Fat Woman With A Band

I’m half-way through a week at Disney World with Doug and Alnoor. It’s been a blast so far, and I have every expectation that we’ll continue to have a magical time here.

The weather hasn’t been all that good, but still better than the snow events happening at home. We even managed to get a couple of continuous hours of relatively warm weather so that we could enjoy Typhoon Lagoon, one of Disney’s water parks.

I didn’t plan any structured exercise during this week as I thought that walking the parks would be enough. I’m not sure that it’s actually “enough”, but I’ve been pretty tuckered out at the end of the day.

As for eating, well, forget about it. I think we’ve all eaten a bit more (or in my case, a lot more) than usual. And I have no regrets. The mint sundae at Ghirardelli’s at Downtown Disney a couple of days ago was stupendous. Orgasmic, actually. And the Tex-Mex at Chevy’s was yummy. We are all in agreement that US portion sizes do seem a bit over the top. Happily the portion sizes at the Pop Century’s cafeteria aren’t over the top, though we’ve had only breakfasts here.

The big story for me though is how different this Disney holiday feels. Slightly more than ten years ago I was here when I was at my previous lowest weight as an adult. That was about 30 pounds more than I am now. It’s difficult to explain how I feel in my body – I’ll try.

I sat in the middle seat in the airplane row on the way here. I could do up the seat belt. I could put the seat back tray down without it hitting my stomach. I didn’t crowd Doug and Alnoor sitting on either side of me.

I can walk the parks without the aid of a cane (as I did ten years ago because of back problems). I have the energy to do the walking and to keep up. On the buses I take up one seat, not two or three.

I have my choice of souvenir t-shirts and don’t have to stick to the oversize racks. I fit in any chair available and don’t have to look for the chairs without arms.

I fit on any ride – the safety bar that closes you in on the seat doesn’t crowd me. I can sit with another adult or more and each of us has enough space. I fit in the inner tube that you use on the creek in Typhoon Lagoon.

I brought a medium sized suitcase slightly more than ¾’s full with lots of changes of clothes. In the past I would have had to pack a much larger suitcase for the same number of pieces of clothing. I know I would have also packed more because finding something in an “emergency” would have been difficult.

I walk up and down the three flight of stairs to the room without a second thought. At the top there’s no huffing or puffing.

You see all these little things that most people don’t even think about or take for granted, each of them has been a “wow” moment for me.

I’ve enjoyed all these non-scale victories that accompany weight-loss.



Last week was a write-off. I was mildly depressed – is there such a thing? – and couldn’t get motivated to exercise at the level I need to keep my weight loss moving. I did some light activities – walking and rowing – and tried to keep my eating under control. I think there were two reasons for how I felt.

I had gum surgery the week before last and took antibiotics for a week afterwards to stave off infection. It’s been a while since I’ve taken antibiotics and I wonder whether these pills affected my mood. Maybe. Maybe not. Taking the meds was definitely something different in my daily routine, and therefore could have been a source of my change in mood.

I was also feeling too regimented with my exercise routine. Jackie was right-on when she said I need to have – well, let’s put it this way, an assertive exercise routine if I want to have results. But, I also felt a little physically burned out from the three-a-week schedule and the three aquafits and the one bodyflow and the walking and the rowing, etc.

So last week I had one session with Jackie on Monday, missed Wednesday, and had a very abbreviated session on Friday. I also completely missed aquafit.

I’m happy to report that by Friday afternoon I was definitely feeling the cloud lifting from my head, and today I’m feeling pretty fine. Knock wood.

I’m ready to do week six, the final week in this set. Then I’ll have two weeks away – I’ll do one week on my own at the gym, and I’m considering what to do while I’m in Disneyworld the last week of February.

I should also comment on the diet. Not only was I tired of the exercise regimen, I was getting tired of the food, too. I had to change up my breakfast meal without losing out on the huge boost in fibre I get from it. I think I did that successfully. I could have done better on meal planning, but I didn’t feel too out of control. I am going to make a concerted effort this week to cut back on my soy milk intake; it feels like I’m drinking my calories, rather than chewing them.

Saying I’m recharged is an overstatement. I am on track.