Day One (Mom)

Prompted by my daughter, who wants to lose some weight for her Quinceanera, I bought a bathroom scale this evening. I haven't owned a bathroom scale since about 2001, or roughly when I passed 200 pounds for the first time. I know what my heaviest weight ever was: 245, 9 months pregnant with my third and final child. I know what my heaviest non-pregnant weight ever was: 225, a week after delivering aforementioned child. And now, god help me, I know what my present weight is: 220. That's crept back up from 194, my lightest recent weight. 

So my daughter and I are starting a diet together, and this, our joint blog, is part of it. It's a food diary, an exercise log, and a mutual encouragement vehicle. Ground rules are: nothing mean, nothing untrue, and no names. And no faces in the pictures. Okay.

To my daughter, first of all, I want you to know I think you are beautiful. Why should you lose weight? Because

a) you want to

b) there's such a terrible terrible history of serious obesity and related disease in the family

and

c) hopefully, losing weight in a healthy way will help you overcome the unhealthy relationships you are developing and show you that you are so much more in control than you currently believe. In control of your decisions, I mean: decisions not just about food, but about all kinds of things. More on that later.

Food log, starting from now, 9 pm, 7/17/08

One large flour tortilla, filled with approx. 2 oz goat cheese (homemade!) and a bunch of swiss chard and onions. I expect that will be it for today, but if I get a late night snack, I'll write it down tomorrow.