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!







Tuesday, June 12, 2012

438 an apple

I am LIKING this 1800 business!! It shouldn't make a difference--after all, I can eat anything I like on WW too, but just counting calories seems to give me more leeway and I think perhaps I'm eating a little more fat--which sounds like a bad thing, but maybe it's really what my body needs. For one thing I've noticed that I'm not running to the bathroom every 5 minutes even though I'm still drinking a ton of water and those sudden urges that plague me on weight watchers haven't been an issue so far. Too early to tell for sure, but I'm enjoying feeling normal in that area again--I'll take it as long as it lasts. Now, I'm not eating a bunch of junk---I can't on just 1800, but I am eating what my body wants--yesterday for example: breakfast was an old staple--cream of wheat made with milk and topped with berries. Snack--pretzels (exactly 53 pretzel sticks) with swiss onion dip, lunch a taco salad--lots of spinach, with peppers and tomatoes, 3 oz of meat, 1 oz of cheese, 1/2 cup of plan yogurt and lots of hot sauce, I also had exactly one serving of dynamite Dorito sticks and a whole wheat tortilla. Really satisfying. For dinner I had planned a 6 in Subway sandwich and had budgeted 140 calories for some baked chips. Here's the thing though--in the morning the apples looked really good to me. I took one along just in case, and when it came down to it having the apple sounded SOOO much better and more satisfying to me than the chips so that's what I did! I actually skipped the chips. VERY unusual behavior for me and I loved it. I went to SLC and got some good work done, then came home and had a ww snickers ice-cream bar (I do love ww food). So it was a very successful food day, although not a good exercise day. I'm giving part of the credit for the good food day to prayer--I really need to remember to ask for divine help more often, it's obvious that I need help. And part of the credit to the fact that by the time I got to dinner, I had already given my body what it needed so I wasn't wanting junk. Today I walked to work--so thats a step (ha!) in the right direction. Calorie-wise my plan is perfect, but I'm experimenting with being a little foolish. Breakfast and dinner will be good choices (those portobello mushrooms!!), but lunch is leftover pizza! Two big pieces of it with a cabbage salad. High calorie and low on being filling. A poor choice--except that I love pizza and that's what I want!! It means less snacks and a light dinner and no goodies at the RS thing tonight. Will it be worth it? I'll find out. In the meantime I'm wrapping my mind around the idea of actually getting up early tomorrow so I can get my exercise in. I nearly forgot! Something nice I read yesterday. In Sean's blog--which I read his day that corresponds to mine, he has hit a plateau--for the first time in over a year he failed to lose weight. His solution? He needs to change things up a bit--perhaps ADD a couple hundred calories, and change his workout around. This was supported by one of his readers who also added a bit to boost her metabolism and keep losing weight. WONDERFUL!! At the moment this doesn't apply to me, since the reason for my plateu of six months is no mystery--I've been overeating. But its great to hear that the solution to a stall isn't always just more and more restrictions.

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