I cannot seem to lose these last 10 pounds and it is driving me insane!! I've obviously hit a major plateau and I am quite frustrated by the lack of success, especially when this is the best I have felt in a very long time. My fear is that I will never reach my 10 pound goal which means my overall goal of 20 pounds is a lost cause. While I am very health minded, I am human. I've been known to overindulge in sweets, alcohol and bad fitness habits. I know I am to blame for this lack of will power. I will also blame my job; I used food and booze as a way to cope with the stress. The last few weeks of school I packed on 5 pounds. I was going in the wrong direction!! I was disappointed, mad at myself and getting to a point where I just didn't care. Then I caught a stomach bug. After puking and pooping my brains out my body was exhausted. I didn't eat badly because I couldn't eat anything without getting sick. While I certainly do not enjoy throwing up and pooping like a goose, it did halt my alcohol and food consumption and really made me conscious of what I was putting into my body.
Awhile back I joined an on-line health site called My Fitness Pal. It is kind of like a version of Weight Watchers minus the points system. I had joined this site, logged in with my weight and never went back on there. One evening after having the bug, I decided to pop back on the site to play around with the settings. I realized how very easy it was to record my daily food consumption, my water intake and my exercise. That night I recorded what I had eaten that day and while not bad, I realized that snacking was my downfall....it added about 150 more calories than what I really needed. 150 extra calories doesn't sound like a lot, but do that daily for weeks and months on end and it equals a lot of unwanted and unneeded calories. The beauty of this site, for me at least, is seeing in black & white what I was eating and how the food was broken down. For example, the chips I ate didn't sound bad at the time, but the site breaks down the amount of calories, carbs, fats and proteins in each food item. Seeing in plain site how much I ate and how much fat was now pumping through my body was an eye opener! It also helped me realize that while I was eating mainly healthful foods, the portions were too large. I slacked big time in exercise and seeing what I was NOT doing also made an impact.
For the past 2-3 weeks I've been logging my food intake, making conscious choices about what I consume and I've even started exercising. It is so easy! Last night I met some Boy Scout moms at Bread Co. so we could plan the upcoming year. I love Bread Co.'s chocolate chip cookies so I made sure I ate well during the day, saved up my calories and enjoyed a cookie while I was out. Last week I went shopping with my sister-in-law and I knew we'd have dinner and drinks so again I watched what I ate, upped my walk time and was able to enjoy beer on the patio without any guilt. The beauty of this program is that it teaches you how to eat and enjoy life, not be chained to lettuce and bran flakes. I eat and drink what I want within reason!
This morning I stepped on the scale fully expecting to see the same number, but to my surprise I saw something different!! I've lost an additional 2lbs! My total so far is 6lbs! I may never hit that 20lb goal weight, but I am happy and healthy and I broke the initial plateau!
