Weekly Weigh-In 10/01/09

Well, it's the first week of dieting which ususally loses more than the following weeks will. And I've been sick. My daughter has been confirmed to have the flu by her doctor and so I assume I have the same. On the bright side, it seems to be a relatively mild flu so I'm guessing this is swine flu since I've heard several times that it's usually not as bad as the regular seasonal flu.

Today the scale says 195. Yay!

I have now lost the weight of the average woman's handbag.

Silver lining?

The Dress

The bad news is that I'm sick with the latest plague to sweep the workplace. The good news is that I'm sick and therefore all food tastes like crap. This makes it easier to be good about what I eat. It's a small thing to be happy for but I'll take it.

And since my daughter is also sick, poor thing, it means that we sickees can have a mommy/daughter day of hot tea/cocoa, movies, and blankies.

My (very) general rules

This is my middle child on his first birthday (with his cake frosting). A big motivator here is not leaving bad habits with the kids.

Wow! You are all so wonderfully supportive. Thank you for that because it really does help.

So I have a few rules I follow when losing weight and the rest is just kind of winging it as I go. Of course no one else need follow them, this is just what I do. And, most importantly, talk to your doctor. I am not a doctor nor any kind of medical professional and while this works for me it may not for you. Only you and your doctor can decide. Got that? Okay, good.

~ Walk one hour a day 5 or 6 days a week. I don't do 7 because you need a 'do nothing' day and if you feel like you 'missed' a day it's too easy to get discouraged and quit. And I don't feel bad about skipping day 6 if I need it, either. If you find walking boring, bring a music player or a book (or a camera!). OR, do what I do and put the treadmill in front of the TV. I get to watch all of my favorite shows (like Grey's Anatomy) and at the same time be totally distracted from the fact that I'm exercising.

~ Soda is out. It's completely empty calories and after I haven't been drinking it for a month I find I no longer like it anyway (that first month is hard, though, I'll admit). I substitute hot tea, coffee (sorry, I won't give up caffeine), unsweetened iced tea and, if I really need to drink water and don't want to, Crystal Light and Kool-Aid packets are great to mix in. I only use about 1/2 the packet though and I do cut the sugar in my coffee by about 1/2.

~ Eggs and other dairy are included. The first time around it didn't occur to me not to eat them and, having had success in a big way then, I cannot be convinced they aren't good when dieting so long as they are low-fat and in moderation. I usually had an egg or two (hard boiled or scrambled with NO butter), a small portion of cheese and about 8 oz. of milk everyday. Here is one of many sites alluding to the studies that suggests dairy (or more particularly calcium) may help.

~ LOTS of vegetables. Did you know that if you eat an entire can of green beans it's only 70 calories? I swear, go take a look in the pantry. And peas and corn aren't much more. It really fills me up quickly. Dinner was often something like a piece of chicken (plain) baked in the oven (while making shake n' bake for the kids) and green beans with chicken broth added to both the chicken and the green beans for flavor. It's actually pretty good.

~ For me, NO bread. 1 piece of bread will undermine the entire day and the scale will not budge. So it's out. I do eat small portions of pasta with broth but not much. I also have some pasta in frozen meals (I ♥ Smart Ones Three Cheese Ziti Marinara even when I'm NOT watching calories).

~ With the exception of dinner I try to only eat 100 calories at a time. It takes the edge off the hunger and will hold me for an hour. If I'm still hungry I only have to wait an hour so it's not a great big deal. Dinner is usually a few hundred calories.

~ I usually try to drink something 10 minutes or so before I eat so that I get that full feeling faster. Water is best because it is SO good for you (it even makes you think clearer) but I don't force myself to drink it or I start to hate it. I just hide it if I need to (Crystal Light or whatever).

~ If I just HAVE to have chocolate (and you know I do) I limit it to one miniature candy bar a day, preferably the Hershey's miniatures because they're the smallest. Before I would just wolf them down and not think about it. Now I let it sit in my mouth and savor it. I actually get the exact same enjoyment from it that way and for a lot less calories.

~ Eat breakfast. That's how your body knows to kick the metabolism up for the daytime (because you're breaking the fast) and it will help.

~ No eating after 8 pm. Sometimes I go to bed at 10, sometimes midnight or later, but I never eat anything after 8 (and I try to only drink clear stuff by then, too).

And I try to always remember three things:
~ It's only food and it will be there when I get back.
~ Thin feels better than sugar tastes.
~ If you slip up today, just start again. Feeling bad will only discourage you so just get over it and move on.

Oh, and another thing that helped me was measuring myself. I got a fabric measuring tape and once a week I measured my hips, waist, thighs and upper arms. When I had a week that the scale didn't budge (or maybe went up a little) I would still often see a drop in my measurement numbers. It helped me stay motivated on a week that otherwise might have been depressing to me. And I only weighed myself first thing in the morning. My weight fluctuates about 5 pounds from morning to night so be consistent in your times if you want a real picture of how it's going.

But keep in mind through whatever diet you follow that it should not leave you run down and tired. You should not ever feel dizzy. If you do (or anything else feels wrong) then you need to see your doctor. The first time I dieted I overdid it and my cycle stopped for like 4 months. Not healthy so don't do that. If your cycle gets all messed up then you are taking it to far and again SEE YOUR DOCTOR. K?

What else have you learned helps?


This is me, about a month before baby #3, on the little man's birthday

200 pounds

These are my fat pictures. Or they were... The picture on the left is after my third child was born. The picture on the right is when my first child was about 9 months old. This morning I looked at these pictures and thought, "wow, I was kind of fat" and THEN I realized that I weigh now what I weighed in those pictures. I hadn't seen it but there it is. Only THIS time, there is no baby to blame it on. THIS time, I did it to myself.

I'll give you the quick picture of my roller coaster. I graduated high school at 145 pounds. Being 6' tall back then this made me a size 8 and I was damn good looking. Of course, I thought I was fat because I had a belly and seriously I want to go back and slap myself smart. Oh well.

My freshman year of college I moved in with my boyfriend (later husband) and my weight took a distressing turn. I gained 40 pounds in a year and a half. O.M.F.S.M. I went into the bathroom one morning, looked in the mirror, and realized I had a stretch mark. ON MY ASS! I burst into tears and signed up for a gym. I lost 20 pounds, started to feel better, and got pregnant. And gained 60 pounds.

After baby #1 I was 217 pounds. I started to shed it when he was around 6 months old and I lost 40 pounds of it. Then I got pregnant. And gained 40 pounds. When I moved to Reno I managed to get down to about 190. Then I became pregnant with baby #3 (#2 was still only 4 months old) and I ended that pregnancy at 236 pounds. I went into the hospital, delivered a 6.5 pound girl, and came out weighing 237 pounds. That's right. I delivered 7 pounds from my body and actually GAINED weight. The doctor said I was really dehydrated when I went in (I hadn't noticed) and they had pumped my veins full of water.

When baby #3 was 5 weeks old I started walking every day at lunch. For 7 months I walked an hour 6 days a week and watched what I ate. I lost 80 pounds in 7 months. I fit into size 10 jeans and I felt better than I ever had. Yes, I wasn't wearing a size 8 like I used to but, seriously, I have 3 kids. An 8 isn't incredibly realistic anymore.

But it has now been 5 years since the weight came off and 40 of it has crept back on a little at a time. And now I weigh what I did in two of my fat pictures. I weigh 200 pounds as of this morning. I wear a size 14 jeans. I hate it. I looked yesterday at all of the slinky little numbers at the Halloween store and thought how I couldn't possibly wear any of those things without looking incredibly stupid.

I still have the dress I wore to my senior prom. It's a long black dress, simple and elegant, and dammit I'm going to get it zipped up. It may never again fit like it did when I was in high school and I don't expect it to. But a size 10 person could zip it up (it's an 8) and then admit it doesn't fit and take it off. That's all I'm asking for. It. Will. Zip.

When I get to 160 (a size 10 for me) I will reward myself with a new sewing machine. The machine I have now is a Singer and was made in the 70s (no kidding). It's been quite the champ and has done a lot for me but, after 30+ years, it's time to retire it (and it weighs a TON). So this is me getting started. Wish me luck.