The first thing I need to get out of the way is that this week I have managed to lose 1.4 pounds! Some of you may be like "Whoop-dee-doo...I've lost that in a day", but the truth is that I haven't spent the whole week counting calories and I have not exercised. Nope, not even once. But before I can get into what I did do this week that brought about any sort of measurable success, I need to say this: I have officially lost 10.4 pounds, which means I can make my first donation! And because I just seem to have this sort of "luck", I get paid tomorrow, so of course it all worked out.
I digress.
I felt a bit lost last week after I'd decided that I couldn't continue on the HMR program. I talked to quite a few people about different diets and programs they've had success on including Jenny Craig, NutriSystem, Weight Watchers, South Beach, the metabolic type diet but what I really need isn't another diet, it's a healthier relationship with food.
I decided to take a step back and give myself this week to just be. I found that overall, I made much healthier choices eating real food - not pre-packaged stuff full of preservatives. Most mornings I had oatmeal, fruit, or an egg with an English muffin. For lunch, I typically had salads, though the other day our cafeteria had a cajun grilled flank steak with cottage fries. I ordered it, but only asked for one fry and a healthy dose of the garden salad. A guy behind me on line made fun of me for only taking one fry, but I knew if I took more, I'd eat them. Better to get the taste and avoid the temptation by having more than one on my plate. Dinners have been quite a bit of grilled chicken with various sides - polenta, veggies, quinoa. I did have some steak this week, but I limited my portions by weighing out what I was taking and bulking up my meal with vegetables so I wouldn't feel deprived.
All in, I can't say that I felt deprived of anything this week. If I wanted something, I had it. But I limited myself to how much of it I ate. For instance, yesterday I knew my salad wouldn't totally fill me up, so I bought a small bag of sweet potato chips. The whole bag was 200 calories or so but had 5 grams of fiber, which I knew would help. It did. It kept me from seeking out chocolate and candy that I'd be able to get from the vending machines and that wouldn't satisfy my hunger in the long run.
With all of that said, I have found an incredible amount of encouragement from Tyler's blog. This guy has lost over 100 pounds by simply counting calories, eating in moderation and exercising - all of the things that none of us want to do because it's actually hard freakin' work. But I've found it encouraging. It's not that you have to count calories for your whole life, just until you adjust your portion sizes and habits. He has a common sense approach to weight loss that says: Eat what you want, but do it in moderation. That's freeing. I didn't feel guilty when I had the cottage fry this week...if I'd eaten the whole order of them, I would have, though. I probably would have felt sluggish too, since my body doesn't react well to carbs.
I don't need or want to lose mega tons of weight each week. I know that my body doesn't work that way anyway. But if I can continue losing 7-10 pounds a month, I will reach my goal well before the end of this year. I have to remember that it sounds slow, but weeks like this add up. It's like compounding interest, for your waistline!
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