252 lbs. It's not the best starting point but hey everyone has to start somewhere right?
I've lost weight a lot in my life and started over many times before. As I've told a few people: "You want to know about weight loss? Ask the fat girl." Because when it comes to weight loss, those of us who have 100+ lbs to lose have been there and done that.
- 1200 calories a day? (or less- sometimes much much less)
- Counting calories until we're blue in the face?
- Weighing yourself on the scale every single day.
- Exercising every day for at least an hour? (Well at least for a few weeks.)
- Restricting every possible thing you could think of. Go vegan, go vegetarian, absolutely no sugar.
- I haven't tried Allie or any of the weight loss drugs but I have definitely considered it.
Any you know what? It works, at least for a little while. The weight comes off. In 2007, I lost 50 lbs and I was running at least 2 miles of 5K's. Yet, since then I've gained it all back and more. But I'm not dumb, each time I've tried to lose weight I hope I've learned from the previous experience and this time I want to craft a plan that uses what I've learned to make a lifelong change. I don't want to be chained to food, I don't want to be chained to this fat body and I don't want to be chained to a sedentary lifestyle. I need to make changes that are small and easy to maintain because I'm going to be going to school in a much more stressful environment and every change that has stuck with me has been a small change that was easy to make.
First I want to start off with the successful changes I've made in the past that have stuck with me:
- I stopped drinking soda and now very very rarely drink it even when it is readily available.
- Linked to that, I've actually started drinking water (which I HATED as recently as like a year ago and would drink anything but.)
- I replaced many of the non-nutritious refined starches with their whole-wheat, fiber filled counterparts. I eat heart healthy bread, brown rice, fiber one cereal and high fiber oatmeal without even thinking about "regular" starches and I even think they taste better. Now if I could just get the husband on board with this one.
- I have learned to like the taste of lettuce and vegetables and to not think of them as diet food. Sometimes I even crave veggies- especially zucchini which is one of my favorites.
- I really don't eat much fast food anymore (unless I'm really stressed out). Slim and I eat out a lot but we don't usually have fast food.
- When I was younger, I used to think you had to have a starch, a protein and a vegetable (usually out of a can) to make a meal. Now I can eat a protein and a veg without needing the starch to make me see the food I'm eating as a meal.
So what am I going to do? What's the plan?
- Eat 5 times a day or more. Not necessarily 5 meals a day but I want to make sure I have something every few hours even if it is just a Fiber One bar.
- Eat less processed food. I am so sick of all the low fat, low calorie, super processed stuff out there. I'm not saying I don't eat it or that I'm never going to eat it but I've noticed that the times I feel the most satisfied with my meal is when it's vegetables or fruit and protein. It just tastes better. For example, I am infinitely more satisfied when I make my own tacos than when I buy them from Taco Bell. Sure the Taco Bell tacos are faster (and probably cheaper) but I can eat 4 of them without noticing how I feel. Rather than eating Hot Pockets or frozen pizza, I want to make my own or at least buy ones less likely to have a thousand artificial ingredients. I'm going to try to eat more simple foods that I make myself.
- Eat more fruit and veg. This should be easy when we get the organic fruit and veg box delivered when we live in SF. All I have to do is eat all the stuff they send me in a week. http://www.alberteve.com/Essential_Organic_Fruit_Organic_Veg_Box_p/em_org.htm
- Use the C25K program so I end up run/walking the Turkey Trot in November. Even if I have to repeat weeks or I'm not ready to progress to the next level, moving and exercising is one of the keys to weight loss success. This is definitely something I learned from my previous attempts and if I could do it before I can do it again. When we move to SF it should be really easy to get in at least 30 minutes of exercise a day (hell just walking up and down that damn hill between my place and UCSF should do it) but I can get started way before we go to SF.
- Judge my weight loss by my clothes and how I feel, NOT by the numbers on the scale. Who cares if I stay 252 lbs if my clothes feel better, I'm eating healthy and I can run a 5K? Now thats not likely to happen but that number on the scale is just a number. It doesn't mean anything except for how much force is required for my body to overcome gravity and it's a number made up by people! I don't have 252 as my cosmic number that should totally define me and how I feel about myself. So I'll follow all the steps I've set out and when I'm exercising for 45 -60 min daily and eating things that make me feel good and have energy, I'll weigh myself and figure out how much I've lost but prior to that- no scale. I only weighed myself today so I could have some starting point.
So that's the plan!
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