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The SITS Girls

The Secret to Success is Support

So Much to Share: Recipes, Weight Loss & Stories

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We love to read about involved grandma’s, like today’s Featured Blogger, Vicki. Vicki can be found at Gram’s Made It, a blog with recipes, patterns, instruction, opinion, and pictures.

How long have you been blogging and why did you start?
I started blogging in September of 2009, so I’ve been blogging just under 2 years. In 2006 I had walked away from a job I had held for 32 years as the Director of Special Events for a local nonprofit fundraising organization. The organization had undergone a management change and there was a definite clash between me and the new management. So I resigned with no idea what I was going to do next. Then for about 2 years after that, I worked part-time as a project manager for an independent business consultant. After I got laid off from that job, I kind of didn’t know what to do with myself. I was over 50 years old and unemployed for the first time since I was 15 years old. Blogging became a way for me to connect with someone outside of my living room where I was spending lots of time alone. When my mom died and we cleaned out her home, I found the journals that I wrote as a teenager. That reminded me that I once dreamed of being a writer. Yet the only writing I had done for the past 30 years had been professional solicitation letters and promotional brochures. Several friends had been encouraging me for years to write about raising my children, particularly about their teenage years. So blogging provided an opportunity to reclaim my dreams of writing. In addition, we had our first granddaughter and I wanted to share stories about her.

It looks like you’ve lost a tremendous amount of weight and have blogged about it.  Has writing about your weight loss helped in the journey?
I had gastric bypass surgery in 2006 and subsequently lost 125 pounds. For the first few years I went to monthly support group meetings. But, as time passed, the meetings were geared more for patients who were newly post-op and didn’t really meet my needs. I have found that it’s very helpful for me to write about my experiences. Like I said, blogging has become therapy. I have also discovered a fairly large group of other bloggers who write about their own experiences with weight loss surgery and encourage each other. Many of the recipes I share on my blog are “weight loss friendly” recipes. It’s also interesting that I didn’t learn to cook until after I had weight loss surgery. I had to learn to eat healthy and the best way to know what I was eating was to cook it myself. Bloggers have been great resources in learning to cook and to eat healthy.

You have experience as a mother and a grandmother.  What is one piece of advice you’d give new moms?
My advice for new moms is … take all the help you are offered and, if nobody offers, ask someone. If your mother, mother-in-law, sister, best friend, or neighbor offers to come and cook and clean, put your pride away and take the help. You don’t have to do everything yourself. Everyone needs help the first few weeks. Sleep deprivation alone is formidable. Add to that a new mother’s nervousness and postpartum hormones and you’re going to need some help. Source via phentermineonline.com the phentermine online website.

Let me likewise offer some advice for friends and family of new moms … don’t just take a gift for the new baby, take a casserole. It will be appreciated more than you can imagine.

If you could have one day to yourself, what would you do?
Since I’m semi-retired I have lots of days to myself, sometimes more than I like. The most perfect days for me are not spent “to myself” but rather with my husband, my kids, and my granddaughters. We love to head out into the Texas Hill Country, visit a few antique stores and craft shops, and then stop for dinner at a winery or one of the German restaurants.

Favorite Posts:
The Sunday Funnies: Having “THE” talk with kids can be funny.
Big Granite Dome or Milestone?  You’ll love this inspirational story that took place at Enchanted Rock.
The Meatloaf Incident:  It may have taken 35 years, but she finally made meatloaf like the “nuns” did.

About Tracie Nall

Tracie lives in Arizona with her husband, teen daughter, and more books than her shelves will hold. She spends her days writing and editing. Many of her words end up on her blog, From Tracie. Find Tracie on Twitter @FromTracie and on Instagram where she takes pictures of things that are yellow.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  6. Jen says

    Sounds like a very smart woman! Definitely can relate to the community aspect of blogging. There is a supportive group out there for everyone.

  8. Abby says

    Congrats on your weight loss success! I’m at the beginning of my journey, and not brave enough to blog about it yet. Can’t wait to see what other treasures your blog holds!

  14. SJ says

    I’m interested in healthy recipes and surely this blog is an awesome resource. Thank you 🙂

  17. mangiabella says

    your speak wisdom gram! as a mother of 2 under two and one more on the way, all I can say is whoever is willing to help, LET THEM COME FORTH!! Bring me a casserole! yes! and if you really feel sorry for me, and wish to fold my laundry or run a vacuum, I promise I will not be too proud…and if you want to take my kids for the afternoon, I will willingly oblige.

    Gram your weight loss is a true inspiration!

  18. CuteGirlsHairstyles says

    I really love her advice to moms… take help when it is offered! With six kids now, one a son with Hyposensitivity Disorder, I find that it really takes “a village” to raise the latter! Thank heavens for wonderful friends and neighbors who offer support, and understanding that my son is not a hellian by choice! Also, for all the talk about Mommy Bloggers… I think that this wonderful lady is pioneering the “Grammy Bloggers” niche! Congrats to her!

  23. Jaime {James & Jax blog} says

    Your advice to new moms is spot on. I found it crazy-hard to ask for help and even to accept it when it was offered. If I become a mom again in the future, I will definitely learn from my mistakes and accept help!

    I’m looking forward to reading your blog! Congrats on being featured here!

  28. Mrs. Mootz says

    I love reading gram blogs. I think they’re so much better than mom blogs because they offer a perspective us moms haven’t even fathomed yet 🙂

  30. beenomom says

    Great perspective from somebody who has already been there, done that. I bet she could teach all women a few things, new moms, seasoned moms, and grandmoms as well. She also has had an amazing weight loss journey. Definitely have to go learn more about her!

  41. Amanda says

    Way to go on the weight loss! I love seeing success stories, they are SO inspiring for the rest of us.

    Reading a really greatly inspiring book, Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins. Definitely check it out. It was published back in 1990, but man this guy is good!

    FRIDAY!! Enjoy the weekend my sitstahs!

  42. Life As Wife says

    Blogger is still down… Will try to give her some comment love later this afternoon.

    (loved reading about her son and the “sex” talk! How funny!!

  44. Blond Duck says

    Has anyone else noticed that blogger isn’t working? I can’t visit my Invisible Friends for the second day in a row and leave a comment! Including the SITS featured blogger!

    • Lindsay says

      Blogger isn’t working for me either. It is SO annoying! I have been trying to comment on this wonderful blog, among many others, all day!

  46. citymouse says

    Vicki’s perfect day sounds alot like mine! It’s nice to see a FB closer to my age! Ha! (No offense to you younger gals. It’s just that I am closer to being a grandmother than a new mother these days.)

  48. Jenn says

    I can so relate to the sleep depravation. I cried on my daughters head because I just didn’t know what to do anymore – I was exhausted, she was fed, winded and changed and still crying (not colic) and I just couldn’t anymore, so I howled too and then had to laugh becuase I was splashing her with my tears. I then realised that all I wanted was someone to watch her for just 10 minutes so I could bath!!!
    (Not that I didn’t bath!!! Just that it would have been nice to bath without feeling like I was in bath-tryouts for the olympics… you know… in and out at speed)

  50. Lindsay says

    Looks like a blog that will be full of advice on a variety of topics, and funny too. I just read the post about having ‘the talk’ with your son. Hilarious!