The Challenge

I'm feeling a bit Jabba-y lately

Eight years ago I weighed a ton less than I do now. OK, ton may be hyperbole to the nth power.

Yup, I checked -- it is.

One of my fav authors, Sherman Alexie, Tweeted this, sorta recently:

I’m an emotional eater. I have an emotion, I eat.

Tell it brotha!

Stress is what gets me rooting through the cupboards, checking the fridge every ten minutes as though there will magically be something new, different and fabulously desirable, just waiting for me to go all Nosh City.

B.O.P. (Big Orange Pumpkin)

For the past eight years life’s been Pressure Cooker City here at Valhalla by the Sea. There was the loss of all my hearing (damn, I know I left it here somewhere! Mebbe it rolled under the couch and the B.O.P. ate it?), my beloved Aunt Mary Ann and my mother moving on to Asgard by the Sea, job hunting while newly deaf (with the new gig turning out to be quite the little hellish disaster), The Amazing Bob’s heart attacks and surgeries, et cetera, et cetera ad nauseum.

It’s kind of amazing that I’m not really and truly Jabba the Hut-esque though that’s surely how I feel.

Do these mocs make my ass look big?

Mind you, I’ve always been a pudgy thing (except for a decade long stretch in my teens and early 20s) and a complete failure at dieting. Well, it’s not like I've given weight loss much of a real solid effort. So then, not so much failure on my part as lack of effort.

I’d always shed mucho poundage when in Mass General for my surgeries and I was ALWAYS in for one surgery or another. Or so it seemed. Yes, my weight management scheme was a wee bit extreme -- eat and drink all I want because it’ll all fall away after the next brain surgery.

And it did.

The good news is that I’ve not needed more surgery in the last eight years (YEA!). The down side of this is that I’m now going to have to lose those 25 extra pounds ON MY OWN!

Merde and mega sigh.

As luck would have it though, my pal Paula’s a member of The Quincy Chamber of Commerce and they’re running a Healthy Workplace Challenge, beginning on Monday, May 13.

The Healthy Workplace Challenge is a six week fitness and wellness program that focuses on developing a healthy lifestyle.

Teams, from a variety of local businesses, are formed. We meet with a coach once a week for advice, weigh ins, general review of our progress and, undoubtedly, kicks in the keester.

It looks like a way cool deal. For six weeks we have access to classes at the fitness facility of our choice (mine will be the Y), diet/nutrition counseling, a team/you’re-not-in-this-alone atmosphere AND competition. The team who loses the most weight wins! Dunno what we win but, being a molto competitive cuss, I just want to WIN for the sake of it.

This is exactly what I need right now.