Saturday, March 28, 2009
Halfway to halfway!
I just realized something - I'm halfway to the halfway point towards my goal! I started at 217 and want to lose 67 lbs to be 150. Currently I've lost 16.6, which x2 = 33.2, which is almost exactly halfway to my goal! That's a good feeling - I'm a quarter of the way there, even though it doesn't feel like I've been trying that long. I love Weight Watchers! It's such a sustainable diet!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Weigh in day - 3/16/09
So I lost 2.6 more pounds! That puts me at 200.4. I was hoping to go under 200 this week, but I'm just fine with what I got :) Now I know I'll be under 200 by next week for sure! I'm actually surprised at my loss this week because my boyfriend and I discovered a cupcake shop downtown and each got 2 of these really wicked cupcakes. I swear they have to be at least 10 points. Anyway after that and going out to dinner with him, I used all of my weekly points and 2 of my activity points. But I did get a lot of activity points this week, so maybe that's it. And I switched back to drinking nothing but water! And a little 1% milk, of course. I can't wait till next week when I can look at the scale and see a number without a 2 at the beginning! It'll be the first time in over a year!
Friday, March 20, 2009
Why I'm doing this
I got this idea from Lauren's blog - making a list to remind myself why I'm trying so hard to lose weight. Here they are, in no particular order:
1. I want to be confident - I've suffered from low self esteem my entire life. A lot of it is tied to my weight. I automatically place myself at a lower value than everyone else, and I assume that everyone sees me that way too.
2. Exploring the world requires a certain level of fitness - I want to go on adventures once I graduate, which is hard to do when I'm carrying so much extra weight around.
3. I want to be healthy - losing weight will lower my high blood pressure and make the symptoms of my PCOS subside. I'll also get sick less, be able to do things without getting winded, and I'll just feel better in general.
4. It's about time my body matched my personality - I'm an energetic person. I don't like sitting still for long periods of time. My thoughts race through my head at a million miles an hour. Why should my body be stuck in the mud?
5. I want to feel comfortable in my own body - I'm always so concious of the fat on my body. I do things to try to carry it differently or hide it. I'm tired of feeling so ill at ease with my body. I'm also tired of clothes that squeeze and hurt!
6. For my future children (even though they are faaaar in the distant future) - PCOS will make it difficult for me to have children, especially if I'm overweight. And if I manage to have children, I don't want to set a bad example for them. Plus, I want to be able to keep up with them!
7. Now is the time! - The longer I wait, the more difficult it will be. I'm still young. I don't want to squander the best days of my life by staying overweight!
1. I want to be confident - I've suffered from low self esteem my entire life. A lot of it is tied to my weight. I automatically place myself at a lower value than everyone else, and I assume that everyone sees me that way too.
2. Exploring the world requires a certain level of fitness - I want to go on adventures once I graduate, which is hard to do when I'm carrying so much extra weight around.
3. I want to be healthy - losing weight will lower my high blood pressure and make the symptoms of my PCOS subside. I'll also get sick less, be able to do things without getting winded, and I'll just feel better in general.
4. It's about time my body matched my personality - I'm an energetic person. I don't like sitting still for long periods of time. My thoughts race through my head at a million miles an hour. Why should my body be stuck in the mud?
5. I want to feel comfortable in my own body - I'm always so concious of the fat on my body. I do things to try to carry it differently or hide it. I'm tired of feeling so ill at ease with my body. I'm also tired of clothes that squeeze and hurt!
6. For my future children (even though they are faaaar in the distant future) - PCOS will make it difficult for me to have children, especially if I'm overweight. And if I manage to have children, I don't want to set a bad example for them. Plus, I want to be able to keep up with them!
7. Now is the time! - The longer I wait, the more difficult it will be. I'm still young. I don't want to squander the best days of my life by staying overweight!
Down a couple of jean sizes!
Today I put on an old size 17 pair of jeans... and it fit! I have been wearing Lane Bryant jeans for a year now... and I haven't been able to put on juniors size jeans for longer than that! A little while before I started WW, I was wearing a Lane Bryant size 3 (I have no idea what that is in real sizes.) I had some size 2 Lane Bryant jeans that were too tight on me. As I lost weight, the size 3's became waaaay too loose, and I was happy to put on the size 2's, which were once painful to squeeze into. Now the size 2's have become unflatteringly loose, so today I dug out my junior's size 17's to see if it was possible. And it was! They're a little snug, and I'll have to get used to the low waistline again, but they look good! This is really motivating :)
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Weigh in day - 3/19/09
I lost 1.8 more pounds! That's good :) So I've lost 14 pounds total so far. I was hoping for more, but I did lose 3.2 pounds last week so I can't hope for two big losses in a row. It's only 3.1 more pounds to lose until I reach my next goal of being under 200 lbs! I'm not sure if it's possible but I'm going to try as hard as I can to lose 3.1 lbs this next week! This past week I know I didn't drink enough water - I got a 2 liter of diet Dr. Pepper at the store and went through that. And while I did stay within my weekly points I ordered pizza twice (hey, it's that time of the month and I had a pizza craving!) which probably didn't help. I was trying to only use a little of my weeklies but I ended up using all of them! But I'm happy with losing 1.8 lbs. Good luck to me and everyone else for next week!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Goals
I was watching a Joy Fit Club segment on the Today Show the other day (I watch them online occasionally for inspiration) and one of the people on the show advised that people trying to lose wieght should set small goals - 5 lbs, 10%, etc. Of course, Weight Watchers online does this for you to some extent, but I decided to take the idea further. I made myself a list of goals concerning my weight. For example, being under 200 lbs is a goal. The way my goals work out, the next goal isn't very far from the last goal, so I'm always close to a goal. I think that will keep me motivated. I'm posting my list of goals to the side so people can follow them with me. I hope other people like this idea and use it for themselves... 4.9 lbs to lose till I reach my next goal!
PCOS
I forgot to mention this in the first post, but I was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) at the age of 15 (I'm 22 now). I'm not sure which causes which - does PCOS cause obesity or does obesity cause PCOS? They don't seem to be sure. When the doctor was diagnosing me she asked if I was overweight from a young age, because apparently that's one of the symtoms. It was only then that I realized I had been overweight from about 6 years of age. I was a very hyper child and my parents didn't like to keep junk food in the house, so how did I begin to get overweight? I do remember that I loved junk food, but I had very limited access to it so it wasn't like I ate lots of it. On the show Nick and Kate plus Eight, the wife has PCOS (hence the fertility drugs) and she's skinny. I've been told that if I lose enough weight, the symptoms of my PCOS will subside but it will still be there. I think maybe PCOS makes it more likely for a person to be overweight, and that being overweight exacerbates the PCOS. All I know is that they're still unsure about the causes :S
Saturday, March 14, 2009
The beginning - my "ah-ha" moment
I have been overweight all my life. I don't want to write an autobiography here, but I was teased throughout school for my weight and developed big self-image and confidence issues because of it. I have never been happy with the way I look and have felt ill at ease with my body my whole life. During undergrad I starved myself down to a normal weight. At the time I still felt fat and unattractive, but looking back at the pictures I realize I wasn't. However, as soon as I started eating normally again all the weight came back, plus some extra. Once I entered grad school I moved away from the area I grew up in and entered a new stage in life. I enjoyed my new location, but I also gained 20 pounds in a year and a half. Occasionally I tried cutting calories and exercising, but when the scale didn't budge I would grow discouraged and quit.
This past December I came home for Christmas break at the heaviest weight I have ever been. Normally when I go visit home I see all my regular doctors as needed, since I'm already in the area. My primary care doctor referred me to a new doctor to look into something that had to do with a health issue in the past. I went to the appointment and instantly disliked the doctor the second he began to talk to me. He asked prying questions beyond the scope of what I was there for. Mainly, he wanted to talk about my weight, which was unrelated to the issue I had come to discuss. He basically grilled me and made me feel terrible. I know sometimes doctors have to be frank to make advice stick, but he was almost rude. I think he could have had a better delivery. Anyway, once the appointment was finally over and I walked out of the doctor's office, I began to cry. I hated myself at that moment more than I ever had before.
Still chafing from the horrible appointment, I went to visit my cousin that evening. I had gotten Wii Fit for Christmas and brought it over to try on his Wii. He and my aunt watched while I set up a profile. When it did the body test I knew it was going to weigh me, but I had no choice but to continue, not wanting to ruin the fun or appear insecure. Instead of displaying my weight it showed a BMI scale, which started at 0 and then rose to my BMI as my character fattened in proportion. In the end it declared "you're obese!" while my chubby character looked down at her belly in disbelief. My aunt and cousin thought this was funny and laughed histarically. I laughed along, but inside I was horrified - I hadn't known that I was actually obese! It didn't help that they joked about it the rest of the night. I declared that day the worst in my life and went to bed feeling heavily discouraged.
4 days later, my mother showed me her Weight Watchers online profile and let me look around the site inside her account. She agreed to pay for a subscrition for me if I wanted to join, so I signed up and began the diet that very day. On my first weigh in day I was estatic to discover that it had actually worked and I had lost some weight. My previous attempts at weight loss as of late had yielded little to no results and had never worked so instantly. After the intial success I jumped into Weight Watchers with gusto and have been steadfastly sticking to the diet. I have tracked EVERY thing that I have eaten since then, even if I know it puts me way beyond my points. I bought "My Fitness Coach" for wii and have been working out with it at least 4-6 times a week. I eased myself into the changes and was able to transition into a better lifestyle.
It's been 2 months and I've lost 12.2 pounds. I'm addicted to water, I rarely eat out, and I've just gotten to the point where my body craves the workouts it once dreaded. Now that the initial transition is over I know I can stick with it till the end. I hope this blog will help me make this journey and will inspire others along the way. Stay tuned!
This past December I came home for Christmas break at the heaviest weight I have ever been. Normally when I go visit home I see all my regular doctors as needed, since I'm already in the area. My primary care doctor referred me to a new doctor to look into something that had to do with a health issue in the past. I went to the appointment and instantly disliked the doctor the second he began to talk to me. He asked prying questions beyond the scope of what I was there for. Mainly, he wanted to talk about my weight, which was unrelated to the issue I had come to discuss. He basically grilled me and made me feel terrible. I know sometimes doctors have to be frank to make advice stick, but he was almost rude. I think he could have had a better delivery. Anyway, once the appointment was finally over and I walked out of the doctor's office, I began to cry. I hated myself at that moment more than I ever had before.
Still chafing from the horrible appointment, I went to visit my cousin that evening. I had gotten Wii Fit for Christmas and brought it over to try on his Wii. He and my aunt watched while I set up a profile. When it did the body test I knew it was going to weigh me, but I had no choice but to continue, not wanting to ruin the fun or appear insecure. Instead of displaying my weight it showed a BMI scale, which started at 0 and then rose to my BMI as my character fattened in proportion. In the end it declared "you're obese!" while my chubby character looked down at her belly in disbelief. My aunt and cousin thought this was funny and laughed histarically. I laughed along, but inside I was horrified - I hadn't known that I was actually obese! It didn't help that they joked about it the rest of the night. I declared that day the worst in my life and went to bed feeling heavily discouraged.
4 days later, my mother showed me her Weight Watchers online profile and let me look around the site inside her account. She agreed to pay for a subscrition for me if I wanted to join, so I signed up and began the diet that very day. On my first weigh in day I was estatic to discover that it had actually worked and I had lost some weight. My previous attempts at weight loss as of late had yielded little to no results and had never worked so instantly. After the intial success I jumped into Weight Watchers with gusto and have been steadfastly sticking to the diet. I have tracked EVERY thing that I have eaten since then, even if I know it puts me way beyond my points. I bought "My Fitness Coach" for wii and have been working out with it at least 4-6 times a week. I eased myself into the changes and was able to transition into a better lifestyle.
It's been 2 months and I've lost 12.2 pounds. I'm addicted to water, I rarely eat out, and I've just gotten to the point where my body craves the workouts it once dreaded. Now that the initial transition is over I know I can stick with it till the end. I hope this blog will help me make this journey and will inspire others along the way. Stay tuned!
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