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!







Thursday, March 6, 2014

Suck it up!

Love the internet!  I was looking at different ideas on what to do if you're hungry when you're dieting. I mostly found a lot of the same old blah blah---eat fiber, eat protein etc--I DO!!!!  One guy talked about taking breaks from the diet!!!  Hooray!!!  I though I  was the only one who ever thought that was a good idea! Also, managing days and meals off and treats!  This guy is obviously a genius. :) He also talked about "carb re-feeding". I looked that up too---not for me, it's really geared for seriously healthy body building types.  But, in the end he said something like this, when you're losing weight, you're burning more calories than you take in. Sometimes you're going to be hungry. So suck it up!!!

He's right. This difficult problem is not going to be solved without some difficulty. Sometimes I'm just going to be hungry and that's ok. He points out that when those times come you have to decide what's more important--the food or yourself.  THAT'S the problem. At those times the food is ALWAYS the important thing. I swear, in the face of a really good something, a genie could appear and tell me that if I eat the second helping/brownie/popcorn/cheese that I will instantly weigh 400 pounds. I honestly don't know if that would stop me!!  I'd probably reason that I could deal with it.

Oh well. The idea that it's not only ok to tough things out sometimes, but necessary and normal to have to do it is a good message for me.

Today we had our work retreat with full breakfast (yay bacon!). Today is a wash out as far as any particular plan goes. BUT what I'll probably do is this----Starting Sunday or Monday, or maybe even Saturday, eat 1700 cal until the Hungry Girl book comes out and then I'll decide if that diet is worth a try. Meanwhile, I'll start exercising more and also refiguring my plan---in short, how can I make 1700 cal per day bearable?? How can I make it more interesting???

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