Weight Watcher's Diaries Part Five
By Carol Daelemans

Weeks Four & Five

"God knew what she was doing
when she scheduled flu season before bathing suit season."

The easiest way for a mother to lose weight is either to be sick or to have a sick household to take care of. Over the last two weeks I have had one or the other. It is early Spring in Michigan. As anyone who lives in the northern United States knows this is not a good time of year. We are so sick of winter and this winter in particular does not seem to know when to give up. Any new signs of spring are immediately covered up with snow.

I think I saw the first Robin of Spring two snow storms ago. My daughter and I were just marveling over a pile of snow at the grocery store that almost reaches to the tops of the street lamps. We still have the County Road Commission's number on speed dial so we can start begging them to dig us out after each storm. This is the time of year that drags on forever. It is also the time to get all of the last minute colds and flus and every illness that you might have missed over the rest of winter.

Last week my husband was sick with a cold. I think we all know how men are when they get colds. They are very good at holding off the average cold and "working through" them. But, if a cold does manage to knock them down, it's the end of the world. They are the first ones to ever have been this sick and every noise in the house is too much. The nicest thing I can do for my husband when he gets a full-on cold is to leave the house. The 3 year old and I did this for several days and made him take Friday off when he relapsed because he had tried to do too much to make up for the time he missed.

By then the 3 year old got sick too. She worked herself to overly wound up until she hit the wall and cried for half a day. We tried to tap dance enough to distract her until bed time. The nine year old managed to miss most of this by going to school but still felt she was missing out on something until I pointed out to her that sick people did not get to play "neopets" on the computer or have sleepovers with their Aunties. By the time my husband and 3 year old were starting to feel better it was my turn.

You may be pleased to know that I managed to time my illness in between my days at the gym. I went in on Monday and felt OK. Then I was sick until my next appointment with the trainer on Friday. Some luck. I couldn't even get out of the gym. Of course, my 3 year old was feeling much better so I really couldn't get out of anything. Just try to get some rest with a 3 year old around. The one day I did nap for half an hour she redecorated my bathroom walls with 200 band aids and anything else she could get her hands on. Luckily, nothing hazardous.

I had plenty of left over points each day on my "I am not cooking or eating because I'm sicker than a dog" diet. This is by no means the ideal way to lose weight but I bet I will hit my "10 pounds lost" milestone when I go in for my weigh-in on Monday. If I don't, I'll feel very cheated. It's not fair to spend a week caring for people and another week feeling ill and to get nothing but more than snow out of it.