Best Friend Birthday

Today is Denise's birthday and I celebrate her.  We have been friends for ten years and she has helped shaped who I am as a grown woman and mother.  We met when our daughters were six months old in a "mommy and me" class.  I had signed up with another great friend from my neighborhood and soon we evolved into a group of six or seven moms and kids who rotated play groups from house to house. 

As the years went on, at least four of us moved away- that being the nature of life in LA it seems, but Denise and I were still here and still got together even as I added a second daughter to the mix and Denise's eldest went from middle school to high school (and has now graduated college and is heading for grad school).  Our girls are still friends and we get them together from time to time.  They pick up right where they left off, as kids do, even as they each sprout wings and progress toward who they will become as the years pass.  Denise and I, though, seem to manage to get together despite how busy we both are.  It is important to us to maintain this great bond and it helps to keep us grounded. 

She listens and advises, and has even let me cry on her shoulder when it felt like my world was crashing down around me.  We celebrate each other's victories and curse the defeats.  She walks with me for exercise and slows her pace to match mine when needed.  She is strong in her faith and loyal to the end.  She keeps my confidences and buoys me up when I am sinking.  We laugh together and have grown older together.  We accept each other.

 She is my true friend, and I need her in my life.  I wish her the happiest birthday today and send all my love.  I look forward to celebrating so many more years of her life entwined with mine. 

Jenny Craig Mention on Twitter

Thanks so much for the double-mention on Twitter @Jenny Craig!  Both yesterday and today, mommybizblog got a Tweet.  I appreciate it.

Weighing In

What is it about women that we measure our milestones by what we weighed at the time?  I know what I weighed when I got married, at the end of my pregnancy, at my heaviest and in college.  I centered my world around that specific goal; how many pounds I gained or lost on the scale and I felt good or bad depending on what it told me.  I look back on my honeymoon photos from 13 years ago and think, "I was fat" knowing that I weighed 14 pounds less than I do right now.  I'm not going to think this way anymore.  I am not "fat", I am getting "fit" and healthy and that is the new description for how I look and feel.  I'm not sure I can say yet that I am "fit", but that is now the goal.  It's nice to put a positive spin on something that I have been a slave to as long as I can remember.

I think many women can relate to this.  Being on Jenny Craig, I do weigh myself  periodically but not daily.  I also do my weekly weigh-in at the center and get measured every four weeks.  How great it was this week to see that 10.5 inches are gone - I wish we had measured my arms and thighs as well as it would have been even more. 

It doesn't help that I love to cook.  We keep mostly healthy foods in our house, but I was eating way too much and would eat without even thinking about it.  Now I know how much I can eat, how much I need to move my body and what my new jeans feel like when I put them on.  I'm hoping to buy the next size down within the month - and then I will be the weight I was at 25 years old.  I remember that one because I was working on the TV show "Picket Fences" and know that I wore a size 10 (but still used the "f" word to describe myself).

I feel good and I actually think about working out and then DO it!  I may not be running marathons, but I do some sort of activity every day, have lost half of the weight that I want to lose and I bought skinny jeans for the first time ever.  I'm still overweight, but I will never be "fat" again.  I am still trying to get in shape, but "fit" is my goal.