Not Dieting Three Week Mark

Has it really only been a little more than 3 weeks since I embarked on this new adventure? It feels like a lot longer than that! Some days have been really easy. A few lately have made me want to fall back into my former bad habits.


The thing that I think is different this time is that I am very (very) aware of what I am putting into my body. Everything I eat is a very conscious decision made by me. There has not been any mindless eating. When I have overdone it, I knew I had.


Another thing that is different this time is my mental attitude. I over did it. So what? I'm human. I've only been doing this for 3 weeks. I did not ruin all my progress on one or two episodes of overeating. I have not undone the exercise that I have recently started. Tomorrow is a new day. God's grace is new every day. If God can do that for me, shouldn't I extend that grace to myself?


I have made progress on the scale. I am trying not to let that be my motivating factor, but some days that is the only reason I get out of bed...well, that and the three kids screaming for their breakfast.


I am trying not to weigh myself until Feb. 2. That will be one month on this new "not dieting" thing. It will be my next update on the right hand side of my blog. I have not weighed myself since last Thursday. This is really hard for me. I would eventually like to get to the point that I only weigh myself once a month, but as of now that seems entirely impossible.


I have also noticed that there are a lot of opportunities to eat when I am not really hungry. Just because someone else has a snack does not mean that I need one. Just because the ice cream is staring at me in the freezer does not mean I need to eat it. I have had an amazing thing happen recently. About a week (2 weeks ago?) I opened a pint of Ben and Jerry's. I ate a little less than a 1/4th of it and put it away. It has remained untouched in the freezer since then. That in itself is a miracle. In the past, I would eat an entire pint in one sitting. I'm not sure what the difference is this time. It's definitely a God thing. Normally, even talking about the Ben and Jerry's like this would have me getting up from the computer and grabbing the ice cream and a spoon and coming back to type the rest of the post. I honestly don't even have the desire. Amazing.

I have started reading some more in the "Lose it for Life" book. The part that I am reading now is talking about the quality of the food we put in our body. The last part I read was about all of the physical problems caused by obesity. There are many more than I realized.

I have eaten out about 4-5 times in the past week. That is very unusual for us. However with all the "strange things (are) happening" (anyone know the movie that song is from?) around here, I have eaten out more. The difference now is that I never leave stuffed and feeling miserable. I've had a Big Mac, Steak, loaded mashed potatoes, bread rolls, onion petals, and chai tea among other things. On any other "diet" I've been on, most of those would have been huge NO NO!s. I can't express enough the freedom of "Lose it for Life".

I have started walking on the treadmill 3 days a week. Usually I only walk a mile. I do it while the boys are awake, which has proved to be a challenge at times. However at this point in my life I am not committed enough to get up at 5 am in order to walk before they wake.

The first mile I walked took me 26 min. The other day I walked a mile in 18 min. and 44 seconds. I have no doubt after the weight loss of the first week or so that I would continue to lose weight without exercise. This is just my attempt to speed things up and get a little more toned along the way.

How I'm Not Dieting

Sometime near the final quarter of 2008, I happened upon a book that looked interesting to me. I decided to Bookmooch it and check it out. I also mooched the workbook that can accompany the book. Both books have sat in my bedroom for several months with the thought that I would get serious about "weight loss, dieting, and all that other stuff" at the beginning of the year.

My friends at work and I have been talking for a couple of months about a new start in the new year and what diets we thought we might try. We talked about biggest loser challenges. We talked about exercise. Names like Atkins and Sonoma were thrown around.

My friend, Patty, has struggled with weight for a good portion of her life. She is one of the most beautiful godly women I know. I love her. She and I always talk a lot about our poor eating habits and how we want to do better. After I had skimmed the book I bought and showed it to her, I went and bought her a copy as a Christmas present. (About now you're probably wondering what kind of friend buys another friend a diet book for Christmas...).

Patty ended up reading part of the book before I started reading. She told me that it had some really good stuff and that she had underlined things to go back to later. (Phew. She liked the Christmas present!). We both planned to start this weight loss thing on January 2nd.

Knowing that I was going to start my annual-miserable-food-restricting- diet, I spent the week before that day binging on everything imaginable. I'm pretty sure that I gained around 6 pounds the week between Christmas and New Years. I was packing away a lot of food and calories. My grand total on January 2nd? 250 pounds. Yikes! I have never weighed that much in my life, not even pregnant with twins. I am more than 100 pounds overweight.

I started reading the book. It's not a miracle cure. It's not a guide to fast weight loss. It's not the next great newest thing. It's a book about eating to honor God. It's a book about not listening to the lies of the world in regards to weight loss and dieting. The book doesn't tell you what to eat and what not to eat (although there are some suggestions in the back if you want some). It focuses on "the total solution -spiritual, emotional, and physical- for permanent weight loss". It's full of scripture that pertains to overeating. It has a lot of common sense stuff about eating right that I already knew. The first time that I sat down with the book, I read about a third of it. I underlined things to go back to later. For some reason, this time around, things were starting to click and make sense in my mind.

The name of the book is "Lose it for Life" by Stephen Arterburn, M. ED. and Dr. Linda Mintle. You may recognize Steve's name from Christian radio (I hear him on K-Love). He does a "New Life Minute" segment on there.

The book has caused me to rethink my weight loss plan for this year. I'll share how my thoughts have changed and what I am doing (and how it's working) in my next post.

The BIG FAT diet

This is it. The first day of the rest of my life. I've decided to start on the weight loss/ healthier eating journey yet again. My motivation this time is that my cousin Katherine is getting married in exactly two months! Yikes! I could go on and on about how how she's way too young (only in my mind), but I digress. (And honestly, she's marrying a great guy. One who will even play London Bridges with my boys. That's gotta count for something.)

I haven't picked a particular "diet". I usually do some form of lowering my carb and sugar intake along with some moderation (I hate that word).

As of this morning I weigh 244 lbs. I'm pretty sure that is the most I've ever weighed, including both pregnancies. I would love to be 199 (or less) by the wedding, and I realize that is a lofty goal.

We are starting another "Biggest Loser" challenge at work. I love the motivation of a contest, especially one where cash is the prize. Patty and I are also going to start meeting at work to have devotions or a prayer. I've really left God out of most of my dieting attempts which probably tells you why they've never been long term fixes. My mom started a week before me, so she is also another support and encouragement for me.

So expect to see updates on here and feel free to leave me any words of encouragement you might have.

For those who live close, I am still hosting the Hershey's Bliss chocolate/Gold Canyon candle party on May 2nd. If you don't live close, but still want to come, send me an email. It's at 6:00 pm.

Diet Schmiet

Another lady at work and I decided not to even attempt dieting this year until most of the goodies from the holidays were gone from out houses. We took a bunch of our chocolate and snacks into work and have been having a great feast! This is a sundae I made myself the other night. It was just so beautiful that I had to share (the picture, not the sundae!).

Weight GAIN Update

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.... or so I've heard.


I haven't posted one of these in awhile, so I thought I would update everyone. I have gained about 9 lbs. back. It's amazing how life can just throw you for a loop when you have been cruising along. Eating is a deeply emotional thing. At a time in my life when I was disappointed and angry, I allowed myself to eat whatever I wanted and as much as I wanted. Even though the anger went away after a week or so, the disappointment remained and so did the bad eating habits that came back with a vengeance. Anger is such an ungodly thing. It caused me to slow down/stop my weight loss and instead start packing the pounds back on.


I decided that June 1st would be a good day to jump back on the wagon and start fresh. So far today, I'm doing great. Ha ha. ( I wrote that at 8 am). I am trying to get back into drinking my water and staying away from sugar. There is no Diet Coke in the house (just coincidence, I'd be drinking it if there were).

Weight Loss Update

Well, the weight loss challenge is over at work and I just barely won. I lost 7 and another lady lost 6. There were only 3 of us in it this time. I have a feeling that it may be our last challenge for awhile. The sad thing is, I think I lost those 7 pounds for a second time, not really new weight. So I'm still stuck around a 48 pound total loss since January. I know some of this is the choices I have made to "enjoy" a few weekends (such as this past one). I have been getting more comments about the loss lately which is nice, but also strange since I'm not down that much for the past couple of weeks.

We are going out for Chinese tonight for Matthew's birthday. That scares me. I will eat very minimally today and then I am going to try to just have one plate and skip the rice. I will eat some crab rangoons because those are my favorite.

Weight Loss Update

I'm not sure that I can really call this a "loss" update since I gained 5 pounds over the weekend. My little hula girl at the bottom of the page has danced backwards this week.

If you've read my past weekend post, you will see why I gained. At the time, I thought it was worth it. However, when I think of where I could be......blah!

Only one more week left in this challenge at work. I need to be good until next Tuesday, but it's going to be hard this weekend.

I don't have any problem with my beverage choices anymore. I always either drink diet pop or drink water.

I don't really have any problems at home either. It's usually a special occasion that gets me into trouble.

Tuesday Bluesday

I am so tired this morning. All I want to do is go back to bed.

Yesterday I got up early and spent 3 hours cleaning our bedroom before the boys woke up. I still have some more sorting and things to do, but it looks a lot better. I even worked or cleaning up candle wax from a candle that had overflowed onto the carpet and wall several months ago. It also dripped onto a window screen. It's one of those things that only took about 20 min. to do, but I have been putting it off forever.

To get candle wax off of carpet: Cut up a brown paper grocery bag into strips or large pieces. Heat iron. Put bag on top of wax and run a warm/hot iron over the top of bag. The wax will soak into the bag and not hurt your iron. Keep moving clean spots of the bag over the wax and iron until no more wax comes through. The wax did come off of the screen this way too.

Last night after supper I went and walked 2.5 miles on the treadmill. I'm trying to make up for my weekend when I gave in to my cravings for about 26 hours. I didn't eat for 26 hours straight, but I didn't worry about what I ate for 26 hours. I had cake, pasta salad, potato salad, monkey bread, pizza, ice cream, Reese cups, M & M's, mozzarella sticks, onion rings, etc. The cravings are gone, which is good, but the scale is showing a 5 lb. gain. Blah!

Hungry

I have been so hungry last night and today! I just want to eat EVERYTHING. Ughh! Cyrstal - I need your prayers on this!

Usually if I wait it out, I will have a loss in the next day or so. If I give in and eat some junk, I might lose, or I will stay the same. Last night I chewed some gum to try to make the feeling go away. What really kills me is fixing very yummy food for the boys and them saying "I don't like that, want that, etc". I'm like "do you realize what you are passing up????".

Weight Loss Update

It is with great joy that I announce the loss of 5.4 pounds this week! I am now more than 1/2 way to my goal and I am 2 pounds away from a 50 lb. loss so far.

I have been walking about 3 days a week on the treadmill. I try to go at least 2-2.5 miles and walk for 35-45 min.

The best thing for me this time is that I have not given up a single food. I am not following any diet except my own. I do watch my carbs and my calories because I know both of those impact my weight.

This is what I ate yesterday:

B- banana
L- philly cheese steak no bun (steakum, onions, peppers, and provolone cheese), 1/2 mug of chai tea
S- pulled pork sandwich with honey mustard no bun, Texas coleslaw, sweet potato salad (like regular potato salad, but with sweet potatoes and regular potatoes), and a lemon bar

The day after I have a day with more carbs or calories than usual, I try to eat less. I also try to exercise a little longer to compensate. The treadmill has a calorie counter on it to show you how many calories you've burned. When I see how long I have to work to burn off 2 measly mozzarella sticks, it makes me question if they are really worth it.

I do not ever plan to go back to eating the way I was before or being the weight I was before. I know that no one does plan to gain the weight back. I plan to stick with this mindset the rest of my life. Moderation. Not giving anything up completely. I plan to get rid of my "fat clothes" as soon as I'm in the next size. I thank God for helping me with my food addiction. It is getting easier every day in the fact that I know the right things to do. It is still a struggle every day. It's hard when your husband is eating your favorite kind of ice cream. (I told him that he was giving me horrible cravings for....ice cream water and then went and drank a bottle). I told Tim the other day that I just wanted to eat mindlessly again and not have to think about it. Then I came to my senses and reminded myself how far I've come and look forward to where I'm going.

Diet Update

There is good news and bad news today. The bad news is that I had a .2 gain at work yesterday. I think it is a case of losing inches and not pounds. The good news is that this morning I was down 2.5 lbs at home, but I won't officially count that loss on my ticker at the bottom of this page until next week. I seem to lose on Wednesdays for some reason.

I did get into a smaller pair of pants yesterday. Things are starting to look baggy on me, but I'm not totally into the next size down yet either.

I have been eating pretty well. I did get slightly off track on Sunday with this yummy snack mix my mom made for Easter. It was the sauce for caramel corn poured over Chex cereal and then had dried cranberries and little chocolate eggs in it. I know it sounds strange, but it was so good! It was sweet and salty and crunchy and chewy. Other than that I ate moderately at lunch and stopped after one small serving of everything at lunch. The best thing that I have learned this time around is to just get right back into the swing of things the next day. I did go and exercise on Monday too and that doesn't hurt either.

I was looking at a Good Housekeeping from this month or last and on the cover was a girl who was the same age as me who had about the same amount of weight to lose and had done it in 7 months. So that was encouraging. No real diet "secrets" in there, I think maybe she did Weigh Down Workshop or something, but I found it interesting that in almost all of the weight loss success stories, God or faith was mentioned. I thanked God this morning for giving me the willpower this time and for helping me to stay on track.

I've been exercising 2-3x a week. I've been using the treadmill at my in laws. I think I am starting to get addicted to exercising. I always thought people who said that were crazy. I have NEVER been a fan of exercise. I know it is helping with the weight loss though and it does make you feel so good when you do it. The first 10-15 min. are the hardest for me and there are days that I don't want to go walk, but once I get into it, I want to keep going longer. I really think that I'd like to get a treadmill of my own, but I don't think that will happen anytime in the near future. I like it better than other exercise equipment because it makes you keep going even when you want to stop.

Diet Info

CONCERNED ABOUT TOO MANY CARBS IN YOUR DIET?

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health.
It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

Weight Loss Update

The weight loss seems to be going really slow now. It's frustrating when you are eating so much less than you were before, and trying to make the right choices of what to eat. I know that slow and steady is the way to go, but that doesn't keep me from hoping the weight comes off faster. I think I only lost 1 pound or so this week. One of the ladies at work that is doing the challenge with me told me to stop wearing baggy clothes to work. The problem is that I haven't really changed sizes yet. My smaller stuff still doesn't fit.

I pray that when I get to my goal weight (or even near it) that I can always remember how crappy it is to diet, how frustrating it is not to fit in my clothes, etc. I can handle eating this way for the rest of my life. I don't ever want to go back to mindless overeating/gaining weight again.

I am 1 1/2 lbs from where I wanted to be on Saturday for the wedding. I am about 3 lbs from being 1/2 way to my goal.

I really need to start exercising more.

Dieting Update

I'm down three more pounds since last week. I finally made it below 200 on the scale at work. Check out my hula girl at the bottom of the page. I'm almost halfway there! We did start a new challenge at work yesterday for another 5 weeks. My mini goal for myself is to lose 4 lbs. before our cousins wedding which is a week from Saturday.

Flashback Friday

These are from my college dieting days. Back then I was doing low fat/no fat. I'd eat baked potatoes with jelly on them and afterwards have some frozen yogurt. Hey, it worked! I was probably a size 10-12. This had to be right around the time I was dating Tim.

I got into one of our roommates skirts (she was a little thing) and then I broke the button on the back. Ha ha.

My thoughts on dieting, for what they are worth....

Where to start??? I really can't remember a time in my life when I wasn't dieting or in between diets. I know I started in high school if not sooner. I have done Atkins, Protein Power, the 14 day crash diet, the Cleveland Clinic Diet, counted calories, etc. These thoughts are random and in no particular order.

I think you have to take it one day at a time. If you start thinking "oh my gosh, I can never do this forever" you're going to talk yourself right out of ever sticking to it. You actually sometimes have to take it one meal at a time. Every time you make the choice to eat something healthy or avoid something that is not, you are making progress. Dieting is not the ALL OR NOTHING thing that we all try to make it.

Everyone generally knows what their weaknesses are. Pick a diet that focuses on that. For me, most of the time it is sugar. I could eat chocolate all day long. I also like bread and chips. And like Sonya, one taste could just throw me off. So Atkins was a good choice for me. I have also done Protein Power (which is very similar to Atkins). I needed someone to tell me- "you can have this, but not this".

I do think you have to have the mindset to want to lose weight. Most people want to lose it, but do it without any effort on their part. They want a quick fix, or a pill, or that one exercise that will just do it for them. I have started a diet several times when I wasn't really ready and it just doesn't work. I don't know how to make yourself ready. I don't know why this time moderation is working for me and other times it wouldn't.

I think that if you stick with the strict part of a diet for at least 3 weeks before you allow yourself to "cheat" or have a "free day" or whatever you want to call it, you will have better success at getting back on the wagon the next meal or next day.

As I said on Jamie's blog, preparation is a big key in success. Know what you can snack on. If you have a problem with portion control, count things out and measure them. Know what a serving size is. Have snacks ready to eat. Have legal things to "cheat" on. Plan out what you are going to eat and have things on hand.

If you give up sugar, you will probably go through withdrawal. You will have headaches. It will be over in about 3 days. You will feel better once it is out of your system. Things that are sugar free or made with artificial sweeteners will not taste good the first couple days to weeks. After you get all of the sugar out of your system, try them again and they will taste better. If you still don't like them, try a different brand. I really don't like Diet Pepsi. I don't mind Diet Cherry Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper.

I truly think sugar and caffeine are drugs. I recently went to a drug seminar for work and there are so many correlations between what people addicted to drugs do/think and what people addicted to sugar do/think. If I find my stuff at work, I'll try to post some of those things. I also believe that there is a lot of sugar added to foods that don't need it, just to get people to eat more or become addicted to it.

No matter what diet you do, I think calories and carbs will affect your outcome. If you eat too many of either, you will gain.

I don't worry too much about vegetables and fruits (as long as they are natural and don't have anything added to them). I did not get fat on carrots and apples. The only thing I try to watch is my potatoes.

It only takes 2 seconds to tell someone "no thank you" when they offer you something. Or to pass the bowl by when it goes around the table. In most cases, no one will even notice and if they do, you tell them that you are choosing not to eat that food right now. I've also found that people will leave you alone more if you tell them you are doing something "for Lent", "for a challenge at work" or whatever.

For me, I'd make excuses to eat anything. Like this may be the only time I get to try Sally's Pecan Pie, or work is paying for the pizza, so I should have some, after all I earned it, or today is Bob's birthday and everyone else is eating ice cream cake. Don't let other people give you guilt trips either. "Come on, you mean to tell me that you are not going to have a piece of your sons birthday cake?", or "Oh what's one little brownie going to do to you?". They choose what to put in their bodies and you choose what to put in yours. We are all 95% responsible for our weights (that's my personal very scientific guess on the percentage). You can only blame so much on genetics and having kids.

Set your goals small. I will stay on this diet for 2 days. I will drink 3 glasses of water today. I will stop eating 3 of my 4 daily Twix bars. Don't try to do everything at once. Expect the progress to be slow. You didn't gain the weight in a day and you aren't going to lose it in a day. There is no miracle drug, and if there were we would all be skinny.

I started out at the beginning of this year with 100 pounds to lose. My thing at the bottom of the page says 92, but I could easily shoot for 100 to be in my "ideal body weight range". I just have always liked the number 147 and that's what was on my first drivers license. I don't consider myself only having a little to lose. I'm sure my chart at the Dr. would say "morbidly obese".

I just don't get the whole keeping your weight a big secret thing. I feel that people know I'm overweight, all they have to do is look at me. The numbers on the scale are not who I am. I think it's good to have someone to be accountable to. Every week at work I weigh in front of someone else.

I weigh myself daily. It keeps me on track. If I'm up a little, I will really watch what I eat that day. If I am down, I want to keep it down and will watch what I eat that day. I know if a certain meal/day wasn't good to me.

I have exercised very little. Maybe a total of 8-10x this year. It definitely speeds up the loss when you do and you can also allow yourself a few more calories. When I get closer to my goal I will definitely need to exercise if I want to be the least bit toned and not all flabby.

You can live on Atkins forever. It's meat and fruit and vegetables. It's not rocket science. When you cut out the sugar, you don't need as much food to feel full. It's meant to be a lifestyle, not a diet you go on and then quit when you've reached your goal. I think people need to get out of the "forever" thinking though like I said before.

Sonya- One of my very favorite sites for support and recipes is here. I used to spend a lot of time reading questions on the bulletin boards and trying recipes. Very good motivation and support. There are also challenges that you can sign up to be a part of. There are also tons of before and after pictures which I loved to look at. Real people who have and are doing it. There is a century club for people who have lost 100 or more pounds. Anyways, check it out.

OK, my diet update for this week is reflected at the bottom of the page. I lost 3 lbs. this week and a total of 9.2 in the past 5 weeks. I would have lost more if I hadn't had to lose the 8 that I regained from eating girl scout cookies. Oh well! I started out at 239 and am now at 201.4 according to the scales at work. I think I won the challenge again, but things were a little crazy at work today as we are having a mock survey.

An evil woman from Hospice brought me a gift for Social Work month. It was called "Double Indulgence" and has milk chocolate, pecan pieces, salted cashews, toffee, caramel, white and dark chocolate. (Sorry fellow dieters!) It looks like a cow patty and is about 6 inches in diameter. I did eat about 1/4 of it (considered that supper along with some Diet Coke to balance it out) and shared the rest with co-workers and Tim. We'll see tomorrow if I did any damage.

Thanks to everyone who actually read through this very long post. I'm sure I forgot to add something.