I first wrote about my weight loss journey a couple of months ago. I'm painfully close to being half way to my current goal, and I'm just not going to wait another week.
I am less progressive - a smaller progressive - than I was then.
I am quite a bit less progressive - a much smaller progressive - than I was last August at YearlyKos.
To see the change, join me over the jump.
My friend Ted took a photo of me standing in front of a gravestone than had my name on it (weird, huh? He thought I was nuts for wanting the photo.) Here it is, cropped to mostly just show me - taken last June. This is also how I looked for most of last year. And the year before that, and before that ... well, just for a long time.
And this is me, last Wednesday.
As of this morning, I have lost 128.5 pounds. I still have a long way to go, but it's a journey, not stepping into a transporter beam. (If only.)
Last time I wrote about this, people did ask about "how"... so I'm going to share that in the diary, instead of comments. I am on a program called Medifast. On it, I eat 5 of their meals a day, which include a pretty wide variety of shakes, puddings, soups/chili/stew, scrambled eggs, oatmeals, and bars. There are only a few of the meals that I find really unpleasant, and a few that I find very pleasant. Most of the others are just fuel, which is fine. I have found that between the reasonable cost of their food (I buy the 28 day supply, which lowers the cost, and with autoshipping set up, gives me free shipping) - and the huge reduction in the costs for my only other meal, I'm actually saving money.
Besides these 5 meals (which for me, probably average 650 - 680 calories a day), I have one "Lean and Green" meal - which combines a serving of protein and servings of vegetables. (I usually have a salad with grilled chicken or cottage cheese or boca burgers.) I add my fat serving to this meal as well - I almost definitely go over on the veggie and fat servings - my total calories for the day hangs near 1000, probably a little less on days I have cottage cheese.
I was retaining a lot of water when I started this plan, and it literally (in every way) flushed from me. In my first month, I lost 43 pounds. (And probably more - my scale did not record my starting weight, as I'd maxed it out.) I had 2 months in a row where I lost close to 18, and since then I've been yo-yoing between near 15 & around 10, for 4 months.
I've exercised with Walk Away the Pounds & other Leslie Sansone walking programs for the past few years, and have continued to do that. Over the past week, I've decided to make another dream come true - I've started working on a running/walking intervals program that is designed so that I will be able to run a 5 K when I've completed it.
I don't have any real weight loss tips for people. Find something that works for you. This is working for me, and I'm learning to eat several small (and one larger) meals a day. I'm learning to focus on small increments of time. I'm a little hungry right now, but I want to wait a little bit before I eat my next meal. So, I am promising myself when I will eat, and will do my best to keep that promise to myself. Drink water - it may not "fill you up" - but a lot of people don't drink when they need to. Find an activity you like that will get you out of the chair every day or every other day, for 30 minutes. Find two, if you can, and alternate them.
Don't listen to people who tell you why it can't work. (That includes you.) Because it can. Find people who will tell you that it can work, when you need to hear it.
And when someone stops you, or sidles up to you in a line, and whispers, "Are you losing weight?" smile broadly and thank them sincerely for noticing - because others will ask then, too.
I'm really looking forward to a couple of things. (Besides reaching goal weight, which is going to take significantly longer than it took to get to this weight.) One is the 5K - I really hope to run that at the end of June, and have all ready asked someone to come take photos, if that person is in available.
The other thing is seeing my dad. He's a snowbird who winters in Arizona and summers in Chicago. After I started the program, I called him and told him. He said, "Oh, good luck, honey." It wasn't mean, but ... well, it was not exactly inspirational. And he hasn't asked since about it, so I've not shared.
:D My sister wants to be there when he first sees me.
So, that's my less progressive report for April. Thanks for reading.
Update - I leave the site to look at some fitness stuff, and come back to a lot of comments and the rec list. Thank you... I'm reading and responding now.