This is how much I love…

This is how much I love my mother:

1. I am trying to lose weight before my middle sister's wedding. 300 of my mother's close personal friends will be there, and I am one of the bridesmaids. (Just me and my size 0 little sister, in fact.) My mother tries to restrain herself, but she really would like all three of her daughters to look as spiffy as possible. So far, she has suggested to me a personal trainer, drinking straight-up lime juice in the morning, a chemical peel, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting.

2. My middle sister, bless her heart, has been very carefully not pressuring me to lose weight. Though I think she would also like me to look as spiffy as possible.

3. Despite my ongoing interest in the fat acceptance movement, my attraction to generously-proportioned women (I like my girls curvy), and my absolute political commitment to the need for social justice around fat issues, I have to admit that I would also like to look as spiffy as possible, and that I have internalized my judgement of that spiffyness by the media-influenced standards of our time. In other words, I would like to be a size 4. Or maybe 2.

4. Since that is never going to happen in my lifetime, I will settle, fairly happily, for going down a dress size or two before the wedding. (And getting a haircut. And maybe a facial.)

5. The wedding is July 30th. Today is July 7th. I have three weeks.

6. I started actively trying to lose weight on July 1st. Mostly because we'd finished moving then, and I finally had time/space/kitchen to think about it. Also, Anand started sleeping better. While I was severely sleep-deprived, I couldn't handle being food-deprived too.

7. Since July 1st, I've lost 4 pounds.

8. I've done this by having tea/egg/slice of buttered whole-grain toast for breakfast, a Lean Cuisine meal for lunch, and something smallish and low on carbs for dinner. I've also started exercising again, and am trying to do 30 minutes minimum every day. Mostly aerobic, sometimes yoga. And I've been religious about remembering to take my synthroid, which is also key, because when my system is running too slow, weight loss just doesn't happen.

9. I've discovered all kinds of things about Lean Cuisine. For example, I can't stand the sides of steamed unsalted (!) vegetables, but I actually quite like their Asian spa meals with the whole-grain pasta / rice, lots of vegetables, and chicken or shrimp. Especially when I douse them in crushed red pepper. I think they've improved the flavors considerably from the last time I tried them, and I actually look forward to eating them at lunch. I like their Szechuan Style Stir Fry with Shrimp, their Thai Style Chicken, and their Sesame Stir Fry with Chicken. I'm looking forward to trying some of their fish ones soon.

10. When I'm hungry, I mostly try to ignore it and focus on work. If I can't, I try to snack on protein or fat. I'm taking my cue from the low-carb gestational diabetes diet I went on with Anand's pregnancy, which was my most effective weight-loss ever. For my body/metabolism, that's what seems to work.

11. I'm a size 14 now, and would like to get back to a size 12 before the wedding. We'll see what happens.

12. I'm well-aware trying to lose weight this fast means that statistically speaking, I'm likely to gain most, if not all, of the weight lost in July back after the wedding. Sigh. This is not a sensible plan, by any means, but this is the sort of thing we do for family.