Blogging Challenge #8

Quite awhile back, I accepted a blog challenge, but leading up to, and in the aftermath of 4.0’s arrival, I missed a whole lot of posts. Then the challenge took a little hiatus, too. But just in time for Easter, it has been resurrected and we’re both back in action! So here’s what we’re tackling this week:

What’s a movie you can’t NOT watch if you come across it on TV?

Fella is a bit of movie buff. A moldy-oldie sort of buff. So we get stuck to watching some pretty interesting Old Hollywood quite often.

The one he tortures me with …imposes upon me … has goaded me with lately is Mildred Pierce. All because it came on PBS one Saturday night and I said “I just can’t take watching this one,” explaining that I was too tired to watch such a dull sedate B&W movie (that we’ve seen before) that night. Oh how he thinks he’s a laugh riot with his interpretation of that reaction!

It’s a good movie, but in the right context. Totally has to be the right time and the right place. Same with Now, Voyager. We’ve seen that one a lot, too. And Dark Victory. All movies I don’t necessarily choose to watch on a sleep-deprived Saturday night in the dead of winter.

So what movie do I need to watch on a sleep-deprived Saturday night in the dead of winter, were I to stumble across it on the tele? Why, that's easy! There are two options, one “moldy,” one modern.

North By Northwest. Need I say more? OK, but I’ll keep it short. Classic Hitchcock. Archibald at his finest (and I do mean fiiiiiine). And there’s a hot blonde, to boot. Did I mention we stayed at the Ambassador East Hotel the last time we were in Chicago? That’s how much we like that movie.

Sixteen Candles. We physically cannot resist changing the channel to this if it’s on. It’s like our remote is programmed to seek it out from the bowels of our cable lineup. And we are compelled by some force greater than we to watch it. No matter how far into the movie it is we watch. Although I am always a little sad if it’s already beyond my favorite lines: (1) “Fred, she’s gotten her boobies…oh and they are so perky!” or (2) “Voila! Breakfast is ready!”

Lucky for us, it plays on the Encore channels A LOT.

Oddly enough, both of these movies involve a little bit of my hometown. While NxNW is only in Chicago for a blip, Sixteen Candles is my childhood and would have become my adolesnce, had my family not become California transplants when we did.

It’s filmed in my actual hometown (Evanston). In fact, one of my elementary school classmates was supposed to have the movie filmed in her house. Her parents turned it down due to some issues they had with the script. My guess it’s the same reason my best friend and I were promptly dragged out of the theater when her mom had taken us to see it: the shower scene.

Nostalgia aside, these are two great movies, never (ever!) to be missed in our house.

WW Week Wrap Up

This post will wrap up the first two week since I'm just getting around to posting. So here goes!

WEEK ONE: Chips Are Not On The Plan
Last week I started to write about all the reasons why I had a "bad" first week back at Weight Watchers. But before I could finish I realized that all the rationalization in the world wasn't get me to the root of the problem. My problem has to do with a chip.

Not a potato chip or chocolate chip, but worse: a little chip residing on my shoulder.

There are some folks in my @Work meeting who have never been on WW before. They’re come to the table each week with naïveté fresh eyes. They sit there holding their pairs of new discoveries and lost pounds. And I think I’ve got them beat with my Full House of cynicism and years of failure experience. But really, it’s me holding the losing hand.

So my personal challenge after the first week (and no loss) is to not just ante up, but to get my chips all in.

Week 1 Stats: +0.2 lb

WEEK TWO: Little. Yellow. Different. Better.

One out of those four statements are true. This week was better.
OK, so maybe two of the statements because I was also different.

After realizing that I was acting as my own personal sabatouer, I was hoping that I would turn a corner in week two. While I didn't quite make it that far, I did manage to peek around to the other side of said corner. That's progress I'll take!

I contributed to the meeting. And constructively, I might add. SWEAR!

It may not have been all-or-nothing, but it was a step in the right direction.

Week 2 Stats: -0.4 lb

Up To My Old Shennanigans

I'm not just a Weight Watcher, I'm something more. More like a weight stalker, I've been doing the WW program so long.

I'm the girl who, after she found out she was pregnant last year, wouldn't cancel her Mothly Pass for fear that when she had to register again post-bambino, she somehow wouldn't get the same deal. Totally rational.

I'm the girl who should get honorary Lifetime Membership, I've been a member so many times. I think the first time I joined was in 8th grade (although I have documentation of wanting to lose weight going as far back as the 4th grade). And then there was high school...and college...and law school...and well, still today. So I think I'm entitled to something, even just eTools for life.

While I was pregnant, I really thought long and hard about my struggle with my weight and weight loss. And what I came down to was that I didn't want to struggle with it anymore. I don't want to be a mom who struggles to keep up with her kid because she's carrying around extra pounds. And I want to be a good example for my son. But I wasn't sure what that meant and I certainly didn't know what it meant to the status of my WW Monthly Pass.

I guess I figured I would give WW one more chance once I finally decided to get back on the wagon. One last cycle to get my head straight and then plan to branch out on my own. But that wouldn't be for awhile. At least not until I was done breastfeeding 4.0.

When I got back to work, I found out my company was going foster a WW @ Work meeting. This was MUCH sooner than I had ever contemplated drying out again. But this was a no-brainer, right? Stars are aligned, it's there fallen in my lap, I've seen all the signs. WRONG! I wavered right up until the meeting started.

But I pulled the pin. I went to the meeting. I wrote my check. And I stepped up on that scale. Now all I need to do is call to cancel that Monthly Pass that's been collecting dust for 14 months.

And to keep me honest (and I hope you entertained) I'm going to blog about it. The ups, the downs; the triumphs and tribulations. All the gory details.

OK, maybe not ALL of the details. Hell, my husband is lucky (?) that I let him learn how much I weighed during my pregnancy. All you need to know is that my weight is a three digit number. And there's nowhere to go from here but down.

Projections

I have no illusions about this year being a tough one to get "me things" done. My life is all about my family now. But let's face it, I'm also a member of that family and we all have to think about ourselves sometimes, right? Besides, if I keep finding excuses to put aside the things I want to accomplish for another [week, month, year...] they'll never see the light of day.

So I'm going to give it the old college try. And at least I'll be able to say I made some kind of an attempt. I consider this my list of New Year's Resolutions, albeit better late than never.

Writing
I love this writing thing. And I used to write a lot more. When I had a lot more time to write. And what's more, I used to have a lot more to write about. That's a whole lotta mores. So Project One: find more things to write about. Which leads to...

Project Two: Take Project One and Write 'Em

Get Real
If I'm being real here, I admit there's really only one project with sub-parts. Saying it that way just makes me feel more accomplished.

Project One (and Two) Status
So where do things stand on this/these project(s), you may wonder. If you've read the blog below lately, you ought to know that not much progress has been made this side on the New Year. Hell, this side of 4.0's birth!

But you also might wonder if I've already got any newfangled topics selected for the project. Well, yes. And no. It's, as they say, a work in progress. But that's really the crux of this blog anyway, right?

I realized the other day that the more I try to do, the less I seem to get done.

So is less more?

I'm in no condition to wax philosophical, so I'll leave it there.

And be off to do something...more. Or less. Or...else. Something else.