Wednesday, July 27, 2011

More tales from the beginning

So, I just got back from my morning walk and had my breakfast. I am in training to walk a half marathon in October. It's not something I ever thought I would be doing, but I am part of a weight loss competition through my church and my team (namely Crystal and Chrisy), decided we should train for this, so I am. It has really been a lot of fun, but when I started my weight loss journey, I didn't do much excercise.

Ok, so when I started my faithful journey on Valentine's Day 2011, I didn't really tell anyone other than my husband that I was trying to lose weight. I felt that if I ended up failing, at least no one would know and (gasp) judge me. So, the first 20 lbs came off and I was waiting. Waiting for somebody to say something about this change in me. But, nothing came. I faced the harsh reality that 20lbs just wasn't that noticable. Which hurt. But I didn't let it stop me. I knew that I just had to keep plugging along.

When I started, I wasn't as hard core as I am now. I started pretty simple.

I cut out all other beverages and drank as much water as I could get in. This really helped with the hunger (which wasn't that bad).

I found some healthy recipes for me and my family on the WW website and cooked them for my family. My husband was very skeptical at first because he doesn't like "diet" food, but he loved the recipes so much, that he was insisting we add them to our normal meal rotations. I cooked things like pork loin, tilapia, salmon, and of course, chicken.

I added lots of fruits and veggies. I know this is an expense, but I told myself that this expense was worth it. Money has been tight for us several different times through this, but I decided this was one place I was not going to let that be a problem. There are so many times and so many different reasons to say that I can't do this right now, it's too hard, I have a good reason to cheat or put it on hold and I wasn't going to let that be my future. I sucked it up and bought all those healthy expensive foods. And made sure I ate them. I mean really, when you spend $11 on a bag of cherries, you're gonna eat those suckers.

That was pretty much it, along with following the WW points plus program and not going over my allowances. I did have days which didn't include the most healthy of foods, but I don't consider it cheating. With WW, I was able to make it fit into my day and my week and maybe make some sacrifices to help make up for it.

One more thing I must mention is that if you are looking to start losing weight, keep some records. Take your measurements, record a starting weight and maybe even take a picture. The measurements will be a good motivator later if the scale isn't cooperating like you think it should. I did not get a picture of myself at the start, mostly because I avoided cameras like the plague and wanted no part of that, but looking back I really wish I had it, so do it. Hide it somewhere if you need to, but take it, you will never be at that place again.

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