Reality Check and Goal Setting

Well, after months of avoiding the scale I finally decided to step on it yesterday and see what the damage was from a European vacation, two major eating holidays and the onset of winter. It wasn't pretty, y'all. Tuesday morning 1/8/13 I weighed in at 139.6 pounds. Not cool. Ive got my work set out for me, that's for sure.

I'd like to lose 15 pounds by March 15th - that's in two months so it should be a reasonable amount of time - we're heading to a wedding and seeing a lot of my husband's family that we haven't seen in years. I'd like to look reasonably good, so I hope that's motivation. I'll do a weigh-in each Tuesday to see how I'm progressing. Wish me luck!

Losing It

I've always been chubby - even at my lightest adult weight (let's say at 18?) I had that well-fed look. Fast forward 18 years and two kids, and I was really heavy - if I wasn't technically obese, I was knocking at the door. I never lost the last 10 pounds of pregnancy weight after Gabi stopped nursing, and little Buddy left me with another 6 pounds as a parting gift (so sweet, my little guy!).

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

1. 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 . . .
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

Food / Diet
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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. No sweets. Again, special occasions excepted. See "forgive yourself".
4. 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.
5. Drink more water. Obvs.

Exercise / Physical Activity

1. 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.

So now for the big reveal. Since October 2010 I've lost 24 pounds and 3 dress sizes (at least - haven't shopped for clothes in quite awhile). I've still got more to go, and I'd like to tone up more, but that feels pretty freakin' impressive to me!