I continued to gain weight until I exceeded 400 lbs in July of 2011.
Only twice did I really try to diet and I lost a few pounds but they came back on over time. Last year I decided that I was not living the life I wanted. I did nothing on weekends because I needed to sleep. I was miserable and my work was suffering. I decided that it was time.
It is not that I did not know what I needed to do. I have a degree in Human Nutrition (Yeah, that is embarrassing to admit.) I read a couple of books Food: The Good Girl’s Drug: How to Stop Using Food to Control Your Feelings bySunny Sea Gold and The Small Change Diet: 10 Steps to a Thinner, Healthier You by Keri Gans . I started to apply the principles in these books and cleaned out the kitchen. This was not a diet this is a lifestyle change.
I found mynetdiary.com and started logging what I ate. I like the calculators in mynetdiary and the recipe builder. Logging intake has been critical to me. If I have a bad food day I log it. If I eat it I log it. I have to be honest and accountable to myself at the end of the day. I started making a salad everyday for lunch. (I fill up 2 relish trays every Sunday with chopped vegetables). I have a job in the food industry so I have to taste products throughout the day.
I bought a basic treadmill that would handle my weight and started walking. It took me a few weeks to be able to walk a mile in 35 minutes. I got a Fitbit. I love my Fitbit it is with me 24/7. I needed an activity gauge so I know I am getting enough movement in my day. My days are variable at work so I can walk 2,000 to 10,000 steps depending on the day. I am trying to hit 10,000 steps a day.
I was on a secret mission for the first 4 months and no one really noticed or commented. I had been stalking That Wife and knew another TWLC was going to start. I decided that I would join to get some motivation and to boost my accountability. I joined twitter and facebook to have more interactions. This was key to my continued success.
I had lost just over 50 lbs by mid October and hoped to knock off another 50 during the TWLC challenge that ended in Mid April. Well I managed to do slightly better with a 58lb loss. I am not even halfway done with my weight loss but TWLC2 helped with that first 100.
OCTOBER 2011 APRIL 2012
By December the secret mission part was over and I had to admit to working on losing weight. I was surprised by the mental part of the journey at this point it was good to have the TWLC facebook group and twitter to see that others were struggling too.
Knowing this was a long project I started a 101 in 1001 list setup to follow on this journey. I also decided on some big rewards that should be part of the 101. I have a chart with rewards for hitting goals. I included every 10% of what I want to lose, every 100 miles on the treadmill, every million fitbit steps, and every stone lost (14 lbs.). I have found that moving ping pong balls from the need to lose to have lost jar is pretty rewarding.
I have gone through a lot of pants sizes from 32 to 20. The Salvation Army is loving my donations, which includes 14 garbage bags so far. I am limiting my pants to 2-3 pairs in a size but that adds up to a lot of laundry. My size 4x lab coast would not snap last July now it overlaps about 8 inches.
I am grateful that I have a support system online and IRL that is there for me when I hit a rough spot. I know that this first 100 was hard in the getting started and committing but easy in the shock to the system. The next 100 will be harder and the last 50 or so will be killer. I do not know where my happy weight will be, but I will be much healthier and I am already happier.
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