Here is what I remember. It was around April, and at that point I think I was about 163 (which on my 5'3" frame was quite a lot!). I saw myself in pictures and was horrified, I was pretty big and not so shapely as I once had been.
I always told myself it was the camera, the situation or the pose I found myself in. It took getting real with that number on the scale to realize how big I really was. So the first thing I did was tell myself "ok, no more goals...just don't go over this number, this is the limit." I realized I was pretty good at maintaining a certain weight for long periods of time I just wasn't an active participant in the action of losing.
I don't remember what happened between then and my first 4 lbs, but I remember getting on the scale and seeing 159 on the scale. Again, I said to myself "New limit, Don't go over this number!"
Now that I was seeing results on the scale I thought about my relationship with food and what about it I could change without too much effort. I figured out (after a conversation with a friend about the struggles of weight loss) that I am not addicted to food. I enjoy eating but I eat for sustenance most of the time. I'll eat what ever you stick in front of me as long as I can get on with whatever else I am doing.
About this time I started a new job. Though I hate having to work for someone else this afforded me the opportunity to control what I ate and portion size. I would bring celery and peanut butter, maybe an apple, and things like baked sweet potato or chicken on flat bread and honey mustard. Still very flavorful food and NO preservatives for the most part. Then I saw 153. New limit, do not exceed.
This meant I had lost 10lbs! in a matter of weeks that i hadn't even realized! This was so encouraging I delved a little deeper into my eating habits.
I cut out pop all together (which wasn't as hard as I thought it would be) and started buying food that would require preparation instead of the proverbial baked crap in a pan. I started watching sodium levels and preservative content and omitting unnecessary foods that had high fructose corn syrup or partially hydrogenated anything in them.
148
145
143
140
At about this point I realized my clothes were lose, I could cross my legs I could bend over without getting red faced, and for the first time in 7 years I could take off my wedding ring!
I still didn't really see it until I laid down in the bath tub and pretty much everything disappeared underwater. Setting a limit rather than having a weight loss goal was helping.
I noticed odd places on my body looked different. I could see the bones in my feet and hands. I could feel the bones in my wrist. My thighs weren't touching all the way down to my knees as they once had. My balance was much better, my face looked different and when I sat on a folding chair my butt didn't go off the sides! LOL!
I am now kinda plateaued at 136...which means it's time to sit down and rethink my eating habits and activity levels, once again.
stay tuned, im not at all finished yet ;)
