One day last fall I just reached my breaking point. Like I never had before, I just felt FAT. My face felt fat, my arms felt fat, my things felt fat, and lets not even mention my stomach/hips/ass. I got completely fed up with myself, and came up with a plan to lose some of my excess baggage. Here is the plan I came up with - it falls into three main areas: Mental/Emotional Health, Food/Diet, and Exercise/Activity.
Mental / Emotional Changes
- You've got to really want it - enough to make some sacrifices. If you don't want to lose weight more than you want dessert, its not gonna work. Come back next year. Except . . .
- You've got to love and forgive yourself. If you do eat the dessert enjoy the hell out of it and move on. Tomorrow is another day.
- You've got all the time in the world to do this. As long as the numbers trend down, you're golden. .2 pounds per week? That's 10 pounds in a year. Wouldn't you rather weigh 10 pounds less at this time next year? Unless you were prepping for a movie role, it took a long time to gain this weight, and its okay if it takes a long time to lose it.
- Use whatever mental tricks you need to. Every month during my period I gain 2-3 pounds of water weight, and every month it freaks me out. I do better for the next few days and once the water's gone I've usually gone down those 2-3 pounds, plus one extra. Is it a mindf*ck every time? Yes it is. Is that okay? Yes it is.
I don't like to watch what I eat, so I had to find other ways to cut calories from my diet. Here's what I came up with.
- You don't need to finish the kiddo's meals. Its not wasteful to throw away that 1/2 sandwich. This is super hard for me, always, always, always. I almost have to throw leftovers straight into the trash or I'll eat them up. Also after dinner - if foods out on the stove, its liable to end up in my belly unless it goes straight into the fridge.
- No alcohol. I gave myself "special occasion" permission, and a lenient definition of special occasion, but the nightly wine with dinner or after work beer with the hubby are out of the question right now.
- No sweets. Again, special occasions excepted. See "forgive yourself".
- Drink green tea. I read about a study that showed people who drank green tea lost about one extra pound a month compared to the non green tea drinkers. I try for three cups a day.
- Drink more water. Obvs.
- Try to get some every day. I don't like to say exercise because it doesn't have to be that structured. Yard work, playground play, dancing wildly with the kiddos all count. I do more classic "exercise" type things now that my weight loss progress has slowed somewhat, and summer's here.
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