No. 24 :Exercise Enough to Lose a Bra Size – Or Two

Today marks exactly one year since I joined the Weight Watchers online program. Today I celebrate a 42 lb. lighter Tasha. (To toot my own horn, my physician saw me a month before I “formally” started and has me 5 lbs ahead, making my weight loss at 47 lbs. Holla!)

At left: “Take a picture of me.  This is the heaviest I’ll ever be.”

At right: “I took classier vacations last year.”

At 29 years old, it has been my very first foray into weight loss and it has been a great one. For those of you who are interested have time to kill, here is what I’ve learned.

Why Weight Watchers Works For Me

I had reached the Dreaded Deuce – the big 200 lbs. How did this happen right before my eyes?! It happened mostly because I never paused to learn just how poorly I was eating.  (Oh Smash Burger.  How I miss you.)  Sure, I took college nutrition freshman year but that was too complicated to remember.  Macro and micro nutrients? Ergogenics? Electrolyte balance? I’m stressed out just reading those words.

With Weight Watchers, every food is given a number based on fat, carbohydrates, protein and fiber.  There’s a handy calculator and bar code scanner right on my phone.  One number makes the process simple enough for dumb, lazy humans like me.  (Hmm.  This food bad.  That food worse.  Walking= Some free chocolate.)  See? It simplifies things.

Also, no “diet” is going to work for me if I can’t eat chocolate.  (Specifically chocolate cake, if you need to thank or flatter me.)

Weight Watchers lets me eat chocolate cake.  That had me at hello.

The Numbers Game

To this day, I have never owned a scale. I weigh in once (and only once) a week on the scale we have at work.  I believe the scale can be a slippery slope to self hatred and unhealthy obsession.  We know when our bodies have had enough and are begging for healthier foods and exercise.

The flip side of this, of course, is that without the scale I ignored the fact that my 5’3’’ frame was supporting all 200 of those l-bs.

So I have reached a truce with the scale.  It serves an important purpose – a reminder of the consequences of our choices and encouragement to choose better in the future.  But it is not part of my daily routine and that number does not define who I am.

Staying Motivated

I have a healthy self image. I truly like myself at 155 and I truly liked myself at 197.  My weight doesn’t tell you anything about me.  It doesn’t convey what kind of friend I am.  My weight doesn’t tell you how I treat people less fortunate than me.  My weight doesn’t tell you that I don’t judge people.

My healthy self image is part of the reason that this year hasn’t been particularly agonizing for me.  My ultimate happiness didn’t hinge on huge, unrealistic losses every week.  I was thankful for each little bit lost because over time it added up to 42! Slow and steady wins the race (and takes you from size 18 to size 12)!

So let me take this minute to give a shout out to my Mom.  Thank you for never nit picking your weight in front of me, for never criticizing what I was eating, and for generally ignoring the word “diet”.  Thank you for praising my accomplishments and happiness instead of the way I look.   I didn’t realize how important this is to a girl’s self esteem until I was an adult. I love you!

Where I’ll Go from Here

Weight Watchers will continue to be part of my life. I won’t pretend that I have been tracking everything I ate this entire time.  But I’ve learned something and the principles are still with me.  Over the past few months I’ve slowly lost weight even without tracking.

I also hope that by posting this here I will be held accountable and will be able to lose a few more pounds or at least maintain where I am.  I feel so great! By keeping going for a year already I’m convinced that I can keep up this lifestyle.

P.S.

As the title says, the goal in my 30 Before 30 was to lose at least a bra size. This was a silly way to measure success given that I have no bras that fit me correctly. My current measurements state that I’ve lost 6″ in the bust! Woot woot!

Tip Jar: Clean Your Sink Hose Sprayer

When I first moved in to my new place, I was particularly disturbed by the state of the sink sprayer.  I hesitated to post the photo, but the picture is necessary to show how easily this worked. Brace yourselves.

Ewwww.  See all that gross build up?

I remembered a post I had read a while ago from Apartment Therapy.  Yes, I may not remember the Rules of Evidence, which are necessary to my livelihood, but I can remember online cleaning suggestions.

The post suggested soaking your shower head in white vinegar over night to remove the build up that prevents full water spray.  My shower head looks great but the technique seemed just as likely to work on the sink sprayer.

After I painted the kitchen, I filled a glass with white vinegar and shoved the sprayer in the glass over night.  The next morning I rinsed the sprayer and scrubbed it just briefly.  It came perfectly clean!

What do you clean with vinegar?

Easy DIY Dog Bed

My parents’ dog, Jo, is a good (albeit strange) girl.

I couldn’t stand that she slept every night on a single blanket folded in quarters. (Just the thought still breaks my heart!) So for Christmas I made her a dog bed using the tutorial found here.

First I bought wool sweaters from the thrift store.  I found that you can get more bang for your buck if you buy from the men’s department.  Although the sweaters aren’t as colorful, there is much more fabric for the same price as a woman’s sweater.

Cut them down the seams and wash them in hot water.  This is what people mean when they say “felting wool.”  Who knew?

I used a coupon at Joann’s to buy a 24 x 24 pillow.  At first this seemed a little small for a dog Jo’s size (she’s a border collie mix) but it is actually quite perfect.

Then I pieced squares of felt together in patterns I liked.  The tutorial suggests making a template out of scrap paper.  I didn’t.  That just seemed like a waste of time since I wasn’t doing some random pattern.

The cream sweater is one of my own that I accidentally “felted”.

My pieces weren’t perfectly sized so I just squared them up at the end.

I think it turned out really cute.

The best part is that the tutorial instructs you to use the bottom hem of the sweaters as  the pieces for the envelope backing, so you can change the cushion or wash the cover as needed.

Jo loves it (turns out she’s a shy model, however).  Total cost? About $20!

Cleaning Kitchen Hardware

More than a month ago I debuted my kitchen cabinet makeover.

Please, please.  Hold the applause.

In that post I droned on and on about those sad and nasty cabinets, but believe me when I say that the hardware was pretty gross, too. Years of grime coated each handle and hid any hint of color beneath it.  I couldn’t bring myself to put the old handles on the pretty new face of those cabinets.  That’d be like using a dirty towel after showering. Why bother?

My inner domestic goddess wanted to buy new hardware that glistened.  But the public defender in me reminded the goddess that we’re on renters on a budget and metaphorically slapped some sense into her.

After some research, I created my own cleaning recipe based on what I had on hand.  I filled the sink with hot water, some ammonia and a bit of ordinary dish soap.  (Open the windows or risk building evacuation!)  I soaked a few handles in the solution and  scrubbed them one by one with a toothbrush from the dollar store.  Look at how you can actually see chunks of the grime peel away.

Click on the picture to get a full screen shot of the kind of progress I made here.  It reminded me of streams of seaweed falling off the handles.

Look at the difference! Not bad, eh?  They are now worthy of my beautiful cabinets.  And both my inner public defender and domestic goddess are satisfied that we found a thrifty way to make them feel like new!

A Pinterest-Inspired Christmas Gift

Oh, Pinterest.  How you build me up and break me down.  So many ideas that will never be accomplished.

I suspect this is the first thing I’ve actually made from Pinterest.  I loved it.

My inspiration came from here.

A Little Paint Goes A Long Way

This blog has been neglected lately while my life has changed a bit.  Although I’m now single and an apartment dweller, my DIY tasks will not go to the wayside.  In fact, I think DIYing in an apartment is more challenging since I have to work within the restrictions set by the owner.  (No painted walls, no demolition, etc.)

One improvement I negotiated with my lease was to paint the kitchen cabinets.  My new apartment is a.w.e.s.o.m.e overall, but the kitchen just made me sad.  It was a dark, dreary place to be.  Here it is before:

The mahogany floors are gorgeous but combined with the outdated, dark cabinets it was just too depressing.

A coat of primer and two or three coats of semi-gloss white paint later, and the kitchen is officially bright and cheery.

Such a drastic improvement, no? A lighter color was also beneficial because the kitchen is the smallest place in the house.  It feels much larger now.

Stay tuned to see how I took the cabinet hardware from grimy to glowing!

DIY Car Seat Canopy

My BFF needed one of these handy car seat canopies and recruited me for the job.

Isn’t the fabric fantastic? She happens to have an excellent sense of style.

I’m not really sure how I made it.  Divine intervention, perhaps? At any rate, I relied on these blog posts so give them some love: Make It Do, Do It Yourself Divas, Mo Momma, and Sawdust and Paper Scraps.