Week One Update
This is that post that lets everyone know how I am doing on this new healthy eating journey. It is why we read blogs about trying to lose weight right? I mean, I don't really care to know what plan someone is following, what surgery someone has had, what exercises someone is doing, if they aren't willing to get real with the results. We want the before and after photos, the huge amounts of weight lost, how long it took, what the person did, and we want meal plans and recipes, and points counts, etc. I am not giving you meal plans and recipes (occasional recipe maybe), because I am not following a set plan. I am trying my best to let my body tell me what it wants. Right now, it doesn't seem to want any exercise, and I am completely on board with that. I will need to have a long talk with said body about that, and we will need to rethink desire or lack thereof, but not right now.
So, without further ado, here is my best before photo:
Anthony took this of me at the resort we stayed at in Palm Desert, CA. Incidentally, and I hate to keep bringing this up on every blog I write, but this was right before the 2nd earthquake in two days. I should have a before and after close-up of my face for that. The after was not this smiley.
I weigh north of 270 in that photo, and when I started this blog on September 26, 2019, I weighed in at 274.4. I could weep plenty of tears over that number, but it is what it is. I got myself to that weight, and I am going to try my dead level best to get myself away from it using the best methods for me.
Before I post my number for this week, I want to say something about the scale. Side note: I wasn't sure if it was scale or scales, because I want to be as accurate as I can be here, so I went to the Internet, and people were a bit divided. I decided to go with scale. Whether you add the S or not, I believe we can all agree that the scale(s) is of the devil. It hate it so much, but am addicted to what it tells me. I feel that I am in an abusive relationship with an inanimate object. If it shows a loss, I am thrilled and wanting to high five it, BUT if it shows a stall or the dreaded gain, I am crushed, and want to throw it in the street and run over it until it changes its mind. Every dietician, weight loss doctor, and fitness expert will tell you that the scale is not your friend, and you should not use it to measure your success. My question then becomes: SO WHY DO ALL OF YOU DO IT? My main issue with WW is that they only use the scale to measure how successful you are, following their program. No measuring tape, no "how do your clothes fit?" questions, nothing. The scale. Now, not to bash WW, but I have more experience with them than I do with other formal weight loss centers, so they are the ones I am addressing here. The well-intentioned associates who weigh you in are so happy and thrilled when you score a loss for the week, but when you don't? They can be one of two kinds of folks. They either try to pick you up, dust you off, and tell you that you will do better next time, or they raise their eyebrows at you, shake their heads a little, and make you feel as if you have forced them to gain the weight you failed to lose. I have been in front of both. When I knew I had not done well, I would do a bit of a preemptive strike. It would go something like this: Them: "how are you?" Me: Oh, I had a rough week, lots of stress, some traveling, someone tried to force feed me pasta, my car broke down, my goldfish died", etc. The goal was for them to feel so sorry for me that they would not dare raise an eyebrow at my 3 pound gain. The reality would have been that I had a nice binge the weekend before and that binge led to several days of disordered eating and I just never recuperated.
If I ran a weight loss center, here is what I would do. On Day One, I would have each member bring an article of clothing that they could no longer wear because it was too tight or did not flatter them because of their extra weight. Jeans are a perfect choice because they are the most unforgiving garment on the planet. I would say a swimsuit, but people are pretty torn over what looks good and what doesn't in that department. But a good pair of jeans? There is a standard of what looks good, and it is pretty much universal. The members would leave the garment at the center, and each week, they would take that garment into a dressing room, put it on, and then report to the kind associate how it fit. That's it. No scale.
I currently do not have a nice pair of jeans I want to get into, which means I have been using the scale. This morning, the scale was my "friend" and it showed that I weighed 268.0, which is a loss of 6.4 pounds. I am pleased with that, but only because I actually FEEL better. I know that it is water weight that I have lost, but that doesn't matter because gone water weight is still making me feel a bit lighter. It won't always be this number, and there will be weeks where I don't lose a thing, and there may be weeks where I gain, but you have to start somewhere. I will get that pair of jeans that I long to get into and will use that tool of measurement more than the scale. For the sake of this blog, I will post weekly what the scale says. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Week one is in the books, and I can honestly say that the amount of food freedom I have right now is unprecedented. Many of you that may read this will not understand how huge this is for me. You don't have a life full of past experiences with disordered eating. You just eat what you want when you are hungry. You have a healthy relationship with food. I envy that, and at 55 years of age, I am late to the game with trying to make that a part of my existence. It is a very difficult process, but I have to get off the roller coaster of diets. Life is just too short.
This is my first week of doing just that.
So, without further ado, here is my best before photo:
I weigh north of 270 in that photo, and when I started this blog on September 26, 2019, I weighed in at 274.4. I could weep plenty of tears over that number, but it is what it is. I got myself to that weight, and I am going to try my dead level best to get myself away from it using the best methods for me.
Before I post my number for this week, I want to say something about the scale. Side note: I wasn't sure if it was scale or scales, because I want to be as accurate as I can be here, so I went to the Internet, and people were a bit divided. I decided to go with scale. Whether you add the S or not, I believe we can all agree that the scale(s) is of the devil. It hate it so much, but am addicted to what it tells me. I feel that I am in an abusive relationship with an inanimate object. If it shows a loss, I am thrilled and wanting to high five it, BUT if it shows a stall or the dreaded gain, I am crushed, and want to throw it in the street and run over it until it changes its mind. Every dietician, weight loss doctor, and fitness expert will tell you that the scale is not your friend, and you should not use it to measure your success. My question then becomes: SO WHY DO ALL OF YOU DO IT? My main issue with WW is that they only use the scale to measure how successful you are, following their program. No measuring tape, no "how do your clothes fit?" questions, nothing. The scale. Now, not to bash WW, but I have more experience with them than I do with other formal weight loss centers, so they are the ones I am addressing here. The well-intentioned associates who weigh you in are so happy and thrilled when you score a loss for the week, but when you don't? They can be one of two kinds of folks. They either try to pick you up, dust you off, and tell you that you will do better next time, or they raise their eyebrows at you, shake their heads a little, and make you feel as if you have forced them to gain the weight you failed to lose. I have been in front of both. When I knew I had not done well, I would do a bit of a preemptive strike. It would go something like this: Them: "how are you?" Me: Oh, I had a rough week, lots of stress, some traveling, someone tried to force feed me pasta, my car broke down, my goldfish died", etc. The goal was for them to feel so sorry for me that they would not dare raise an eyebrow at my 3 pound gain. The reality would have been that I had a nice binge the weekend before and that binge led to several days of disordered eating and I just never recuperated.
If I ran a weight loss center, here is what I would do. On Day One, I would have each member bring an article of clothing that they could no longer wear because it was too tight or did not flatter them because of their extra weight. Jeans are a perfect choice because they are the most unforgiving garment on the planet. I would say a swimsuit, but people are pretty torn over what looks good and what doesn't in that department. But a good pair of jeans? There is a standard of what looks good, and it is pretty much universal. The members would leave the garment at the center, and each week, they would take that garment into a dressing room, put it on, and then report to the kind associate how it fit. That's it. No scale.
I currently do not have a nice pair of jeans I want to get into, which means I have been using the scale. This morning, the scale was my "friend" and it showed that I weighed 268.0, which is a loss of 6.4 pounds. I am pleased with that, but only because I actually FEEL better. I know that it is water weight that I have lost, but that doesn't matter because gone water weight is still making me feel a bit lighter. It won't always be this number, and there will be weeks where I don't lose a thing, and there may be weeks where I gain, but you have to start somewhere. I will get that pair of jeans that I long to get into and will use that tool of measurement more than the scale. For the sake of this blog, I will post weekly what the scale says. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Week one is in the books, and I can honestly say that the amount of food freedom I have right now is unprecedented. Many of you that may read this will not understand how huge this is for me. You don't have a life full of past experiences with disordered eating. You just eat what you want when you are hungry. You have a healthy relationship with food. I envy that, and at 55 years of age, I am late to the game with trying to make that a part of my existence. It is a very difficult process, but I have to get off the roller coaster of diets. Life is just too short.
This is my first week of doing just that.
I applaud your first week journey and travel it with you. This is the second year in a row I have had a significant decline in my thyroid function and I'm afraid this journey will never end for me. Hopefully with a healthy lifestyle and some new meds, I can at least control it. My roller coaster my never come to a stop this side of heaven, but I appreciate your candid approach and the encouragement it brings us all.
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