Somebody That I Used To Know

Ugh - that song has been mercilessly playing in my head, and it just won't go away. I'm far too old to be hearing random xylophone solos in my head.

At this moment, I'm sitting in a class that I usually love, listening to a professor that I usually love, talking about a topic that - you guessed it - I usually love. But today I just don't have the patience to sit still for this long. Especially knowing I'll be hopping on a plane soon to go on vacation. How is it that the days leading up to vacation suddenly seem to last longer than the last ice age?

Today's conflict - what good is a blog without conflict? - is that I need need NEED to get my fat ass moving and lose some weight. The last few months have been a study in sedentary life for me, and my body is feeling and SHOWING the effects. Problem? Besides me being lazy? I'm so out of shape that exercise sucks more than it usually does. Solution? Atkins.

In this case, the somebody that I used to know is named Dr. Atkins, and he came up with the faddiest of fad diets - the low carb craze that swept the world a few years ago. After having my second child, I needed to lose some weight, so I jumped on the bandwagon and did Atkins. Sure, it sucked, but I lose a lot of weight. And even after getting off of the diet, I didn't gain the weight back. It was all good right up until my horrid experience with prednisone, and the weight gain from that vile drug. That weight never went away. Even when I dieted, even when I exercised - which admittedly, wasn't much. Now I find myself embarrassed by my weight. I literally apologized to my husband for "being a cow." He, of course, says I'm not. But the fact is that we both know we're overweight and not getting any younger, so we've decided it's time to kick start a new lifestyle, otherwise we'll be in our 50s and too unhealthy to do anything.

I am NOT going to torture myself by going on vacation and starting a diet at the same time. My plan - and I do have one - is to begin Atkins after returning from vacation. Hubs is going to do it as well, which will make it easier for both of us. I'm excited about it, because I know if done correctly, it works. I'm nervous about it, because let's face it, if it was so easy to watch what I eat, I'd have been doing it all along. The nice thing is that even though the fad officially died, it's still pretty easy to stick to it the way it was meant to be done. Not with low carb versions of food, but with fresh veggies and lean meats. So I think it will actually be better this time around, because I won't be trying to buy everything in the store that says "Low Carb!" on the label.

Coming soon - my weight loss journey! This blog has seen a lot of my life come and go, so I may as well document this phase, too. I may even get bold enough to step on a scale so I can measure my progress. Scales are not my friend, so I don't ever look at them. I go to the doctor, she writes down my weight in my chart, and she doesn't tell me. She's cool like that. She still tells me I need to lose weight, because she's a doctor after all.

And with that, I will say that I'm going to enjoy my red wine, my mashed potatoes and my Cheerios right up until D Day. And when I start crying for "just one McNugget" please, dear readers, remind me that I can do this, ok?