Sallybean's diary

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sallybean

New member
Hey all - this is the start of my diary/journal. This will not be quick and easy - I have a lot of weight to lose and a lot of bad food habits to change.

I'm not looking for a quick fix. I've tried a lot of them in the last 20 years and for me they don't work long term, maybe more honestly, I can't work them long term. I'm determined to find a balance of healthy eating and exercise to begin losing this body suit of fat that I have been carrying around with me for so long. I'm not 'on a diet', I'm trying to slowly change my diet to something that resembles healthy and that I can continue following the rest of my life.

O.K. so here's the bare naked truth of things:

Starting weight - 280lbs - today 7/15/09 which btw is the heaviest I have ever weighed myself at. Not the heaviest I have ever been mind you, I just have an infuriating habit of often ignoring the obvious, so normally when I get over 250 I simply don't weigh myself. As though by not 'seeing' the number it wasn't really so. I know, brilliant right?

I don't really have a set in stone game plan. I tend to be a little bit of an all or nothing person, so I'm thinking I need to step into the shallow end of the pool and not just dive off the highboard into the deepest part.

As of today I'm setting only 2 daily goals for myself - cut out the sweets and walk 20 minutes a day. That's it for the first couple of weeks. If I can meet that goal consistently for a while then I'll add more.

They say that the journey of a thousand miles beings with the first step, so this is my first step toward a healthier me!

My goal is to be at a healthy weight by the time I am 40 - so I have over 2 years to meet that goal. I want to be a fit and fabulous forty!!!!
 
Hi Sallybean,
Welcome! You are completely right about taking this in steps. For about 3 years i have been thinking and trying to get into losing weight and i just purely couldnt do it because i was trying to change way to many things way too fast. I am sure you will meet your goals for the week :) Good luck and i look forward to keeping tabs on your journey!
 
MicheeH said:
Hi Sallybean,
Welcome! You are completely right about taking this in steps. For about 3 years i have been thinking and trying to get into losing weight and i just purely couldnt do it because i was trying to change way to many things way too fast. I am sure you will meet your goals for the week :) Good luck and i look forward to keeping tabs on your journey!
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Thanks MicheeH and good luck to you as well.
 
Hi SallyBean,
Nice to see you here. I agree it is hard to change everything all at once. I have tried/failed that a couple times myself!
So I like your goals of cutting sweets and walking 20 minutes a day. I think that is plenty challenging enough!
Mine right now are not eating after 7pm and getting outside for a half hour each day.
Slow and steady, right, girl? ;)
 
Kaiser said:
Hi SallyBean,
Nice to see you here. I agree it is hard to change everything all at once. I have tried/failed that a couple times myself!
So I like your goals of cutting sweets and walking 20 minutes a day. I think that is plenty challenging enough!
Mine right now are not eating after 7pm and getting outside for a half hour each day.
Slow and steady, right, girl? ;)
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Hey Kaiser - thanks for the words of encouragement. I like your goal of not eating after 7pm. I might use that for my next add on goal. I can graze all night if I don't watch myself!! Hope you have a good week - thanks again!

Sallybean
 
Monday 7/20/09 Update

Hey all - hope everyone had a good weekend.

I met my 2 goals last week - no sweets & walking 20 min. a day.

One day at a time right?

Weight:

280.6 - 7/13/09

278.2 - 7/20/09

Good luck to us all this week!!!
 
GOOD FOR YOU!!!!
​
Meeting a weekly goal is an amazing feeling. I'm very happy things are starting to happen for you!

I'm still working on not eating past 7 and getting outside every day. Trudging along beside you...

Rachel
 
Kaiser said:
GOOD FOR YOU!!!!
​
Meeting a weekly goal is an amazing feeling. I'm very happy things are starting to happen for you!

I'm still working on not eating past 7 and getting outside every day. Trudging along beside you...

Rachel
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Thanks Rachel - I'm trying so hard to just take it one day(or hour) at a time. Old habits are so hard to break. My mind keeps trying to race ahead to tomorrow, next week, next month and on and on. I am trying to stay focused and mindful - to stop living in the past or in the future - just take care of right now.
Thanks so much for the encouragement - hope you have a great week!!!

Sallybean
 
Congrats meeting your goal this week! That's awesome.

How have you felt cutting out the sweets? Has it been easy or hard?
 
Llamabean said:
Congrats meeting your goal this week! That's awesome.

How have you felt cutting out the sweets? Has it been easy or hard?
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Thanks Llamabean. You know I wish I could say that I have been so determined that having no sweets has been a breeze. The ugly truth of the matter is that I have craved sugar so bad that I seriously thought about taking a sippy cup of sweet tea away from a small child and taking a swig on the sly. Seriously - it did cross my mind! The cravings are a little better this week so far - ya think maybe I getting it out of my system? I think this is worse than when I quit smoking!!
Thanks for the encouragement. Hope you have a great week.

Sallybean
 
sallybean said:
You know I wish I could say that I have been so determined that having no sweets has been a breeze. The ugly truth of the matter is that I have craved sugar so bad that I seriously thought about taking a sippy cup of sweet tea away from a small child and taking a swig on the sly. Seriously - it did cross my mind! The cravings are a little better this week so far - ya think maybe I getting it out of my system? I think this is worse than when I quit smoking!!
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You might enjoy a book I recently read called In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. He talks about the steady evolution of the Western diet and food marketing. The book didn't exactly change the way I eat, but it did give me some food for thought, and it helps explain why we crave sugar the way we do. From his website:

"Food. There's plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it?

Because most of what we're consuming today is not food, and how we're consuming it -- in the car, in front of the TV, and increasingly alone -- is not really eating. Instead of food, we're consuming "edible foodlike substances" -- no longer the products of nature but of food science. Many of them come packaged with health claims that should be our first clue they are anything but healthy. In the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by nutrients, and common sense by confusion. The result is what Michael Pollan calls the American paradox: The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we seem to become."

Keep strong! They say the cravings will pass :) Let us know how you're doing!
 
Hey Sallybean, good to see you are on your way. We have something in common, that big 4 - 0 thing coming. Mine is next summer and after rolling over the 3-9 on the age counter last week I knew it was time. Good luck and feel free to reach out if you need some motivation. Hope I can do the same!

Cheers!
 
elyk said:
Hey Sallybean, good to see you are on your way. We have something in common, that big 4 - 0 thing coming. Mine is next summer and after rolling over the 3-9 on the age counter last week I knew it was time. Good luck and feel free to reach out if you need some motivation. Hope I can do the same!

Cheers!
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Thanks Elyk - you are so right - the big 40 is a BIG motivator for me.

Thanks for the support!!!!

Sallybean
 
Hey everyone - I lost a little over 2 lbs. last week!!

I'm still just sticking to my 2 goals right now - zero sweets and walking every day. My cravings for sweets is so much better now - I'm still very tempted but it's nothing like that first week. I think I'll give myself another week or two before adding another goal. I know I just started but I'm exicted to see a little progress already.

Hope everyone had a good weekend and I hope we all have a good week!!!!

280.6 - 7/13/09

278.2 - 7/20/09

275.8 - 7/27/09


Sallybean
 
Hey all!!! I can't believe it, but I lost another 3lbs. last week - big YEAH. We had a big B-day party for my son yesterday - he turns 10 tomorrow - and I was afraid that I would overeat but I didn't. We live in a tiny house which I love (I am very minimalist) and it was overflowing with about 30 people! I was so busy playing hostess that I didn't have time to eat until it was all over. For about 3 weeks now I have had almost no sweets whatsoever so when I finally got to sit down to eat a peice of B-day cake and ice cream it literally made me sick to my stomach! I guess it was just sugar overload - so I didn't eat more than just a few bites. Anyway I am so happy that I made it through what I was afraid was going to be a disaster and actually lost weight!!!!

280.6 - 7/13/09

278.2 - 7/20/09

275.8 - 7/27/09

272.4 - 8/3/09

Good luck to us all this week!

Sallybean
 
Wow! Congrats on your successes so far!! Not chowing down at parties is one of the toughest things to overcome and you totally did it!!! Great job :) You should feel very proud :)

Nicole
 
Thanks Nicole - Yeah I was afraid of doing some serious damage but ended up doing great.
Thanks for the support! How's your week going?

Sallybean
 
I'm doing well - this is my first week of being "back on track" after a month of travelling - which meant tons of crappy restaurant foods, I thought a journal might help encourage me to stay on track and finally hit my goal weight! lol. And I've been perusing other journals to see how people are doing :) It's always interesting to read about the ups and downs of weight loss :)

Nicole
 
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