Shedding the PoundsThree friends on a path to lose weight!

I’ve decided to go back on the South Beach diet. This weekend I tried on a pair of size 16 pants that I had bought a while back that fit me when I bought them but now they are too tight. So I decided to try the diet again. I’ve been on it for two and a half days and I’ve already lost five and a half pounds! This makes me feel really good! Basically in phase I I have to cut out all fruit, potatoes, sugar, and grains. I’ve actually found myself not getting enough calories, so I’m trying to eat as much as possible. I feel like I’m eating all the time. Yesterday this is what I ate:
Breakfast – Celery w/PB
Lunch – Chicken breast w/out skin and breading, pea salad, and cottage cheese
Supper – Chicken breast, green beans, and cucumber salad
Snacks – almonds, beef jerky, cheese stick, pepperoni slices, and a tablespoon of natural peanut butter

All of this was 1170 calories and I need to try for at least 1200-1400 calories, but I will keep trying to add more food, especially veggies.

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve posted. I haven’t been working out hardly at all lately because of work and other things, but I was surprised yesterday when I got on the scale and I had actually lost a pound. And this morning I got on the scale and lost another pound. I was excited and it makes me want to keep losing weight. I know that if I watch my calories the weight will keep coming off. I have 68 more pounds to lose til my goal weight and I know I can do it!

This weekend I decided to start the southbeach diet. I needed something to help me get rid of all these cravings for sugar and junk food. Basically the diet has three phases. The first phase lasts two weeks and eliminates bread, potatoes, fruits, sugars, and other high carb, high sugar foods. In two days I’ve lost 4 pounds and I feel really good. I’m hoping that using this diet I will be able to control my cravings for donuts, muffins, biscuits, etc and learn to eat foods with good carbs and eat healthier.

I also started a new job recently so I haven’t been able to exercise as much I was before. So it’s going to take some time for me to get used to my busy schedule and figure out better things to eat and hopefully I’ll keep seeing the weight go down.

YAY!!!! 42 pounds lost!!  I figured I am a quarter of the way to my weight loss goal.  Yay me!!  I went down 2 pant sized and am now in 22’s.  I had been in 26’s since high school, so well over 10 years.  This is the smallest I’ve been in over a decade.  Feels good.

Wow it’s been so long since I’ve posted here. Been chugging along slowly, the weight loss has been minimal but I’m confident I can keep with it. This isn’t just a diet where I’m wanting to lose a lot of weight quickly, this is a lifestyle change for me. A huge part of it is a learning process. Learning different ways to exercise, learning about nutrition and how to eat properly, and learning what works for me. I don’t just want to lose weight, I want to learn to live healthy and continue to be healthy for the rest of my life. So for the ELWC I haven’t lost a ton of weight like I initially planned to, but I’ve lost some weight and inches, and I’ve gone down three sizes in clothing! I’m now down to a size 18 and it feels so great! The other day I had put on a pair of jeans and throughout the day kept wondering why they were loose and baggy and later when I took them off I realized they were a size 20 lol. So I gathered up all of my 20s & 22s and put them in the back of my closet so I don’t make that same mistake again.

I want to try to liven up this blog a bit and post more, so I’m going to be posting tips and recipes and other things I find along the way. Hopefully they’ll help anyone else trying to lose weight and become healthier.

We had the extreme weight loss challenge weigh in tonight.  I am at 293, which is down 17 pounds from the start of the challenge and 29 pounds total.  Almost 30 pounds, yay!!  It seems like it’s coming off really slowly though.  I kept a food journal for the past two weeks.  There were a couple of days when I didn’t even reach 900 calories, and I’m supposed to have 15oo to 1700 cals.  oops.  It’s harder than it sounds.  And yet there are days when I want to eat everything in sight.  Ugh.  Why wasn’t I blessed with a high metabolism?  Oh well, I’ll get there eventually, and then I can eat chocolate cake, right Amanda?  Lol!

On Sunday I really fell off the wagon and ate way too much. But I am back on track now and I’ve lost two more pounds! I just bought a new book called You On a Diet by Dr. Roizen and Dr. Oz and I’m loving it so far! It explains so much about our bodies and nutrition that I didn’t know before! I love how it explains everything so it’s easy to understand and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the book. Hopefully it will give me more motivation to cut out a lot of unhealthy foods that I’m still eating.

Our weigh-in for the EWLS is tomorrow and I know I haven’t lost a lot of pounds these past few weeks but I know I’ve lost a few and I think it’s better than gaining. So even though I initially might feel disappointed I have to just tell myself that at least I lost some and I didn’t gain all of this weight over night, so I can’t expect lose it that fast either.

Sorry I haven’t updated!!!  I had plateaued and was depressed about updating about gaining weight. So, the 2 days before weigh-in, I ate only chef salads for lunch and supper.  I was down 6 pounds for the 2 weeks!  So 14 pounds total.  Today when I weighed I had lost another pound, so I am at 295 now.  Yay!!  It’s been a struggle tho, especially when I am around my friends.  They are all eating normal, and I am eating low-fat, low-calorie.  Sometimes I cheat of course, then I feel guilty.  I have come to realize that in order to lose weight, you have to change your diet and exercise.  That was one of my biggest drawbacks when I’ve tried losing weight in the past.  I would try to diet, but not exercise.  Or I would exercise, but still eat unhealthy foods.  You have to do both.  People who notice my weight loss as me if I’m on a diet.  I respond that no, I’m on a lifestyle change.  And that’s what it has to be.  I can’t go back to eating all those refined carbs.  I was eating over 2,000 calories everyday and some days it would be over 3,000.  The average active female needs between 1500 and 1700 calories to be healthy.  Even after I reach my target weight of 160 (and I will get there!) I need to continue watching my calories and exercising.  I have been doing really well on not drinking pop.  Water all the way baby!  Although today I got green tea to change things up a bit.  It was okay, but I had to add Truvia to sweeten it up a bit.  Amanda mentioned humus, so this will be my new food of the day.  (Imagine announcer’s voice)  Truvia, all-natural sweetener made from the leaves of the stevia plant.  Calorie free.  And even safe for diabetics!  Yummy.  I actually like it better than sugar.  I think it’s sweeter too.

Current weight- 295 pounds