Praying for Sleep and Adventures in Missing the Point

So tonight I'm hoping beyond hope that I get to sleep more than the past two nights. A has had this horrible cold and has been up coughing and crying the past two nights. I'm not used to this - my baby's usually such a great sleeper. Oy! I have a lot of errands to run tomorrow and my house is a mess as a result of being exhausted over the weekend and getting nothing done. I did clean my kitchen today - yay! There's nothing better than a nice, clean kitchen. That's always the room that I start with when I clean. I love seeing the counters clear of crap. I made cookies to reward myself for cleaning the kitchen. And because it's the last night before pregnancy.org's next Biggest Loser challenge.

Pregnancy.org is the online parenting community that I belong to. I've got a great group of women on my birth board (we all gave birth in July). Anyways, we have a Biggest Loser team in the community. I've participated the past two sessions. The first session was good. The last one? Bad bad bad. In my defense it was during Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, but still, I did horribly. So my goal is to pick myself back up and get back on track. Hence, the cookies. Yes, I said that right. The challenge starts tomorrow, so of course that means I have to eat cookies today.

And now the reason why "adventures in missing the point" appears in the title of the blog. It made me think back over the times that I've lost weight. I did weight watchers once and I did okay with it for awhile. I counted points and even lost weight. Here is my problem with weight watchers. I would save a good portion of my points so that I could have a Hershey's with almonds candy bar every night. Yes...every night. I did lose weight though. But somehow I don't think starving myself everyday so that I could have a candy bar every night was the intention of the program's creator. Hence, I seemed to "miss the point." There was another time that I lost weight. This was the big weight loss - my stomach still drops at the thought of how great I looked and how I got right back to where I am. Anyways, I worked out six days a week and planned out five minimeals every day with one protein and one carb each meal. One day a week every week I could look forward to eating whatever the hell I wanted. And oh, how I would look forward to that day. I would even buy groceries earlier in the week in preparation for all the things that I would eat. Granted, when the day got there, I could only eat a few of the things that I'd planned on because my stomach had shrunk so much. But it was still nice to look at the goodies I guess. But anyways, here's another place where I missed the point. I got it in my head one week that technically the next day starts at 12:00am. So the day before my "big piggy day" I stayed up until midnight just so I could get some snacks in before bedtime. Then I could wake up and still have a full day of gorging. Needless to say, this is when my progress stalled. *Sigh* So you see I don't do well with programs that are based on manipulation, whatever that manipulation may be (i.e. points for weight watchers, reward food day for other plan). This biggest loser challenge leaves your food plan up to each individual participant. Basically I get points for my team if I stick with my own personal food plan for the day. So I've been giving thought to what my food plan will be. This is what I've come up with. I'm going to focus on one small change each week in my eating, maybe more than one if it's an easier thing to change. Every day that I stick with this new habit I will get my points for sticking to my food plan. So here's my new habit for week one. If I eat junky/fatty/processed food at one meal, the next meal has to be healthy. Hmmm...moderation...what a concept. Yes, I realize this is a common sense habit, but if everyone on earth had common sense there'd be no McDonald's coffee cups that say "Caution: Hot." Perhaps I need "Caution: Eating will make you fat." stamped on all junk/dessert food. Hmmm...maybe I should try suing Ghirardelli for my weight gain. Maybe I could make a little money. And then everyone would have to endure looking at a label that says "Caution: Eating will make you fat" on every box of Ghiradelli brownie mix that they buy. And everyone would wonder what kind of idiot caused the company to label their food in such a way. And I could be that idiot. Hmm...wouldn't that be nice. At least I'd be leaving some sort of legacy.

Well, anyways, if you're still reading this you're either a really good friend or you're considering suing Ghiradelli for your flabby buns. I'll keep you posted on my Biggest Loser challenge. Hopefully I'll have something good to report.

And now I'm off to bed.