Original Poat July 22, 2011
As you know if you have been following my blogs I have been following the17-day diet. I am not going to go into great detail during today’s blog of the diets particulars but if you are interested in reading more about this particular eating plan just scroll back through my earlier posts where you can read more on this wonderful diet. Actually I prefer to refer to it as lifestyle instead of diet as I feel that “diets” are temporary in both the way of eating and the results they offer. I will say that after following the program through the first set of three cycles I elected to start back on cycle one with plans of doing all three cycles yet again. I made it through a second set of cycle one as well as five days of cycle two before deciding to skip to cycle three where I have more eating options. I found that not only did I feel better on cycle three but that my weight loss has continued. Also, while I am now eating out on occasion I am careful about my selections and make every attempt to make sure that my choices are within the realm of what the diet allows and I am being very careful to not eat carbs or fruit after two p.m. per instructions in the book. I also continue to incorporate exercise into my daily routine.
The biggest thing I think I have gotten from reading the book is knowledge of proper portion size. I have been on one diet or another since I was about fourteen years old and yet this is the first time I have paid any attention to portion size or eating in moderation. I am not sure if it was not discussed in the previous fad diets I’ve attempted or if I myself was not paying attention.
I used to blame all of my weight issues on a multitude of things. I have hypothyroidism. I am not as young as I once was. I only have one ovary. I am in pre-menopause. I had lots of excuses. I have always exercised (except on a couple of occasions where my body would not physically allow it) and could not understand why, with all the exercise, I did I could not lose weight or if I did, why I could not keep it off, so I blamed all of the things I just mentioned but now I feel as though I have had this epiphany. It took me many years but I am now able to say that the reason I am over weight is because I like to eat. I like food and I have never watched my portion sizes. All the exercise in the world is not going to help if I eat too much at every meal and then go back for the sweet desert I tended to crave after every meal. I could not figure out why I was so full that I could not breathe yet I still felt hungry. This book, this wonderful little $13 purchase, has totally opened my eyes and given me the answers I was seeking. I am not saying I have never heard about portion sizes in the past. I did, but for some reason I was not ready to absorb the knowledge until now. Was it just that I was not ready before or was it because the author, Dr. Mike, explained it in such a way that I finally got it? I do not know but the key is that I do indeed finally get it. It is working and I am losing weight.
Don returned home this week and I am pleased to say that he noticed my weight loss. I guess it would have been hard not to notice as I am officially down thirty one pounds. He keeps telling me I look and feel skinny. I keep telling him while I am skinnier I am not “skinny”. Still, I have to admit, I love the compliments. I am very aware of my weight, a number which I am still not ready to divulge here on this public blog, as I step on the scale every morning. While I do keep tract of the number I do not feel as if I am a slave to the scale as I only weigh myself once a day. I also realize that it is normal to fluctuate slightly on a day to day basis so I do not freak out if the number changes. If it is a drastic change I merely look back at what I ate the day before and decide if any changes are necessary.
One thing I have had to do is a bit of shopping. While I did have some things in my closet, saved from years ago, I felt it was time to get a few more things. The decision was pretty easy after being told that my clothes were getting so baggy that I looked frumpy, so in deciding that frumpy is not the look I was going for, I went to the mall. During the first trip I really did not find anything that I could not live without as it seemed that at the time I was in-between sizes. Two weeks later I decided to try yet again. I visited a different mall and had lost enough weight that I was able to find many cute things to wear. The hardest part was trying to figure out what I really needed and making decisions on that alone. I picked out several things in the size that I thought I was in and was pleasantly surprised when I had to trade them for a smaller size. Still, I found myself wondering if the industry has made changes to it sizing as I really did not think I should be in such small sizes. At times I feel as though I must still be wearing my fat goggles as there are times when I look in the mirror I still see the old, heavier me. While I did not see the fat me in the dressing room mirror at the mall I did find myself waiting for the fat police to come in and direct me to the correct larger sizes. As it was no-one came in and in some cases I was able to go even lower than I could have imagined. While I do not choose to disclose my weight at this time I will tell you that, when I began this journey, I was edging out of a size fourteen and as of this writing I am comfortably fitting into tens and even have several eights in my closet that fit. At my thinnest about eleven years ago I was wearing a size eight. That was with the help of herbal diet pills and not the healthy eating habits I now adhere to so it gives me great hope that I have learned enough to maintain my weight once I get where I am going. It also makes me wonder what size I will be in when I get to my goal weight as anything smaller than an eight will be new territory to me. I also guess it would help if I even knew what my goal weight was. According to the book I should weigh about as much as a ten year old. I do not plan on dropping that low as I have promised Don that I will not be rail thin. I still have about 30 pounds to get to the high end of the weight chart, so I may look at seeing if I am happy with that weight. I just laughed to myself as I wrote that last sentence as I never would have thought at my age that something like this was even attainable much less something to strive for.
I have had a couple of people ask if I was doing this for my husband. Yes and no. Of course as a wife I would love to look good for him and to make him proud to be seen with me but the thing is, I am one of the lucky ones with the wonderful husband who has never made an issue of my weight even when I was at my heaviest. He has always loved me for who I am and not how much I weigh. I would say mostly I am doing this for me. I am the one who has to look into the mirror and be happy with the person that is looking back at me. That is happening more and more lately. Next year I will be hitting a big birthday milestone, the big 50. While I don’t feel upset or stressed out by that number I have made a promise to myself that I will reach it in the best possible shape. That is my commitment to me and my health reaching into the second phase of my life. As for the number on the scale it is just that, a number on the scale. When I get to where I am going I will know. It won’t be a number on a scale it will be when I look in the mirror and say okay this is it. In the meantime I know I am on the road to success, and I love the direction I’m headed.
As you know if you have been following my blogs I have been following the17-day diet. I am not going to go into great detail during today’s blog of the diets particulars but if you are interested in reading more about this particular eating plan just scroll back through my earlier posts where you can read more on this wonderful diet. Actually I prefer to refer to it as lifestyle instead of diet as I feel that “diets” are temporary in both the way of eating and the results they offer. I will say that after following the program through the first set of three cycles I elected to start back on cycle one with plans of doing all three cycles yet again. I made it through a second set of cycle one as well as five days of cycle two before deciding to skip to cycle three where I have more eating options. I found that not only did I feel better on cycle three but that my weight loss has continued. Also, while I am now eating out on occasion I am careful about my selections and make every attempt to make sure that my choices are within the realm of what the diet allows and I am being very careful to not eat carbs or fruit after two p.m. per instructions in the book. I also continue to incorporate exercise into my daily routine.
The biggest thing I think I have gotten from reading the book is knowledge of proper portion size. I have been on one diet or another since I was about fourteen years old and yet this is the first time I have paid any attention to portion size or eating in moderation. I am not sure if it was not discussed in the previous fad diets I’ve attempted or if I myself was not paying attention.
I used to blame all of my weight issues on a multitude of things. I have hypothyroidism. I am not as young as I once was. I only have one ovary. I am in pre-menopause. I had lots of excuses. I have always exercised (except on a couple of occasions where my body would not physically allow it) and could not understand why, with all the exercise, I did I could not lose weight or if I did, why I could not keep it off, so I blamed all of the things I just mentioned but now I feel as though I have had this epiphany. It took me many years but I am now able to say that the reason I am over weight is because I like to eat. I like food and I have never watched my portion sizes. All the exercise in the world is not going to help if I eat too much at every meal and then go back for the sweet desert I tended to crave after every meal. I could not figure out why I was so full that I could not breathe yet I still felt hungry. This book, this wonderful little $13 purchase, has totally opened my eyes and given me the answers I was seeking. I am not saying I have never heard about portion sizes in the past. I did, but for some reason I was not ready to absorb the knowledge until now. Was it just that I was not ready before or was it because the author, Dr. Mike, explained it in such a way that I finally got it? I do not know but the key is that I do indeed finally get it. It is working and I am losing weight.
Don returned home this week and I am pleased to say that he noticed my weight loss. I guess it would have been hard not to notice as I am officially down thirty one pounds. He keeps telling me I look and feel skinny. I keep telling him while I am skinnier I am not “skinny”. Still, I have to admit, I love the compliments. I am very aware of my weight, a number which I am still not ready to divulge here on this public blog, as I step on the scale every morning. While I do keep tract of the number I do not feel as if I am a slave to the scale as I only weigh myself once a day. I also realize that it is normal to fluctuate slightly on a day to day basis so I do not freak out if the number changes. If it is a drastic change I merely look back at what I ate the day before and decide if any changes are necessary.
One thing I have had to do is a bit of shopping. While I did have some things in my closet, saved from years ago, I felt it was time to get a few more things. The decision was pretty easy after being told that my clothes were getting so baggy that I looked frumpy, so in deciding that frumpy is not the look I was going for, I went to the mall. During the first trip I really did not find anything that I could not live without as it seemed that at the time I was in-between sizes. Two weeks later I decided to try yet again. I visited a different mall and had lost enough weight that I was able to find many cute things to wear. The hardest part was trying to figure out what I really needed and making decisions on that alone. I picked out several things in the size that I thought I was in and was pleasantly surprised when I had to trade them for a smaller size. Still, I found myself wondering if the industry has made changes to it sizing as I really did not think I should be in such small sizes. At times I feel as though I must still be wearing my fat goggles as there are times when I look in the mirror I still see the old, heavier me. While I did not see the fat me in the dressing room mirror at the mall I did find myself waiting for the fat police to come in and direct me to the correct larger sizes. As it was no-one came in and in some cases I was able to go even lower than I could have imagined. While I do not choose to disclose my weight at this time I will tell you that, when I began this journey, I was edging out of a size fourteen and as of this writing I am comfortably fitting into tens and even have several eights in my closet that fit. At my thinnest about eleven years ago I was wearing a size eight. That was with the help of herbal diet pills and not the healthy eating habits I now adhere to so it gives me great hope that I have learned enough to maintain my weight once I get where I am going. It also makes me wonder what size I will be in when I get to my goal weight as anything smaller than an eight will be new territory to me. I also guess it would help if I even knew what my goal weight was. According to the book I should weigh about as much as a ten year old. I do not plan on dropping that low as I have promised Don that I will not be rail thin. I still have about 30 pounds to get to the high end of the weight chart, so I may look at seeing if I am happy with that weight. I just laughed to myself as I wrote that last sentence as I never would have thought at my age that something like this was even attainable much less something to strive for.
I have had a couple of people ask if I was doing this for my husband. Yes and no. Of course as a wife I would love to look good for him and to make him proud to be seen with me but the thing is, I am one of the lucky ones with the wonderful husband who has never made an issue of my weight even when I was at my heaviest. He has always loved me for who I am and not how much I weigh. I would say mostly I am doing this for me. I am the one who has to look into the mirror and be happy with the person that is looking back at me. That is happening more and more lately. Next year I will be hitting a big birthday milestone, the big 50. While I don’t feel upset or stressed out by that number I have made a promise to myself that I will reach it in the best possible shape. That is my commitment to me and my health reaching into the second phase of my life. As for the number on the scale it is just that, a number on the scale. When I get to where I am going I will know. It won’t be a number on a scale it will be when I look in the mirror and say okay this is it. In the meantime I know I am on the road to success, and I love the direction I’m headed.
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