BLOG: 11 POUNDS

Yes, I typed my title in all caps... and no that is not my total weight loss so far.

Let me tell you a story (shocked, right?).

Once upon a time there was a girl that would eat one chocolate chip and could gain a pound. This girl grew to be a woman, and because she ate many chocolate chips, she gained many, many pounds. By the time she caught herself, she was fat—and not just sort of fat. She was really fat! So she decided to stop eating chocolate chip(s) and she lost some weight—OK maybe 115 pounds of weight.  Then she had a baby, and while the baby was cute, her weight loss was even harder than before. Now just eating 1/2 a chocolate chip would even do her in.  She didn't understand how it was even possible for people to complain that they "could not gain weight." She scoffed and them and sometimes secretly under her breath muttered "not nice things". It made no sense ... eat one chocolate chip she thought... that's how I gain weight.

After a few months, that girl realized that her baby just would not gain weight.  Her baby would eat and eat, and still sat within 1 ounce of the same weight for 6 weeks!  In fact her sweet baby was trying to gain from 10 to 11 pounds for at least 10 whole weeks!  And that's a REALLY long time for a baby. And suddenly that girl that couldn't understand how people couldn't gain weight understood.  And she knew that both problems are just that ... problems, and both can be really hard to solve.

Yes, I wish that was just a fairytale, but it's not. While I have been trying desperately to lose weight, and the battle with the scale has been really slow and unfair over these last three months, my daughter has trying to desperately gain just one pound since January! As slow as my weight loss has been—I have lost 15.4 pounds in 14 weeks, her weight gain has been heartbreakingly slower.  What a stupid paradox I live in daily!

I have been counting and journaling not only every bit of food that goes in my own mouth, but also hers... with each of us having opposite goals. 

And because I have been taught—through the tradition of Weight Watchers—to celebrate the small stuff, the important stuff, and the BIG stuff. Tonight I am celebrating Lily, for yesterday for the first time in 10+ weeks Lily finally weighed in with a number that was not 10. She was exactly 11 pounds!!! I have never celebrated a weight gain so much in my life. Like I said before ... cruel paradox.

And so to celebrate, we did what any other parents would do when their baby gains a pound—we bought cake.  Don't judge ... its been a long, frustrating last few months. This cake is well deserved, and well paid for with a run today too!  And I sat down and immensely enjoyed my piece.

Happy 11 pounds baby girl. Mommy is so proud of you!

You can always read more of our story at www.fatlittlelegs.com