Figuring out where to start...
It's tempting to start any weight-loss plan with
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| One shoe can change your life ~ Cinderella Well...so can losing one just pound per week. |
When I started my weight-loss plan, I wanted to give myself at least a year to become fully entrenched in new habits. By setting up a plan to lose one pound a week, my daily calorie allowance was not reduced as drastically as it would have been if I had tried to lose 5-10 pounds in a month or less. I never went to bed hungry, but I did change my snacking habits.
For several years, I had indulged in evening snacks and sometimes right before bedtime. After I started my new plan, I still craved a snack during those times. To satisfied these night-time cravings, I turned to organic dry cereal that did not have added sugar, I would measure out four ounces and start with that amount. If I was still hungry after eating the four ounces, I would pour four ounces more. A cup of this cereal was 150 calories, so even a full cup did not wreck my daily calorie allowance. Even better, it had essential nutrients. One of the new habits I wanted to establish was avoiding sweets for night-time snacks. I actually liked the cereal and ate it for breakfast once or twice a week. After a few months, my need for a night-time snack gradually lessened from nightly to once or twice weekly.
It really helped to be able to eat foods that I liked every day and gradually consume less of the unhealthy foods or eliminate them altogether. For me, the freedom to choose my own foods daily and manage the calories myself was empowering, as well as a key to the staying power of the plan. Every day, the choice was mine as to how I would use my daily calorie allotment.
My suggestion to anyone wanting to lose just 10-15 pounds would be to consider losing the first five pounds at one pound per week and the last 5-10 pounds at one-half pound per week. It takes a little effort to learn the nutritional values of the foods you are consuming, but this knowledge helped me in making choices I could live with and by boosting my motivation. It's easy to forget about the maintaining that's coming up, while you are still in the process of losing weight.
For those who need to lose 20 or more pounds, like I did, spreading the time for reaching weight-loss goals allows for a more gradual decline in food portions and easing into healthier eating habits. And while you are learning about your own nutrition, you can also learn to plan for your favorite indulgences.
Yes, it takes some discipline, but when you think about it, most of life require a little discipline. Daily life has many mundane tasks that we don't particularly enjoy doing, but we do them, everyday. When I was taking medicine, I had to remember to take it twice daily and then to take it. It takes a little discipline to log my food daily but the actual time is not much more than taking medicine. For me, it is freeing... from worry and guilt. As long as I stay within the boundaries, I can maintain my weight-loss and enjoy the foods I like, along with planned indulgences
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Journey to a new mind set
When I look back at photos from 2012, I think about summers with swollen feet and hands and aching knees and feet. It was just something I got used to and tried to avoid the heat as much as possible.
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| This picture was made in May 2012, when I weighed 180 pounds. |
While looking for pictures to track my weight-loss journey, I found one at the 180-pound mark, which is where I was when I started the journey, along with photos marking my 30-pound and 40-pound marks. I don't have any photos at the 10 and 20 pound marks. All of these pictures were made at the beach, because that is about the only time of year I have pictures made.
It was in 1997 that I first started the weight climb that had reached 15 pounds by 2000. In late 2001, when I had gained another 15 pounds, I started my first weight-loss program. I lost eight pounds and thought I was on my way to back to my skinny days. But that 's where the number stayed on the scales for weeks and weeks. So I quit the program and gained back the eight pounds, along with 10 more.
The next year I joined a gym and
began going to fitness classes three times a week and also worked out in the weight room two or three times weekly. I lost inches and went down a couple sizes but lost no more than five pounds. Since I was regularly exercising, I only walked or ran mile two or three times a week. Occasionally, I would follow whatever was the current fad eating plan...until I gave up. It seemed that eight pounds was the most I could lose with any of them.
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| One year later, May 2013, I had lost 30 pounds and weighed 150. |
In early 2006, I began following another eating plan that focused on abstaining from all the "whites," including sugar, flour and rice, and eating lots of meats and low glycemic fruits and vegetables.
I followed this plan faithfully, and at the end of six weeks, I had lost 12 pounds. For the next six weeks, I continued with my fitness classes three days per week and the diet...and lost nothing, Not one pound. I stayed with this eating plan for three more months, eating the same boring foods and with the same results. The 12 pounds stayed off but no more. So I quit and went back to eating foods that I really enjoyed. The take-away from this was that I did make a few changes in the way I cooked. I stopped using vegetable and canola oil and began cooking exclusively with coconut oil, olive oil and "real" butter. Within a year, I gained back half the 12 pounds. Shortly after ending this eating program, I went in for a lipid test and for the first time ever, my cholesterol was high.
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| In December 2013, after 14 months on my weight-loss, I had lost 40 pounds. |
In late 2007, I began working with a personal trainer.
He said, "Don't weigh yourself at home and don't think about calories or the pounds. Focus on the inches you are losing." This was a very intense and challenging fitness program, and within weeks I was losing inches and dropping a size.
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| May 2014, and I still weigh 140 and maintaining the 40-pound weight-loss. |
For more than a year, I had been eating a low-fat diet and trying to reduce my cholesterol. I hope this new fitness program would help with that. After a few months, I could do 50 push-ups, 100 jumping jacks and 200 crunches, along with many other "new to me" exercises, but my cholesterol did not improve...not even one number.
But I began to see other changes I did not like. In other to keep the class exciting and fresh... I'm guessing... the instructor changed the format to a more of a boot camp. From the new changes, I began developing bulky muscles, which I did not like. So In the spring of 2008, I quit. That summer, I had to go on cholesterol medicine.
By 2010, I had gained all the weight back, and I decided to just accept the extra pounds. I grew comfortable wearing large and extra large clothing. I told myself, "Once you reach a certain age, the weight is there to stay. There's nothing you can do about it."
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| May 2015 and I'm still maintaing my 40-pound weight-loss. |
What else could I do?
That continued to be my mind set, until the morning of October 17, 2012. But I'm glad that didn't stay my mind set, because it just wasn't true.
One day at a time and one pound a week, things changed. My weight changed and my health changed.
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