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 13 - Half way

I'm officially half-way done with this program. And I'm officially 40+ pounds down on the scale (almost 45 pounds of straight fat lost). Feels pretty good, except that I have another 60 pounds to go.

Happily, my metabolism is responding positively to this thing, and Dan says I could lose another 80 pounds in this time. I would be so freaking happy if that were true!

On Monday I labored. I went on a 13-mile bike ride with my sister's family. My husband tried to come with us, but he's not used to biking and by just a mile in was having trouble (as was my 9-month-old infant), so we traded kids (he had the toddler in the bike trailer and I had the baby in the bike seat) and sent him home.

Half of that bike ride was extremely difficult. The bike seat is missing a bolt, and it lists to one side. And it was uphill. Apparently, in all my bike riding, I only do flat or mostly flat surfaces. The hills kicked my butt! I finally gave up and traded bikes with my sis about a mile before the park up the canyon. And on the way home I had the kid ride with his cousin in their bike trailer.

Last night I took the kid to the grocery store. It was pretty late, but it was in honor of the husband putting the trailer on my bike. So we went and I loaded up the trailer with heavy stuff (a good 100 pounds of food). And it kicked my butt all the way home. I figured it was because the wind was against me and I was just tired. So this morning I loaded the bike trailer again with that toddler of mine and we headed off to see Dan. It took longer than normal because even though it was mostly downhill, the wind was against us. Dan pointed out that the bike trailer probably weighs a good 40+ pounds too. I hadn't thought about that. Instead of going straight home, we took a detour to visit my mom at her work. I finally got home, sweating greatly, and decided we needed to go to the store. So I added the baby to the trailer and off we went.

I loaded it down again, sweated my guts out, and got home, 11 miles and one sleeping baby later. Well, the 11 miles was the total for the day, not for the grocery trip at the end. Still.

I'm thinking I'll be able to take the kids around quite a bit with the trailer as long as I can pacify the baby. She doesn't like to be strapped in and isn't quite there yet with holding her own bottle. She can for a little while, but she drops it easily and doesn't pick it back up by herself.

Dan has added a meal to my day and upped my calories again. He thinks I'll still drop a few this next week. I got measured again and he actually apologized that I had lost inches off my chest. Oh, how I would LOVE to be able to buy a bra in a normal store!!! Lost a couple more off my waist too. I love wearing baggy pants. It's been a very long time since I was able to do that without just... um, I was going to say "going to the store and buying bigger" but that doesn't really work. I've been "tight" in 26/28s for a long time and that's the biggest size carried anywhere around here. I know you can get bigger on the internet, but honestly my thighs are massive and I'm afraid that even if something fits in the waist it won't in the thighs, so I don't buy pants over the net. So thank goodness my thighs are getting smaller too!

Other news, I'm hoping to reach 60 pounds down by the time I go to California. My generous (and likely bored) sister is flying me and the kidlets out to visit for a week in early October. I promise I'll eat right and exercise while I'm there. She's a great influence and example and maybe I can even teach her a thing or two. :)

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.

How I'm doing it

People have asked me how I'm losing weight and how it might work for them. I'm going to nutshell it for you.


1 (most important) - Eat at least 5 times a day. That doesn't mean you have to have real or full meals, but this goes with #2...

2 - Never go longer than 3 hours without eating (except for at night, of course). After about 3 hours your body goes into starvation mode and will hang on to all the calories you eat as fat. Ideal is to eat every 2-3 hours.

3 - Get a little bit of exercise every day. Or almost every day. Don't just do cardio, but do get cardio at least 4 times a week, resistance exercises at least twice. Resistance exercises are weights. Weights stimulate your metabolism, cardio keeps it going. You need both to effectively lose weight for anything long-term.
4 - Eat protein for every meal. Whether that's a cheese stick or cottage cheese or beans or tofu or chicken or an egg, it doesn't matter. But don't overdo it. Just a little bit of protein will do it (one egg, one cheese stick, half a cup of cc or beans, etc.). 5 - eat only enough carbs to get you to the next meal. If you're running out of energy before your 2-3 hours is up, then you need to get more carbs. If you're going to take a nap or sit the whole time, then you need a smaller portion. If you're going to exercise or be active, then you need a little more.

That's really all there is to it. When you start a program like this, start out slow. You actually want results to be gradual, because it's much healthier. And if you're fat like me, going gradual means that your skin will have time to pull back too. Because really, who wants saggy baggy skin?!

One thing that's kind of an exception for me. I don't have a regular wake up time. Because of that, I adjust my meal times based on when I wake up. So I don't always eat lunch at noon, for example. If I'm up at 8, my meals are at 8-10-12-3-6, with a small snack around 8. If I'm up at 10, my meals are at 10-12-2-4-6, with the snack at 8. See how that works? You can make changes to the diet and exercise based on your particular needs.

Please feel free to ask any questions. I've learned a lot from Dan. Oh, and if you're interested in having a similar journey, let me know, because Dan does free consultations, and he loves my friends.

Week 8 - Making headway

This last week I was good. I mean really good. I still wasn't 100%, but I was close. I even exercised a lot.

And it paid off. I lost another 6+ pounds of fat, putting me at close to 30 pounds down. We took measurements today since I broke the 20 pound mark by a bunch, and I've lost everywhere. I'm even down to 49% body fat - down from the original 54. Yay!!!

I now weigh 311 pounds. That's still about 10 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight, but it feels great. Maybe by the time the weather cools for real I'll be able to wear my fat jeans again. haha

Seriously though. I know these aren't true before and after pics, but people have asked and I really like what other people have done (Brandi) to show progress. I'll be taking the pics once a month till I'm all the way done.

Oh, I figured out how to get in my cardio exercise every day. All errands are done on the bike or on foot. Well, most anyway. Great "secret", eh? Really though, I take the kids with me (most often just the toddler) if it's within a couple of miles and I don't have to carry anything super heavy. It's worked wonderfully.

This next week I'm doing the weights 4 times instead of 2, and still getting cardio in at least 4 days. I think I did at least 5 last week, so that shouldn't be too hard.

Week 2 - still losing

(I thought I was holding it in the same place, but maybe not)

You may look at that "still" and wonder how many diets I've tried in the past (seeing as how it's only been two weeks). Or you may wonder at my perseverance. Yeah, I don't have much. And this week has been tough.

There has been eating out and dinners in with lots of people. There has been very little sleep and lots of appointments out. There have been lots of people around and little money in the bank.

All of this combined means it's hard to stick to an eating schedule. The exercise is easier, not that I've done much of that. Gah. And I still lost 2 more pounds.

My calories have been bumped up to almost 1600 per day. For any of you who diet, you'll know that's a lot. How can someone lose significant weight while eating lots of calories?, you might ask. It's simpler than you might think.

Our bodies need calories for energy. In today's society, we often go long periods of time between meals and then eat till we are very full. That translates into our bodies not having the energy and then having too much (calories anyway). So basically, we need to eat only enough to sustain ourselves till the next meal. And eating every 2 to 3 hours teaches our bodies not to "save" the calories for later.

Dan has been teaching me the gospel of Elmo. Oh wait, that's E.L.M.O.

Eat Less, More Often. As much as I'm following it, I'm losing. I just need to do more ELMO. Right?