Let's face it-- people love to eat. Have you ever noticed that almost everything that people do has to surround food? One might think that it's just an American thing, but it's not. Look at the British tea time-- it's like an organized afternoon snack-- ha, that works for me. Even back in the day when I was dating, the guy would call you up for dinner and a movie. Even when you meet someone for coffee, it most often involves some type of decadent pastry.
I love to eat, and I think that's what caused my weight problem.(One of my coach collegues would disagree with that; he thinks that I never eat-- ha, the joke's on him!) Back when I weighed in a lot more, I used to tell my friends that if I had three wishes that the first one would be to wake up anorexic and have to eat my way back to health. I still really would want that one-- wouldn't that be great? "Hey, you're way to thin, why don't you have another serving of that?" I think though now, I would probably tweek that wish to one of going back in a time machine and telling my thin self about all of the problems I would have trying to get back to a normal weight.
I have discovered that you can still have really great food and not go crazy-- I don't think that it's so much about will power as it is about allowing yourself to have a few of what people consider "naughty" foods every now and then. For example, if you want chocolate, have it-- but instead of having milk chocolate, have some dark chocolate instead. You might have to acquire a taste for it, but it is lower in fat and actually contains FIBER!!!! Yea, that's what I'm talking about!
If you have a weight problem (ha! I'm actually assuming that I might have someone read this someday!) don't let anyone lead you to believe that you are fat, lazy, have no will power, etc., because that it not true. There is something out there that is your trigger-- it could be a certain type of food, a stress factor, or both! I know that there are certain foods that I absolutely have to stay away from because I know that I can't stop at one piece or one bite. (Pizza-- I could eat it until I'm sick and then still eat one more piece!) You also have to examine what makes you want to eat-- is it when you are tired or stressed out? I have discovered that I can handle tired or stressed, but tired and stressed makes me have a constant case of "hand-to-mouth" syndrome. You just have to do some self-examination.
It may take you a while to sort through what makes you want to eat, but you can do it! It took me 20 years-- I had finally come to a place where I had decided to just deal with being over weight-- I am still dumfounded, but in the end I have discovered that losing weight CAN be as fun as gaining it!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
How it all began...
On January 1, 2008, I stepped on the scales and saw the most horrible thing I had ever seen...248... I stepped back off and stepped back on, and there it was again..248... Ugh! All of a sudden, all of the terrible bulimic thoughts that I used to have in college flashed through my mind, but unfortunately (or rather, fortunately, since now bulimia is out in the open and I know how dangerous it is) there was nothing there to purge! It was totally me, and I was disgusted in myself.
My feelings about weight-consciousness have been around all of my life. My mother was, and is, the diet guru of Southeast Texas. She has been on a diet her entire adult life and has probably tried and/or purchased every diet book that has ever been published- after reading them, she then feels that it is her duty to purchase the book for all of her friends and family. My first recollections of her being on a diet probably goes back to the age of four-- that's when she decided to go with black coffee and frozen Sego( a pre-cursor to Slim Fast). She even was given prescription diet pills by her ob/gyn to take when she was pregnant with me, so I guess that I've been on a diet since I was en-utero! That is enough to make anyone diet crazy!
I first started having a weight problem when I was in second grade. My parents had divorced, and my mom, brother and I moved in with my grandparents. It was a great time, and I would never want to give up one minute of the time that I spent living with them, but it became a little kid temptation with all of the snacks that they loved to keep around. My diet-obsessed mother only kept fruit around, but my grandparents house was a snacking bonanza! I probably was only about ten pounds over weight, but that was the beginning of being put on a diet. By the time I was in high school, I had the worst image of myself, and my body image, even though I was 5'6" and only weighed 130-140 pounds. In college I became bulimic-- that's another subject for another blog-- but overcame it by the time I graduated, and that's when I began to steadily gain weight.
When I was planning my wedding back in 1989, I briefly went on the Opti-fast diet so that I could loose weight for my wedding-- I probably weighed about 190 pounds and wanted to get down to 140- the magic number from high school-- I got down to about 175 and stayed there for about four months-- after the wedding, it crept back up and by our first annivesary- when I also discovered I was pregnant-- I weighed about 195pounds. My ob gave me a presription to go to Weight Watchers with the words "Man, you really porked out over the last year..." Yea, see where I'm coming from? Anyway, after my son arrived, I stabilized at about 215- and there I stayed for the next 18 years, through three more children. Sometimes it would go up to about 220, but it mostly stabilzed at about 215. In 1997, I worked really hard and got down to about 195, but then we had to move out of our house for four months while it was being extensively remodeled and it all came back...
Well, that's what was going on, until I hit that magic 248-- ugh! Then, things all changed...I don't know how it started, whether it was trying to help my tiny, sized 0 daughter make her 114 weight class, being on MTV made with one of my students, or from not wanting to be the fattest cheer coach in the state of Texas, but I started losing weight- by August of 2008 I weighed 200 pounds, still a lot, but considerably less that I had-- I stayed at that weight until last year at the holidays and it began to creep up a bit-- so I joined Weight Watcher's online and now I'm down to 164-- 19 more pounds to go until I hit my goal.
In the past year and half I've learned a lot about myself and who I am and who I want to be-- just goes to show that you can be 48 and still not know exactly who you are... That's why I refer to this as a journey...
I had not ever thought about blogging until I watched "Julie and Julia" on a plane last week-- then I saw a friend of mine at a 5k on Thanksgiving morning. For some reason, she had seen a post that I had made about running (something that I used to do in high school, but couldn't do for a long time). She's a bit on the heavy side, but she told me that she had signed up for an iron man sprint in April and that I had inspired her... That made me start thinking-- I really can't imagine anyone being inspired by ANYTHING that I do-- I'm just a regular gal, but she is not the first one who's told me that, so it made me start thinking.
This blog is dedicated to everyone out there who has ever tried to lose weight, start exercising, get fit, eat right, etc. It may not ever even have anyone read it, but at least I can put my thoughts out there, along with the struggles that I have encountered in the losing weight game-- and yes, I still do face little games in this journey EVERY SINGLE DAY--- so sit back, have a laugh, and just remember... If I can do this after twenty years, so can you!
Candace
My feelings about weight-consciousness have been around all of my life. My mother was, and is, the diet guru of Southeast Texas. She has been on a diet her entire adult life and has probably tried and/or purchased every diet book that has ever been published- after reading them, she then feels that it is her duty to purchase the book for all of her friends and family. My first recollections of her being on a diet probably goes back to the age of four-- that's when she decided to go with black coffee and frozen Sego( a pre-cursor to Slim Fast). She even was given prescription diet pills by her ob/gyn to take when she was pregnant with me, so I guess that I've been on a diet since I was en-utero! That is enough to make anyone diet crazy!
I first started having a weight problem when I was in second grade. My parents had divorced, and my mom, brother and I moved in with my grandparents. It was a great time, and I would never want to give up one minute of the time that I spent living with them, but it became a little kid temptation with all of the snacks that they loved to keep around. My diet-obsessed mother only kept fruit around, but my grandparents house was a snacking bonanza! I probably was only about ten pounds over weight, but that was the beginning of being put on a diet. By the time I was in high school, I had the worst image of myself, and my body image, even though I was 5'6" and only weighed 130-140 pounds. In college I became bulimic-- that's another subject for another blog-- but overcame it by the time I graduated, and that's when I began to steadily gain weight.
When I was planning my wedding back in 1989, I briefly went on the Opti-fast diet so that I could loose weight for my wedding-- I probably weighed about 190 pounds and wanted to get down to 140- the magic number from high school-- I got down to about 175 and stayed there for about four months-- after the wedding, it crept back up and by our first annivesary- when I also discovered I was pregnant-- I weighed about 195pounds. My ob gave me a presription to go to Weight Watchers with the words "Man, you really porked out over the last year..." Yea, see where I'm coming from? Anyway, after my son arrived, I stabilized at about 215- and there I stayed for the next 18 years, through three more children. Sometimes it would go up to about 220, but it mostly stabilzed at about 215. In 1997, I worked really hard and got down to about 195, but then we had to move out of our house for four months while it was being extensively remodeled and it all came back...
Well, that's what was going on, until I hit that magic 248-- ugh! Then, things all changed...I don't know how it started, whether it was trying to help my tiny, sized 0 daughter make her 114 weight class, being on MTV made with one of my students, or from not wanting to be the fattest cheer coach in the state of Texas, but I started losing weight- by August of 2008 I weighed 200 pounds, still a lot, but considerably less that I had-- I stayed at that weight until last year at the holidays and it began to creep up a bit-- so I joined Weight Watcher's online and now I'm down to 164-- 19 more pounds to go until I hit my goal.
In the past year and half I've learned a lot about myself and who I am and who I want to be-- just goes to show that you can be 48 and still not know exactly who you are... That's why I refer to this as a journey...
I had not ever thought about blogging until I watched "Julie and Julia" on a plane last week-- then I saw a friend of mine at a 5k on Thanksgiving morning. For some reason, she had seen a post that I had made about running (something that I used to do in high school, but couldn't do for a long time). She's a bit on the heavy side, but she told me that she had signed up for an iron man sprint in April and that I had inspired her... That made me start thinking-- I really can't imagine anyone being inspired by ANYTHING that I do-- I'm just a regular gal, but she is not the first one who's told me that, so it made me start thinking.
This blog is dedicated to everyone out there who has ever tried to lose weight, start exercising, get fit, eat right, etc. It may not ever even have anyone read it, but at least I can put my thoughts out there, along with the struggles that I have encountered in the losing weight game-- and yes, I still do face little games in this journey EVERY SINGLE DAY--- so sit back, have a laugh, and just remember... If I can do this after twenty years, so can you!
Candace
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