Weekly Weigh In #20: Miracle on Hornby Lane

Christmas is a wonderful time of year.  I love decorating the house inside, putting ornaments on the tree, and seeing little bits of red and green around every corner.  I love the lights on the houses and the music on the radio.  


One thing I truly love is the fantastic genre of Christmas movies.  I love watching Clark Griswold go overboard for his beloved family, and not just because he reminds me fiercely of my own father.  I love seeing Tim Allen deal with becoming the world's next big man in red.  I adore the many intertwined stories of Love Actually, and laugh my head off at Will Ferrell in Elf.  But my very favorite is the original Miracle on 34th Street - it's sweet and touching, it addresses the old idea of the reality of Santa Claus, and gives me a glimpse of my favorite place during the holidays - New York City.

While I relish in the music, decor, and gift wrapping, there's one thing I am not focusing on this year.  For the first time ever, Christmas is not about food.  I have not made one cookie, pizzelle, or loaf of pumpkin bread.  While that's probably a good thing since my sugar cookies looked deformed and lop sided last year, it's not the real reason I'm skipping holiday baking.  I refrain because I'm smart enough to know that I have no real willpower in the face of small lumps of chocolate chips, sugar and flour - and I don't want to tempt fate.  I know that when my parents arrive Friday, they will likely bring these delicious treats with them, handmade with love by my mother - and that's perfectly ok. There will be many fewer days of temptation if they bring them, instead of me having baked them weeks ago.  Those are odds I can live with.


This approach to avoiding holiday sweets has been global for me - not just at home, but at work and when out with friends, too.  And it's working, because I got some great numbers at today's weigh-in.

Weight:  209

Pounds lost:  3

Total pounds lost:  60

Booyah!  Sixty pounds.  60.  60 pounds in 6 months.  At the risk of sounding like I just won a Golden Globe award, I am going to thank both the little baby Jesus AND Santa Claus for this amazing holiday gift.  I am amazed that I've been able to reach this goal in only 5 months.  It has not come easily, and I know the next 40 pounds won't be any simpler.  But it is truly a gift to be getting my health back... and my waistline... and my energy.  And my life.

60 wasn't the only number today.  I also did some lab work, had an EKG to check out my ticker (all ok), and got on the scary and freezingly cold body composition scale.  The result - lots more good news.  Here are today's numbers, compared to where I started on June 27:


Weight - From 269 to 209
Well, duh - this is great.


Total body fat - From 45.6% - 39.6%
At the start, 121 lbs. of my weight was fat.  Now it's only 81.6 lbs. of fat.  This means I'm mostly losing fat, and not muscle - which is exactly how it's supposed to be.


Muscle mass - From 12.4% - 15.4%
32.9 lbs. of my weight was muscle mass at the start.  It's now 31.7 lbs. of muscle mass - which means I have only lost about a pound of muscle mass as I've lost 60 lbs. of weight.


BMI - From 48.3 - 38.0
Now that I'm reaching a BMI of 38, I have moved out of the obese classification.  I am now in the overweight class, and that's really something.  I am also even further away from possibly becoming diabetic, and the really big thing is that I've done it before turning 40.  It gets much harder after that - and can be much less successful.

This holiday, I am just like the character that Natalie Wood plays in my favorite holiday movie.  I started out the diet process hopeful, but not really believing in magic or anything I couldn't see.  And I was certain it would take magic to take me from lumpy and round to toned and presentable.  As the handsome and wonderful Fred Gailey tells young Susan, "Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to."  I have gotten this far, some days, on faith alone.  Today, I feel like I've just run into the house of my dreams and seen Mr. Kringle's cane left behind in the corner - real proof that believing is important and magic really happens.  In reality, the cane in the corner is Paul's (especially when his back is wrenched), and I'm not a little girl anymore... but believing in myself and working my rapidly-shrinking butt off has gotten me pretty far.  It's a complete miracle.


Merry Christmas, everyone.  I hope your own holiday is filled with family, happiness, Clark Griswold, and miracles.