300poundcountdown:

Reblog and I’ll follow you. :)

Must be a healthy weight loss blog or a fitblr. :)

(via just-being-jacqui)

OK so I’m sure if you’ve been on a weight loss quest you may be like me. Someone who has tried just about anything to lose weight. I’m here to share my honest experiences and I’m not going to lie. I’ve struggled with eating disorders when I was young. I was bulimic with anorexic tendencies. I could not stop eating. I’m a binge eater. So I would just simply purge what I had eaten. It ruled my life for a good many years. I was the most depressed child because of my ED. I truly felt helpless. When I met my psychologist for the first (the only one I actually stuck with) at 15 he helped me overcome my ED and other issues. At age 20 when I walked into his office of the last time, for one more session, he told me that when he met me I was the most depressed young adult he had ever met. That really shocked me because I didn’t think I was that bad compared to what other young teens go through.

I’ve tried my fair share of diet pills, tried not eating but once a day, tried weight watchers, juice fasting, detoxes, south beach, tried just eating ‘Eat Right’ pre-made meals. Guess what, all these things worked. But I’m sure you can guess or know from experience that they did not work for long. Eventually you give up and give in. You go back to your unhealthy ways because maybe you aren’t seeing the progress you like.

The painful truth is that if there was one diet that worked magically, one pill that made the fat melt off… there would only be ONE. Every diet has its ups and downs. Some are actually far more dangerous than others, not that you wont see progress, you will, but its not going to last forever. 

So how can I lose weight and keep it off without being on a diet for the rest of my life?

Well maybe you need to think about it this way. It’s one thing to lose weight, maybe you want to lose weight for a important event. If you don’t plan on keeping it off and you just want to lose weight for the one occasion then by all means, diet and fast your heart away. If you want to be healthy and lose weight for life then you need a change in attitude towards weight loss.

It reminds me of that definition of insanity.. You know, the one that says ” Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” Well you may lose more weight one time, but in the end don’t you always gain it back? Why do we keep trying to lose weight fast, expecting to keep it off when it never stays off when we did it before?

Studies actually show that people who go on fad diets tend to lose weight quick, gain it back quicker, and then gain more weight. Look it up, I’m not talking out of my ass.  

Here’s probably the part where I should say that I am not a health professional. Don’t take all that I say to be scientific fact. I am a nursing student and have had to take mandatory classes dealing with the physiology and anatomy of our bodies and I am just sharing what I have learned through research and those classes.

So here’s another thing to think about. You have the same amount of fat cells in your body as you did when you were 9 years old. Weird to think right? The only difference is that you have stuffed those fat cells until they expanded putting you in the fat suit you are in today. It really is true when they say “you are what you eat.”

So if someone asked me what I think is the best most successful way to lose weight this is what I would tell them as of now.

• Do some soul searching and really figure out why it is that you are overweight now, chances are you are an over eater, binge eater, emotional eater etc. Try to figure out what is triggering this behavior. You don’t have to fix the behavior in one day, don’t expect that once you figure it out you are cured. But knowing what causes these behaviors is half the battle.
• Change your attitude on weight loss. Don’t look at it as something you have to do to be happy. Look at is as you are doing something for yourself that will make you live longer, experience all that life has to offer, set good examples for your family etc.. etc… Try and be the best version of yourself that you can be.
• STOP FAD DIETING
• Start by replacing one bad habit with a healthy habit. The biggest reason diets fail are because you are taking on TOO MUCH of a change at once and its probably too hard to stick to. Start off slowly so that you can get used to the new healthy habit and really make it a habit for life.

An example of this could be taking soda any kind of bubbly over caffeinated drink out of your current diet. Start drinking water, water, water. Personally soda is my drug of choice and when I don’t drink soda, coffee, or energy drinks I get caffeine headaches. Well too bad. I have suffered through caffeine withdrawals before and lived and you can too. Most people who drink these things aren’t getting enough water and maybe water doesn’t quench your thirst, but you need to get used to it because water is your best friend for life :)

•  Exercise…OK here’s the biggest one. It is IMPOSSIBLE, let me repeat IMPOSSIBLE for you to lose weight and keep it off if you are not exercising. Yes you could lose 10lbs in a week of juice fasting or starving yourself. You WILL NOT keep the weight off unless you exercise. Exercise needs to be in your vocabulary for the rest of your life, if you want to be healthy. No you don’t need to own a gym membership. If you want to get toned, then maybe get a gym membership or buy the necessary equipment at home to do so. If you are just wanting weight loss for now start with walking a few times a week. Make it a habit. Do fun things that will not even seem like exercise.

The other day I played badminton for a few hours with a group of friends, I haden’t played it in years. I was sweating my ass off (because I’m really competitive) and I was having fun. Try going on a hike to a beautiful place, playing volleyball, basketball, tennis etc. Even if you aren’t good at the sport who cares, the point is to get out there and do something!

• Drink water, green tea (iced or hot)
• Learn to cook (I’m horrible at this and my mother is a chef). You can’t rely on pre-made meals for the rest of your life. Find things you enjoy eating, look up healthy recipes and try making them. Truth be told on a weight loss journey you will try many new foods that you will love and some that will make you gag and never want to touch again with a 10 foot poll. It’s OK you don’t have to like everything. But find things you do like and start making it habit to eat them.
• Eat fruits and veggies EVERYDAY. As a society we are horrible at eating fruits and veggies. C’mon they aren’t that bad. Maybe when you look at them next to a cheeseburger and fries they don’t seem that appealing but seriously its essential that you are getting these micro-nutrients in your diet. Natural fibers and sugar. YUMMM :) If you don’t like eating a whole apple or orange, maybe your a smoothie person. You can never go wrong with a sweet smoothie.  
• Do not weigh yourself everyday. If you have a scale in your home, do whatever you can to not weigh yourself daily. This is personally my biggest challenge. When I’m feeling good about my weight loss and health nothing can hurt my progress as much as when I step on that scale, look at the number and my heart drops when I haven’t lost what I thought I did. This causes frustration anger and hopelessness. DONT DO IT. Try and do a once a week weigh in or at most twice a week. Weigh yourself the same time every time.

I like to weigh myself in the morning before my shower, so If I had a good weigh in I feel on top of the world all day, if I had a bad weigh in I know I’m not doing something right and I can start the day fresh and change what I need to. Which brings me to…

• Set realistic goals for yourself. OK I know my blog is called ”One Hundred Forty” Because that’s my ultimate goal weight. But you need to set smaller milestones so that you can feel accomplished. A healthy weight loss is around 2lbs a week. Don’t expect 5lbs to fall off every week unless your working out life a beast and eating mad healthy. You need to be OK with slow but steady weight loss. Yes, It may come off faster in the beginning and then slow down or plateau later, but don’t let that discourage you. If you aren’t cheating and working hard the scale will show it. Once you reach a goal maybe do something nice for yourself like take a day off, or buy a new sports bra or yoga pants :)
• If you cheat, and you most likely will, don’t let that stop all the progress you’ve made. Get back up and keep running toward your goal. Only you can do it.
• Take measurements sometimes the scale doesn’t show you what you want, but you still feel different. I highly recommend taking beginning measurements and even pictures. Even if the scale isn’t budging your measurements may be decreasing. Either or is very good so its something to celebrate.

That’s all I can currently think of. If I think of more I will post or you can share some with me that haven’t been mentioned.

Good luck ladies and gentlemen.

Well I know I started this blog on the eve of a night I was feeling horrible about myself. Feeling ready to walk down, once again, that long hard road of my weight loss journey. But the real question is… Have I started to eat healthy since my first post. The answer folks is..

NO

Ok, OK! I have some excuses… If you stick around long enough you can hear them and then feel pity for me as I feel for myself.

Just Kidding… :) But on a more serious note I did in fact get married last Friday, yes Friday the 13th of April. What a great day to get married right.. Friday the 13th, hopefully that’s not a bad omen haha. Well, I’m not entirely sure if you will care but I feel like sharing with you a little about myself and my life although some of this has nothing to do with weight loss I must admit.

I was engaged for two years to my lovely hubby who is in the Army. When he returned home from deployment last August of 2011 I moved to Tennessee where he is stationed. We have been living here for almost a year together under a single soldiers pay (and technically he is not supposed to live off post either.. shhhh) Anyway life was pretty hard under these circumstances, but hey the things you do for love right? We didn’t care how hard it was we were determined to make it work, although the stress has taken a tole on our relationship. With his reenlistment and a relocation to Hawaii (where I was born) we were faced with the marriage issue.

See I have been putting off marriage for a number of reasons. First of all I have not the slightest clue how to plan a wedding especially when all of our family lives in other states.. I’m talking Florida, Hawaii, Washington, Montana, California, Arizona, Michigan, Idaho.. How were we supposed to get all these people to come to the same place because in each state someone very important to us is there that we would want at the wedding. Second reason slash excuse for putting off the wedding was.. drum roll…..  MY WEIGHT, I’m not kidding I couldn’t bare the thought of being married in a fat suit. I have never felt truly beautiful and comfortable in my own body, but on my wedding day I plan on looking just so. So that being said, there was no way anyone was going to convince me to get married until I shed this fatty suit I’m currently wearing. The third and probably most important reason was that of course having a long distance relationship for so long does take it’s toll. I’m not going to lie, absence does in fact make the heart grow fonder, but it also creates questions and doubts and sometimes one of us is weak and isn’t sure how much longer we can do this. Pretty much from the day he left for basic training I saw him 3 times until he came back from Afghanistan ALMOST 2 years later. He pretty much got shipped out 4 weeks after AIT graduation. But hey, we stuck through it and we plan to do it again if he deploys again (which is almost certain).

So anyway back to getting married. If we did not get married I would be stuck here in TN. We can’t afford to ship our stuff to HI and live off post, it just wouldn’t be possible with Hawaii’s cost of living. Although I was not ready in a sense to get married, I did. I guess you could say we eloped. We do plan on having a small wedding ceremony on the beach in Hawaii with friends and family when I am ready and feeling beautiful.

I do feel so lucky to have a man who thinks I’m beautiful just the way I am. I  feel a lot of insecurities and judgment because he weighs a whopping 50lbs less than I do. And if I could blame anyone besides myself for making me fat it would be him, because when I met him I weight 164lbs… That’s 30lbs less than I am today, and he acts as if I haven’t gained a pound.

Back to my original point and sorry to just ramble. I’m very unorganized today. I am ready for a fresh start now that I’ve just gotten married, this guy is stuck with me if I’m a fatty or not and I’d rather be the latter. I have a wedding to attend this coming September and it happens to be my Dad’s wedding. I am playing a important part in the wedding and I’d hope to look my best for the pictures that will remain long after the wedding ends.

Next to me I have a list of healthy foods I am going to purchase this weekend and my start day will be next Monday April 23rd, 2012. Mentally preparing myself for a new start.

The beginning of the rest of my life as a healthy, happy, confident woman.

This is probably the part where I tell you a little about my self.

Well I am a just an average girl, living in the world of girls trying ohh so desperately to be more than average girls. I can’t lie and say that I have never dreamed of perfection, never looked at another girl and wished I was her.

To be honest I can’t remember the last time I could say I was proud to be the owner of this body that is mine. You only get one body, and all I can really say about mine is that I have been unhappy with it since I learned the definition of fat, obese, skinny, toned.. For the longest time I have plugged myself into the fat category.

“Well at least I’m not obese” I would tell myself.

Well, now that I’m pushing the scale at nearly obese for my height and age I’ve had to check myself into the harsh reality. In all honestly the scale is the reason I am sitting here tonight writing this blog. I am nearing a very scary milestone that I have never really worried about until this last month.

This is the 200lb milestone. I’ve never thought I would worry about this number, until BAM! I’ve gained 13lbs in a little over a month and find myself in the 190’s.

This is no longer going to be acceptable. Every year, like almost everyone, I set a goal on new years to lose weight.

“This year I am finally going to get fit and be happy.” Hip hip hooray!!

Except again, like most, I work out for a little, find excuses, stop working out and then maybe even gain some weight that year. It seems like each new year now I am determined to get to the weight I was last new year. Ironic to say the least.

So here’s a thought, maybe being accountable to something will make me stay determined… and then a blog was born :)