Last week I went down to the basement to browse through some old photo albums. Do you all remember them? Albums that contain printed photographs? LOL! Nowadays photos seem to only be kept electronically. Having physical photo albums ages me a bit. Well, I guess I certainly have aged.
In the album I looked at last week, I was nice and trim. I was in my late 20s at the time, just recently married. So I put that album away and brought up the one from the year after. I perused it just a while ago and noticed that I wasn’t so slim in that second book. Neither was hubby.
Almost 20 years has passed since the photos in those albums were taken. Hubby’s and my weight has fluctuated up and down on more than a few occasions because of factors like age, depression, and certain notoriously weight unfriendly medications. I’ll admit that today I’m not the heaviest I’ve ever been, but I am overweight. Yes, and so is hubby. [Honey, don’t kill me for sharing that!]
Lately I haven’t been eating that well, and haven’t exercised much in ages. I remember as a newly married lass I had a “Two veggie and/or fruit” per meal policy. Hubby liked it. It did us good. But this morning my only fruit or veggie for breakfast was the blueberry jam in the bottom of a yogurt. For lunch I chose the onion rings instead of French fries at Burger King. That’s horrible! I couldn’t live with that any longer, so went to a deli and bought and then ate some roasted broccoli. A lot of it!
I got to thinking that the time has finally come to get my butt moving again, and start eating right, and light. But what approach should I take? I’ve lost weight in the past on two different diets: a dietitian prescribed diet, and Weight Watchers. What made the difference then was support and being held accountable for my eating. I don’t want to go to the dietitian, so I decided this afternoon to join Weight Watchers meetings again. Meetings, along with supplementary online forums, should hopefully make the difference.
A while back, I wrote what became a popular post called Total confusion about portion sizes? I just reread it myself. One of the main points I made was how important it is to eat the right balance of foods. I have high cholesterol and high triglycerides. My doctors keep telling me “Updownflight, cut down on the starchy carbs.” And of course I also need to cut down on the saturated fats. Weight Watchers is fairly good at doing the latter, but I must be conscious of the former to lower my triglycerides. I need to eat things like bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and even beans or legumes in moderation. Gone are the days I can eat cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and pasta dishes for dinner.
Please wish me good luck on my upcoming weight loss journey! I’m planning on losing 15 to maybe even 20 lbs (7-9 kilograms) total. When I reach my goal, my blood work should hopefully be perfect, and I should look like a hot babe in my old swim suits again. Honestly, looking good in a swim suit will just be the added bonus in this quest.
Would anyone like to join me?
Good luck! I would love to know your food regime, whatever you choose. Always looking for new ways to eat healthier myself.
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Thanks, Nel. I’ll be eating oodles of fruits and veggies, lean meats, occasional small amounts of starchy beans/legumes, and maybe 1 to 2 servings of whole grain starchy stuff max per day. Refined sugars will be very limited. I should also up my intake of water.
Thanks for the luck! I’ll need a bit of it to get back into dieting religiously.
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Good luck Cyndy. I have been trying to walk and jog a bit lately, as
I have gained more pounds lately since my Dad passed away.
I had already put weight on after throwing cigarettes to the wind in 96. The muffin top is U G L Y!😜
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I’m glad you’ve started walking and jogging, Darlene. Keep up the good work!
I can certainly relate to gaining weight after the loss of a parent. After mom died I gradually put on. It took me a long time to feel in control again.
I’m sorry I didn’t make it to your dad’s funeral. I was unwell at the time, but know I really liked both my great uncles Bob and Dick, and loved how good they both were to my dad. It makes me happy that you still keep in touch.
As an aside, my husband always thought your dad looked like Clint Eastwood.
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Good luck! Unfortunately there are no shortcuts to being healthy for a prolonged period of time. One can only follow a diet religiously for so long. I find the way is just to eat healthy 90% of the time and be naughty 10% of it.
With both food and exercise it just gets easier with time. If you start to eat well (no white carbs, less carbs in general, no sweets or fastfood) it’s only difficult for a week, max two. After that you feel so much better, you keep doing it. Exercise is actually addictive. The good hormones produced keep you motivated to work out more and more often. The whole difficulty I think it’s not to give up when you’ve made a “mistake” – ate something unhealthy, skipped a workout. I think a lot of people get in all or nothing mode. So if they ate fries instead of salad, they’re eat a pizza for dinner too and then they just give up entirely.
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Thanks, zlotybaby. Yes, I know getting through the first couple of weeks will be my greatest challenge. So far I ate well at breakfast.
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That’s already something 🙂 Maybe try joining some online groups, may be helpful to buddy up with someone. Good luck once again!
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Already in place. Thanks so much!
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Good luck. I did eating so sugar at all and to ban all products which are not whole grain. Then I reduced meat and carbs and ate more vegetables. But a very important point seems to be that you have proteins in every meal. Not primarily meat, but chickpeas, lentils or beans. I lost 10 kg in just a few week, and I never was hungry.
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That’s great success you describe. Congratulations! That helps motivate me.
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Good luck lovely – you can do this!!
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Thanks so much for the encouragement, Joanna. I do need it. Today is my first full day eating within the Weight Watcher’s daily points. I have to say I have been thinking about food. I’m trying to drink more beverages. My husband always says that more often you’re actually thirsty than hungry. Not sure if this is the case, but…
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I find I am more hungry if I haven’t drunk much water so there may be something in it. Hope it is going well and you have managed to distract yourself away from thoughts of food!
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Thanks, Joanna. Yesterday was my first full day on the diet and it did go well. I have my first Weight Watchers meeting today.
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Hope it went well! Take each day as it comes, each meal as it comes and you’ll get there!
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Good for you! Weight Watchers is a great program. One of my cousins started on it when she was 18. She’s now 54 and still looks great. I don’t think she goes to meetings anymore, she just learned how to eat right and made it a habit. And she does fun things for exercise, like kayaking, hiking, and camping. She’s the most trim person in her family. So stick with it…I know you will succeed! 🙂
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That’s a wonderful success story. WW likes to feel it isn’t a “diet”, but a type of lifestyle. It sounds like she learned it well.
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Okay, I will join you. Hear the drag in my voice! I put on 5kg this year thanks to Epilem/sodium valproate. I prefer feeling thin and have now bought a new wardrobe. Excercise is my No 1 step and then cutting down portions with general healthy eating. Nothing off limits specifically. How long do we have?
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Hi Cogitator. I haven’t set any deadlines for my weight loss. I am following a program, though, so I do my best to stick within the parameters of the Weight Watcher’s program. I’m hoping that the next time I have blood tests my results will be much improved. By then, my weight should be nicely lowered.
Sodium Valproate was pretty weight unfriendly for me, too.
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Wish u good luck. Hope you succeed in your weight loss journey..
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Thank you, so much! It will be a little bumpy, but I heading down the road.
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🙂 Wish you good luck with your plan! That’s good
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Thank you!
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Good plan! Try heart and good luck! :)) Thanks for sharing
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Thanks!
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I will join you!…You have a good plan…Love your blog about weight loss!
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Excellent!
Thanks for sharing about your journey. I’ll check out your posts.
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Great post! Glad to hear you are being cognizant of the dietary side of things! What have you been doing for exercise? I saw another comment on walking and jogging, how has that been working for you?
If you are interested in joining a free Facebook wellness group to promote healthy living that I just created follow this link! https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheDailyMotion/
Have a nice day!
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Thanks for reading and for the encouragement, Rehab in Motion. I’ve mostly been walking, but must say that my walks have become shorter lately given frigid weather outside. I should go back to my very first live, dancing. That used to be my daily exercise, but somehow that changed.
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