I didn't know I was so fat but pictures don't lie

<div style="text-align: center;">Before Pictures (from the Big Climb March 20, 2011)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf0EDLGS0MGLI6fECK_nwWYTK-313a55PGjvibeoukXnbdqW2vdD4Z4fzv43NuQNLx3pj536shjLax5YXRYUkC5iow6FCIxlOKh4T0pS_afDZSV8zNvxFYZ5jinOuW9GfcPaNFEeJDnrf3/s1600/P1020652.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf0EDLGS0MGLI6fECK_nwWYTK-313a55PGjvibeoukXnbdqW2vdD4Z4fzv43NuQNLx3pj536shjLax5YXRYUkC5iow6FCIxlOKh4T0pS_afDZSV8zNvxFYZ5jinOuW9GfcPaNFEeJDnrf3/s400/P1020652.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />Rear view (ugh!)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9oCO7GBnA5tH42elvGuhc-kbyapUm_UoZ1q5uSiNH2kfnF3uw1pX7xBUDXP1IfOIJfcqObFcLehN5Cmxf9_N7sDUgkjLOWPHUU0l6nggGXnz0F2GiZvoujmXN0gZTq-32XQRcUL5oGuqv/s1600/P1020653.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9oCO7GBnA5tH42elvGuhc-kbyapUm_UoZ1q5uSiNH2kfnF3uw1pX7xBUDXP1IfOIJfcqObFcLehN5Cmxf9_N7sDUgkjLOWPHUU0l6nggGXnz0F2GiZvoujmXN0gZTq-32XQRcUL5oGuqv/s320/P1020653.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's weird how I often don't see my body as it really looks. When I weighed 152 two summers ago, and 166 last summer, I thought I was a fat pig. That's the picture on the lower right, me in the black size 10 skirt and pink top. 152 pounds and I thought I was fat. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Now that I'm fat again I don't see it when I look in the mirror. Even though the size ten's hanging in my closet don't even begin to fit, I still think of myself as the same person that weighed 152. It's like my head hasn't caught to the fact that I'm fat again. It's the opposite of what an anorexia thinks. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The pictures really hit me hard. Really? I'm really THAT fat?! Yes, Diana, you are really that fat. How fat am I? Read below.<br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><b>My second weekly Weight Watchers meeting</b><br />Today was my first Weight Watchers At Work meeting. There were 28 employees at the meeting, each with their $130.20 check in hand for a 17-week series of meetings and e-Tools.<br /><br />My company is picking up the additional 30% that Weight Watchers would normally charge. I work for an awesome company! Of course, it's in their best interest that we all get to a healthy weight to keep our insurance costs down, as well as take fewer sick days. Smart move on their part, and I get to benefit from it.<br /><br />I'm very excited about this meeting. I'm not new to Weight Watchers. I've been going to meetings for three years non-stop. It annoys me that I haven't reached goal yet, but I also know that without the meetings I'd definitely be back up to my high weight of 240 pounds, plus a few extra for good measure. Going to two meetings a week is sort of like AA, where the alcoholic goes every day if possible. Like an alcoholic, I have a serious problem.<br /><br />I weighed in at home this morning and was appalled I saw184 pounds. I decided to eat breakfast, have my cup of coffee and drink water all morning like normal. I'm not going to starve myself or go without water because I have a noon weighin.<br /><br />The official weighin (are you sitting down because this is rather shocking):<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">187.4 </span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Now I could make all sorts of excuses, I was wearing "heavy" clothes or I'd had food and water during the morning, or there was something wrong with the scales the leader brought to the meeting. That can't be my real weight! Seriously folks, it's my real weight. As real as it gets. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">My plan isn't to dwell on how horrible this is or how mad I am at myself for letting this happen. My plan is to get down to business and lose the weight!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I have my regular Weight Watcher meeting on Saturday, which I pay for online so I'll have two official weighins a week. I know that sounds kind of crazy, but I'm kind of crazy. My eating has become totally out of control with no accountability. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Now that I know how fat I am, I need to fix it.</div>

I didn't know I was so fat but pictures don't lie

Before Pictures (from the Big Climb March 20, 2011) Rear view (ugh!) It's weird how I often don't see my body as it really looks. Wh...

Read more »

27 weeks

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7w7ih_8x51pG0K6FN2wUoPHSRaRMk47vv5vCq3xCMBJzT3hF8nsokoeYzHShrfXvMPNG9h0amMg1EkVr3PqBaMMg-oaWxdqwvL3HCkCn0pd7WaTSdin-NeEuy5yDfk8xseaHL3-CYH-e0/s1600-h/27%20weeks%20-%203.23.11%5B1%5D.jpg"><img alt="27 weeks - 3.23.11" border="0" height="473" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFoT6F0W_PkAf6btCoxt1IKYNzXYJpFji8e7Xmwrk-T_TrrG14bZSlfZ5KR8HFrnfwEAJNVsOtTQOGSdsTjBFEp9URrydHtTNRaQfUzIz2FkvaGT9xlpEdopAEMiWyOCBioFhRWKaSnIwg/?imgmax=800" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-bottom: 0px" title="27 weeks - 3.23.11" width="354"></a></p> <p><strong>How Far Along:</strong> 27 Weeks <p><strong>Size of baby:</strong> Baby Bangert is the size of an eggplant! <p><strong>Maternity Clothes:</strong> I wear maternity jeans and pants but everything else is regular.  Things are getting tighter though! <p><strong>Gender:</strong> It’s a girl!!! <p><strong>Movement: </strong>My Doctor told me I should feel her at least 10 times before 1pm…I don’t think that is a problem!! BIG NEWS: Kyle finally got to feel her kick on Saturday!! It was such a sweet moment, we were watching a movie and after he felt her kick he left his hand there the rest of the movie just waiting to feel her again! <p><strong></strong><strong>Sleep:</strong> Not too bad, I get up a few times throughout the night to go to the bathroom. I guess it’s preparing me for a newborn! <p><strong>What I miss:</strong> Sleeping on my stomach, a bigger selection of clothes, and being able to go up & down stairs without getting winded! <p><strong>Cravings:</strong> I don't have specific cravings. I just like to eat! ;) I don’t think ice cream counts, I love that anytime! <p><strong>Symptoms:</strong> Really can’t complain! Feeling well for the most part, just stiff/achy by the end of the the day. <p><strong>Best Moment this week:</strong> Kyle feeling her kick and making progress on the nursery! <p>I had my glucose test yesterday and they said no news is good news. So my fingers are crossed, I haven’t heard from the Dr. yet, so I’m hoping that’s a good sign! <p>In case you missed it click <a href="http://weightloss-stories.blogspot.com/2011/03/nursery-progress.html">here</a> to check out the progress in the nursery!</p>

27 weeks

How Far Along: 27 Weeks Size of baby: Baby Bangert is the size of an eggplant! Maternity Clothes: I wear maternity jeans and pants but...

Read more »

Hitchcock's Silent Version of Blackmail on the Big Screen

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPQ6LnwQDZt-B7cOe40ByA8JZrn5yoWYJL46OtzC5Yas0By6_YF961sikfoaFpscJtWA48kAhgJR31X5VBik0wr-NznD2ZGoMWye54HsuoZnHmzLCflwAfwgwVLVmKwvdpUqPMKwM9FXGx/s1600/blackmail1929%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPQ6LnwQDZt-B7cOe40ByA8JZrn5yoWYJL46OtzC5Yas0By6_YF961sikfoaFpscJtWA48kAhgJR31X5VBik0wr-NznD2ZGoMWye54HsuoZnHmzLCflwAfwgwVLVmKwvdpUqPMKwM9FXGx/s320/blackmail1929%255B1%255D.jpg" width="228" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The era of talking pictures arrived while Alfred Hitchcock was working on his crime thriller, <b>Blackmail</b>, in 1929. The film had already been shot as a silent feature but during post-production the studio asked the director to convert it to partial sound so it could be marketed as a talking picture. Hitchcock, as was his way, had his own ideas. He began to tinker; scenes were reshot with dialogue, additional scenes with dialogue were added. In the end, Hitchcock had two films - his and Britain's much touted "first full length all talkie film" - and the original silent version. In 1929, most theaters in Britain were not equipped for sound, so it was the silent <b>Blackmail</b> that was for a long time the most widely seen and popular of the two films.</span><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One night last summer, the California Film Institute presented a special screening of a 35 mm British Film Institute archive print of the silent version of <b>Blackmail </b>at a theater near me. Accompanying the film with an original score was the Alloy Orchestra, one of the world's foremost silent film orchestras. In attendance was an enthusiastic sold-out crowd.</span></div><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji90T2Wa96183YGsps0shGdKwRIvtfELs0_pl1K1k1U9wyYbss0Lg1BhxrpPyXTZlwVYj5g1tgGaZsdm_8Mlnl8ozJ2n1OynSkxdAfVXKVQ10Dd8lsI4NCnmeztBtPmViYBQlAbFlMzIN2/s1600/blackmail+hitch+and+anny+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="140" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji90T2Wa96183YGsps0shGdKwRIvtfELs0_pl1K1k1U9wyYbss0Lg1BhxrpPyXTZlwVYj5g1tgGaZsdm_8Mlnl8ozJ2n1OynSkxdAfVXKVQ10Dd8lsI4NCnmeztBtPmViYBQlAbFlMzIN2/s200/blackmail+hitch+and+anny+2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alfred Hitchcock and Anny Ondra</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Blackmail</b> was Hitchcock's second film of the thriller genre; the first was<b>The Lodger</b> (1927), the picture that first brought him widespread acclaim. <b>Blackmail, </b>a film that critic and Hitchcock author/scholar David Sterritt declared "has a strong claim to being his first masterpiece," foreshadows Hitchcock's later work in many ways. Visually sophisticated and gimlet-eyed in its observation of human nature and motives, it includes a delicately lovely woman in grave danger (who spends much of the film as if in a daze) and a grisly murder; the climactic chase scene at a landmark, the British Museum, is the first of such Hitchcock signature set-pieces...and there is no shortage of moral ambiguity.</span></div><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The story, which Hitchcock conceived as a conflict between love and duty, centers on a middle-class young Londoner, Alice White. Alice lives with her parents, helps out at their tobacconist's shop and is dating a straight-arrow Scotland Yard detective. After the pair has a spat over dinner, she recklessly goes off with an artist/Casanova and ends up involved in a killing (see clip below); as a result her beau is drawn into the investigation - and a blackmail plot. </span></div><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Blackmail </b>stars Anny Ondra as Alice, John Longden as her detective boyfriend, Cyril Ritchard as the artist and Donald Calthrop as Tracy, the not-so-innocent innocent man. The plot is well constructed, the action is tight and Hitchcock's mastery of suspense is evident throughout.</span></div><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO3wUTDAW_a5RHzNTNFZBHTzlBAKZ29zCwS-p8YerN7kMCnK5bDeSOcQHUMzmPg8g4voKCGB4anjN3y_eHKsnWDytNE161qufHDZ3NkvnEUwD-ngWXUxpnQ9yo3MtopHz63VL3oFeDP3ou/s1600/blackmail+ending+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="171" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO3wUTDAW_a5RHzNTNFZBHTzlBAKZ29zCwS-p8YerN7kMCnK5bDeSOcQHUMzmPg8g4voKCGB4anjN3y_eHKsnWDytNE161qufHDZ3NkvnEUwD-ngWXUxpnQ9yo3MtopHz63VL3oFeDP3ou/s200/blackmail+ending+2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>finis</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Though clever and fast-paced, <b>Blackmail</b> is a film of some depth and darkness. Ultimately, the integrity of both central characters is permanently compromised. Though a messy situation is conveniently resolved, the truth comes out between the girl and her man and the film's ending implies an uncertain and possibly bleak future for the two who now share a terrible knowledge and guilt.</span></div><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Alloy Orchestra artfully accented this screening of <b>Blackmail</b>, adding dimension and a sense of immediacy to the experience. However...the group is not exactly an "orchestra" but three musicians whose instruments include keyboards, accordion, clarinet, musical saw and a famous "rack of junk." A combination of percussion and electronics allows them to create an array of sounds and effects. The Alloy Orchestra has performed worldwide - for major film festivals, AMPAS and even at the Louvre.</span></div><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyvuXy4a88PNXUFqR3C0NtePaPt0I3jBY2BxQ6FCEzYyLVC06HcUwEOnkB8gjSih58CPC8OXSkekj0ifxe1HKQ5GvWecEh3q8YxW-rs5IqU2AY0rSZC1QogFt8PcFSq4NrC0KHMi7V_Ljm/s1600/AlloyOrchestra1%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="116" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyvuXy4a88PNXUFqR3C0NtePaPt0I3jBY2BxQ6FCEzYyLVC06HcUwEOnkB8gjSih58CPC8OXSkekj0ifxe1HKQ5GvWecEh3q8YxW-rs5IqU2AY0rSZC1QogFt8PcFSq4NrC0KHMi7V_Ljm/s200/AlloyOrchestra1%255B1%255D.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Alloy Orchestra</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Postscript:</span></i></div><div style="line-height: 14pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I had not seen the sound version of <b>Blackmail</b> when I viewed the silent, but have since. I was a little surprised to discover that I much preferred the silent version. There are, perhaps, some technical reasons for this (rudimentary sound, the awkwardness of English actress Joan Barry voicing Czech-born star Anny Ondra's lines as Ondra performed). What struck me, though, was that the plot was rendered less ambiguous by the addition of spoken dialogue that was more explicit than the intertitles had been. </span></i></div><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/E3sOL_30nbw" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>

Alfred Hitchcock Anny Ondra Blackmail Cyril Ritchard Donald Calthrop Joan Barry John Longden The Lady Eve (author) Hitchcock's Silent Version of Blackmail on the Big Screen

The era of talking pictures arrived while Alfred Hitchcock was working on his crime thriller, Blackmail , in 1929. The film had already been...

Read more »