Swimming

I have a love/hate relationship with swimming. On the one hand, there is nothing quite like the feeling of floating, being supported when gravity usually isn't my friend. On the other hand, I have to stuff my sausage-like limbs and torso into something that shows every cupcake and fast-food meal I've eaten for the past 10 years. Every single flaw.

Yesterday for a birthday party, I stuffed my lycra at the Lehi pool. That place was tons of fun, and I even came in under the weight limit for the really cool water slide. 3 whole pounds under, baby!

I tried to do a similar pose, and here is the result. 3 months and 40+ (almost 45 of fat!) pounds later:
It's so nice to have people say they can see the difference. Even if that means they noticed just how fat I was before, I still like the positive attention. My husband likes it that my chest is the most prominent feature on my front side now (instead of my belly).

I keep telling myself that the daily stuff is what's important. That cheating on the plan isn't doing me any favors. That I'll be happier if I stay strong and don't give in to the urges to eat and laze around.

Don't worry. I believe it most of the time. :)

Week 12 - Pre-pregnancy weight

I was scared this week that the news would not be favorable. I spent a couple of days at the end of last week helping a friend move, and I didn't do any weights. I was so tired from packing and cleaning and moving that I could barely do anything by the end.

Saturday night I was exhausted and in need of a good pick-me-up, so I went out with friends. Well, actually, I went over to a friend's house with a bunch of other friends and we crafted and watched a movie and stayed up late talking. It was such a good thing! Except for the eating. I got Papa Murphy's pizza, and I think my kid and I ate an entire one by ourselves - chicken bacon artichoke. Man, I LOVE that pizza!

Turns out my body isn't so fond of it though. I spent the next two days feeling all sorts of intestinal yuckiness.

And then, my period started. Normally I wouldn't mention that in any kind of a public place, but seeing as how Aunt Flo can make you retain water (and not lose weight), I'm throwing it out there. Why? Because I lost another 2 1/2 pounds.

I am now officially back down to my pre-pregnancy weight. Yep, 301 pounds. Hopefully all that monthly water gain will come off this week and I'll find myself next week - for the first time in about 10 years - below 300 pounds. What a wonderful prospect!

I found this cool website that shows what they think you'd look like up to 50 pounds thinner. What do you think?

They didn't do anything to my face, but I love what they did to my boobs. :)

Cheater

On Friday I had a cupcake. And on Saturday I had an ice cream cone.

I guess I'm really getting into this program because last night I dreamed that I actually gained weight this week and I felt terrible about it. I was petrified that Dan would chastise me for not following the plan. heh He's not that kind of a person. Well, he'll give me a hard time for stuff, but he's not mean about it. His job is to tweak my program every single week so I don't plateau and I don't get hungry or too worn out. Why would I feel so bad about a single cupcake?

Rededication, dang it!

My clothes are fitting differently. I've always had giant thighs, and my pants now are loose around my legs. And I sat down in a chair that normally would have totally pinched my hips and it didn't hurt at all. I still squeeze out the sides a little, but it's noticeably less. It's a beautiful thing.

Truth is that I don't have that much appetite for super sweet things lately. Heck, I have to water down all my drinks because they're too sweet for me. And I only put one small scoop of ice cream on my cone. It was too sweet, but I ate it anyway. I should have just shared one with my kid, who ended up smearing his all over his face and shirt.

No more cupcakes. No more ice cream. It's okay, I like the thin more than I like the sweets.

Week 3 - another pound down

One lousy pound. Dan said not to be worried though because that shows him where my metabolism is. Now we drop 300 calories per day to start training my metabolism to be where we want it.

Apparently by raising and lowering the calories, that keeps me from hitting a plateau, and I'm totally okay with that.

Of course, I have to follow everything by the numbers this week. That means I have to get all 1300 of my calories as specified (I can still mix things up within though, like doing fish instead of chicken at dinner). And I have to keep walking/biking and I definitely need to do the weights that Dan has planned for me.

Dan said I could cheat at the bbq on the 4th, but otherwise I need to be good. I think I can do that as long as I do some shopping. I need the variety and I'm almost out of cheese sticks.

Interesting to note this week. Dan said that to maintain my current weight I'd need like 2700 calories a day. I'd like to think that's gross, but that's what I've been doing. I guess the Italians weren't kidding when they called me golosa (glutton). And I was even skinny (comparatively) back then. Crazy stuff.

I can't wait till my metabolism is back to healthy.