kitteh's weight loss journal.

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kitteh

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Hey, I'm Allie. I'm 29, 5'6, and weigh around 167lbs. I've pretty much always been overweight to some degree, and was for years obsessed with my weight while feeling like I was somehow powerless to control my habits. I was briefly slim at age 18 when I went on a crash diet and rapidly lost 50lbs. I only stopped starving myself because I started having dizzy spells and finally got a bit of a clue that what I was doing wasn't healthy. Then (just to go to the opposite extreme of unhealthy, I guess) basically spent my 20s binge drinking and binge eating and piling on weight and hating myself for it. Three years ago I hit 200lbs and after that I stopped weighing myself (so really, don't know heavy I was at my high point). Then, last December, I got so busy I lost something like 15 pounds by accident - no time to drink every night, no hanging around the house making huge pasta "snacks". Things started to fit a bit better, and I kind of went "oh yeah! losing weight is POSSIBLE!"...

I haven't been sticking to any kind of plan religiously - and it's working ok for me, though I'm sure I could be getting better results. Mostly I'm looking at calorie content for the first time ever, and avoiding the 5+ nightly pints of beer followed by large quantities of chinese takeout.. blahh. I've lost something like 30lbs over 6 months, which is great, and people are noticing, and I'm starting to feel better, and I can wear jeans again! :hurray:

I've been reading some other people's journals on here and it seems like I should maybe get organized and come up with some specific goals.. right now I've just made some general changes to my diet (and I'm probably not regularly getting 1200 calories a day, so I'll have to fix that)

So, I should set some goals: I want to get down to 150 by mid September.. 2 of my friends are getting married in Sept and I am a bridesmaid in both weddings. I am tired of dreading seeing photos of myself.. I wanna look as good as possible in my awful bridesmaid dresses!! lol
Also, I need to start exercising. I want to be able to do a pushup.. I am so out of shape it's embarrassing. My plan at the moment is to start swimming 2 days a week, biking instead of taking the bus, and going for a run 3 times a week. I went jogging tonight (well, "jogging" interspersed with lots of walking), for the first time in a year. It was unpleasant, but not as bad as last year. I should probably also get over my terror of gyms. Maybe keeping this journal will help me talk myself into that.
 
Hi, and welcome to the forum :)

We're quite similar, actually- I started out here with similar stats (I work in metric- I'm 167cm tall and started out here at 74kg- but google tells me that that's 5'5.9" and 163.14lb). I spent a lot of time in my life overweight and not knowing why, lost a lot (from a high of about 100kg or 220lb) in an unhealthy way (for me it was severe illness), made some small changes in the months leading up to coming here, and wanted a kickstart. I was also terrified of gyms!

Have you thought about any specific diet/ exercise plan? I can enthusiastically recommend calorie counting- I've lost 8kg (17.64lb) since I joined here two months ago, and I haven't starved myself or forced myself to cut anything from my diet (there are some things I don't eat much anymore, but that's because they don't work for me, not because there are rules or anything). I probably eat nicer food, for the most part, and more food, than when my weight was randomly fluctuating up in the overweight category and I didn't know why. (I'll save you the spiel on how you do it unless you want it) At a minimum I recommend being aware of your calorie allowance (including minimums- don't go under 1200 without medical advice) and at least trying to keep a journal and writing down everything you eat for a week. (That's incredibly instructive)

Good luck with your journey :)
 
Hey Amy, thanks for writing! :) that's funny how similar our backgrounds are when it comes to weight issues.. I think calorie counting might work for me, I never used to pay any attention to calories but lately I always check. Haven't considered keeping a journal, that's a good idea (I also need one to track all the money I mysteriously manage to spend, lol).. so I'll try that for sure. If you have any tips or can direct me somewhere informative about calorie counting I'd totally appreciate it! Thanks!


and now a general "weight loss diary" update:
Today I ate corn flakes with almond milk for breakfast, some fish for lunch, a lean cuisine microwave dinner and some veggie sticks. I have a band rehearsal monday evenings and every week we go to the sports bar next door after we're done, where it's always "wing night". I managed to limit myself to 1 vodka soda and some veggie sticks.. no wings! I don't think I've ever gone and not ordered at least 10 wings, so yay me.
 
Dear Kitteh,

something you've written strikes a chord: feeling powerless to change bad habits...

Oh, how I sympathize! But you're doing something about it! It's a wonderful thing you've lost weight "by accident"! LOL. What a wonderful accident!

I'm wishing you continuous success. You know how to do it, you know you can do it, you're doing it! :hurray: :hurray:
 
Well done on moderating yourself going out, that's really well done!

As for calorie counting- feel free to check my diary if you haven't already to see how it works in practice. (I don't have rules, as such, other than "eat nutritiously" and "stay within numbers"- I like eating 3 meals a day plus snacks so that's what I do, if you want to eat one, or 5, or 10 meals a day, then knock yourself out. My mantra is "do what works for you... as long as it's healthy") Don't be scared by the numbers you see, besides the weights (I use a digital scale), my calorie counter tells me all of that.

Guide to how to work out your calorie range: Nutrition (as a general rule of thumb, don't eat under 1200 calories unless a doctor tells you otherwise, don't eat more than 1000 calories under maintenance. I personally eat in a 500-1000 calorie deficit per day)

I made this youtube video for the Users of WLF page- YouTube - ?Calorie Counting- Knowing What You're Eating?‏

Recipe websites- Recipes, recipes and recipes - Taste (search in advanced search under low kilojoule, 4.2 kilojoules to a calorie); Recipes - 7000 tried and tested recipes... - BBC Good Food (search in refine your recipe under calorie range)- take the calories as a guide only, some of them can be horrible wrong. I also trawl the net for low calorie recipes, but these are the ones I go back to again and again.
Quick guide to how many calories are going to be in what you're going to be eating: Calorie Count :: New Recipe (not 100% accurate, better than guessing or having to do all the sums beforehand)

Threads here on recipes (any additions welcome, at least on mine, I'm sure on the vegetarian one too): http://weight-loss.fitness.com/club/48894-omnivore-cooking-recipe-club.html http://weight-loss.fitness.com/club/48149-vegetable-dish-cooking-club.html

Ideally you want to track everything that goes into your mouth with a calorie counting program. I use one called cron-o-meter which is a free download (the one to use online costs, but I downloaded my program in March and haven't paid a cent for it). Others use fitday, and myfitnesspal. You may need to enter some of your food that isn't on databases, which is hard work to start with but if you use a program that remembers your food it becomes almost no work in a matter of weeks. Even more ideally, weigh, don't just measure your food. (Digital scales aren't expensive, at least not where I am)

As to "how to"- it's personal, so I'm not going to link you to a "holy grail of calorie counting" (besides, I figured out much of this on my own). I have a big appetite so I need to find foods that are filling for a low calorie hit. (In general think about how filling/ satisfying you find the foods versus how many calories are in them) There it's a question of bulk, GI rating, or satiety index (I don't know much about satiety index, for me it's "foods I know will help keep me full"). It requires experimentation, unfortunately. Things that work for me are lots and lots (and lots and lots and lots) of fruit and vegetables, which are low calorie for a lot of bulk, limiting starches (which tend to be medium-high calorie and I don't find filling), and cooking in low calorie ways with less meat and oil. Foods a bit higher in protein (a bit- I'm not a low carber) tend to be more filling (cottage cheese, milk, eggs, lentils, meat). Porridge, rye bread, and potatoes are the starches that work best for me.

I think it's really important to enjoy your food, so I make an effort to keep my food interesting and tasty to keep me on the diet. This includes low calorie treats, like berries in my porridge (yes, I do this every morning, because I love it). If you're eating nothing but carrot sticks and drinking nothing but water you'll get bored and binge.

I try really hard to follow nutritional guidelines for my health, but you could eat nothing but chocolate and chips and beer and nothing else and still lose weight (I do not recommend this) if the numbers are right. I do have "treats" in my diet, like chocolate, but only in severe moderation (as they're quite calorie dense they're not filling compared to how many calories you get). I make desserts with fruit and natural yoghurt. Attitudes to treats vary- personally I want to have them available and fit them in where I can, other people feel they need to ban them or they'll constantly break their diet. It's up to you.

Hope this helps :)
 
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