The first 4 weeks

Like I said, I started this journey 4 weeks ago and I have been keeping a diary that I would like to share with you so far. I'd like to keep posting my journey so hopefully you will be inspired or reach out to me to help you get started. My goal is to help be a catalyst to as many women as I can to take control of their lives. There is no tomorrow so start today with your journey. The fork in the road is just a mental image away! YOU CAN DO IT!

June 16 Day 1 was pretty hard to control eating in the evening since that is my weak time of the day. I am really determined to lose this last 40 pounds though and I can’t do it under the methods I’ve been using so far. While it has served me well over the past several years to get to this point, I need to get over a nasty hump that has kept me at the same basic weight since February. I’ve spent over 3 years trying to lose weight and had been successful with changing my eating and exercising over the past year. But this hump is beyond my reach without some expert advice and I know I haven’t reached the perfect equation that will take me down the home stretch. I did well with my eating all day. There was a plan and followed the plan. Not real fond of planning meals but perhaps it is what will make the difference rather than eating when hungry.

June 17 Day 2 was a little easier than day one with eating. I’m actually sore from the upper body workout the day before which was a shock because I’ve been working out like a fiend for the past 6 months or more. Perhaps there is something to overdoing your workout routine. I did only 30 minutes of cardio today which is actually down from my usual 40 minutes. I couldn’t quite quit at 20 minutes like the program prescribes as I felt like that just wasn’t enough. My sweat meter wasn’t as high as normal so it made me feel a little guilty shutting down sooner than normal. I’m sure I’ll get over it! Mallory (my daughter) decided that she really needed some “chocolate” after supper tonight and rationalized that the snickers bars were low on the glycemic index (even though they are empty calories) so she coerced me into taking a bike ride to the local gas station to get a candy bar. I told her I didn’t want any part of it but went along to get a little more exercise in for the day. Now mind you, I live in the Loess Hills so a bike ride to the local gas station is around 2 miles one way with a plethora of hills to navigate. Riding there wasn’t too bad (a lot of down hill) and she purchased her candy bar and off we went to return home. The last hill home is a bear and I kept the peddles moving thinking, “I can’t make it, I can’t make it…” when all of a sudden, I thought, “I’m going to make it., I’m going to make it….” As I realized I was going to make that last hill with sweat dripping from my brow, I realized I hadn’t heard any peddling behind me. Oh my, where had Mallory gone? I couldn’t stop to check as I’m not overly confident on a bike anyway and knew that would be all she wrote if I stopped then so I trudged the last few peddles up the hill to the top and stopped there feeling like Rocky when he finally made it up those steps in Philadelphia. I looked behind and couldn’t see Mallory anywhere down the hill. Did she get hit by a car? I waited and soon I saw her cresting over one of the hills, walking her bike! Mind you, I’m 48 and I just beat a 19 year old! What a grand feeling! I raced home yelling “48 year old women rule”! Not sure my husband was as impressed with my small accomplishment but it was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had knowing that my hard work was paying off. What a great day!

June 18, 2008 Lower body workout today. Not too tough. My lower body is already pretty strong, as demonstrated the night before with my little bike ride victory. I decided to weigh myself again today for the giggles and my eyes were deceiving me….I had lost 4 pounds in 2 days? How is the possible? I never weigh myself this frequently and since I had done it Monday it was beyond my comprehension that I’d lost even and ounce in 2 days let alone 4 pounds. Could this be the breakthrough I needed? It definitely was the encouragement I needed to help me stay true to the eating plan! Notice, I never say diet. I figured out a few years ago when I started changing my diet (meaning what I was eating), that I’m not on a diet that will go away when I reach my goal, I’m changing my eating and changing it for life…..Until you reach that conclusion, you will always yo-yo and create unrealistic patterns in your eating that can’t be maintained for life. Nobody is on Jenny Craig for life and even though Weight Watchers has a lifetime membership, can you really count calories or points for the rest of your life. I suppose some can but I want to just know what I can eat and what I can’t and then apply it to my daily life. I don’t want to carry around a calorie counter or get caught up in a numbers game so if I want to eat a piece of cake that is x number of calories then I just starve my body of all the nutritious foods that I need because I already consumed those unhealthy calories. It’s better to eat nutritiously and if a piece of cake is what you want, then eat a bite or more likely you won’t even want it because you’ve already consumed everything your body needs by eating properly. It infuriates me that these weight loss programs are stealing the public blind with their gimmick programs and there is little education that will carry a person out into the real world. Ladies, you need to learn how to eat before you can become successful. It’s really simple once someone breaks it down for you. If you need additional help and support to make you accountable, go to a Holistic Life coach who will take you down the path of discovery towards what works for you. Forget the gimmick programs that are designed to take your money and keep you fat. Without a fat America, where would those businesses be? Learn how to eat for nutrition and not for pleasure and you are on your way.

June 27, 2008

Week 2 was a lot easier than week 1. I started getting into the habit of eating smaller more frequent meals and it was extremely satisfying. It helped thinking that I had a free day coming up and I dreamed of what goodie I was going to treat myself with on that day.

June 29, 2008

Free day! Yippee. Well, I really overdid it today. Same breakfast as usual, no morning stack, steak and baked potato and fruit for lunch and then I made chocolate chip cookies. What a mistake! I LOVE cookie dough and made myself sick eating dough and then had to sample the cookies too. What guilt! And boy did I feel sick and bloated afterwards. I had a hamburger with cheese for supper and more cookies. I don’t want to repeat that kind of free day again. I think this really isn’t how a free day should go so I think I’ll use more restraint the next time around.

July 2, 2008
I’m amazed, I stepped on the scale again today (really keep telling myself this is not what I should be doing) but I lost another 2 pounds. That a total of 5 pounds over 21/2 weeks. I’m thrilled and additional motivation mounts in my spirit. I looked up tummy tuck surgery information on the internet today to see if I could find out when it would be appropriate to lop off this extra fat/skin on my belly and butt. I was shocked and disgusted by the pictures I saw and what they did to you for a “lower body lift”. I’ve built tons of muscle over the past 1 ½ years but you just can’t see it over all the flab hanging around my middle. I swear I have the strongest abs of anyone in the gym; it’s just disguised under the loose flab hanging on my belly. How do I even measure my body fat anymore with the calipers? I don’t know what the grab and pinch to see what my true body fat really is anymore because it all just hangs. I’ll be honest though, I don’t know if I want a body lift as it looks gruesome. By some miracle, will my skin bounce back or will I have to face the inevitable….the knife! My butt looks like a little Shar Pei puppy and my stomach looks like a melting wax figure. There’s hard muscle under that skin and is it going to be worth it to me to remove the skin, knowing what they have to do to make that happen. Isn’t there any easier way? I should have been asking that before I got to this point, before I started gaining weight in my early 20s. Where was my head back then?

July 11, 2008

I’m just finishing my 4th week and I feel good. I’m amazed that I can still get sore after a workout after having lifted weights for more than a year. My muscles are getting more pronounced than ever before and my clothes are getting loose AGAIN! It’s a wonderful feeling and the scale has me at a 7 pound loss as of today. I’m very pleased as that is almost 2 pounds a week. That is remarkable and I feel great.