Becoming Norma Arnold

I call my blog “Becoming Norma” because over the course of the next year, it is my goal to work towards becoming more like Mrs. Norma Arnold from ABC’s late 80s early 90s television series, “The Wonder Years.”

Growing up, I couldn’t get enough of the Arnold family-mainly the shows main character, Kevin (Fred Savage). I would watch on Wednesday nights as that little brown hair-brown eyed boy chased after that lemon sucking faced Winnie Cooper, and wish it were me he was after.   Now that boy has children and directs one of my favorite adult television shows-I digress, this is not a blog about my Fred Savage stalking…

Norma Arnold was the television mom to beat all television moms.  She had fabulous style, a well kept home, a husband with all of the charm of a grizzly bear, and three children who thought she was around merely to tend to their needs and otherwise stay out of their lives.  Unlike her television counterparts, Norma wasn’t loud-mouthed like Roseanne Connor, a power secretary like Harriet Winslow or even non-existent like Pam Tanner. Norma was by definition a housewife.  She cooked, cleaned and raised her family-okay, so once she took Paul Pfeiffer on a date and then broke his heart, but really, he was asking for it.  Paul Pfeiffer aside, Norma’s sense of self is the inspiration for this blog. 

In August of 2008 I became a mother of twin boys as well as a housewife.  I also started to slowly lose a sense of my former, always in a dress and always made up self.  Having children also made a ten year struggle of losing weight that much harder-it’s very easy to justify eating an entire sleeve of Club crackers in one sitting when you can use, “I was chasing babies all day” as an excuse, but the real issue is that I’ve lost the “baby weight” and am back where I was prior to getting pregnant. That would be FORTY pounds overweight.  Frustrations with those two issues have turned what could be called a semi-misanthropic attitude into a deep need to change things in my life, a need to be more like Norma.

THE PLAN

In the time that it will take me to view the entire “The Wonder Years” series, I plan to achieve the following:

*After viewing two episodes per week, I will compare, contrast and evaluate my own personal character against one Norma Arnold.  My goal is to see where changes can, should or should not be made. This is not going to be at attempt by to make myself into a Norma clone or character, but a way for me to improve my own character.  Don’t worry, this will all be documented!

*Lose the forty pounds that for ten years have been taking up residence on my body.  To attain this goal, I will be following my version of Weight Watchers (henceforth known as FAT WATCHERS), which is basically the Weight Watchers diet without paying for the meetings (more on that later…).  Combining the diet with three days of aerobic exercise (to start) will lay the foundation for this endeavor.  I will blog weekly about my progress and efforts, including photos, recipes and work out reviews.

*Return to my “Pre-Mama” personal style.  This will be a daily/weekly/monthly effort to ditch the easy-way-out fashions, hairstyles and lack thereof make up routine I have fallen into.  A weekly post will reveal my progress, an will include photos.

So there it is, I hope you enjoy my journey!