178.4 High School Reunion

Best Friends In High School

We returned late yesterday from my high school reunion and it was really a great event. There were about 150 people there including some spouses out of about 360 grads. This reunion was held at Foothill Park in Palo Alto and it turned out to be a wonderful place for the gathering. My biggest fear as we approached the park was that no one would be there, no one I remembered, but my fears quickly dissolved as we turned a corner and there was a large group of people chatting, smiling and looking like they were having a great time.

And, yes, we had all changed (see post "Don't Ever Change!" 8/16/10) and turned out to be a pretty interesting group of 68 year olds. My first boyfriend was there and when he told me he had become a nuclear physicist I was blown away! I wanted to say, "right, and I invented post-it notes", but luckily I didn't. He was for real. But when you are in 8th grade it's hard to imagine anyone that age becoming a nuclear physicist!

So how did I feel being with all these former classmates? I felt happy that I wasn't concerned with how I looked. (Well, of course I did worry a lot about what to wear!) I'm very sure I would have been more self conscious if I hadn't lost those 70 pounds. Most of the group was trim and lookin' good, so I just blended in in that regard.

What I'm really grateful for is that I didn't lose the weight for the reunion. I didn't even know there was going to be a reunion until about 5-6 weeks ago. I think if you lose weight for an event, it's good motivation, but what about maintaining the loss?

True Confession Time: I did order a glass of wine after the reunion because the adrenaline was still racy through my bloodstream at a high level, but, guess what? I drank about half of it and then gave it to Jeff. I think I'm really over the wine thing and am so thankful for that.

So now I need to lose 8 more pounds and I know I can do it. I don't have a lot of new and different things going on in my life right now, so it's time to spend more time exercising and paying attention to what I'm eating, very close attention.

no scale Wine Country!

I'm in one of the most gorgeous places that I've ever been, Glen Ellen, California! For those of you who enjoy a glass of wine now and then:), yes, the Glen Ellen that is home to several vineyards. I was raised in California and just love visiting here. The golden hills, the sprawling oak trees, the majestic eucalyptus trees that smell as lovely as they look all have special meaning to me and I'm so happy to be here.

But being in the heart of wine country is very different for me this time around. Whenever I have been here before, I've always enjoyed all the wine I wanted. It is everywhere here. In fact, I'm staying at the home of a good friend whom I've known since we were about 10 years old, and her property includes a small vineyard. Today we drove over to the Jack London Museum and then we went on to do a little wine tasting. What is a non-drinker doing at a wine tasting? Having a great time with my friends. Yes, it is hard to not just drink it, but I don't want to and you know, what I've learned is that nobody cares. And I guess if they did, I'd find that we just weren't hanging out together anymore. So far, I haven't lost any friends over this!

179.2 The Bottom Line

Yesterday I met with Jennifer and was telling her about being at a social event where a friend complimented me on my weight loss. And then she asked me if I would start drinking wine again once I lost my final 10 pounds. I just joked that only if I wanted to regain all that weight would I go back to my old ways.

Another gal asked me how I did it, how had I lost 70 pounds. As I told Jennifer I mentioned that I used hypnosis, cut way back on how much I ate, and upped my exercise and had done a lot of therapy. Jennifer suggested that I forgot the most important piece and that is that I wanted to change my life, and it was because I was willing to change that I was successful. It was about the fact that I no longer wanted to numb my emotions with food and alcohol, that I wanted to be fully present to live my life and experience the highs and lows and not dull them down, and that played an important role in my success.

The conversation reminded me of one I had with my daughter who occasionally works with folks who are preparing to have the lap band (gastric bypass) surgery. She's become aware of how many folks have it and lose weight, and then regain it after going through the surgery and weight loss. As she told me, it seems odd that these people will go through the pain and expense of the surgery and then return to their former eating habits. My daughter agreed with me that understanding why you became so heavy in the first place is key to knowing if/how much you want to change.

Where we live now, a lot of people are retired and are just kind of waiting. I'm not sure what all they are waiting for, but they often are waiting for it to be time to break out the wine everyday. Having a future filled with goals and joys seems to be really important as we get older. And, that means we have to change as we move from our familiar lives filled with work, to lives filled with new interests, purpose, and commitments.

So the bottom line, I guess the very bottom line, is that changing more than the number on the scale (or as Geneen Roth writes, "the size of your thighs") is of paramount importance in achieving and maintaining weight loss.

Oh, yes, this weekend is the long awaited (how about 50 years?) Palo Alto High School Class of 1960 50th Reunion, so I'm not sure how often I will post! Keep checking in. I'm taking my laptop and hope to do a few posts, without weight, okay? Other people's scales just aren't the same! :)

184.4 It's Life, A Great Life!

We celebrated Father's Day yesterday at a very special restaurant so I'm not surprised by the bump up in weight today. As my sister said, and she always knows what to say to make me feel a little better, "Sue, the food was loaded with salt and sugar." And, I'm sure she's right!

When I do the cooking, which is most of the time, salt and sugar are not ingredients that I use with abandon. Tonight I'm making a pasta dish that Oprah's cook, Rosie, used to prepare for her. There is no salt or sugar in the recipe, only fresh tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice, chopped basil and angel hair pasta. I won't eat much of the pasta but I will enjoy every bite! Oh yeah, it also has a little white wine in it. And, I'll thaw out some shrimp to eat with it. I can hardly wait!