhere, any time. Every Friday we'd pack a bag and take it to the office. I'd call my husband around 4:30 and say, "This weekend let's go mountainous!" or "How about fabulous Chinese in San Fran's Chinatown for dinner tonight?" Living in the northeast was great because so many fantastic places were so close, either by car or train. The high speed train was awesome. We could hit NYC enough that we got to know neighborhoods, and had their subway system as memorized as our own. Even Canada wasn't exempt, especially when I had to commute to work in Toronto. Later my husband worked abroad and we commuted between Europe and the US---well, he commuted. I took a lot of vacation time...

Gwen recently wrote Blubber , a post that deals with perceptions and new tactics of dealing with obesity and weight. She informed us about a school district in Wyoming that has become aggressively involved in the health of its overweight students. The story led with a snippet about a sixth grade girl who is 5’2” and weighs 179 pounds***. When the school sent home information about her obesity and offered help in the form of an after school fitness and exercise program, her parents were offended. “Brittany has always been teased about being fat,” her mother responded. “And this didn’t help. And it’s not that she’s really that fat; she’s just large boned. We all are. This is Wyoming. We’re a meat and potatoes kind of family.” The school generated 200 letters that targeted overweight children; less than 25 families accepted the offers of help. One of the mothers who did respond positively said something like, “It’s not that I’m blind. I can see my child is overweight, but I don’t know wha...

Spring break has been a little kind to me. I did break through my weight loss plateau. Only by one pound, but, eh, I'll take it. Spring break has also been cruel. We had wicked thunderstorms for the first part of the week, trapping us indoors for the most part. And some evil power decided to move forward the time change, which means spring forward coincided with spring break and a total breakdown of good sleep and regular routines. Although Corinne and I are dealing with sleep-deprivation for different reasons, this video is always good, the song is always fabulous for any reason. I do have a post I put up late-ish yesterday just below this, and now, I'm off and running for the weekend. Kid photos tomorrow. God help me. copyright 2007 Julie Pippert

Let's run through this week, as boring as it might seem, if you don't mind. It's felt a little rat-racy, but I've managed on the whole to keep up, and would say, despite crazy events to the contrary, that it's been a fairly decent week. I think I believe this solely because the kids finished the Stage from Hell and have been enjoyable once again. Oh yes, and better yet, sleeping. 1. Monday Refreshed after actually getting to sleep during the night, I spring to action in the morning. First thing, on the scale. First thing, hide my eyes. Second thing, moan, gnash my teeth, try to talk myself into eating cardboard masquerading as high fiber cereal. Fail. Eat leftover taster waffles and oatmeal from kids. Points: O. It's leftovers! Set goals for day too high and end up with 15 minutes to workout. Friday weigh-in weighing on me. Grocery shop for week. Make homemade meatloaf with potatoes and peas. Plan to eat this all week as I have exhausted myself with this culinar...

I usually like to leave posts up for a couple of days. It usually takes me that long, anyway, to write out and work through the next blog post. However. I was getting in my little exercise routine this morning-ish and I caught Chandra Wilson on The Ellen Degeneres Show . And I need to highlight her for a moment. (But I did just post about Momming below so scroll down if you missed it.) I do watch Grey's Anatomy. It's the show I love to hate. I keep promising myself to take it off TIVO. But just when they've practically lost me, somehow the show does something good and I'm sucked back in. I've always liked the Dr. Bailey character, and the heart Chandra Wilson puts into it makes me suspect I'd like her too. She was so real, so one of us on Ellen this morning that I couldn't help but be charmed. Did you know the Dr. Bailey character was meant to be a short, blonde, white woman? Can you imagine how that would work, now having seen Chandra in the role? Anyway, ...

Adding in Friday 1/26/2007 check-in: That's almost a three pound loss from last go round. Thanks, Lotta , for hosting this great check-in and weight loss support! Girl Con Queso tagged all unsuspecting visitors to her site with the "What's it look like out your front door?" meme-thingie going around. Because today is finally a beautiful sunny day after (I think) 40 days and 40 nights of dreary rain, I finally felt motivated to whip out the camera and quickly snap off a few shots out my door. They are what I like to call rushed raw honest shots (read: I used PHD mode). I added in some other gratuitous shots to put the door shots in context. Literally, out the front door in the last hour. What you don't see: that my little lighted Christmas trees are shockingly still on display out front. What you do see that I feel sort of apologetic about: the big yard mess. In defense, we've had dreadful weather and storms and always have a lot of debris to clear after that...

So...only down a little over a pound this week. I accept it. It's the Weight Watcher's target loss per week. I'm still progressing. More importantly, I'm down at least two sizes and am now comfortable rather than slightly tight in the smaller size. My wardrobe just doubled. While we're on the subject of pounds, let's talk about exactly how far four pounds of sugar can stretch. In point of fact, it can stretch throughout the breakfast nook and kitchen and all the way to the living room rug. Yes, how coincidental...just the very week when I am yapping on and on about my creative kids, they out-creative me! It's not really a coincidence. I am discussing all of this because they are having an extra creative week. I am trying really hard not to press "post!" on the eBay ad: Two kids, cheap, all accessories included. Flash back... Yesterday, I sat them down for a snack---the strawberries, if you must know, from the ill-fated jam-making attempt . The ph...

(I have edited this entry. I thought of something really funny at about 3:00 a.m. when I was otherwise occupied---and this once again alludes to the As Soon As I Find My Sense of Humor About It story---and swore I'd remember the idea for today's post, but then promptly forgot. After I posted this post, I remembered and thought, oh, gee, I like the original idea better so I'll go edit.) My entire life I have varied in body shape from skinny to thin to svelte to slender. My first pregnancy you would have thought I was competing for a job with the Gravid Modeling Agency or else in the Healthiest Pregnant Person olympics. My doctor and his nurses were so impressed they were probably worried, thinking, "Chick has some control freak in her." Let me remind all of you just how many years and how much effort went into getting pregnant and maintaining that pregnancy . I was NOT going to make a mistake. I was going to be PERFECT . I was going to be WORTHY of the honor of...

My enemy, my scale. Have I mentioned I am dieting? Joined Weight Watchers (again)? Am being weighed in weekly, and journaling every morsel (solid and liquid) that enters my mouth? No, I haven't? Because that would be too tedious for words, wouldn't it. Anyway, who wants to admit that when it comes to discussing muffin tops I don't mean a cakey breakfast treat. But, it's true, I am dieting. I have to lose the baby-gone-toddler weight I picked up with this last pregnancy and breatsfeeding-appetite-run-amok. I didn't realize, apparently, that having two children didn't mean eating for three. This time of year is especially hard for dieters and all of us Weight Watcher folks are hitting meetings with a fragile edge and hint of desperation. We huddle in a circle and discuss how to fend off the Homemade Fudge Coworker, the Frosted Cookie Neighbor, and the worst of all: fill your plate holiday buffets with open bars. The leader adds extra enthusiasm and hands out bravo...