Last night I was out celebrating a friend’s birthday (Happy day, Stephanie!) and talking to other friends, Amy, Erin and Christopher, I really became inspired to write again after my brief hiatus away from my blog this week. That’s the great thing about friends — they can bring out your best and encourage your passions, even when you’re feeling a little down.
This post is also inspired by two female bloggers who I enjoy reading so much, Gretchen at “Honey, I Shrunk the Gretchen” and Emily at “Skinny Emmie.” Gretchen recently admitted to a bit of a weight gain after losing a bunch of weight — Lord knows I’ve been there! She wants to recommit herself (again), and I’m right there with her, needing to do the same. And Emily talks about how she is a weight-loss blogger who, despite losing an amazing amount of weight, hasn’t actually lost weight in about a year. I hear ya, girl. I’m right there with you too.
Being in this boat is no fun. Back when I was consistently losing weight, I was fueled by that success to keep going. Now, it takes digging in, way down deep, to keep this up and sometimes, more times than I’d like, I fail.
While I do believe I’m overall much, much healthier than I used to be — I exercise regularly, I eat better … simply paying attention to what I eat at all is a vast improvement — I can do better. I haven’t stepped on the scale in a couple weeks because I’m just too sensitive right now to see that number. But I don’t FEEL right. And when you’ve been listening to your body for the past couple years, you start to know it really well, and you know when you’re just not working hard enough. You know when the weight is coming off like you wish it would.
I’ve formulated a plan of attack to see what I can do to jump start this weight-loss effort again.
1. I’ll continue doing Weight Watchers because I really enjoy it, but I will not eat all my activity points or flex points. I will stick to my daily allotment with one weekly treat using up to 10 extra points. On days that I work out, if I am hungrier (and as an effort to avoid binging), I will eat up to 5 extra points — but only on days when I earn activity points!
2. I just bought a bunch of Diet Coke and I’m going to try to give some away, then slowly ween myself off the Devil Liquor. Yes, that’s what I’m calling it. As much as I hate to admit it, one thing I was doing back when I first lost weight but I’m not doing now is I had stopped drinking Diet Coke. All that aspartame is bad for me, I know it, and I need to stop drinking it. Now a Diet Coke will be a true treat, not a daily (and day-long) beverage.
3. I will start working out 5 days a week again. Even if it’s just walking for 20 min., I need to MOVE almost every day. Often if it’s not the most intense workout ever, I feel like it’s a waste of time, so why bother? I know this isn’t true. I tell other people this all the time! I need to follow my own advice and just move more. Period.
4. I will eat less carbs in the afternoon/evenings. My goal is to eat NO rice, bread, pasta or potatoes after 5:00. But I don’t want to cut out fruits, that’s just not in the cards as I love fruits as a sweet treat. Once in awhile it will be OK to incorporate whole grain bread or whole wheat pasta, brown rice or a sweet potato, but by and large I want to stick with protein and veggies after 5:00.
5. I’m going to get an appointment with a new doctor and speak to him/her about my insulin resistance, about Metformin, about my weight struggles, and see what he/she thinks. I have to get a new GP anyway and the doctor I was seeing about my weight loss (my OB/GYN), well, we just have different opinions about how to tackle the situation. He wants me to join an expensive program and take diet pills. Um, no. That’s just not for me. I’m seriously wondering if I can get myself in front of a therapist or nutritionist to deal with my food issues once and for all. But I gotta get that referral ’cause paying for it out of pocket is out of the question.
So, that’s my strategy from here on out. It’s not about saying NO to anything sweet or never having a slice of pizza. But it’s about returning to what I know will work for me, what has worked in the past, and that’s a much stricter diet. That’s a cupcake once in a blue moon, or ONE slice of pizza with a big salad. That’s working out almost every day and giving up on diet soda. It’s a lot of things that I know will work, I just gotta work ‘em.
Have you ever felt like you have to start all over again? How do you keep yourself motivated when the scale isn’t moving down?
You can do the diet coke thing! You know I was the biggest addict around, and I hardly drink it at all anymore. I really do feel better!
I’m so flattered to be named in this post — you are definitely NOT alone and we CAN do this. Your plan of attack sounds great! I’m right here with you — let’s do this!
Aw, you are so not alone (as you know)! And Devil Liquor is right – I remember trying to kick my Diet Coke addiction as being harder than giving up sugar. Phew. You can do it!
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I’m not sure if you are doing this with WW, but have you considered going to the weekly weigh ins at a WW center? My dad and my sister both do this and they have both said that it helps to keep them on track a lot better than just going it by themselves online. Just throwing that out there! Your goals sound great though, you can totally do them!