Good Enough Mother Weight Control REBOOT! (VIDEO)

Good Enough Mother
Weight Control REBOOT! 

I’m actually a little bit embarrassed to be writing this post because writing it means admitting that, on some level, I failed myself. It also means that I’m ready to take control of my life and that means controlling my weight.

I tried to do this in secret first; it didn’t work.  That changes now.

There were a couple of things that conspired to get me to this place, the most recent happened while shooting my new show, Sweet Retreats in Breckenridge, Colorado. As you know Denver is a mile above sea level and  the air is already thin. But the base elevation in Breckenridge is 9600 feet; heck, planes fly at 30,000 feet and they’re pressurized! Carrying my bags and the padding around my hips was tough. Most disconcerting, however, was the pressure on my chest, not to mention the excruciating headache.

Weight gain at middle age is insidious. The jeans you wore all summer are now just a little harder get into and require Herculean effort to button. Pretty soon it’s easier to buy a bigger size and rationalize why; you’re getting older, the dryer is shrinking your pants, they don’t size things the way they used to and so on. Then you start taking pictures but avoiding certain angles because you’ll look “fat”;  soon you avoid getting in them altogether. Trust me, I know.

I  also know how it happens. As mothers, we’re so busy taking care of everyone else that too often, we put our own health on the back burner, something I talk about in the speeches I give around the country. And yet… it happened to me.

Then I had this epiphany, which I laid out on my Facebook page recently.

*I am 7 weeks away from turning 50.

*I have become uncomfortably sedentary the last couple of years.

* I have put on and am carrying around more weight than I need.

*I eat too much and not the right things.

*I need to take better care of this body as I gotta get a few more years out of it.

*I don’t like the way I feel and know it will be hard to care for my family from a hospital bed (or worse). 

Against that backdrop, I’m calling this what it is, weight CONTROL! I’m tired of going on and off diets, cutting out fat, eating only fat, cutting out sugar, eating only fiber, and any number of popular diets that require drastic, dietary changes. The reason I’m doing this slow and steady is because I need a plan that I can actually live with every, single day for the rest of my life.

This is not about getting into size 6 jeans or looking great in a sleeveless dress (wait, I do want that); I’m making this (slow and steady) change because I want to feel good as I enter the second half of my life. I have no illusions about looking like I did two decades ago but I do want to be the best 50-year-old I can be and that’s going to require some effort on my part, more than I’ve been giving.

What weight loss plans have you tried? What were the results?

CBS DAYS 

 

I maintained a healthy weight for a couple of reasons; one I had a job with a little more structure than the one I have now and because I never wanted to open mail from viewers asking, “Are you okay dear? You look like you’ve put on a little weight.”

ON SET:
FATHER ALBERT SHOW

My weight remained stable for a little while, but then started its insidious climb, spurred by the combination of a sedentary lifestyle and building the Good Enough Mother brand. Soon I was opting for flowing tops like this one.

BLOGGING WHILE BROWN

By this time, many of the dresses in my wardrobe are less structured around the waist. That way I could be comfortable in real life and in my denial.

ON STAGE:
CANADIAN BREAST
CANCER FOUNDATION

One of of my “special circumstances” is that when I had my preventive mastectomy six years ago, I chose a smaller implant size. Now, when I gain weight, it goes everywhere but my chest and I’m not happy with the way my implants look on my body as a result. In May of last year, I spoke to The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation wearing another dress and overcoat because very few of the pants in my wardrobe fit.

WORKING OUT

I was always an athlete, running track in  high school and college; I know my way around a weight room. But truth be told, I haven’t been going frequently enough or exercising with the proper intensity. And while we’re on the subject of intensity, dear sir or madam next to me watching a movie on your iPad on the treadmill. Yeah, um. No.

PORTION CONTROL

 

Annnnnd, THIS, ladies and gentlemen is my real problem. Not only have I been eating the wrong things, I don’t know when to stop. I guess I’m worried about things going to waste; instead they’ve gone to MY waist. Not good.  

SWEET RETREATS:
CHATHAM

Here I am shooting a stand up for Sweet Retreats: Chatham. What am I wearing? Another flowing top. 

RENE IN SAN FRANCISCO

Good Lord! Yet ANOTHER one! I’m seriously gonna burn all these when I get to my goal weight.

ON SET:
THE DOCTORS

I love a colorful wardrobe but my default position now tends to be black, thinking it will make me look thinner. 

SURVIVOR STORIES 2012

Here I am (in black, once again) talking about our 2012 Survivor Stories 2012 campaign.   

 SLEEVELESS WEATHER’S COMING!

And I want to go, well, sleeveless.

WEIGHT LOSS

This is picture is from a few years ago when I lost several pounds but I didn’t do it in a healthy way (I had been sick) and it showed on my face. This time, slow and steady.. I’m in it to win it!

SWEET RETREATS:
BRECKENRIDGE 

Shooting a stand-up in the snow and realizing that, in addition to my feet being cold, my jacket is a little snug. Yep. Time to change.