Well, it's been five weeks since my last post. The result... I'm down to 302.2 lbs, which means I've lost another 6.4 lbs. That's a total loss of 26.8lbs since September 1st!
Here's a quick summary of the last five weeks...
- I was able to stick with only drinking water except when I chose a drink as my dessert of the day.
- For the most part I cut my meals down to about one plate full, though there were a few instances when I didn't. Pizza's a killer.
- Only twice did I have more than one dessert a day. I also had a few days in which I had no dessert.
- I got a decent amount of exercise for the first couple of weeks. The last three, not so much.
- The 66 day Bible reading challenge came to a screeching halt a week into it.
Here's my plan for the next five weeks...
- Start exercising again.
- Drink only water.
- Add more veggies to my diet.
- Try a few new recipes.
- The only dessert I will have is one small piece of dark chocolate a day. They say in small quantities it's good for you and complete denial of all sweets is a little too scary to me at this point.
- EDIT: I changed my mind. I'm going to see how many days I can go without having any but if I absolutely have to have something, then I'll allow myself one piece of dark chocolate. I wonder if I can go the full five weeks. Hmmm.
- Take a daily vitamin. I'm thinking gummy vitamins count as medication, not dessert. :-)
- Read the Bible every day. Even if I don't have time for 18 chapters, I can still read something every day.
- Originally I had mapped out that at this point I would begin to record all my calories every day, but I am going to save that challenge for down the road. I really think I'll have enough to worry about with trying to get exercise and avoid junk food and desserts. I don't want to stress myself out too much.
A couple of weeks ago I had a very pleasant experience at Goodwill. I had realized that I no longer had any nice red or green shirts and as I was doing a Christmas tour with my church choir I was looking for a nice Christmasy shirt.
At Goodwill I went straight to the 3x section of shirts, but I didn't like any of them at all. At this point (and this really was the first moment this occurred to me) I realized that I may have lost enough weight to fit into a smaller size. So I grabbed a few 2x and 1x shirts, and went to go try them on. They almost all fit! There were a couple of 1xs that didn't look right, but I found a few 2x shirts, a 1x, and even an xxl that all look great on me! (Well, okay, the xxl is still a little tight, but I loved it and I was stoked that I could get it on my body, so I went ahead and bought it. I figure it won't be too long until I can wear it!.) My favorite one is a red velvet 1x; I've already gotten a number of compliments of how I look while wearing it.
My sisters, Hannah and Lauren, have both had dreams now in which I lost so much weight I was as small as them. They tell me I looked great! Hannah said, "It's a sign!"
Two weeks ago it dawned on me that Hannah is expecting that this is the last time I have to try to lose weight. She really believes that I can do this; that even though I have so often tried and failed I can make permanent changes to live a healthier life. This really got me thinking. It wasn't until then that I realized that I didn't really believe in myself. Not fully. Sure, I had hopes, but hopes aren't the same as expectations. I HOPED I would be able to change to a healthier lifestyle, but I EXPECTED that at some point I would fail and give up. That's what I've always done before.
So I decided that instead of saying "I hope to make a permanent change to my life" I would change my attitude and say, "I WILL make a permanent change to my life."
That's the battle now. I want a self-fulfilling prophesy, but a good prophesy and not a bad one. I'm still struggling to believe that I can do it. Prayers are VERY much appreciated.
