Here's my before-and-after for my first month. Losing 6 lbs is pretty respectable, I think. I regret last week's setback because this amount of weight loss would have been that much greater. Oh, well. No sense in dwelling on the past. I'll learn from it and do better in May.
A little setback this week. I blame birthday cake and Cadbury creme eggs. Okay, fine. It was all my fault. That cake and that chocolate didn't force me to eat them (though that would make for a really interesting story).
My daughter has apparently decided that she's a fish, because she keeps asking to go swimming. Since I don't have anything better to do in the evenings, we go. Four times, last week alone. Swimming probably helped keep the chocolate somewhat at bay, as much as it was able, anyway.
I'm going to start doing karate again, starting this coming Thursday. I wanted to sign up two weeks ago, but the front desk person said that there's only a couple more classes in April, but she'd have to charge me for the full month anyway. Blech.
I sat in and watched the last two classes, though. They were sparring last Thursday. It was sooo hard to just sit there and watch! I wanted to pull my shoes off and kick some heads!
Since it's been about three years or so since I've done any karate, and this is a new school, I'm going to start from the beginning and let them advance me as they want. I'm looking forward to having a focus for exercise again. It's much easier to be consistent when I have something to work towards.
Wow, 10 lbs, already! I feel pretty proud of myself! Seeing results like these is very encouraging. Umm... I don't really have anything else to say, tonight...
A couple of pounds. I don't really deserve to have dropped more weight, considering how naughty I was this week... Pizza and wings. Cheeseburger and fries. They were sooo yummy, though, and, therefore, are bad for me. Yummy = bad.
But you know what? Probably not, because I haven't told you, yet. My "diet" isn't really a diet, at least, not like what's advertised on TV. I eat whatever I want. What matters is how much I eat and whether I work off the excess calories.
My exercise regimen isn't very impressive or even a regimen, but I've been trying to at least get up and move around. The kids and I have been going to the pool a couple of times per week. I don't do intense lap swims, but I do make sure that I spend some time doing more than just sitting on the edge.
So, maybe I do deserve those lost pounds, after all!
Well, then. That seems like a decent start. Not only did I drop 5 pounds, I did it in one week. And the first week at that. Last time, I actually gained a couple of pounds in the first week. That was somewhat discouraging. This, however, is most decidedly not!
My biggest change was portions. I ate a lot less food and tracked it via a calorie counter app (MyFitnessPal). I was expecting to be hungry. All. The. Time. But I wasn't. In fact, there were some meals that I skipped just because I didn't feel like eating.
I feel quite strongly that I had divine assistance to control my appetite. It's pretty marvelous that the Being who created the heavens and the earth and everything on and in them felt that it was worth the time to help one man eat a little less food.
Sleep apnea. High blood pressure. Constant fatigue. None of these things are fun, but I struggle with them every day. What's worse is that each one of them can be controlled by managing my weight.
I'm heavier than I've ever been in my life, and I'm dealing with health issues that, frankly, I shouldn't have at all. It's beyond time to do something about it.
Over the past two years or so, my weight has slowly crept up, and I've just pretended that all was fine--that it didn't really matter. Every so often, I'd go through the motions to work on it, but my efforts always petered out after maybe a week or so.
Several years ago, I went through this same process and ended up losing 100 lbs through nothing more than diet and exercise. Why was I so successful then and so unsuccessful now?
Honestly, I think it was accountability. Back then, I posted weekly status photos and monthly progress comparison photos. I believe that helped to motivate me to keep up with my program (not really a program). None of my false starts had any sort of accountability to anyone but myself. It was all too easy to just stop because who would know?
So now, we come to today. I feel tired all of the time. Clothes no longer fit. I'm unhappy with the recollection in the mirror. And, above all, I'm extremely unhealthy. I'm done with it.
I don't have any particular goals at this point other than a smaller number on the scale each week. I hope that you'll help me to stick with it this time.
