SETTING MY GOAL

So after you make your 10% goal at Weight Watchers, you're supposed to make an appointment to meet with your leader to discuss what your weight goal is going to be. You can set your final goal weight at that time, or if that seems too far off, you can just set another "transitional" goal. Since I don't think I have that much more to lose, I set about thinking of what I'd like my final Weight Watchers goal weight to be.

Your goal weight is something that you're supposed to commit to for a lifetime. This was sort of screwing with me... I mean, a lifetime? I feel like I could be 145 pretty easily right now, but when I'm 40 and have had kids is that going to be a realistic weight? Luckily, my WW leader is also one of my best friends, and she works with me. So one day last week Carrie and I shot emails back and forth... She explained that I could re-figure-out my weight goal later in life if the number that I pick isn't a realistic number anymore.

So I thought... and thought... and thought about it. At last weigh in I was 156.4. I'm 5'9" (supposedly... but more on that later...) and for my age, the range is something like 135-155. So I could just stop at 155. But I don't think that's really being true to myself or my goals. I mean, losing another 1.4 lbs isn't going to do anything about the fat that I hate on my stomach and hips. Then, I was thinking, maybe I could go to 143, because that would be 80 pounds lighter than my heaviest (well, recorded heaviest... that's what I weighed when I first started Weight Watchers in March 2001). And to be able to tell people that I lost 80 pounds would be pretty cool... But then, 143 is pretty small for someone my height and my frame. So, while I still think it'd be cool to get down to that weight, I don't think I'll make that my goal that I'd commit to for the rest of my life. Then I thought maybe I'd make it 153 to make it an even 70 pounds, but that seemed too close. So Carrie helped me see reason and split the difference and we came up with 148, which would be 75 pounds.

But then, I realized that if I set my official Weight Watchers goal to 148, there'd be no way that I'd ever make it there before Carrie leaves for Scotland. She has 9 meetings left, and in order for me to make lifetime that would mean that I'd have to lose 8.4 pounds in three weeks and then maintain that for six weeks (you have to maintain your goal weight for six weeks before you become a lifetime member). I fretted for a bit before I finally emailed her and she gave a solution: we'd be "sneaky" and set my Weight Watchers goals to 153 so that I could make it to lifetime quicker. But, I could only do that if I realized what my true goal number was and what that number means.

And believe me, I do. You know when you weigh yourself on a "manual" scale? There are chunkers that you move and you move them to 50, then 100, then 150, etc. I don't want to have to move that big chunker to 150 anymore. That would rule.

a splendid time is guaranteed for all

I had the best weekend.

Thursday night, I got home from work and was in no mood to make dinner. Alex suggested that we go out to dinner and then go to the Malta Drive-In to see Shrek 2 and Mean Girls. We'd already seen Shrek 2 but Drive-Ins are cheap and that was a hella good movie, so I was up for seeing it again. We headed up north to eat at Red Robin, a new restaurant in Clifton Park. I'd eaten there before and I thought the food was pretty good... lots and lots of "gourmet" burgers, and there were some Weight Watchers friendly items on the menu if you made some substitutions. When we got there, we just kept on driving. Clifton Park loves novelty. The place was packed, and it was about 7pm on a Thursday night. We went to Chili's, the second newest place in town, and that place was also packed. So we ended up at Applebee's (aside from Friendly's, the least new place in town). I was happy to eat there though, as they have a new Weight Watchers menu with POINTS and everything. After dinner, we headed up to Malta and made it just in time for the movies to start.

Friday came too quickly. We didn't get home from the movies until about 1am. And when my alarm went off at 6am, I wasn't ready to get up. I didn't want to have to wake Alex up to have him go with me to the gym so that he could then drop me off at work and then be able to use the car during the day. It was too early to think. Alex suggested to call in to work. And I did. Shh. ;) We went back to sleep for a bit and then went up to The Great Escape for the day.

We did the Sky Coaster, which was hella scary. I'd done it once before at the Battle Creek Balloon Festival when I was, like, 14 or so. But that was a while ago. This time was such a rush! The Skycoaster is this thing where they put you in harnesses and strap you to a cable by the back of the harness. So now you're hanging above the ground, face down like Superman. Then they hoist you up, like a hundred feet or something like that. Once you're up there, you have to pull a rip cord, and then you free fall and swing out for 165 feet. I started freaking out when they started to hoist us up and back. It was a really weird feeling... I mean, if I somehow tipped back (pretty near impossible), I would have slipped right out of the harness. When we got to the top, they gave us the signal that it was ok to pull the rip cord. That was Alex's job. He started feeling around for the cord, and I swear, it took forever. When he finally said, "you ready?" I kind of babbled out something... he pulled the cord and, with a jerk, we started to fall. I screamed. I didn't expect that I would scream... I normally don't scream on roller coasters... but this was completely different. It was so hella cool. And, unlike a roller coaster, I didn't have a headache or anything at the end. So that ruled.

After the Great Escape, we went to the outlets up in Lake George. I got a very cute red striped halter top and a little bag that looks sort of like a Kate Spade bag that I'm lusting after right now at the Gap outlet. I also got a pair of shorts, that I neglected to try them on before I bought them, that have to go back. We ate dinner at the Log Jammer and then went home and crashed.

Saturday morning we got up and started to clean the apartment (I vowed to do dishes daily from now on so that my sink never gets that full of filthy dishes again), had lunch, and then Alex dropped me off at the gym. I worked out for a while and then he picked me up and I went for my fitting of my bridesmaid dress for Carrie's wedding. It turns out that I've lost enough weight that the top now fits me - actually, the straps got loose, so they'll tighten those up... damn, that means I lost some boobs. Ah well. The length of the skirt is perfect, so the only alterations I needed were the straps and putting the bustle in, so it'll only be about $21, so that rules. After my fitting, Alex and I went to Border's in Colonie and browsed for a bit. The place was packed. Actually, that store is always packed. We went to the mall and had dinner at Ruby Tuesday's and then saw the new Harry Potter movie, which was very good. Really, a very enjoyable movie. We saw the 6:30 show, which was early enough that we avoided having to stand in any lines to get in and we still got great seats. We got out of the movie at 9 and realized we had no other plans for the night. So we went back to the apartment and walked down to Lark Street and had Ben & Jerry's. Mmmm... And it tasted better because we earned it by walking there. :)

Sunday I went up to my fambly's house and did some wash. I hung out with my Pa for a bit and my sistah and I went for a nice long walk. We had Chinese for dinner, and then I headed home to put away laundry and watch The Sopranos and have some quiet alone time.

So the weekend ruled!

But now it's back to work... blow... :( (only 4 more days until the weekend!)