Losing weight in spite of myself.

I began this blog in February 2011 as a way to help me not quit trying to lose weight, and to learn a few things. It's been an interesting and powerful experience. It certainly confirms what I've long suspected--that although I am a genuinely happy cheery person in the main, I am NOT a happy cheery dieter. I DETEST losing weight. I resent being overweight in the first place and I am a virtuoso in the art of self-sabotage. And YET--I'm doing it! I'm fighting and kicking and EATING all the way down, but the weight is finally going down. The plan I was following in February was a half-baked one largely based on wishful thinking. I gained a little weight and decided to get real. I knew I couldn't just join weightwatchers or count calories or do any one plan and expect to be successful. I decided if I was going to bother to make the effort to lose weight I was going to throw everything I could think of at the problem. And so I do. My real "Day One" for this blog is April 1, 2011. I joined weight watchers, I joined caloriecount.com (awesome website), I read the blog losingweighteveryday.blogspot.com religiously, I keep this blog faithfully, I joined the health programs sponsored by my insurance, I use the principles from overeater's anonymous, I use my church's 12 step program as well, I subscribe--and use--Healthy Cooking Magazine.



The result of all this? Painfully slow progress (About 20 lbs in 10 months). But it IS progress and like the little engine that could I keep on trying in my rebellious way. I have no intention of quitting. This is by far the longest sustained weight loss effort I've ever made in my life. Successful I think, because for the first in my life I've done this MY way--which I've discovered, involves a lot of pizza and restaraunt food. I'm convinced this is the only way to lose weight. For me it must be MY way. For you it MUST be YOUR way. Not weight watcher's way, not your doctor's way, but YOUR way. Any plan or idea I use is only a tool.

The latest plan to lose weight my way began on Oct 29, 2013. It really is my own crazy plan. As you'll see if you read that post. I've implemented the best ideas of all sorts of eating plans and thrown out the scale. A couple of months in and I'm definitely healthier. I'm actually enjoying myself. I won't weigh until April 1, 2014, so I'll see then if this works the way I hope it will.

There is no magic weight loss bullet. But there IS a great deal of magic in the discovery of what I can happily live with (very different from what weight watchers tells me I can happily live with) and still have the body and health I want.

Good luck to all of us on this journey. It's quite a trip!







Wednesday, February 1, 2012

300 grrrr

Wow! 300 days!  I'm calling yesterday quite a triumph.  The LAST thing on earth that I wanted to do was to work out--and when it came time to do it I realized that I hadn't left my sweats here at work and only had a t-shirt.  No matter. I wore the T-shirt, dress pants and sneakers (sexy!) and went and worked out anyway. I'm having trouble with my knees and am a little worried so I'm taking today off running-wise, although I still walked to work.  I was also severely tempted food-wise last night. It was one of those hungry days where no matter what I ate it just wasn't enough. All I wanted was a huge calzone from the pie.  Instead, I thought about it and decided that if I went home and made the jam-filled muffins (153 cal) I had planned to make earlier in the week--that I could eat a dinner within calories as long as I had a muffin and hotchocolate to look forward to after doing RS visists.  That's what I did and I'm pretty proud of myself.

On the downside, my weight is up up up this morning. a scary 189.  Darn it! darn it! darn it!  Is it muscle? Is it water? ( I HAVE been drinking like crazy) or is it simply that 2000 calories is simply too many per day to allow me to lose weight? Sigh.  I'll see what Friday brings--if it's bad news then I'll have to accept reality I guess and try weight watchers again. Maybe I'll have more success--at the moment I'm tired of dragging my feet. I just want to get the weight loss over with--which in theory I could do pretty quickly if I would just stick to the plan. But I'm always hungry, bored and empty on the plan.  Ok, that's not quite true--it only FEELS true because I can't seem to switch my focus away from all the things I'm passing up.

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