24 years of dieting!

Just thought I'd share this entry from my first journal. It shows how horribly skewed my perception was when I was a teenager. I think I probably weighed like 150 at the time maybe, and I was 6'1". I guess having a huge crush on a kid who was 5'4" and 117 pounds (yes, I knew his height and weight...aren't all teenage girls are stalker-like about the guys they like?) made me feel like a giant BLOB. Junior High was such the emotional roller coaster! I'm so glad I never have to go through that again.

April 30, 1985

Hi today I stared my DIET! Yay! I did pretty good today! I'm determind to get down to 130-135! Then maybe I'll enter the cover model contest next year when I'm skinny! Hopefully I'll be down to 130-135 by the time we go to california. I can't stand this fatness any longer! Well I'd better go and do my exercises.

See Ya
Rach

What I wouldn't give to weigh 150 now! I don't think that is even possible or healthy for my age and height, but dang! What was I thinking back then! :)

Ready to Go...Finally!!

I am realizing how behind I am in this group! I wanted to start sooner, but between our adoption finalization, sealing and blessing (Yeah!), our basement flooding, sickness, major mold problems, etc... I just couldn't find the time to get going. But now I am ready start working off those annoying, unwanted pounds! 

So, do we all weigh in the same day? What is the plan? 

A New Member

We have a new member to our improving group of women, Shantel. We are excited to welcome her. She will be an added positive motivation.

As for the rest of us, we are in a platue phase. Rachael has been dealing with much stress and Tristy and I have been working on our last 10 hardest pounds. I believe Tristy has done the best out of all of us. Joan also is working in platue mode as far as I am aware. I think we need a spark lighted under us. I don't know how to do it, but we hang in there because we talk regularly and weigh in once a week.

So, to us all, move onward.

Stress is my Achille's heel...

Stressful weekend + Frustration = Big, fat, brownie sundae complete with hot fudge and whip cream. I'll be working that one off all week long.

A Little Frustrated

So needless to say anytime someone tries to lose weight they get frustrated, and I am definitely feeling that way today. I am actually more mad at myself than anything. I pretty much have wasted the last two weeks. I spent last week binjing and eating whatever I want, and it showed when we did our weigh in. I spent this past week very motivated to not have that happen again and I worked my butt off. To no avail I didn't even lose all the weight I gained from my binge fest. I know that depressing number on the scale is dependent on some many different factors, and can change from day to day, but I am still dissappointed - in myself and the process. I had a crazy week, and even on The Biggest Loser the girl who worked the hardest gained 2 pounds and her trainer siad it was probably due to the stress she faced that week. I have tried to tell myself that must be the case for me, but I don't want to use any excuses. I haven't given up and plan to work really hard agian this week, but the frustration is still there. I fear that I will just be stuck at this same weight forever. How do I get past that negativity, and have faith that I am doing what I can to reach my goal? Well I just needed to vent a little bit it helps me move past the problem.

A New Approach

I have done well with my exercising goals. I exercise 6 days a week, but the eating has a lot of room for improvement. I was praying to find a way to replace my bad eating habits with something good. I had been trying to find something for weeks, but I found nothing that worked on my own. As I made it a matter of prayer, this is what I came up with: I am going to work for my new exercise shoes. Everytime I resist a bad habit, I get to put a marble in a container. When I fill up the container, I earn money towards my shoes that I already need to buy anyway. This way the better I get at resisting the bad habits the sooner I get them. I am thinking this will work because it was by inspiration that I got the idea. Only Heavenly Father knows what will really work for me. I felt pretty good tonight when I got the container all set up and put in my first marbles. I will be focusing on doing better and not the bad habits. Isn't that what Heavenly Father wants us to be doing anyway in all areas?

This last week...

Ok, there is no easy way to say this, a few of us didn't do so well this week. Rachael, on the other hand lost 3 1/2 pounds. I gained .5 pound. Tristy won't tell us what she gained. She had a little vacation and never got back on her diet after that. Joan, also went on vacation and is working to get back to her pre-vacation weight. She never did tell me what her weigh in was either. I measured myself and I figured my body fat went from 28.3% to 28.25%, not enough to go and celebrate, but enough to say my exercising is working a little.
Kristin

The Truth

Dieting Sucks!

But... I do feel sooooo much better now that I am eating healthier.

But, still.... It totally sucks. When what I really want is a big wedge of Cheesecake Factory cheesecake, I am stuck eating sugar free cheesecake flavored jello pudding on a graham cracker topped with homemade, low sugar blueberry sauce. Tastes OK I guess, but it's just not the same. I miss my fat and sugar dangit!

But... it will be worth it in the long run. I just have to whine now and then about how much I miss the good stuff.

So Far, So Good

Well it has been two weeks now since we started this weight loss journey and lifestyle change. Luckily our hard work seems to be paying off. Here are our losses so far:

Kristin - 5 pounds

Tristy - 6 pounds

Rachael - 8 pounds

Seeing the results really increases my motivation to keep going. Here's to another good week, and hopefully we'll have more good news to report next Saturday.

I need therapy

I am so glad we did this blog. I need to vent for a while so I don't go up to the kitchen. This 4 day anti-bloat is crazy. It says it is a 1200 calorie day, but it feels like a 700 calorie day. I hate that one of my meals is a little chicken, tomatoes and a cheese stick. The next meal was a smoothie of frozen blueberries and water with some added flax seed oil. Are you kidding? The book said the first day would be the hardest, and it better be because I can't feel sorry for myself for too many days in a row, I will brake. Nothing sounds fun or good to do when all you can do is think of food.
I love that we can all share this together. It is nice to not feel like there is something wrong with me when I fall and have to climb back up. Rachael, you have done much better than I have with the eating over the last week or so. I hope you can get over the feeling guilty part quickly. You are doing great. Satan uses quilt to have us turn away from Christ because we feel not worthy. The thing Christ wants us to do is admit the mistake and use it to learn from. Does that mean we never fall again? Probably not, but have a battle plan to pick yourself up as quick as possible. I am not sure where that came from, but I do that sometimes.
In the end I hope this is fun for everyone. Here is to learning new habits over the next few months.

Stress Eating

I think we all are stress eaters, we go for the junk when we are overwhelmed or sad. It is our drug that helps us feel better - temporarily anyway. I always read things that say when you are stressed and feel like eating sweets to eat some fruit or drink some water, but that is a bunch of crap! It never works, I just end up eating an apple and then give into the sweets. At these moments my body is not looking for nutrition, my mind is looking for relief and doesn't know where else to get it. I think like Kristin said that it is important to have a plan before you are in the stressful situation. We can't just remove bad habits, we need to replace them with something good. We need to find something else that can bring us relief other than food. Things like exercising, reading a book, taking a bath, going for a drive, etc. So when something comes up we turn to that thing instead of food. I know it is easier said than done, but it is the only thing that has helped me. I am praying that after some practice it won't seem so hard any more and my insticts won't go that direction automatically. So Rachael I feel your pain, but I think you are doing great! Don't let one slip bring you down, we all willl have those moments. I am so glad we are doing this together, it has been a great motivation for me.

Starting new on Friday

I guess we can start new anytime we want. I had a little brake down this last Saturday when Rachael and Tristy lost around 5 pounds each, I was down nothing, and I had been doing it almost a week longer. I gave in on Saturday and Sunday. I have been taking a little brake from the calorie counting, but watching what I ate by eating good foods and stopping when I am full. This is a brake that I needed for a few days.
But today I start a new diet section from the FlatBellyDiet from Prevention magazine, the Anti-bloat Jumpstart. It is four days long. I think I get bloated from over eating or just eating before the previous meal wasn't digested yet. I haven't really done well this week, but I vow to see through this 4 day diet. It just might jump start me again. I have a feeling a jump start might be needed from time to time. I hope I get the hang of it all soon.
As for Rachael's comments. I remember when our ward did the health program with Cindy Brown last year. The one thing I was so surprised by, was how emotional the whole experience was. There were so many ups and down points, the parts I can remember at the downs. But I am learning from the downs this time a lot better. Yesterday I had a few excuses to each some sweets, and the old me would have kept on eating. But last night, I stopped. I wanted them so bad, but I realized I wasn't hungry. The urge was coming from my head, not my stomach. I fought it off for several hours, and was amazed at the end of the day that I did it. I have been using a lot of prayers to help keep my stress undercontrol and I think it has made a big difference. I really don't know what else to tell Rachael, other than, you are not alone and the only one that does that. Just remember how you felt the next day, then think about how you could have handled it differently for next time. You need to find a way to deal with the stress before it happens. It is like telling our kids they have to decide to say no to drugs before they are in the situation, or else they probably won't make the correct choice in the moment. I am not saying "no sweets", just decide how to deal with stress when you are not in the middle of it. Allow yourself to cry and freak out and feel the emotions. That is what your spirit probably needs is a good cry or whatever. That is what the book said that I just read, and I liked it. It gets easier if you stick to it, I think.

Withdrawls...HELP!

Ok. I've always known that food, in the form of sweets, is my drug. It's the first thing I turn to for comfort, which is probably the reason I am 75 pound over weight! : P Anyway, these past few weeks we have been doing this have, coincidentally, been very stressful ones for me for other reasons and I haven't had my drug to turn to. Well, let me ammend that a bit. I have had sweets, but on a MUCH smaller scale. Despite that, I have actually been doing very well. I have been eating much healthier and feel so much better. Unfortunately, last night due to all the stress I've been under, and my natural forgetfulness, I forgot something VERY important. I felt so horrible that I just lost it. After I cried it all out, I had a bigger dinner than I should have and topped it off with a big piece of lemon raspberry cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes that my sister had brought over earlier. That combined with my wonderful husband helping me catch up on some housework restored my sanity. So my question is this... How can I break free of my sugary drug habit? I know I cannot give up sweets entirely. And I am able to eat them in moderation when I am not emotional or stressed, but I need an alternative so when I freak out, like I did last night, I don't turn to sugar and inhale 2,000 calories in one stressful sitting. Any suggestions?

It has started

Well, we welcome you all to join us in our adventure of losing weight and toning up. The TV show the Biggest Loser works well because there are TV cameras around them all the time, and so we use this blog and the team members to keep us accountable for our actions. We created this team of women that are working together to reach individual goals. We check in with our partner each day to report how well we did with our eating and our exercise. We challenge each other to conquer our week spots the next day. We make commitments to each other and we do our best to stick to it. Some of us live close enough to have a weigh together each Saturday morning. That also helps with the accountability. No one wants to gain weight at the weigh in with the others around to see it.
We started February 14th, Valentines day, after all there really is no good time to start. We are women, so thus we do love our chocolate and sweets. That was our biggest challenge of the weekend of Valentines, but that is past us now and we are moving forward.
We have a total of 5 women. My self, Kristin. My mother, Joan. My friends Tristy, Rachael, and Shantel.