My Journey: Positive Outlook For 2013

Mandy,
we women are so hard on ourselves...I just read what you posted and that is just how I feel.
I don't even look in the mirror after a shower...I remember some lady in the Usa, and she is on TV.
She was very over weight and said that her job was at risk ( how bad is that but that might have only been her thoughts) anyway she lost a heap of weight but said that if anyone had told her that she would on average only lose 3.5 pounds a month...she said she would have told them were to go.
She did it and said Patients and Persistence is the trick.
I tell myself that every day now.
Like you said Mandy we did not get like this overnight and I too feel like I could just wish it away, but you are so young and wont have halve as much saggy skin as me being 52.

Talk soon mrs woods ox...stay strong sweetie:hurray:
 
Jade - Thankfully for me, nobody's really said anything about my weight since I was in school. None of my coworkers or family or friends have ever crititcized me, but of course in school kids can be cruel. Most of what I'm feeling these days is all brought on by myself. Too many pity parties, not enough working to better myself. That's changed though!

Mrs. Woods - Yeah, I know it's all about patience and persistence. I'm working towards that. I'm the type of person who wants things now when I really want them. So, having to wait months and months to get where I want to be is challenging, but I guess it's all a part of this journey right? I've only been at this for roughly 9 months, might as well as 8 because of the slack off points I had this summer so I do have a lot to be proud of. I'm just tired of seeing what I see. I'll get there... someday!

~~

Well, my weight is up this morning. I weighed in at 198lb even. I know it's at least partially water weight. I can tell I'm retaining water. That's one thing I've learned about my body through all of this. Today my goal is to eat healthy, no cheats, and drink loads of water.
 
So some would say today is a special day. It's my birthday, but to me it's just another day. I grew up in a family where birthday's weren't really a huge deal. I'm kind of thankful for that now as I'm not a partier anyway so it fits me. I was considering giving myself a break by skipping exercise tonight or having a cheat day, but I decided it'll be business as usual. As I said it's just another day AND the BEST present I could give myself is to keep going for my goal and get fit. At least I get to leave work early today so I'll be able to get my exercise in earlier than usual and I'll treat myself to a nice steak for dinner. :)

I don't know what's up my weight. I'm yo-yoing once again. Yesterday I was 198, today I'm 198.6lb. Aside from the movie popcorn over the weekend the last 2 weeks have been the best I've had in months for eating AND exercise. I should not be gaining, I should be losing. I still think it's patly water weight to blame. I'm just done stressing over the scale. I'll continue weighing in and logging, but I'm not stressing over it anymore. :)
 
My birthday doesn't mean a lot to me, either. Still; Happy birthday Mandy! :grouphug:

I hope you have a wonderful day ahead of you. :)
 
Thanks Athala, I had a pretty good day. :)

~~

So I did cheat a smidge today. I had some dark chocolate Hershey bars with almonds. Serving size was 4 pieces, I had 2 before lunch and 2 later on in the day. It came out to an extra 180 calories, but I guess that just means no dessert tonight. :)

I got my taebo in already too. I think Billy Blanks was trying to kill me today. I just wasn't feeling it tonight. My legs felt like they were cylinder blocks or something. I still got through it though so all is well. Tomorrow is rest day, and to be honest, I think my body needs it. I think I probably should've rested today just listening to my body, but I have calories to burn!!
 
Happy Birthday Mandy!:party:

But today is a big day. I'm going to guess that it is the first birthday in a bit where you have been in onederland! Celebrate...because the rest of the year will be bringing you to your goal!
 
Jade, thank you! And yes you are correct. This is first birthday in many, many years that I was in onederland so that's definitely something to be happy about! :)

~~

As I said yesterday, I'm done trying to figure out the whole scale thing. Yesterday I was 198.6 and this morning I was 197.4lb. Fluctuations day to day are so weird and very irritating! In a perfect world we'd all see the number go down a little more every day, but apparently this is not a perfect world. :(

I said yesterday that I was going to rest today, but I really have the urge to exercise tonight. At least right now I do. So mattering on what happens today and how I feel, I may say the heck with it and give it a go. If I do I'll be doing the shorter workout (approx half hour) which will at least give my arms a bit of a break.
 
Happy belated birthday, Mandy!! I love birthdays! I'm 26, and I still have a party every year! Lol

I'm sorry, ive gotten behind on your progress. Seems you are having problems with fluctuations. But it will all even out soon!! And you are still doing an amazing job!!! :)
 
Thanks Br!na! Yes, these fluctuations are getting on my nerves, but I'm focusing more on the inches lost at this point. A much better indicator of what's happening. This was my 33rd birthday. I can't believe I'm this old (I know I'm not "old", but still). Where has the time gone? I wanna be a kid again!

~~

Well... today... has not been a good day! I'm feeling rather down and I have no clue why. I have no reason to feel this way, but I feel mopey and just want to eat junk food. I craved Fritos and chocolate and ended up giving in! Ugh! I hate having these cravings. I really do. Worst than that, I hate giving in, but I continue to do so. So irritating! Since today has been so bad I decided to just go all out and make tacos for dinner. This weekend I'll have to be extra good to make up for it that's all.

Since I'll be making tacos tonight after groceries I won't be exercising tonight. I just won't have enough time and the way I'm feeling I probably wouldn't do a very effective workout anyway. So, I am going to use it as my rest day. I'm sure my weight will be up tomorrow, but it is what it is. Tomorrow will be about getting back on track once again.
 
Hi Mandy, I'm sorry I missed your birthday! I think Birthdays should be really celebrated EVERY year & I'm now 60! They're YOUR special day You guys are spring chickens! :D
The horrible feelings of guilt & sluggishness you get when you cave in & eat something really fattening far outweigh the short-term "enjoyment" of it I find. Sunday nights my husband & I have a small selection of sweets(dark chocolate, a sweet biscuit or some gluten-free cake) as well as our usual fruit platter & that satisfies me enough so that I don't feel I'm depriving myself totally. I never want to go up near the 90's again!
I think the reason you may feel down is because you ate sweet things. If I eat cleanly I feel heaps better than if I eat junk. Have some fresh fruit whenever you crave fattening high-carb things. My mental health has improved greatly since I have stopped snacking on sugar-laden food. Bye for now xoxo Cate

 
Hi Mandy!
I think that every once in a while we are all going to give in. That is actually what most people do. They eat some junk food at times, don't think a thing about it and then the next day it is back to business as usual. I think some where along the way we forgot how to eat 'normally.' But I think it is important to learn that too.

Birthdays can be fun, but if you are the kind of person who is prone to reflecting on your life, they can bring about lots of different emotions. I don't know if that was part of your mood, but it could have been.

I think that you are like me. Certain feelings (usually for me it is aggravation/anger) really trigger that urge to eat something good. Maybe we are looking for that serotonin high, :)

Tomorrow will be a better day!
 
Cate, what you're saying makes sense, but I was feeling down before I had the chocolate and chips. Maybe just having those made me feel worst? I don't know. You're definitely right in that the giving in feels much worst in the short term when you look at the total picture. I did feel guilty last night. I wish I could bottle that feeling up and take a shot whenever I had a craving. That would definitely go a long way to help!

Jade, I definitely do have emotions that make me want to eat. I wasn't in a bad mood or having a bad day, I just felt blah. I didn't want to be at work. Nothing that I can think of was bothering me. Maybe subconsciously there's something. I'm probably just overthinking things. I think I probably just had a bad day. Hopefully today will be better!

~~

So, I ate a lot yesterday and I had a late dinner so I was bracing myself for a very bad weigh in this morning. Surprisingly, it was good! Slightly up from yesterday at 197.8lb, but I'll take it! I know that the calories I consume don't show up the next day, but I thought the food weight would. Hopefully the big blip that was yesterday won't have any long lasting effects.

The plan today is to have a nice big breakfast (we order out on Friday mornings at work). I'll be having two eggs over easy, homefries, and two slices of toast. I used to get bacon or sausage, but stopped getting that when I started my journey. This breakfast usually keeps me full going well into the afternoon at which point I'll have some fruit. Dinner's always up in the air on Fridays because I do some shopping after work. I'll most likely end up with a 6" Subway sub, much healthier than Wendy's or Dominos pizza (which I'm craving, but not getting!).

I'll also be getting my Taebo in toinght. I skipped last Friday, but will not this time. I need to make up some ground after my slip yesterday.

Hope you all have a great weekend! :)
 
Mi Mandy, you are doing great...me not so well.
Have had a few slip ups but will get back to it as I so remember when I got to the weight I was now and then just pigged out till I was 20 pounds more.....not worth it.
Happy Birthday too sweetie...sorry I missed it, Son took my lap top for work.

Sweet regards mrs woods.
 
Sorry I missed it but, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Also sorry I've gotten behind in your diary.

Seems you've had some ups and downs lately. Hope they even out soon! Glad your weight dropped back down again after those couple increases. Keep focusing on the inches, losing 10 pants sizes is amazing and something to be proud of! The rest will come off, just happening slower than you want it to. Your hard work is and will continue to pay off!
 
Hey Mandy , despite of your ups and downs you are doing great!! If you ever feel you are still too big (like when you were size 26) just take a pic of yourself and compare it to an old photo! It always helps me!!!

& happy belated birthday!!

It's great to see that you are still around here x
 
I've been MIA for the past few days for no good reason other than I was just being grouchy. I keep saying that I'm not going to focus on the scale anymore and that I'm not going to let it get me down so long as I'm losing inches. In a perfect world I'd feel this way. Well, this is not a perfect world and the truth is that the scale DOES bother. I'm just so sick and tired of dropping, then rising, and then stalling. So many of you are able to post a lower weight each and every day and I'm happy for you, but I'd like the same thing damn it! :(

With that said, my weight has been fluctuating again. Unfortunately I'm at work and my spreadsheet is at home so I don't have all of the numbers, but I've been lingering around the 198lb mark (give or take some ounces) until this morning when I weighed in at a new low of 196.8lb. The new low kind of threw me off because I ate like a pig yesterday, BUT it was somewhat healthy eating. I had oatmeal and peaches for breakfast, some graham crackers for a snack, some left over steak rolls (thin steak wrapped around a slice bacon), and a granny smith apple for late afternoon snack, and a chicken sandwich for dinner. I also drank a lot of water. I also skipped exercise because my right hip felt sore all day. It feels the same today so I may rest it again. I've been getting in 6 days of taebo a week for the past few weeks so taking a few days off might be what I need right now.

While I was happy to see this new low I'm refusing to get too excited. It's just the way things have been working for me. Hit a new low, then either gain it back or stall once again. I'm just getting so frustrated with this whole journey. Am I considering giving up? Not on your life. I'm just getting very impatient and want things to move quicker than they are. Today I'm taking new measurements so we'll see what that story says.

So anyway, sorry for such a frustrating and negative post. I'll try to catch up on diaries tonight.
 
Scale fluctuation can be frustrating, no doubt. Early days when you can drop three pounds a week it doesn't matter too much, but once the slowdown starts it can be a pain.

I try and not let stalls bother me too much, but I also occasionally consider what minor change I might be able to make to help things along. Whether it's an increase in exercise intensity or duration, or maybe cut something out of the diet that takes up too many calories, or whether I've been a little lackadaisical monitoring my food intake, sometimes a very small adjustment can get things going again.
 
MrVee... that's exactly the problem. I was never at a point to where I lost 3lb in a week. When I joined this forum I weighed 220lb and this morning I weighed 196. That's only 24lb over the course of 9 months. Considering how heavy I was to start, I would've thought I'd lose more in the beginning, but that wasn't the case. Looking back at my spreadsheet my pace seems to be just over a pound in a week... IF it was a good week. Granted, I did lose inches so I'm sure it was a balancing act between losing fat and gaining muscle, but I think at this point I should be losing more consistently. I mean how much muscle could I possibly be putting on this point? Maybe I just don't understand the whole exercise / lose fat / gain muscle thing. I just thought I'd be further along by now in terms of weight loss.

I think maybe at this point I need to really watch what I eat, even on my cheat days. Maybe instead of having a cheat DAY I'll just have a special snack. As for exercise, I'm really limited. I have a treadmill, but can't job. I don't have a gym membership, can't afford it, especially now with Christmas right around the corner. It's winter now so walking before/after work isn't an option because 1) it's to dark at both times and 2) it's getting to cold. I really don't know what else to do. :(
 
I thought that This Thread was a great argument to show that the scale doesn't necessarily matter.

Maybe you could try experimenting with your diet a little? On my case, I'm happy with the relative success I had when counting carbohydrates.
From experience, I think that 150g is a reasonable amount. 100g is workable, but some sacrifices have to be made, and anything below 100g includes making big sacrifices.

Still, that is just a suggestion, I think everybody needs to find what works for them.

Take care Mandy. Don't get discouraged! :grouphug:
 
Hi Mandy!

I feel the exact same way about the scale. I so just want to be where I was. And it is very hard not to be very angry at myself. Funny that in my last post I talked about spreading my weigh ins out, maybe you should do the same?

I also have a treadmill. I go through phases where I walk on it with a pretty steep incline, even if the incline won't work for you, walking can be a good workout. If you have ankle weights, put them on while you walk. You will feel it!

this is the catalog that I sometimes order videos from.

There are also different reviews of the videos from those that have ordered. I find it helpful to read those. Maybe try some new DVDs. I think that doing the same video over and over can lead to the workout becoming not as effective and also stressing certain joints from over use.

But seriously wow...look at how far you have come. 10 pants sizes is a great accomplishment. 54 pounds is a big change.

It is okay to be grouchy every now and then. This isn't really that fun! But it is so worth it!
 
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