Changing My Outlook on Weightloss

For those people that know me well, you know how I have struggled with my weight over the years. Here is the kicker though! I have finally come to realize that up until the past 10 years, the struggle has been with my mental image not my physical body. I have looked back at pictures of myself and can see that most of time I wasn't overweight. In fact in a lot of the pictures I have I am downright slim. Imagine that!!!!! Unfortunately during my high school years I took to heart a few careless comments made by my dad and a very close friend. Now that I can "hear" those comments with a different perspective, I realize they were only teasing. The problem was as a teenager I didn't realize that.

Now I am overweight and I am not happy about it, but I am not so hard on myself when I take backward steps. I have more reasons to want to get back into shape now. I want to be around (in good health) to enjoy more outside activities with Mike, I want to have enough energy to play with my grandkids, and I want to be able to spend a lot more years with my wonderful daughters and their hubbies and enjoy seeing them raise their children.

Up until recently, nothing I tried worked because I got bored with it to quickly. Well, Laura and I have been watching Biggest Losers on TV. I didn't really care for it at first, but then I started thinking that if these people that needed to lose a lot more weight than I do could stick with it then maybe I could. Also Laura suggested I try counting calories like they do. I always thought that would be too much trouble, but I decided to try it. Since I tend to think things out logically and it is very basic logic that in order to lose weight you have to take in fewer calories than you burn off, it is working for me. "Thank you Laura!!!" I stick to a pretty healthy diet(I hate that word) but I am learning that doesn't always mean it is low in calories. I feel much better when I eat well, so that helps too. I am smart enough to know you need a little of everything in your daily diet. I have never been one to follow fad diets. But now that I am getting the hang of calorie counting, I am finding some of the things I would think would be low in calories aren't and vice versa. So some things I thought I would have to limit more I don't and some things I don't want to waste my calories on are things I don't enjoy as much anyway. So as you can see this seems to be a win win situation for me. I am getting pretty good at guessing the amount of calories now too. I am losing the weight slowing, but I would rather do that because your body adjusts to it and it's easier to keep it off also. I didn't go overboard for Thanksgiving, but I did indulge a little more than usual, but I was surprised at how easy it was to get right back at it on Monday. So here is what I have lost so far. I started at 223 1/4 lbs and I am down to 214 3/4 lbs. Yea, 8 1/2 lbs lost so far. I didn't want to post this until I got under 215 because no matter what I have tried I couldn't seem to get below 215. I know a 1/4 lb isn't a lot, but it is still under 215. My clothes are already fitting quite a bit looser too! Mike keeps telling me all the time how much better I am looking. Also, I started out just with stretching exercises, but as I have gotten more energy and more motivation, I have started adding a few more extra exercises here and there that I do daily. And I alternate daily with and without small weights. I also bought new tubes and brake pads for out bikes so Mike can get our bikes up and going so we can start bike riding again.

It feels so good to finally have found something that is working for me and even better that I it doesn't seem a big chore to follow it. I am already feeling quite a bit better physically and have more energy. I also am enjoying seeing the physical changes in my body. You are never too old to change things!!!!!