Today’s weekly weigh-in is my eighth since starting the program. I started out at 384 lbs. Today I weighed 318 lbs. I’ve lost 66 pounds and 40% of my weight loss goal.
The difference this has made is astounding. I am sleeping better. I get around easily, without getting out of breath. When I was at my heaviest (425 lbs.), I got out of breath walking to the refrigerator. I noticed back then that I always breathed heavily. It even affected my speaking—and since I speak for a living, it reduced the enjoyment of my job.
When first starting this program, the first few weeks were very easy. You would assume that it would get even easier because of familiarity. I just keep plugging along, and have to put little thought into it, so it should be a snap, right? Actually, I’ve noticed temptations that never caused problems early on have gotten harder. Early on, this was new. I was seeing the weight falling off and was so relieved to see a change that the old foods didn’t entice me in the slightest. Now, I feel so good, it can be hard to remind myself of the need to keep going. Now I am in the stage of, “Just hold on and keep going.”
One thing I try to remind myself is that while I feel so wonderful right now, I am not at a healthy weight. The last time I weighed this amount was when we lived in Idaho back around 2005. I didn’t feel healthy back then. I felt terrible. I feel wonderful now, for two main reasons:
(1) I am comparing myself to when I weighed 425 lbs. and not when I weighed 225 lbs. That lower weight was so long ago that I cannot even remember those days. Feelings are always relative. If I were looking at today from my maximum weight days I would tell you that I feel great. I I looked at today from my goal weight, I would tell you that I am nowhere near being healthy, and not really feeling healthy. Right now I am not feeling health. I am feeling relief from my most unhealthy days.
(2) Blood sugar has a huge impact on our feelings. I don’t feel so great right now just because of the weight. I feel this good because the program helps me to maintain my blood sugar level through the day. I am not experiencing the highs and lows, the cravings and the desire for sugar, or the draggy feeling as my body tries to consume all the extra sugars. If I dropped off the program and went back to my old habits, I’d feel some of the relief of the lower weight, but the old feelings of ill health would come back and before long these would drag me right back up to my old “laying at death’s door” weight.
Every day now is a reminder to keep going forward. This new life has to become habit. I need to get to the point that I eat right, not because a program tells me to do it, but because the good foods, in the healthy amounts and the right proportions are what I actually want. This can only come through building habits. Habits take time. There is no miracle pill taking us from bad habits to good or from illness to health. Now that the newness has worn off, the real work, and discipline come into play.
One thing my coach recommended was going back to the early creativity in preparing my Lean & Green meals. When we first
started I wanted to find new things that I liked. I wanted to develop new tastes and learn to prepare new foods. After a few weeks of that I’ve gotten lazy again and try to get by with preparing the easiest quickest meals. To turn this back around yesterday I made myself a steak topped salad. It is one of my new favorites. It is romaine, spinach, and celery with a bit of Feta Cheese and dressed lightly with a Balsamic Vinaigrette. I then grilled about 4 ounces of steak, sliced it thin and laid it on the salad. I am attaching a picture. Sorry for those who are squeamish. I cook my steaks the right way—Blue Rare.