jomarie's diary

J

jomarie

New member
OK, here it is:

* The situation: a California girl, 22 years old, with a history of weight struggles and a few forbodingly obese relatives, currently teaching kindergarten in South Korea for one year.

* The problem: 30 pounds & emotional eating (being far from home and surrounded by brutally honest children all day--you know there's plenty of emotion)

* The incentives: a week-long visit home at the end of July & my dream vacation in Australia in December. I can't go to either place feeling the way I do about myself.

* The plan: jogging after work, working with resistance bands, carefully planned eating, and posting all about it right here. I know I can lose 10 to 15 pounds before visiting home in July and be rid of all 30 by December. I just have to stick to it for once.

I've always been overweight, sometimes by as much as 60 pounds. And I've vowed to lose the weight plenty of times before, with varying degrees of success. But I've always tried to do it alone. We all know that doesn't work--otherwise there'd be no forum! I need to be held accountable, so ... hello everybody. :)
 
This first week was not so good, or so I thought till I stepped on the scale. Four pounds! What?! Bad weather kept me from jogging most days and twice I ate way more than my daily calorie goal, but I still managed to lose four pounds. I don't believe it.
 
Hey&welcome!
First, I'd like to say you've made some very clear cut goals and know what you want to do. You've identified what you feel is the problem. Congrats! You're ready to move forward!
Do what you can to think positive. The more you replace negative thinking with positive thinking it becomes more natural for you to just think good things.
4lbs and you didn't have to try?
Well, then just imagine what will happen when you DO try!
Try logging your food daily here. Its kept me on track!
Best wishes!
 
Thanks for the welcome Ashy. If you say logging daily food helps, then I'll give it a go.

Today went a little bit like this:
breakfast: 2 fried eggs, an apple, 2 cups black coffee.
snack: unidentifiable Korean food (I share snack time with my kindergarten class.)
lunch: 6-ish oz chicken breast, water
dinner: a half-slice of cheesecake :rolleyes: , more water
-- that's about 1600 calories, assuming the mystery snack was 300 or less.

I feel so gross--the sudden onset of humidity and allergies has transformed me into a big snotty slug. But I went jogging anyway, wiping my nose and clearing my throat the whole time. And last week I started to always take the stairs to & from my apartment. Six flights are not bad in the morning, but by night--hmm. By night the elevator looks pretty good.
 
Welcome to the forum!!! SO good so far. Congrats on losing the 4lbs :D And Awesome job jogging even though you weren't up to it. That shows real motavation!!! Keep it up. Have a Wonderful day and Drink your WATER!!!!!:p
 
Welcome aboard. Sounds like you are doing great! 1600 cals might be low depending on your current stats. For a healthy deficit of energy, I would shoot for around 10-12 calories per pound.
 
Hello!
Welcome to the forum!! It's a lot of fun, and it's very motivating knowing other people are actually READING your struggles as you go...I love it.

Four pounds in a week! Congrats!! I've been on here a week and have stayed strong at my start weight, so feel proud! Use it as a motivation to keep going!! And always stay positive!!

Allergies and humidity eh? I hear ya! Drink LOTS AND LOTS of water, I find it helps my body feel refreshed even when I'm sneezing and dripping all over the place. lol

Teacher? Awsome! I'm just finishing up teachers college! Kinders rock! I did my final four week placement in a jk/sk split and had a blast!

Keep up the great work!
~Nic~
 
Jelly - why hello!
Steve - more calories? my pleasure.
Sunshine - you're right, knowing that people are reading adds some positive pressure.

So those allergies turned out to be more than I thought--it's my very first sinus infection! A friend kindly dragged me to the doctor, so now I've got some quality drugs and am feeling about 93% normal. After Monday, I gave up on exercise and calorie counting. Weighing myself this morning, I wasn't surprised to see the same number as last week. I'm just glad I didn't gain anything back.

Now, back to work. Exactly 13 weeks till my visit home. I need to replace jogging with something I can do inside my tiny apartment, away from all that pollen and city pollution--any suggestions?
 
Hi Jomarie and welcome!

Seems we have a lot in common... age 22, 30 pounds left to lose, fat relatives an all! Seems like you've got off to a flying start!

Korea-wow! I taught in India for 6 months and adored it. And this summer am leaving for a year long jaunt around the world with my honey, I'm so excited about it! There is nothing better to me than experiencing other cultures and people etc. Do you feel like that?

Anyway, good luck, I'll keep up with your diary!

Kez
 
HI there Jomarie, just wanted to say hello. There is definately positive type of pressure posting on here and the support is fantastic. I hope it can help you reach your goals.
Michelle :)
 
Hi and Welcome,

Hope you are feeling a lot better by now, and well done at not gaining even though you had a tough week :)

I too am in a similar situation to you, 22, with erm more than 30lb to lose (but that would be an amazing start!!) and the main reason i want to lose is becuase i am going to India mid July to teach Children English for three months, and then I'm off travelling round, and IM SO EXCITED!!! How are you finding Korea?

Anyway, good luck with quest, I will keep on checking in on your progress, and as for the exercise, have you got enough room for an exercise dvd? I have started doing them this week n finding it great fun :)

Good Luck,

K xx
 
Oops sorry Jomarie I didn't really read your last post properly, I hope you are better soon! Though I still maintain 4lbs is a flying start, even with the second week being static!!

And Indian summer-wow! Sounds exactly like what I did! Where abouts are you going? (I'm gonna pootle off now and find your diary to ask you, I don't want to hijack jomaries!)
 
Ick to sinus infection! Glad your friend kicked your butt into a doctors office! lol.

Maybe get a cardio video?? You could do that in your apartment if you have a small floor space in front of the tv?

Hope you're feeling better!

~Nic~
 
frustration!

After another week of doctor visits, prescriptions, and sloth, I'm basically back to normal health. The allergies aren't going anywhere, and that's fine. But during those two weeks of illness, I gained back the four pounds I had lost. So discouraging. Now, though I feel well enough to exercise, I have no desire to. Motivation is gone. Completely. I went jogging this evening--it was so difficult to finish. Laps seven and eight I had to just huff it around the track at an embarrassingly slow pace. I was nearly lapped by an elderly power-walker--that's an embarrassingly slow pace.

I video chat with my family on the weekends, and this past Saturday those horribly obese relatives were visiting. Seeing them, even just over video, oh man. I mean, oh. Man. I don't want to be like that! But I don't want to exercise either! Ugh. I have just twelve weeks till I see those aunts in the flesh during my summer vacation, and though I know I can lose a significant number of pounds by then, my attitude sucks. :mad:

Wow--that's a lot of whining for one post. I'll stop now.
 
Picture what you could be in july if you start now. when i do that it gives me goosebumps thinking about it. you would make those relatives so envious and they would all be dying to know how you did it.
i know you can do it. and you know it is possible too. so why not, eh? :) xx
 
You're not alone in the frusteration department. I get frusterated easily it seems, but I also don't sleep much because my almost three year old daughter is more then a handful.

I don't want this to come out wrong, but are you losing weight for your family or yourself? If seeing your family over video upsets you, maybe you should try just talking over the phone until you go see them =) What a surprise it would be for your family to see you after losing the weight you have set for yourself. Thats what I would do.

Goodluck to you, and I hope you are able to get out of your little slump :)
 
three days back on track with jogging and mindful eating. I'm still a little slow around the track, but that's fine. The attitude's improving. Eating more protein, more iron-rich foods too.

I got my body fat measured--eep! For the record, it's 32%. In fact, here are all the measurements (I'm feeling honest): 37/31.5 natural waist/36 drop waist/42. you could call me an apple shape, and you'd be correct.

Or you could call me jelly doughnut teacher, and you'd fit in with my students. Today four boys starting calling me jelly doughnut teacher and would not stop. In the next class, another boy shouted "You're ugly!" ...:mad: it was a coworker's birthday; she brought cake for everyone to share. Jelly doughnut teacher had none.
 
down 2 kgs this week! though the exercise has varied, from typical jogging to some soccer games and rearranging furniture, it's remained daily (by the way, moving furniture was definitely the hardest "workout"). next week I'll take my measurements again--hopefully the weight will translate into inches.

basically, I'm not frustrated anymore. :)
I don't have time for frustration--vacation is getting closer and closer
 
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