Just The 6 Of Us

My last blog post, my wonderful friend Erin, told me that it was useless without photos! So this morning as I was getting ready for an Easter Playdate, I decided I would take some. I weighed in this morning as well, just so I could have an accurate weightloss total to go with the photos. I also braved the size 18 jeans one more time to see if they would fit. I am wearing these jeans today…WOOT WOOT!!

I officially started my life style change on January 19th and since then I have lost 26lbs. Overall since June of 2009 I have lost 52lbs! I am almost half way to my first big weight loss goal!

I have some great low carb recipes to share later in the week. I keep forgetting to take photos of the recipes after I make them, but believe me they are oh so good!

I am still working out every day (Mon-Fri), I do take the weekends off, just to relax, spend lots of time with the family and most of all clear my mind. Next week, I hope that I will be starting The 30 Day Shred. I have heard so many good reviews about it. I hope that Jillian doesn’t kick my butt to hard

Here are some photos of me, I am really excited, because now I am starting to see what my hard work is doing!

I do want to take moment to thank all my friends and family for the awesome support. This is really hard, but you guys really help push me through!

I can’t wait until Dale come home, I want to show off my cute “little” tooshie in these jeans..HAHAHAHA!

Wow, has it really been 2 months since I have started this? I am super thrilled that I have made it this far! As of today I have lost a total of 21lbs! For a grand total of 47lbs since this summer. Can I get a Woot Woot?!

OMG I am almost at 50lbs

I have been struggling over the past 2 weeks. I hit a plateau and remained at one weight for 2 weeks straight.

Talk about frustrating! I intensified my workouts slightly and managed to injure my foot. My Achilles Tendon had enough of the constant strain and turned on me! I woke up one morning and could barely walk, my ankle was swollen and when I did walk, it cracked and creaked like an old loose wooden floor board. It was bad! I had to put my exercising on hold for a week. Icing it almost every hour for 20 mins and the hardest part…sitting still. So this past Saturday I decided to weigh in and see how much weight I gained by not working out ( I didn’t change my diet at all, kept eating like I should) to my surprise I had lost 3lbs! Now how I managed that, I have no idea! Maybe my body felt sorry for me and it was it’s way of apologizing for giving me such a hard time with my foot..LOL! I didn’t want to push my luck, even when it was all better, so I waited until yesterday to resume my workouts. And this morning I am sore. Believe me I will be taking it slow.

I have realized (through research) that plateau’s are normal and there is some great advice out there to help you get through them.

10 ways to move beyond a weight loss plateau:

*Imagine You Healthy and Vibrant-the mind is a strong tool, use it to achieve what you want.

*Understand your weight loss personality-

Impulsive remove temptations

Oblivious If you tend to not pay attention when you eat — maybe you’re a TV snacker? — you need to avoid such situations if you want to control portions.

Uptight If you are highly anxious, you will probably have more difficulty Those who are anxious, nervous, and depressed might eat to feel better.

Tenacious Certain personalities don’t find it that difficult losing weight.

Sociable if you tend to monitor your food intake better than others, you may be more sociable.

*Record Every Food Morsel You Eat, Taste, or Lick-Underestimating just how much food you’ve eaten is a common mistake, one that can lead to a weight loss plateau or weight gain.

*Beware of ‘Calorie Creep’-A key reason for a weight loss plateau is eating more than you think.

*Watch Restaurant Overeating-At restaurants, rich foods and supersized portions can sway even the most determined dieter. Especially if you eat out often, look at restaurant eating as a chance to practice good portion control.

*Eat Low-Fat Protein to Manage Hunger Pangs-New findings show that a high protein diet can help squelch hunger.

*Eat More Fruits and Vegetables-Fill up on produce.

*Push the Envelope Past That Plateau-To keep your muscles guessing and performing the ultimate calorie burn, vary your physical activity.

*Wear a Pedometer-Wearing a pedometer each day and having a daily step goal can boost your activity level and burn more calories.

*Try Yoga to Avoid Stress Eating-Stress eating is bingeing on food — homemade chocolate chip cookies, salty chips, a handful of this, a fistful of that — to soothe your inner emotional turmoil, not your real hunger. Studies show that yoga lowers levels of stress hormones and increases insulin sensitivity — a signal to your body to burn food as fuel rather than store it as fat.

Even though, it looks like I have managed to get over my plateau these suggestions are great. I am incorporating them into my journal and day to day life, because I am sure I will hit several more before I reach my goal weight.

I had my first challenge on Monday, eating at a Restaurant. My Mom & I took Susan to the oral surgeon for a consultation. Afterwards, Mom took us to lunch at Cracker Barrel. If you have not been there, just let me tell you their menu is so good! The meals are huge and it’s just like eating a home cooked meal. I was scared to even look at the menu, temptation to say screw this give me the biggest burger you got, almost came out of my mouth. But God Bless them, they had a whole section on the menu of Low Carb meals! I listened to my kids order hamburgers the size of their heads and I ordered last, because the waitress could take my menu and leave before I had a chance to run after her and say Wait, no! So, with a smile I said, “Grilled Chicken Salad please.”

This salad came out and it was enormous! I am happy to say I could not eat it all and I also didn’t have burger and french fry envy like I thought I would. I was scared for no reason.

I got home and My Mom had brought over a size 18 jeans. I laughed! I went and tried them on. Holy cow! I was able to button them and zip them, of course I couldn’t breathe, but OMG I had a size 18 pair of jeans on!!! *Happy Dance!*

I was thrilled! My mind and my body are working for me and not against me…LOL!

Now I can mark eating at a restaurant without fear and temptation off my list & trying on different size clothes!

It’s the littlest things like that make me happy!

I am doing it!

Yesterday I went completely out of my comfort zone. It was time to be honest with myself and the one I love. I sat down with Dale last night and told him that I wanted to let him know what I have been battling as far as weight gain. I told him how much I weighed, how much I had lost and how much I did weigh before I started. This was probably one of the hardest things to do. It was like an out of body experience. My lips were moving, but I really didn’t hear myself say the numbers. After I was finished he just looked at me with those eyes and said it doesn’t matter what was, I love you and you are doing an amazing job. I want him to be a part of the whole process. I want to be able to get on the scale and say, hey come here take a look at this. I want him to be able to help me be accountable to myself. I know he will be able support me better, because now he can understand just what a 45lb weight loss really means to me.

Another step outside the comfort zone is realizing that I have a food addiction. I love food. It’s not cakes, cookies or sweets, it’s real food. Like cheeseburgers, fries, steak, potatoes, pasta, bread….ahhh bread!! I miss bread LOL! Over the past couple of weeks I have been reading a lot about weight loss, body image, eating, binging, things like that. I came across a great definition of what a food addiction is.

Food addiction is characterized by compulsive eating and an obsession with weight and body image. Persons with a food addiction display an obsession with, and craving for, food and eating, a preoccupation with finding sources of food associated with pleasure and comfort, a compulsive cycle of eating, and the lack of an ability to stop abusing food.

It goes on to include examples of food addiction and compulsive eating.

• Preoccupation with body weight and food.
• Eating to relieve worry or stress.
• Continuing to eat even after feeling sick from eating too much.
• Becoming anxious while eating.
• Daydreaming or worrying while eating.
• Depression or mood swings
• Eating too fast and overeating.
• Eating everything on the plate.
• Feeling guilty when you eat.
• Eating much more rapidly than normal
• Eating alone due to shame and embarrassment
• Cannot eat one cookie, or any treat that you really like.
• Binging after a diet.
• Awareness that eating patterns are abnormal
• History of weight fluctuations
• Withdrawal from activities because of embarrassment about weight
• History of many different unsuccessful diets

Oh my, how about that for a reality check! I think I am probably more of an emotional eater. And what I was reading suggested things to help break the habits.

Read a good book or magazine or listen to music.
Go for a walk or jog.
Take a bubble bath.
Do deep breathing exercises.
Play cards or a board game.
Talk to a friend.
Do housework, laundry or yard work.
Wash the car.
Write a letter.
Or do any other pleasurable or necessary activity until the urge to eat passes.

I have done a lot of these and it really does help. After 5 weeks I am still working on it. Because, let me tell you the urge to finish what the kids didn’t eat (because I do throw a lot of food away now), to have some chocolate, eat a couple of biscuits, to dive into a bag of potato chips and to go to a fast food restaurant is still there. The key is to make small, slow changes that I can implement into my daily life.

One more example of walking outside my comfort zone is not just walking. With the treadmill not working, I decide to start running/jogging. Now this means actually going outside and doing it. And with that, is the possibility of other people seeing me do this. I always did my walking or exercises early in the morning in private. Being outside running is oh so public. Yesterday, I put my sweatshirt on and gloves (because it was cold) and I headed outside. I ran! Of course I couldn’t do a whole mile running, but I came pretty darn close with alternating the running with walking. It hurt, I was out of breath, my side was killing me, but I wasn’t embarrassed like I thought I would be. Even when the neighbors got in theirs cars to leave. It took a lot of will power not to just run right back in the house and come back out after they were gone! I told myself, don’t let it bother you, don’t let it bother you, what they think is irrelevant. The line in the kids movie Nemo was playing in my head, “just keep swimming, just keep swimming”

This dieting stuff is HARD work! Some mornings I wake up and don’t want to exercise, I don’t want to think about counting calories and carbs, I don’t want to weigh in on Friday’s, I don’t want to think about what today’s menu is and I want to eat a huge bowl of Ice Cream or Captain Crunch! I do it one day at a time, I don’t think about the 60lbs left I have to loose, I think about the 19lbs I have already lost in the past 5 weeks, I think about my next mini goal, I think about the smaller clothes I am going to buy, I think about the compliments I am getting, the support I have from family and friends and I think about how much more energy I have.

Slow and steady, day by day, I am making it and it and I can actually say I am happy with what I have accomplished, no matter how hard it is and how far I have left to go, I will stick with it!