Well, that was a crazy...almost 2 months

Good grief. I can't believe I haven't written here since January 31st. Oy.

It's been a crazy semester, to say the least. We were both traveling a lot, I have had a busy semester with classes and studies and time in the lab and trying to balance everything, and there have been a few things that have come up that kind of blindsided me, regarding infertility and friends and...yeah. Oh, and I implemented a "lifestyle change", given that when we were in California in January, I could *barely* button the pants that had fit so well last winter. Oops. I think I kind of got off track with my eating. As in, eating all. the. time.

I went with Wei.ght.Watch.ers for my lifestyle change monitoring, as I'd had success with them before - the first year that N and I were together. Ah, memories. Learning that foods with more fiber had lower point counts. Keeping the point counter in the drawer. Not having a smart phone, but being able to log foods through! the! web! We thought we were super-cool. ;)

Now, there's literally an app for that. I can track everything on all my 'devices'. It's kind of hilarious. But I digress. Let's just say that this change has been more successful than I could have imagined. I basically stopped eating most - if not all - refined grain products. I was eating crackers and cookies and bread ALL the time. Not a good choice - particularly not for me, your friendly neighborhood atypical diabetic. I cut waaay back (the first day counting points was...sobering. Let's just say that I topped my daily total mid-afternoon. That I blew through my activity points by 5 pm - and that was WITH a 6.5 mile run! And that I used up a bunch of my weekly extra points. Thank goodness it was a Saturday and I started over with points on Sunday!). Way, way back. Most of my carbs now are either a) homemade granola (in the morning), or b) fruit. Lots and lots and lots of fruits and veggies. The 0 points thing is appealing -although a bit counterintuitive to someone who is mentally focused on protein-protein-protein - and has resulted in significant weight loss for me. I hit my goal weight in about 5.5 weeks. I was thrilled. And, it's continued to come off. I'm seeing numbers on the scale that I haven't seen since my freshman year of college.

The best part? I am not starving all the time. I do think about what I am going to eat, and when, but it's not consuming (ha) my life the way it was. And my clothing fits - or is too big. I feel 100 times better - have a TON more energy - and am able to work out harder and longer than I was before. Now it's time to start thinking about maintenance, and how to add some treats back in without ballooning back up.

The other thing I have noticed - odd, but not completely out of the realm of possibility, from what I've read - is that my face, which was horribly broken out for much of the last 8 months, is nearly clear. I've stopped using daily treatments. I wash my face, moisturize, use my wand and retin-A at night, and...wow. I can't wait to see the dermatologist next Friday. We were talking Accu.tane, for the love of Pete, and now I'm trying to determine if I can drop the concentration of my retin-A. I love love love it. I'm still getting used to it, but I love it.

On the sort-of-down side, only one person other than my husband has commented on my weight loss - someone I work with a few days a week who noticed that my pants were remarkably loose. Despite seeing significant changes in my body size, despite having to buy new pants, and despite losing the double chin I was developing... no one else seems to have noticed. Oh, and despite losing the teenage-level breakouts I was having. I don't *expect* many comments, but...I'm just surprised, I guess. I'll get over it, though. ;)

An...unexpected, I suppose, and not-very-nice surprise was finding out that the friends we have not talked to in over a year, the people we saw nearly every other week, who thought they couldn't have children until a 'miracle' conception (wonderfully timed to be confirmed - literally - on the day I knew my first IUI did not work, thanks to the arrival of my period), are...having another baby. Fortunately, my husband saw it on FB and warned me before I logged in and saw the u/s picture of little tiny baby feet. It just....took the breath right out of me. I thought I was over it. I thought I could deal with friends getting pregnant and having babies, but...it still hurts. I think it hurts more because we're not really *friends* anymore. I thanked N for telling me before I saw it, and asked what he thought about me NOT commenting on the post, and he said he thought it was fine, that they're not going to contact us separately anyway. The last I looked - and I plan to torture myself a bit after writing this by going to see the comments - there were 40+ comments on the picture / post, so I don't think she'll notice the lack of comments from our direction.

But ow. Ow. Ow.

I hope to write more tomorrow - things have been bottled up for way too long, and although I like to think that I am dealing pretty well, I have missed this outlet.