Diets

All research NOT funded by people with a dog in the fight finds this:

If you have truly normal blood sugar metabolism–fasting of 83 mg/dl and blood sugars that never go over 140 mg/dl for more than 10 minutes, you can eat whatever foods you want, and as long as you cut the calories, you will lose weight.

If your blood sugar is not normal–and 2/3s of the American population have some degree of early blood sugar dysfunction even if they are told they are “normal” then the level of carb intake starts to make a big difference in how easily you will lose weight.

It also matters if you are a “diet virgin” or not. I know people with diabetes who were able to lose a lot of weight on Low FAT diets by cutting calories, but this is usually because they had never dieted seriously before.

One you have a history of dieting, the body has learned some tricks that make it much tougher to lose weight no matter what diet, and if your blood sugar isn’t normal, you really do need to cut the carbs.

–from Bloodsugar 101 on Atkins Friends

Waist Loss Tracker

They say it’s better to watch your waist measurement rather than the scale number, so here’s a handy little tracker to do just that.

YOU: On A Diet Waistline Tracker

(Graphic available here)

Some Small Goals

In no particular order, here are a few things I’m going to work towards:

-Be able to PLAY with my grandchildren, instead of always having to sit in a chair when they’re here

-Be able to wear my wedding rings again (I’ve never wanted to have them cut, but I haven’t been able to wear them in more than five years.)

-Be able to go up the basement stairs without becoming winded, and without having to put both feet on each stair

-Be able to ROLL over in bed instead of FLOPPING over

-Be able to wear a belt again

-Be able to easily button/zip my winter coat

-Be able to wear a pair of black dress boots to church

-Be able to tuck in a shirt

-Be able to get up off the floor easily instead of figuring out how to HAUL myself up once I get down there

-Be able to bend over and reach all the corners, like behind the toilet when I’m cleaning, without worrying that I’m going to bust a vein doing it

-Be comfortable enough to have a photo taken for/with my husband

-To get small enough so that when my brother in law laughs about somebody “busting a deuce”, I will no longer fit into that category myself

-To have the energy to do a day’s worth of tasks without having to sit down to rest between each one

-To not duck around a corner when I see old friends in the grocery store

-Be able to go to the doctor without dreading a speech about losing weight

-Get in better shape so that my family doesn’t worry about me so much

-Feel like wearing makeup and jewelry again (At this size, I always figure, why bother?)

-Be able to buy clothes I LIKE instead of having to settle for what FITS

Out With The Old…

I weighed 269.6 on January 1. This morning I weighed 272.6, which means, with all the yo-yo’ing I did this year, I end 2008 with a net gain of 3 pounds.

I’m disappointed with another gain, but on the other hand, it could have been worse. At least I worked myself back down to 272.6 from my highest ever of 282.8 this summer. A net gain of 13.2 pounds for the year would have been harder to handle.

A couple of days ago, I wasn’t sure how often I’d weigh myself this coming year, but I’ve decided to go with weekly weigh-ins instead of monthly. With the way I zoom up and down the scale, a month is too long not to know in which direction I’m headed.

Tomorrow I’ll weigh myself for my 2009 starting weight, then I’ll continue working my way down to 249 from there, and see where I end up next December.

Maybe as I go along I’ll feel comfortable enough to put a photo of myself on this blog, but for now, here’s my shadow. I took this photo back in April, and, boy, have I got a LOT of work to do!

Not Waiting For The New Year

With all the attempts I made to lose weight in 2008, it was frustrating and discouraging to note that I’ll be ending the year with a GAIN.

My pattern all year was lose one pound, gain two, lose one pound, gain three, lose two pounds, gain four…Very disheartening.

Some 2008 Stats:

01/01/2008   Weight   269.6

Lowest weight in 2008   269.2

Highest (ever) and in 2008   282.8 on July 10th, right after my daughter and her family moved 1500 miles away. I buried my sadness under Reese’s Cups and Cheetos.

Waist was either 52″ or 53″ all year

Clothes: Jeans tight size 26, tops 3X

Even though I’m extremely frustrated and discouraged about my weight and lack of fitness, I have one tiny drop of “try again” left in me, so that’s what I’m going to do-TRY AGAIN.

I’m not waiting for January 1st. I already started fresh, as soon as I realized that I made NO PROGRESS for all of 2008.

I’m hoping to do better in 2009, and especially hope that I’ll have something to show for my efforts when the year ends.

Some Starting Stats And Stuff

My battle with weight has become discouraging to the point of depressing. The diets I’ve been on and off for the past 30 years haven’t helped, so I’m starting this journal as a way to try to help myself get back down to at least a semi-decent size.

I’m not trying for “thin” any more; I’m just trying for BETTER–feeling better, moving easier.

I reached my highest weight ever (282.8) this summer, two days after my daughter and her family moved from 15 minutes away to 1500 miles away. My nest is empty, and so is my heart.

Even though I am huge, my world has become small, and I need to work at changing that because I’m still too young to feel this old and hopeless.

This morning I weigh 279.2, but since the scale has never really helped me, I’m going to work at staying off the thing as much as possible. But again, I’ve been a daily weigher for 30 years, so it’ll take some effort to break the daily weighing habit.

I won’t say I’ll never weigh. I just want to cut down on the daily weighing. At this point, I’m not sure how often I will or won’t jump on the scale.

For this journal though, I’m going to go by clothes sizes to watch my progress. Right now I’m wearing a very tight in the waist size 26 jeans. I should probably wear size 28 to be comfortable (my waist is 53″), but I refuse to buy that size because I know I’ll grow into them if I do.

I wear 3X in shirts, sweaters, nightgowns, etc.

I’m not going to follow a particular “diet”. I’ve done most of them, countless times, over the years, and I think diets are a lot of the reason I’m as big as I am today. But then again, who knows…things could change and I might try something specific again.

I haven’t been able to wear jeans smaller than size 26 for at least 5 years, so my first “project” will be to work my way down to size 24. I lose very, very slowly, so this will probably take awhile, but let’s see what happens…