Hey, Weight a minute!

There is a topic that I have been wrestling with for sometime. Most of my life actually, but I couldn't decide if it was appropriate material for this forum. After all, this blog is supposed to be about my family life and this is more personal. However, it does impact the family, so here goes.

First some background... I was a big, robust newborn. Not fat, but a nice long nine and a half pounder. (By contrast, my sister, "the stick" was a five pound preemie.) Sorry, back to topic... Anyway, some well-meaning pediatrician told my mother that since I was a "big girl", she'd better watch what I ate or I would get fat. Not that she was obsessed or anything, but she did try her best to help me eat sensibly. Snacks were around, but not excessively and she served lots of healthy veggies along with the roast beef and gravy. Cokes were a treat for weekends when we raked the yard or went on picnics, not an everyday item. Her worst enemy was probably my dad, who liked to "sneak" the cookies and goodies she had stashed around the house and share them (and the fun) with me. To undo some of the damage, she packed healthy lunches for me to take to school. Things like carrot sticks, cucumber, tuna and cottage cheese. (Honestly, she was years ahead of her time!) I however, did not appreciate her efforts. I wanted Cheetos and Oreos and junk food like the rest of the kids.
So... when I moved out on my own after college and had my own money and did my own grocery shopping, I shopped like a kid in a candy store. Add to this the fact that my new boyfriend and I loved to eat out and were always trying out the newest Italian and Mexican restaurants. Gone were my days of walking around the block or riding my bike, replaced by snuggling on the sofa in front of the TV for hours.
I actually went on a "physician supervised" diet program along that time and lost a good bit of weight. Once I got married, I just got heavier. Surprisingly, pregnancy turned out to be a good weight loss program for me. I lost pounds from being nauseous the first trimester, eating healthier in the second and not being able to hold much in the last, and after the baby was born, I would be lighter. It generally found it's way back though, usually to my hips.
Two more attempts at diet programs were successful to the point of losing 30-40lbs, but ended prematurely when I became pregnant with babies three and four. I could usually lose 20lbs just by eating salads for a week or two but inevitably, it came back.
Cut to 2005... My dear sweet hubby had gone from a 36 waist when we were dating, to a 56. He is not a salad kind of guy and his idea of weight loss was usually just not eating. He didn't get all the stuff I told him about metabolism and such that I learned from my many (failed) diet attempts. Then out of the blue, he decided to give up his regular sweetened sodas for diet. I was skeptical to say the least, but he stuck with it. The pounds started to fall off. Then the worst possible thing happened. I got pregnant with lucky number seven. This was the pits, because there I was getting bigger by the minute, (even though it was somewhat temporary) and he was dropping weight at an amazing pace and totally obsessed with it. Then two more things happened; I had the baby and he hit a plateau. He had ridden the Splenda express for 75lbs or so and that seemed to be the end.
While staying in a hotel for a week with time on his hands, he discovered the perfect diet plan for his non-vegetable, carnivorous tastes. Adkins. He began to read up on it and in his typical "type A" personality, went at it great guns. Needless to say, he lost a ton of weight right off the bat. He came home to a tired, cranky, post-partum, hormonal wife and proclaimed that I, along with our overweight teenage sons, would join him on his quest to lose pounds. He was a man on a mission, weighing himself endlessly and agonizing over every ounce up or down. He was driving me insane. I decided in a moment of weakness, that if I couldn't beat him (literally beat him), I would grudgingly join him.
This meant giving up my beloved carbs. To most people, the worst part of this would be giving up pasta or bread. For me, it was all about the sweets. My sweet-tooth is so large that you may be able to see it from space. Slowly, but surely, much like trying to quit cigarettes, I kicked the habit. I lost 10lbs the first week, water mostly, and five months later, I had lost 50lbs. My sons and their youthful metabolisms burned off amazing amounts as well.
Now, there are a lot of misconceptions about Adkins. People envision you eating nothing but meat, plates of steak and bacon, etc. They imagine your cholesterol climbing the charts. Admittedly, the first two-weeks or so are very restricted in what you can and can't eat, but beyond that, it gets easier. And our cholesterol is just fine, well within normal ranges. Anyway, people tend to forget that there are lots of proteins, things like eggs and cheese and fish and seafood, without carbs. I am not saying that this diet is for everyone, but it has been such a blessing for us, and the science behind it makes sense.
So, there we were, pounds lighter and feeling better in our new smaller clothes, when my husband decided he wasn't losing weight fast enough anymore, so he needed to exercise. I won't say "more" because walking briskly through an airport wasn't doing it for him, even on a daily basis. Based on this new-found desire for fitness, my living room now resembles a Gold's Gym. We have a state-of-the art treadmill, rowing machine, elliptical stepper, weights and Bow Flex. Hubby is up to two workouts a day, typically an hour each. Number one son can RUN on the treadmill at an amazing clip. He likes the results he gets from exercise and he has learned that he can still eat a little more carbs as long as he is willing to work out. He has a very healthy future ahead of him, if he doesn't forget that. Number 2 son has a PE class at school which gives him a good workout most days and he has learned to make smarter choices about what he eats, though it isn't always easy. He may have his struggles yet.
Then there is me. My weight has hit a wall. My resolve is cracking. I want my carbs and my skinny, too. I know I need to exercise. In case I had been living in a cave and didn't know the importance of exercise, I have my hubby harping on it ENDLESSLY. I don't dislike exercise. I have decided that I hate exercise machines. No, that's true. It's just that I would rather go outside and walk, pulling my little boys in their wagon. My biggest problem is that I always feel like I should be doing something else, like cleaning up the dinner dishes, or folding my mile high mound of laundry. I don't actually do that either. So I am accomplishing nothing. Story of my life.
I was having a really "blue" day on Saturday (call it hormones) and after one too many comments from the helpful hubby, I snapped and told him I was quitting this diet/lifestyle and to quit bugging me! He was upset and disappointed in me. Truth is, I don't want to quit, I just need to regroup. He left today and won't be back until Friday. I am trying to muster my forces and see if I can't get myself motivated again. Wish me luck.
More updates to follow...