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!







Friday, January 16, 2015

Doing great!

WOW! I am doing great. It's been an emotionally heavy week with family--which may have helped, because they are real appetite killers. But even still---I feel good physically, I've made loads of good choices, and haven't felt unduly stressed by eating so "little" food. Last night I discovered that I like fried ham. And ham does NOT have that many calories! It's surprising. Big hams like at Christmas and Easter, I can take or leave, but last night I made some homemade mac and cheese out of the cooking light cookbook (pretty good), and I fried up some of the leftover ham that was in thin slices (a spiral cut one)--WOW--how have I missed that all my life??? Not quite bacon, but pretty darn tasty!

At the end of the night last night I had enough calories left to have a full serving of 13 of the dark chocolate, sugar, sea-salt almonds and some hot chocolate. Wonderful.

Today is high-fiber. I'm trying not to abuse it as much as I did last week. I had a normal cereal and some fruit for breakfast, ate some of a huge pear for lunch, actually measured and calculated how much popcorn is worth, and had some mac and cheese for lunch (with ww noodles to help fiber count).  Although, I technically could have my beloved pan crust for pizza tonight, I'm opting for the normal crust with a whole lot fewer cal.

One thing I did NOT do was to weigh myself. NO. I am genuinely doing great. I don't want to upset things if I didn't lose a bunch. If I carry on like this eventually, I will lose a bunch.

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