30 Pounds Down

Well I have lost 30 pounds this spring and summer. It feels good. I have more energy, I am almost sleeping like a normal person and my clothes fit different or don't fit at all. It has been slow but steady progress.

I exercise between 4 and 6 times a week and have tried to make life sustainable eating habit changes. Dieting has never worked well for me. I tried Weight Watchers and become very frustrated with it. I need eating habits that I can keep for life.

Here are a few that I have tried to incorporate into my life now.

1. Drink lots of water. Basically it is all I drink with an occasional glass of juice, soy milk, diet pop or wine. They say to drink half your body weight in ounces or a minimum of 8 glasses a day. Let's say I drink a lot more than 64 ounces!

2. Don't eat after 7pm. Okay so I often fail at this one but I have been trying. I find sometimes we eat dinner late or if I am up too late I need to eat something because my stomach needs to be settled and sometimes I just fail and just give in to wanting to eat. But I have changed my mindset to try to avoid doing this and if I do eat to make that a healthy food choice.

3. Using a smaller plate. I switched to using a salad plate instead of a regular dinner plate. This helps me control my portions and lets me decide if I really want seconds or not easier. I also eat second with pleasure because I know my intial portion was well under control.

4. Enjoying fruit and veggies. Personally I do like the concept of Eating a Rainbow and find I really do enjoy eating a variety of colors of food. I really think fruit and veggies taste better than most proccessed foods now. I think the more you eat of it the more you realize how good it is.

5. Controlling my bread intake. Bottom line bread is my weakness. I could easily carb load with a great bread. This is where I can too easily lose track of what I have eaten - I have worked hard to keep this under control.

6. Looking at my kids. When I look at the kids I remember two things. I want to be healthy for them so they see a good model and so I have the energy I need to keep up with them. I actually want to race them and have to pretend to lose instead of really losing. Secondly I look at them and realize I am carrying an extra child around in my extra weight. I look at them and realize I need to lose as much weight as you weigh. When I carry Sirah around now I think about how heavy she is and how I used to carry that much extra weight around every day. These thoughts inspire me to keep working.

7. I love exercise now. Okay I don't like walking on a treadmill or using an elliptical while I am on it truly but I always feel good when I am done and I am pretty unhappy when I don't exercise for a few days. I really feel the difference in me and can see the emotional differences as well as the physical differences it makes in me. I want to exercise each day because I know the results even if I still don't LOVE the activity itself. Though I really do enjoy my water aerobics class outside in the beautiful sun and perfect temp pool, it's like being on vacation every morning.

8. Understanding more. I understand more and more each day about fitness and my health. Not exercise, dieting or the current tricks and trends but true understanding of long term fitness and health. The more I learn the more motivated I am to stay the course.

9. Results. Okay so losing 30 pounds certainly has kept me motivated to lose the rest I need to. It is helpful to see regular results and to know it is making a difference.

Losing this weight has not come easy to me but I really wanted to do it in a life sustaining way. I have been around friends as they went into dieting cycles and became obsessed with everything they ate, their exercise and watching the pounds drop. I knew I could not take that kind of approach for two reasons. First it would not be sustainable for me given my personality and struggles with weight over the years. Second that kind of approach requires too much "me time" and "me thought" of which I simply do not have the time or mental capacity to spend that much time thinking about me and my needs. I needed an approach that would work for my whole family and I would be able to maintain through life. These are the things that I have found have worked for me so far. I'll check back in 6 months and see how things are going then.

Peace,
Tenniel