Rambles for the New Year
Well, my most important new year's resolution is to lose more weight. I make this resolution every year, and yet somehow I am at my heaviest yet. i KNOW I CAN lose the weight, I lost 20 pounds one determined summer, and I kept it off for a year. Unfortunately, my subsequent depression and Jonathan's "I don't feel like eating in. Why don't I treat you to McDonalds?" attitude towards diet undid all my good work, and I have simply lost the willpower to stick to my diet for long enough to make an impression.
And so, this year, my resolution is a little different. I resolve to eat NO carbs, for ANY reason, until my birthday. That should at least bring me down to my pre-holiday weight, and should also get me into the right habits to keep going after my birthday - say set the new bar until Valentine's day, and so on. I will also now keep the world wide web apprised of my weight, so that sheer pride will help me say no when a coworker buys timbits, or when we have a staff meeting offering a free lunch. Or when going out shopping and walking right by the New York Fries.
And so... my great confession. Post holiday carb-blitz, my weight is... 159. That's the heaviest I have ever knowingly been. I am MISERABLE at this weight. Surely a bowl of pasta is just not worth it at the end of the day. Ideally, I'd like to be 130 again. That was happy. Benn begs me not to go lower than 135, though. Plus it seems so very far away right now. So instead I will make my goal 140 by spring. Hopefully that is doable. But we'll see, based on how much I manage to lose this month. I think I'll get rid of the first three pounds or so almost immediately, since they are probably water weight based on non-stop carb consumption over the weekend. I'd LIKE to be below 150 before my birthday... 149 would make me feel nice and accomplished. Of course, then my birthday would put me back over, but then maybe I could be 147 or so by Valentine's Day... and then another month of Atkins should put me down to 140 by the end of March.
Yeah, it all sounds so easy on paper.
We'll see.
On a completely different note, Benn and I have been talking a lot about names - just a fun topic of discussion that we discovered a couple of weeks ago, when I complained about the fact that he has a nephew named Jacob, because that means that if we ever have kids I can't name MY kid Jacob. Which is one of my more favourite names (although also very popular right now, for some reason, which is too bad. I don't want to give my kid a name in the top 10). We found discussing our potential children's names to be a fun combination of let's-pretend and intellectual discussion. So far, this is what we have agreed on:
For a girl, I want Charlotte or Alice. Charlotte for a sweet, down-to-earth but still imaginative girl, Alice for a more airy-fairy, daydreamy type daught. I wanted Madeline or Cadence, too, but Benn has nixed those names. Benn wants Elizabeth for a girl - I suspect he just wants to be able to nickname his daughter Lizardbreath, like the girl in For Better or For Worse. I am willing to consider it, but if we did call her Elizabeth, she would never EVER be called Liz. Beth is better than Liz. I find people named Liz tend to be bossy.
For a boy, I love the name Will (William Lawrence Millman has a ring to it, don't you think?) which Benn finds acceptable. We've been arguing a bit about the name David, which I love but he doesn't want to use becaue it is one of his middle names, and he thinks it's weird to give his kid on of his own names - like people would think it was weird. Benn wants the name Matthew, and I confess that I LOVE the name Matthew - it has always been a favourite of mine. But it's SO common. It has been, like, the number 3 name since the dawn of time, I think. And as someone whose name is rare, I value the importance of not being Jen L., but Carol. The Carol, not one of three Sarahs or one of four Jens. I want my child to have that, too. It doesn't have to be super rare - although I like Maddox - but at least less common. Wiliam is declining in popularity, so I don't think there will be three Wills in my kid's class.
Benn also likes the name Jeremy, and that's a pretty good name too. The only thing is I prefer names that actually mean something - like William means determined protector, and besides "Will" means, well, will. David means Beloved. But Jeremy is one of those Bible names that just means God. Well, "God will uplift" or something, but you know, not meaningful in a wordy sense.
Anyway, baby names are fun to think of., even years ahead of time. Girls often know what they want to name their kids. I don't know if guys think about it much. And it changes based on current relationships. Like, when Jonathan and I were together our girl name was Cadence and our boy name was Keith.
What are you guys going to name your kids? (Kerry, this is probably your topic du jour, too!)
And so, this year, my resolution is a little different. I resolve to eat NO carbs, for ANY reason, until my birthday. That should at least bring me down to my pre-holiday weight, and should also get me into the right habits to keep going after my birthday - say set the new bar until Valentine's day, and so on. I will also now keep the world wide web apprised of my weight, so that sheer pride will help me say no when a coworker buys timbits, or when we have a staff meeting offering a free lunch. Or when going out shopping and walking right by the New York Fries.
And so... my great confession. Post holiday carb-blitz, my weight is... 159. That's the heaviest I have ever knowingly been. I am MISERABLE at this weight. Surely a bowl of pasta is just not worth it at the end of the day. Ideally, I'd like to be 130 again. That was happy. Benn begs me not to go lower than 135, though. Plus it seems so very far away right now. So instead I will make my goal 140 by spring. Hopefully that is doable. But we'll see, based on how much I manage to lose this month. I think I'll get rid of the first three pounds or so almost immediately, since they are probably water weight based on non-stop carb consumption over the weekend. I'd LIKE to be below 150 before my birthday... 149 would make me feel nice and accomplished. Of course, then my birthday would put me back over, but then maybe I could be 147 or so by Valentine's Day... and then another month of Atkins should put me down to 140 by the end of March.
Yeah, it all sounds so easy on paper.
We'll see.
On a completely different note, Benn and I have been talking a lot about names - just a fun topic of discussion that we discovered a couple of weeks ago, when I complained about the fact that he has a nephew named Jacob, because that means that if we ever have kids I can't name MY kid Jacob. Which is one of my more favourite names (although also very popular right now, for some reason, which is too bad. I don't want to give my kid a name in the top 10). We found discussing our potential children's names to be a fun combination of let's-pretend and intellectual discussion. So far, this is what we have agreed on:
For a girl, I want Charlotte or Alice. Charlotte for a sweet, down-to-earth but still imaginative girl, Alice for a more airy-fairy, daydreamy type daught. I wanted Madeline or Cadence, too, but Benn has nixed those names. Benn wants Elizabeth for a girl - I suspect he just wants to be able to nickname his daughter Lizardbreath, like the girl in For Better or For Worse. I am willing to consider it, but if we did call her Elizabeth, she would never EVER be called Liz. Beth is better than Liz. I find people named Liz tend to be bossy.
For a boy, I love the name Will (William Lawrence Millman has a ring to it, don't you think?) which Benn finds acceptable. We've been arguing a bit about the name David, which I love but he doesn't want to use becaue it is one of his middle names, and he thinks it's weird to give his kid on of his own names - like people would think it was weird. Benn wants the name Matthew, and I confess that I LOVE the name Matthew - it has always been a favourite of mine. But it's SO common. It has been, like, the number 3 name since the dawn of time, I think. And as someone whose name is rare, I value the importance of not being Jen L., but Carol. The Carol, not one of three Sarahs or one of four Jens. I want my child to have that, too. It doesn't have to be super rare - although I like Maddox - but at least less common. Wiliam is declining in popularity, so I don't think there will be three Wills in my kid's class.
Benn also likes the name Jeremy, and that's a pretty good name too. The only thing is I prefer names that actually mean something - like William means determined protector, and besides "Will" means, well, will. David means Beloved. But Jeremy is one of those Bible names that just means God. Well, "God will uplift" or something, but you know, not meaningful in a wordy sense.
Anyway, baby names are fun to think of., even years ahead of time. Girls often know what they want to name their kids. I don't know if guys think about it much. And it changes based on current relationships. Like, when Jonathan and I were together our girl name was Cadence and our boy name was Keith.
What are you guys going to name your kids? (Kerry, this is probably your topic du jour, too!)