We are about a month in to my Biggest Loser competition and I am down twelve pounds. I am beyond excited. I’m fitting better in my clothes and wearing belts that haven’t fit me in years. I’m not following any type of set plan or program but just doing it old school style - I’m watching what I eat, drinking lots of water, being careful of portion control, and ditching the wine (as much as possible!). I’m also tracking all my food intake using MyFitness Pal which I have basically become addicted to. I find it’s a great tool to make you really aware of what you are eating. I also need to be extra aware since I’m not exercising. Yup, you read that right – I’m not exercising. In a perfect world, I’d be at the gym a few days a week but I’d honestly rather spend my mornings sleeping or my nights relaxing than trying to fit in time at the gym. Oh, and here’s the other thing – I hate exercising. I’ve tried joining gyms, doing difference classes, trying new things, etc. Some are fine but never enough for me to really like it. It’s just not my thing. So I’m going to focus on what is my thing – obsessively keeping notes and tracking since that is something that I am good at.
Now, this isn’t my first time at the weight loss rodeo. The
weight I’m currently losing is compliments of three children in four years, but
I grew up in a household with very poor eating habits. It was actually a
lifestyle of food horribleness (yet, oh so yummy). I used to blame my mother
(and honestly still do a bit) but I remind myself that she was a young widowed
woman who didn’t know better and was doing the best she could. We grew up in a
house virtually void of fruits and vegetables. The only fruit we ate was
bananas and the only veggies were canned corn and canned green beans (both
smothered in butter and salt). We ate fast food ALL the time. My mother even
had a knack for taking things that were rather healthy and destroying them. One
of our favorite snacks was Cheerios that she fried in butter and loaded up with
salt. I’m pretty sure the Cheerios yelled out in horror as they were heading
towards the frying pan. Oh, and you know that yummy fried dough that you get at
your local fair or carnival? Yeah, we had that regularly for breakfast (covered
in butter and powdered sugar, of course). Bacon was a food group. I could go on
and on but you get the idea.
At the time, I had no idea how bad all of this was for me
but my body sure did. By the time I was in high school, I was severely
overweight. My senior year, the clouds parted and I saw the light and decided
to change. I did just what I’m doing now, reading labels, thinking about food
before I eat it, and taking it one day at a time. I left for college the
following Fall down seventy five pounds. It was completely life changing. Since that time, I’ve managed to keep my
weight steady (give or take some pounds here and there) and am excited to now be
(almost) down the baby weight as well. I’m not writing this to toot my own horn
but rather to share my story. It doesn’t matter if you’re 17, 32, or older or younger, if you set your mind to it, you can do it. It’s not easy every
day and some days it just totally sucks but if you keep it up over time, it
does work.
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| My new friend each Monday morning |
