Pregnant

I'm not sure if anyone is still following this blog, but three weeks after I started it, I found out I was pregnant, so my goal to lose fifty pounds isn't exactly realistic right now. :-)

Good luck this year!

I'll be back next January!

I can't count on this kind of luck all the time...

So let me just sum up the weekend:

Foodstravaganza.

Yeah, I made that word up.

So Friday morning was Nick's Christmas pageant. (Rescheduled from a snow day before Christmas break.) Donuts, cookies, brownies everywhere.

Nick wanted McDonalds for lunch, which I initially refused, but then he fell and cracked his head on the bookcase in my living room, and I felt so badly for him when he looked up at me tearfully and said, "Mommy, I just wanted to go get some French fries." So we did.

For dinner, my darling husband took me to Cheeseburger in Paradise, one of those chain restaurants where the food is awesome -- and awesomely bad for you. Blue cheese burger, meet Brigid.

Saturday: Costco pizza with Mom for lunch. Dinner was pretty good: chicken breasts, mashed potatoes, and steamed broccoli.

Sunday, I took the train to New York City to have lunch with my awesome agent, Tamar Rydzinski, and my awesome friend Sarah Maas. (I'll write about that on my regular blog later today.)

On the way to the train station, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts. At the restaurant, I had tri-colored gnocchi with gorgonzola cheese sauce, followed by a chocolate whiskey cake for dessert. Amazing? Yes. It was incredible. Low-cal? Hahahahahahaha. No effing way.

But I got on the scale this morning and it hasn't moved since Friday. I'm still down those 2.2 pounds.

I'm going to try to get on a treadmill this evening and see how it goes.

How about you guys? How did your weekends go?

And here, since I don't want to leave you with a useless post about my food intake (are you still awake?), here's a quick and easy way to make delicious chicken:

Brigid's Easy Chicken

Heat a deep frying pan to medium heat. (I use a cast iron skillet with high sides.) Add 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil.

Chop up a yellow onion and throw it in the frying pan. I don't even bother chopping the pieces tiny; just enough that they're small enough to cook.

Throw some salt and pepper in there, stir the onion around for a while until it looks like it's just starting to brown.

Lay chicken breasts or chicken breast strips across the cooking onion. (I use the Perdue Perfect Portions, since they're individually wrapped, or I get the 99% fat free chicken strips. If you live alone, the Perfect Portions are...um, perfect...because this recipe works equally well for one chicken breast or five.)

More salt and pepper. I've also added Rosemary, but my husband wasn't a fan.

Cook the chicken about 6 minutes on each side until it's cooked all the way through.

This entire recipe takes about 15 minutes total. It's faster (and easier, in my opinion) than making Shake-and-Bake. And even if you have someone who hates onion (like my husband), they don't have to eat them. They're just in the pan for flavor.

Give it a whirl. Let me know how it turns out.

If anyone else has some easy recipes, let me know. I'd love to post them on the blog. Feel free to email me at brigidmary@gmail.com.

By the way, I LOVE all the comments with ideas, encouragement, and just general chatting. I can't get into blogger from work, so I can't respond during the day, but I read all of them when I get home in the evening. You guys are AWESOME. Thanks for doing this right along with me!

Keeping track

So far I've lost 2.2 pounds, and we're at January 7. I'm okay with that. I've been weighing myself every morning and keeping track of it in an Excel spreadsheet.

The lowest my adult weight has ever gotten was 146, and I would seriously pay real money to snap my fingers and look like that again. Even now, I want a quick fix. While I was driving home from the gym last night, I was thinking, "Maybe I should try Alli again. Or I could do the Weight Watchers Core program. Or I could get those Hydroxycut pills."

But you know what? I've done all those. They work.

For a while.

Then you stop using them, or you get bored, or you get sick of paying money to do something that other people can do for free.

Then the weight comes back on. It's funny how it creeps up on you slowly. I mean, it makes sense. You don't gain five pounds in two days, so why should we expect to lose it so fast?

I get depressed watching The Biggest Loser. My husband says I'm nuts, but it makes me extremely jealous to watch these people shedding 20 pounds a week, when I have to settle for a measly 1. It seriously makes me want to fire up the popcorn popper. And no, it's not an air popper. It uses oil and butter and everything.

Mmm. Butter.

I'm glad I've started this blog. I hope you guys are trucking along with me. Sometimes when I want to jump off the wagon (Already! A week in!), I remember that I made a commitment to you guys, and to myself, too, and I get my act together and stop looking longingly at the box of Pop-tarts sitting on the counter.

Ooh, that reminds me. I should eat breakfast.

Anyone else feeling a little slump in enthusiasm as we head into the weekend?

I don't want to be the fat girl at the front of the room

First off, I'm so excited to have so many new friends!! Welcome, everyone!

Jan asked in comments whether it's weird to want to lose weight with a random stranger over the internet.

Hell, no! Let's do it, lady! I'm the ultimate internet friend. *fist bump*

All right, so I was supposed to go to the gym last night. I didn't go.

Here's what I told myself last night:

It was my preschooler's first day back to school after 10 days home, and I wanted to be here for him. Also, the group fitness room would be packed with New Years Resolutioners, and I don't want to be grouped with them. (Do you see the irony?) Besides, I tore my gastroc last spring (calf muscle), and do I really want to risk it right out of the gate?

Here's the truth:

I was afraid.

Seriously, I was afraid. I didn't want to be the fat girl at the front of the room. I didn't want to think about people watching me jiggle all over the place and wonder what I'm doing there.

Women are vicious.

You know we are. Let's call a spade a spade. And if you've ever been the fat kid in grade school, you know just how vicious other girls can be. You could have a room full of people telling you that you look great, but if one person snorts a laugh behind her hand, you just KNOW she's talking about you, and it destroys all the compliments. (Hey, Sarah Fine, maybe do a post on your blog about why that happens. I'm genuinely curious.)

I used to be so good at Step aerobics that my favorite instructor, Jill Fellman, was trying to get me to take the certification classes to become an instructor. I love Step. That's the class I should have taken last night.

I was afraid.

But you know what I realized?

I'm going to keep being the fat girl until I stop worrying so much about what other people think. The only way to stop being the fat girl bumbling along on the treadmill is to keep getting on the treadmill.

So tonight I'm going to put on my leggings and tee shirt, and I'm going to get myself out the door. I'm going to take cardio kickboxing because I know I love it, I know it's a good workout, and I love the instructor. (Anyone else in the Baltimore area? I'd love company.) I'm not going to look in the full length mirrors and think, "Look at that fat chick."

Well, I am. But I'm also going to think, "Look at that uppercut. She looks kind of badass."

~

(Please go read the comments in the previous post if you have a second. rurounigirl20 has a ton of great tips for losing weight. I'm not entirely sure how to link straight to a comment or I'd do it.)

Happy New Year!

All right, so starting a weight loss program on the first day of the year isn't all that revolutionary. I know.

Bear with me.

I currently weigh 50 pounds more than I did on the day I got married.

I don't like that.

I hate huge long term goals. I hate them. They just feel impossible, and impossibly far in the distance. It's easy to say, "I want to lose sixty pounds by next Christmas." Because next Christmas is a year away, and sixty pounds isn't something you can drop quickly. Consistent weight loss is all about plugging away slowly.

I hate that. It sucks. How are you supposed to cheer about losing 2 pounds, when you know you have like 58 to go?

But then you stop trying, and suddenly a year has gone by, and you look back, thinking, "Gee, if I'd only stuck with it, I would have lost ALL that weight by now."

And if you're like me, you do this year after year after year.

I hate that too.

So I was driving to work one day, and I thought, "You know, sixty pounds over a year is only five pounds a month. What if I just set a goal to lose five pounds each month? That's totally doable."

And for me, it is.

So here's the deal. Each month, I'm going to start at square one, with a goal to lose five pounds by the end of that month. If I lose seven, great. The next month, I still start at square one, with five pounds to lose. If I only lose three, that's FINE. No guilt. I still start the next month at square one, with five pounds to lose.

Maybe at the end of this year, I'll succeed.

I started this blog because I thought other people might like this approach, and I like doing things with friends. Feel free to click "Follow" on the right, or just join me in secret. I'm not a doctor, I'm not a weight loss expert. I'm a working mom. I'm a writer, too.  (Check out my other blog at www.brigidkemmerer.blogspot.com)

I'm going to start by counting calories and making use of my Gold's Gym membership. If you want to do something else (Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, whatever), go with it. All plans are welcome here.

That's my plan.

Who's with me?