The Epic Battle of Liz vs. Her Rear End

The Great 2008 Battle of Liz vs. Her Rear End (or How Liz Changed The Way She Lived)

Purpose: Create and execute a healthy lifestyle in an effort to become the example I want to be for my son as he grows up.

Description: I’ve let weight creep up on me through the engagement bliss, newlywed phase, pregnancy, and post baby haze. Ben & Jerry’s was my BFF. My rock. My steady beau. I’m tall, it takes a few more pounds to make the pants not fit – but seriously, since when did I creep into the “obese” category??? SHIT! I’ve let food, ergo weight, be a reason to let friendships wane and other relationships take a backseat to the shopping cart.

Status: Since the end of March 2008, I’ve lost 25 pounds.  Yes, I’m proud of that. And yes, I’ve done it in a healthy, satisfying and challenging way. The remainder of my battle will consist of the following: 

1. Can I continue to do this without going over to the dark side? (meaning anorexia or bulemia – which I have battled in the past).
2. Can I continue to do this without alienating myself from my family & friends? (i.e., not joining in celebrations, become to rigid with meals at home, etc.) – this really should be a sub-bullet to #1, but I feel it’s important enough to warrant it’s own bullet.
3. Can I sustain my momentum, go for broke, be disciplined, and reach my goal of 100 pounds total weight lost by March 31st, 2008 or earlier?
4. Can I retrain my mind to reach for an apple instead of a cupcake or the chips & dip or both?
5. Can I enjoy excercise for the simple pleasure of moving my body as compared to purely thinking of it as an ends to a means? I find this the key to people’s love affair with fitness.

Go me.

Bottles & Apologies

So, it was Mother’s Day today. Technically this is the second “day” I’ve experienced honoring me and my wonderfulness. My son was born only a few days before Mother’s Day last year and I was still reeling from the whole baby/life/birth/recovery shenanigans to even remotely remember my first mother’s day.

So I will consider this my first official Mother’s Day. Well, yay for me for keeping my son alive and my sanity relatively intact for a whole year. I must say the first six moths were the hardest of my life (colic, C section recovery and complications, colic, night & day confusion, colic…). Months 6-12 however were quite the relief. For the first time, I experienced joy with and for my child. We explored things together, we got some sleep, we laughed, we went out into the world, I put on shoes that weren’t flip flops, we walked, talked, ran, and played.

I started to morph into a “mom”. One of those foreign creatures to whom I wafted my superior single and childless scent to as if to say “Look at me! Don’t look at that small thing attached to your hand, hip, arm, leg, grocery cart! Look at me and my freedom, I flaunt this in your general direction!”.  I now feel a little bit of remorse for the dirty looks I gave mothers with children on airplanes (how dare they interrupt my laptop/cell phone/report/magazine time to get from place to place in an efficient manner! Use a train like the other cretins! I command you!).

Now I exude the superior scent of a woman who bore a gorgeous and brilliant child. Look at me! I am wonder mom. Look at my child develop at a rate 12x that of yours! ha HA! Look at him – he is terribly advanced! Pine for my mothering skills! Pine, I say!

I do try to tame the beast though as I know I have really had nothing to do with his darlingness and his terrible advancedness.  Sigh.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers. Be good to yourselves tonight.