The 20lb mark!

I have officially lost a total of 20 lbs!  Well, 20.5 to be precise!!!  WOOHOOO!  I started out at 323lbs.  I am now 302.5 lbs.  I have lost 6% of my starting body weight.  My BMI has gone from 46.3 to 43.4.  I am so close to breaking below 300, I can taste it!  It's been YEARS since I was below 300!

This past week was great!  I got back into exercising.  I did a lot of walking for aerobic exercise, and I threw in a little pilates for some strength training.  It felt great!  At the beginning of March I HATED exercise, and now I look forward to it!  How cool is that!  I am still eating relatively healthy, but my intake did go up more than it should have this past week.  I am going to try to watch that this week.  I don't need my stomach to stretch back out to where it was.  But, hey!  I lost 20 lbs!  I'm feeling great!  I'm gonna go conquer the world!

click the chart to see a larger version

Back on track

My weight is going down again.  April sure has been a month of ups and downs!  But that's life, I guess.  I'm going to try to use what I learned this month to make May a month of just downs (in regards to weight, of course).  As of this morning I am down to 304.6 lbs.  That's a total loss of 18.4 lbs (5.7% of my starting body weight).  I'm feeling pretty good and I have had more friends and family say that I look like I've lost weight.  That definitely makes me smile!  My clothes are getting baggier and one of my belts is no longer effective because it's smallest hole is just a little too big.  Cool.  I have a friend who said she will do up my hair all pretty once I get under 300 lbs. I'll take pictures and post them for friends and family I don't get to see regularly. :-)

I was reminded again this weekend how awesome it would be to lose more weight.  I went to see Into the Woods at Cornerstone (which was fantastic, by the way, and made me want to be in a musical again) and the seats - although not as tight of a fit as it would have been a few months ago - are still uncomfortably tight.  It's not fun to have my mass overtake my seat and bulge over into the space of the person sitting next to me.  If I hadn't been sitting next to a close friend I would have been very embarrassed.  Hah!  Even writing about it is embarrassing.  I'm blushing!

I did better this past week about eating out.  Still went out a couple of times, but only got healthy food.  Didn't go on any real walks, but I have decided that I no longer can use lack of time as an excuse for lack of exercise.  From now on, if I don't have time to go on a walk, I'm going to do some other aerobic activity for at least fifteen minutes.  Seriously, fifteen minutes is definitely doable, no matter how busy one gets.  Today I did some lunges for fifteen minutes.  It got my heart rate to go up and stay within the target heart rate for a minimum of twelve minutes and it used my major muscles in a repetitive movement... those are the only qualifiers for aerobic exercise!  Cool, huh?  I'd like to go for a walk later today as well.  I miss it. 

Yesterday was the birthday of one of my brother-in-laws and we had a party.  I brought a bunch of different fruits and veggies and stuck them on skewers.  Everyone drizzled their favorite salad dressing on their veggie skewers and on the fruit skewers we drizzled melted chocolate.  Yummy!  I was pleased that I had made something healthy to share with my family that turned out to be tasty.  Good times!

I recieved a blessing from my Mom, too.  To encourage me to keep walking, she bought me a pedicure set.  I used it this week and it was wonderful!  My feet look great and feel great!  Thanks, Mom!  I love you!  I can't wait to go for another walk!

What not to do...

I'm sorry to say, but I did gain 3.4 lbs this past week.  I was not surprised at all.

The problem was that I went out to eat with friends... a lot.  I went to Applebees twice, TGI Fridays, IHOP, Wok In Wok Out, and Qdoba.  Whew.  I definitely need to limit that in the future (for my health and for my wallet!)  A few of those times I didn't make completely unhealthy choices of menu, but the ones that were unhealthy were really unhealthy.  I did have two meals that included a burger and fries, one that included an appetizer, and one that included dessert.  And of course, dine in portions are much bigger than what I would like to be eating.  Also, I did go for walks this week, but most of them were more leisurely instead of aerobic.  I'd like to get back on track with that as well.

So...  I'd like to not make this a gain-lose-gain trend.  The good thing is that I am now much more aware of how my body responds to the food choices I make.  After eating a burger I definitely felt sluggish and uncomfortable, and overeating actually caused me to feel some slight pain.  That is unusual for me.  I am used to eating and eating and eating until I feel like I'm going to explode and that's about where I stop.  I am happy to find out that my stomach has shrunk enough to be able to feel it sooner when I've eaten too much.

I am going to try my best to not eat out with friends this week.  It can be difficult for me to not eat out when it's a performance week for a show.  But with your encouragement, I think I can do it.

Whoa!

I now weigh 305.4 lbs.  That means I lost 7.5 lbs this past week!  That's a total loss of 17.6 lbs.  And I did it only by doing the same things I've been doing... walking, eating healthier foods, and eating smaller portions.  I'm feeling great!  Still having good days and bad days, but the good days are getting even better and the bad days aren't nearly so bad as they were before.

Chauncey (one of the boys I babysit) has been so sweet and encouraging.  Every time he sees me he mentions the whole losing weight thing.  It's adorable when he has a friend over and he tells the friend, "This is Melissa, she's losing weight!"  Seriously, it's happened more than once.  And he's told me more than once that I look like I've lost weight.  This kid is amazing.

So...
now that my BMI is 43.8 I can expect a postcard from my friend, J, from England!  Woohoo!

And...
I get to have a tea party with my sister!

I definitely did not expect to reach both of those in one week!  :-D

minor setback

This week I gained 1.5 lbs.  I am determined that minor setbacks like this are not going to discourage me from fighting to live a healthier lifestyle.  I did have some good days and bad days this past week.  I did go for walks and I did eat some healthy meals, but I did have a few times when I overate and a few times when I wasn't hungry but ate anyway.  In the past I might have considered this an utter failure, but this time I am choosing to focus on the successes of the week and keep trucking on.  I know that keeping it up will help me be healthier. I know that I am already healthier than I was when I started on the first of March.

So, you want to help me lose weight?

Since I started this whole "live a healthier lifestyle" thing, I have had several people tell me to let them know if there is anything they can do to help.  I've been thinking about it, and I think I may have found a way.

First of all, simple things like commenting on my blog or asking me how it's going are wonderful and they boost my spirit and keep me focused.  But if you are looking for something more you can do to help, here's how...  I have a long-term motivation (Hannah agreeing to audition for American Idol), but that is a looooong way away;  I need some short term motivations to carry me through. So, if you want to help, you can...

• Pick a goal that you would like to help me achieve:
• If I lose x amount of weight (or get down to a certain weight)
• If I get down to a certain BMI
• If I go down a dress size or x number of dress sizes
• If I go for a walk 6 times this week
• Or come up with your own
• Pick a reward that you would like to give once I achieve that particular goal:
• Go for a walk with me
• Give me a back or neck massage
• Take me on a picnic
• Teach me how to make a yummy healthy recipe
• Invite me to your home for dinner
• Buy me new walking shoes
• Get me a hair cut
• Buy me an outfit
• Take me to the zoo or bowling or mini-golfing or some other fun activity
• Buy/give me a good book
• Buy me some groceries
• Doll me up and take my picture
• Take me to the opera/symphony/ballet/concert/theatrical performance
• Or come up with your own.  It doesn't have to cost money, just give me something to look forward to and keep me motivated.  :-D

So... any takers?

It's the End of March

Click the image to see a larger version of the graph.

Feeling good.  Got my scale exchanged at Kohl's.  I didn't lose quite as much this week, but I'm still heading in the right direction.  It's the end of the first month of my new effort to change my lifestyle.  I have really enjoyed feeling stronger and having more energy.  I have definitely had some struggles, though.  Pizza, brownies, Krispy Kremes, and burgers are difficult to say no to.  Not that I'm giving up those things entirely, I just need to make sure I stay balanced and don't let that kind of junk food overtake the healthy portion of my diet.  Whereas before I might eat an entire pizza on my own, I need to rewire my brain to eat smaller portions.  Before, I often would get fast food on my way to work, now I need to find healthier options to bring to work.  

Surprisingly, I think the part of the month that I have found most enjoyable has been getting some exercise.  I've really enjoyed taking walks.  One day I even took a 2 hour walk and it felt great!  The part that I'm getting sick of fastest is recording what I eat.  It does make me more aware of what and how much I'm eating, but it feels like it takes up an annoying amount of time.  My plan right now is to stick it out and keep recording what I eat until September, and then reevaluate if that's something I want to continue doing.  Maybe by that point I will have developed a good awareness of what and how much I eat without needing to record it.