Michelle: Ups and Downs

It's been a week or two of ups and downs. I gained back one pound that I've lost, now putting me at -7 instead of -8. I've behaved poorly as far as the diet goes, but some good things happened as well. Let's review, and we'll start with the not-so-good:

Downs

• Threw out my back. I had back surgery a few years back and I never really returned to normal. Occasionally I do stupid things that remind me of this.
  Case in point, I worked my butt off at the Bacchanalian wine tasting event last Thursday night. But I should have had a job that required sitting down, but I was embarrassed to admit why I wanted one. Instead, I was standing up, in heels, head down and hunched over, for several hours as I uncorked and bagged over 300 bottles of wine. Sometimes I wouldn't even look up for an hour. It seems I compressed some things in my spine that really shouldn't be compressed. This seems to happen if I stand up for over 30 minutes anyway, but I really pushed it this time. Lessons learned: fight for sitting down job and don't wear really awesome heels. I spent most of the last few days flat on my back or hobbling around like I'm 80. I live in fear of another surgery, so I should really be more careful. Part of my working out is building up the weak muscles around my spine.

• Took lots of painkillers. Thanks to the aforementioned issue, I succumbed and took a fair amount of Vicodan, among other things, this weekend. My back hurts on a regular basis, but I tend to work through it. It takes a lot of pain for me to break out the Vicodan, as I hate painkillers. The real downside to the painkillers? They make me hungry!
  
  
• Ate too much. I was hungry. Painkillers or not, I was starving. I started out by eating 100-calorie snacks, but after 3 little bags, I'm sort of defeating the point. Diet? What diet? We ate at Otto's in Covington on Friday night. Have you eaten there? The pork I had was beautiful and delicious. (Julie, you would have loved it.) I ate it all. Thank goodness my back hurt too much to wander around Oktoberfest, or who knows how many cream puffs I would have devoured!
  
  
• Lack of working out. I haven't been to the gym in a week and 1/2 now and I've only had 1-1/2 dance classes. I had to stop in the middle of Monday's quickstep class because the pain was just too much. Talk about frustrating. I've got to get myself back to the gym, but now I'm afraid I'll hurt myself again.

Ups

• The week was not a complete loss. Not at all. Despite all the downs, I only gained back one pound. I'm okay with this. Forgive my french, but shit happens. Setbacks happen. One can only accept it and move forward.
  
  
• My jeans fit and fit well. I hate shopping for jeans. I find it almost as painful as shopping for swimsuits. I pulled out my last year's jeans, all size 8s that were too tight by the time I shelved them for summer and discovered, to my absolute joy, that they fit. In fact, some are slightly too big and others fit absolutely perfectly. In particular, my 7 for All Mankind super-pricey designer jeans fit like they were meant just for me. Hooray!
  
  
• My ribbon theory is working. Remember at the beginning I said I'd measured my inches by using ribbons instead of measuring tape? Well, the bust ribbon hasn't changed (of course not), but the waist ribbon is now too big by at least an inch! Yay! This makes me really happy. In fact, I felt thinner and hotter all weekend (even if I was hobbling). Feeling good is a big part of all this, right?
  
  
• Hollywood is catching on. This made my week. First, The CW has come down on several of its new 90210 stars for being TOO thin and is encouraging them to eat. I love that there is now recognition of too thin. Have you seen these girls? They're such sticks I wonder how their legs can hold them up! Then on Dancing with the Stars (my favorite show), Carrie Ann Inaba told Susan Lucci to bulk up and gain some weight. Susan Lucci, the indomitable Erica Kane, looked too frail. If these folks look so small on camera, how tiny are they off? In addition, my favorite new professional dancer on the show, Lacey Schwimmer (from So You Think You Can Dance), has a bust and hips. I love Lacey - she's got a lot of muscle, but she's got a lot of curves. As a ballroom dancer myself, I aspire to Lacey.

So the week wasn't a wash, and I don't feel too bad about the bonus pound. I'm not back up to 100% yet with my back and my movement, but my dance instructor gave me some yoga moves that are helping. Hopefully I can be off the Vicodan by the weekend and back on track with the diet and healthy lifestyle.