Results

People who are interested in weight loss are interested in results. But I don’t think the results I’m about to report are they type of results they had in mind.

Last week, I posted a quiz to test my new followers, all of who seemed to have come to me as a result of including a paragraph about weight loss in a recent post called Endless Tunnel to Nowhere. I wanted to see if these new followers could answer a few simple questions about me and my blog, just to see if they actually read it, or if they followed just because there was a “weight loss” tag and were interested in publicizing their own blogs, hoping to get more followers, including me.

I got two responses to the quiz, both from real followers who made valiant attempts, and earned a “pass” for submitting comments. The “Endless Tunnel” post got 37 “likes,” 14 of which were from blogs with weight loss related titles. I got a total of 12 “likes” on the quiz, 8 of which seemed to be from new weight loss related readers.

Peculiarly, I also got a “like” from a site with a warning that you must be 18 to view it (been a while since someone has come at me with porn), one from what appears to be a wealth management blog, and one from something that looks like a business or financial news aggregator in Pakistan.

Altogether, since the beginning of June, when I must have started throwing in a bit about my weight loss quest, I seem to have added 11 new followers from blogs with weight loss related titles.

So, nice try, weight loss people, but “likes” and “follows” don’t count. You don’t even get an “e” for “effort,” because there was none. Hey, don’t get me wrong, thanks for boosting my meager “follower” stats. But don’t expect me to boost yours.

Now, I can tell from a few of the blog titles that some of you weight loss folks may be pursuing particular diet plans because of serious health issues. I feel you, and I mean no disrespect. My main issue was blood pressure, and that’s back down to normal now. I wish you the best of success in your struggle, and hope it brings you a longer, healthier life.

But if you read anything I’ve written, you’d know that weight loss is not the point of this blog, not at all. I may write about it peripherally every once in a while, because it’s been an ongoing struggle in my life since I was a pre-schooler. But I’m not here to push restrictive diets, exercise regimes, supplements, or stress reduction techniques. I’m just here to share my experiences as a widow, with an Angelic Daughter who is an adult autistic person, trying to live a life of love and laughter, which I like to believe is what my late husband would want for me, and what I know he’d want for our daughter.

But here, I’ll throw you a bone, weight-loss folks: as of this morning, I’ve lost 27 pounds. It’s taken a little over 4 months, not as fast as I’d like, but steady–close to 7 pounds a month. I’m within 10 pounds of the goal I set where I will allow myself to take a bit of a break (holidays! mashed potatoes! pie! cookies! log cake! and CHAMPAGNE!)

I’ll be monitoring myself closely, with the goal of holding steady, until I restart my program in January to lose another 43 pounds. That would put me at a weight where I felt strong and beautiful (even if my mother’s relentlessly critical voice, echoing in my head to this day, disagrees. Poor Mom–she was never satisfied. I wish she’d learned to be happy and self-accepting during her lifetime. I’m sure she finally is now).

And for you actual followers, bless you, who have stuck with me through nearly five years of blog blathering, I’ve got a new entry on my “27 Things” page, complaining, like the curmudgeon I can be, about historical inaccuracies in the wildly successful series “Vikings” (which wouldn’t be so bad if there had been a disclaimer about taking historical liberties along with the sex and violence warning, History Channel),

The show had one of the funniest promo ads I’ve ever seen (and sorry, dude, but “Viking” was an occupation, not an ethnicity. But I was a real latecomer to bingeing it. I powered through all six seasons of it, growing very annoyed with seasons 5 and 6. But then came Vikings, Valhalla, and I wasn’t going to get sucked in again, but then, Leo Suter. (Scroll down, ladies. Yup, there you go. ‘Nuff said).

Back to some real writing soon, I remain,

Your slimmer-but-still-has-a-long-way-to-go-while-binge-watching-too-many-historical-dramas-but-also-working-out-at-least-4-times-a-week-because-I’m-getting-older-and-just-can’t-do-it-every-day-anymore,

Ridiculouswoman