Second day
Mood:  down
I got up and weighed myself this morning and I had gained a half pound! Figure that! I am assuming it is the pasta I ate Friday night at Gary's birthday dinner. I would probably have gained more if I hadn't walked over an hour yesterday. So I have decided not to let it get me down. And just continue on the food plan and aim for 1.5 pounds lost by next Saturday. It's the week loss that counts, not the day to day up and down. I know that my weight fluctuates daily even when I'm not watching what I eat. Like a seesaw. So just count this as normal and keep going.

What else - Already did 15 minutes of housework - emptied the kitchen trash and recyclables, wiped the microwave, washed the dishes. Didn't do much yesterday - just laundry, so the first floor is a mess. I'll tackle the dining room today - that's my goal - get the flotsam out of there. We never use the room for dining except at Thanksgiving - otherwise it acts as the dumping ground for anything coming in the door. We all have this habit of putting something down and leaving it there, and eventually it becomes part of the "decor" of the room and nobody sees it anymore.

If I were the only one here, I'd empty that room of everything - diningroom set, pictures, rug - and turn it into a sewing room. There's plenty of light, so it's a cheerful room (if I ever got it cleaned up). I never liked the dining room furniture anyway - too formal. Off-putting. It never felt like MY room. It's not the farmhouse style dining furniture I would have chosen. Something cozy and welcoming and old.

I have to wake Casey at 7 - she has to waitress at the diner 9-2. I don't know if Gary is playing golf - it's cool and rainy out today. My calendar square is blank, so I'll look forward to next week and see what's up. The Senior Awards banquet is Wednesday night at 7pm - the SAME time as the season finale of "Lost" - wouldn't you know? So I'll have to tape it and WAIT - what torture. Then Thursday night (season finale of O.C.) is the Choir Spring Concert. Another tape and wait. So little left of Lauren's Senior year. She's excited and I'm morose.

And so I begin...
Mood:  happy
Today is Saturday - a wonderful warm, sunny Saturday in Wisconsin - finally. I went for a walk this morning - for 62 minutes!! - all the way to the Pic N Save and back. I'd called Janet to ask if she wanted to walk with me, but Jim answered and said she couldn't because of a baseball game that Nell was pitching. He wouldn't even give her the phone - just decided for her. I wonder if that bothers Janet? Or if she is just used to it.

Decided this is the day to start the food plan - again. I won't call it a diet. I want to lose 30 pounds - like Janice did two years ago on Weight Watchers. I actually stopped by the WW office on my walk to ask how much it cost. They have a $15 sign-up fee 'til June 5, but the meetings cost $10.95 a week. You can go as often as you want, but still, $11 a week seems pretty steep. I could just put the $15 and then the $11 weekly in an account somewhere and buy new clothes with it when I lose the weight. Pay myself instead of WW. With $44 a month, I could join a gym, like "10" - it only cost $30/month and the ladies seemed very upbeat.

Anyway, I've begun. I'll walk every day and write down what I eat, since that's the only way I can keep track of the number of calories - trying to stay around 1200/day. And stay BUSY - not sit in front of the tv and watch movies I've already seen. Robert Davi is on the screen right now. Wonder what ever happened to him? He sings opera, I know - saw him once on Regis and he sang.

My start weight is 160.5. Thirty pounds would put it at 130.5, which is what I weighed 20 years ago. I am giving myself five months to lose 30 pounds - that's just 6 pounds a month, or 1.5 pounds a week - which I should be able to manage. That's really sensible and slow and maintainable. I can do this!