Messiah! (and some weight loss)

I know, I know, I write that every year. It's because I like participating in our community Messiah Sing Along so much! Actually, last night I had two musical performances to enjoy.

C and E's class sang "holiday" songs (3, 4, 5th graders each sang a group of songs). Tonight are the K,1,2's so we'll pick up S's class then.

Right after than was the annual community Messiah sing-along at a church very near ours. Because Conor is here, dh and I were able to send the girls home with him and he and I go to it together. He'd never been to one. Of course, with his being in the Tenor section and my being in the Alto we couldn't see each other, let alone actually sit together. :-) I ran into the several LDS ladies that I always see there. The whole thing is fun, although a little stressful when we're coming up to the songs I know I used to always blow even after months of practice in Gallup's choir. Haha, I guess that is part the the fun too, laughing with the other ladies when we all blow it!

I've hit a milestone in my weight loss; now I weigh what I did when Kevin was born. LOL It's actually been a number of years since I've been down to that and I'm at exactly the halfway point, 22.5/45 lbs lost. In fact, last Saturday the first person who didn't know I've been dieting noticed my weight loss! It's taken just under 4 months, so I assume it will take me another 4 to get to my goal. I've had a change in mindset about losing weight. Eight months seemed much too long to wait before, but now it seems like a change in my habits instead of a hurry-up-and-get-there kind of thing. And since I started in August, I should reach my goal before bikini season. Haha, JK!

Conferences, pot luck dinner, weight loss

Today are Parent Teacher Conferences at the girls' school. It's going to be a love/hate situation, I know. One of my girls will get glowing compliments about her academic work, but a few words about her behavior as well. In the other classroom I'll be told how far behind my daugher is in reading and other subjects and be told (again) they are thinking about holding her back this year. Mark my words.

We had a pot luck dinner at church last Saturday. Other than its starting at 7 pm which is really late for a dinner with lots of children in attendance, it was a nice event. I like pot luck dinners because you never know what will show up. There were loose assignments to make sure everyone didn't bring a salad, but nothing past that. I found that in New Mexico if you are assigned to bring a main dish, you'll probably bring either lasagne or enchiladas/enchilada casserole. I brought enchilada casserole. I was surprised to find out that if your husband is assigned to bring a dessert not EVERYone will bring brownies. I really thought they would. Maybe some of the wives stepped in? Because of taking Alli I couldn't enjoy the dessert table like I really wanted to, but I probably avoided 1,000 calories that way. I guess that's the point, right?

And speaking of weight, I've been on a plateau for a week. I need to do something to get the scale moving again. Maybe some actual exercise? I put an audio book on my MP3 player so I ought to get out and walk around town while I listen to it.

Losing weight

I finally got sick of how I look and decided to get serious about losing weight. Again, ho hum. I decided to do it the Alli way and it seems to be working all right. I take one pill with each meal and something in it interferes with an enzyme or something that helps the body break down fat and use it. Thus, about 25% of the fat you eat passes through your body undigested. That's one part of how it works. The other part is that if you eat more than about 15 grams of fat per meal, it, um, passes through you rather unpleasantly. So knowing you're going to pay if you eat too much causes better food choices which also help with weight loss. I bought enough for two months and probably won't buy more, but I'm hoping by then I'll have gotten some new eating habits and will continue losing. Or maybe I'll keep buying it. It would be cheaper to just eat better, but it is a lot less expensive than Nutrisystem or especially Jenny Craig would be. I'd love to do one of those, but they're just more money than I want or can afford to spend right now. I've lost six pounds since I started just before the new year. Not a lot, but better than doing nothing, right?