Time is moving quickly this year or at least it seems that way to me. We are already in our eighth week and nearing the end of the second month. As of last Sunday’s weigh-in, I weigh 371 pounds, down eight pounds for the year. I haven’t made much progress this year and none within the last few weeks. My pattern seems to be a few good days followed by one or two stupid days. It’s been very disappointing, to say the least. I need to break this pattern, plus I would like to weigh less at the end of this month than I did at the beginning so that some progress is made this month. In order for this to happen I need make these last days of February count. Of course, I need to improve my health for the long haul not just a week.
The stupid days that I speak of are days in which I go off plan by making a stupid decision usually with the dinner meal. Meaning that I opt to dine out or eat take-out rather than eating a meal prepared at home. This is the same problem that I have struggled with my entire adult life and one of the reasons, if not the main reason I am obese. About 95% of the time I regret the decision as soon as it is made. This means that there is usually time to reverse the decision but I don’t. I think there are two main reasons why I make the bad choices. First, because dining out, food delivery or picking up take-out all seem like less work than preparing food at home. I’ve mentioned it here before that I don’t cook and I’ll probably post more about that soon. The second reason is that I crave fatty, cheesy, starchy foods and these types of foods often sound better than chicken and broccoli. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy chicken, broccoli and other healthier foods, but when I am hungry and want food fast, they are not my first impulse. If they were, then I wouldn’t weigh 371 pounds.
For several years/decades eating out was something done six or seven nights a week. This year, I have reduced that to at most maybe three nights. This is still more than I would like or that I even plan for. I’m a work in progress. The change will not happen overnight, but I am working on it.
Over the last couple of weeks, I have made some improvements. I’ve been making a meal plan for the week and have stuck to it for the most part. With a huge help from my husband who did the cooking (breakfast casseroles, soup and other premade meals over the weekends); I now eat breakfast at home every day and have been brown bagging my own lunch. This ensures a healthy breakfast and lunch rather than muffins and fried food from the cafeteria. I’ve been eating more fruit (okay, by more I mean at least one fruit a day which is 100% more than I used to eat), but still need to work on eating more vegetables. I’ve also been drinking more water, which has been a huge help in reducing leg cramps. This week, I’ve been forcing myself to be more active by exercising in short bursts of five to fifteen minutes here and there, and by taking the stairs at work. These are small changes, but positive changes indeed.
To end February on a positive note, I would like to continue with the improvements mentioned and work to reduce the stupid decisions. I want to lose a few pounds so that some progress is made and to get the ball rolling again. What I don’t want to do is waste more time by continuing with the old habits that have aided in my reaching such a horrible weight. This year I will start to turn my life around.
That’s what I have been up to. What about you? Are you struggling or succeeding?
Even though the scale hasn’t moved a whole lot, I feel like I’m succeeding. My mindset is S-L-O-W-L-Y changing, really changing…not just for one day, but it’s becoming a habit the more I do it (making better choices). It’s a fight but I know it’s worth it. There’s too much I’m missing out. So much of what I battle is inward…..always has been, the weight is just a side issue really but yet it plays a much too huge part of who I am (sigh). But, like I said, I AM succeeding because I haven’t given up and I refuse to let my life stay the same. The good thing is, the things I’m not happy about, I DO have the power to change
You’ll get there – as long as you never give up, You Will!
It sounds like you are making progress. And that’s what this journey is like for most of us at best. Steps forward, a step back, learning, applying what we learn. Sounds like you and both suffer from the same big issue – lack of consistency:(
Im glad to see you checking in, I was worried you might have given up
I love to eat out as well. My guilty pleasure is when my husband is gone for work I would go buy nachos. (Tortilla chips are a HUGE issue for me.) I decided to just find a healthy alternative that is fast & easy to make at home. Maybe you can think of a few of your favorite meals you like to grab & go to healthify for at home? I truly believe we can’t be successful if we don’t find a way to enjoy the foods we like. It just leads to binging/guilt.
I have missed you! Glad to see you are still at it. This is a life long journey- to me as long as you keep at it you are a success story. We have good days and bad days. We learn what works and what doesn’t work. We hang in there. We keep trying. You are doing all of these things!
This stuff is hard – and frankly although I am disappointed in myself there are weeks where I will accept simply not gaining as a type of success. I’m guessing that if you were not making this effort to change things you may well have gained more than eight pounds since the beginning of the year instead of losing.
I’ve been struggling since the beginning of the year and have yet again put myself in a position to need to lose weight that I JUST took off a few months ago. I think that for those of us who are losing over 200 pounds it is a long process, almost seeming glacial in scale sometimes but it takes a while to get the momentum moving in the right direction and there is bound to be backsliding. I guess I’m taking the view that I’d rather move slowly and be making changes that I can maintain for the rest of my life than to drop the weight quickly and end up with emotional or other problems later on.
Glad to see you post, I’ve been thinking about you. I think it’s important to try to stop beating yourself up for “stupid” decisions. I know how hard it is not to, but once the decision is made, it’s done, right? You can’t undo it. So we move forward and make a better decision next time. I’m glad you’re drinking more water. It’s more important to add in the good stuff before you worry about taking stuff away (e.g. drink more water and eventually you’ll stop drinking soda..) and it sounds to me as though you are trying to do a lot at once, which may work and may also further stress you out. It will also surprise your body, so don’t be surprised if there isn’t a huge number difference on the scale. Just keep plugging away at it. Are you able to bring cut up raw veggies for snacks/lunch through the day? Carrots and celery? I always find them edible and filling. Plus the sweet from the carrots helps cuts my need for sweet in other stuff.
I’ve been doing both. I have only lost about 4 pounds overall since Christmas, have been at Weight Watchers since Halloween and I have to tell you, it hasn’t been too awesome. I’m down 9.8 lbs since Thanksgiving.
I just keep reminding myself that I can’t out exercise a bad diet, keep logging my food even (especially) when I don’t want to and am doing food journal exchanges.
We will all get there. We just have to keep on plugging
I had to re-subscribe here… I lost all my feeds, but now I have you.
I’m having a really hard time getting back on track. I keep writing about my “plan” and then fart around and seem to fail to execute.
I’ve been doing cardio, but it’s not enough. I really need to up the exercise in order to make something out of it.
I’m trying again, and tomorrow go to the Chinese Herbalist to get some more support.
Like you, I need to make better choices.
I’m thinking of you!!
Oh, if you do my feed, you’ll have to subscribe to the new site.
I need to definitely step up my game. I have maintained this last year, which I suppose is good with everything that happened last year, but I have to stop the extra licks and tastes, eating more because I worked out and I need to ditch the wine!
Let’s do this!