so what's new with you?

Well if you are one of the lucky people who has friended me or Michael on facebook then this is hardly news, but last week Mike started going to weight watchers. In his first week on the program he lost 10.8 pounds and I think he's had perma grin ever since. And really, why shouldn't he? That is just tremendous.

Weight Watchers is something that Mike has been thinking about and we have been talking about since last September. We had also been discussing the gastric bypass surgery and in doing further research on that particular process Mike has concluded that's not the route he'd like to go right now. There is a small group of folks Mike knows that attend this particular meeting and they had encouraged him to join them and here we are.

I think going in we were both nervous about what this first week would entail, not just with his weigh in, but to adjusting our lifestyle. For the past week we've talked about nothing but food - what's good, what's bad, what surprised as as being better or worse than we thought, what we're going to eat for the next day or two and points. Literally it's just food talk all the time around here. Case in point, yesterday Maya was playing with a balloon in the living room, batting it up to the ceiling over and over again.... I call this weight watchers. she told me. Yeah... it's a lot.

Even one week in I can see this was such a great move, not just for Mike, but for the both of us. Mike now has an active interest in what we're going to be eating for dinner and helps me to prepare it. He's been making us great salads to eat with our dinners this past week. I like salads, but hate all the chopping and putting them together. We've been working together to weigh out portions and break down recipes to figure out how many points he's using.

So people have asked why I didn't sign up with him and usually after a beat they add... not that's I'm suggesting you need to. Ha! Funny stuff. Because, let's be honest I do need to. I should have joined too, but really it was a question of logistics. Mike felt strongly that if he was going to give Weight Watchers a go then he was going to need the support and encouragement of attending the meeting. Even though I'm not officially attending I still get many benefits of membership and we don't have to worry about childcare so we can both be away from the girls one night a week. So I'm eating better, there's no junk food in the house, I've been working out with my Wii and I'm seeing a loss in the neighbourhood of 8 pounds since the beginning of January.

So this is all good news. Great news even. I promise not to drive you all crazy with a lot of "diet" talk, but I'll update our progress periodically.

And finally I'd like to finish out this post with a little bit of linky love.

Uncle Dave and the rest of us, got good news recently when he finally got a clean bill of health after a painfully long time of waiting for test results. In between Uncle Dave dropped a few lbs himself. I was surprised to hear his loss totaled 50 pounds and even more surprised when I saw the before and after pictures he posted over at his Awesome Internet Site.

And there's my online BFF, Rick who blogs over at Dad Shrinks. He had some super nice and encouraging words for Mike this week. Rick's on his way to healthier living too and he's been an inspiration to me and really he's just an all around nice guy (as are his wife and kids).

Oh and don't forget my gal HPH, who blogs at Tales from a Doggy Project and has been rocking meatless meals and healthier living too.