I started this as a comment on a post from a gal who is just starting out and didn't sound too encouraged so I wanted to give her alittle encouragement and offer myself as support and someone to listen to you when you want to share your triumps and achievements. Then I read on down and many of the blogs sounded the same. Alot of folks facing this struggle alone and I just want to say, I'm with ya...It's not easy doing this without a little tap on the rear once in awhile and I completely feel your anxiety. I've never been a great self motivater but I do want to share my journey over the past several months as I think it may give others a little hope. I mean it, if it happens for me, it definately can happen for anyone. I am absolutely at no advantage over anyone. I am on SSI (broke), in a small studio (no room to exercise), have had a broken back, ankle, knee and other injuries that really have taken their toll on my body +++ I have an extra 100 lbs. that I have been carrying on these tired old bones for several years now until this past January. I got a years pass to the Y (on a scholarship, based on my income they lowered the rate from 46.mo to 29.mo) and I am attending a water wellness class 3x a week then I swim 20 laps before I go home...Started at 5 then, slowly increased to 20laps. Since January, I've lost about 30lbs and as easy as it's been, I want to tell you, without any hesistation at all, I know that you CAN do it too... I think the most important thing I've done though is that I also began logging my meals (on the diet tracker) when I went on my "all natural" diet....And, I realized, when you're eating good foods, you can eat alot more. It's actually a good thing to feed yourself 4-6 times a day. I know, it goes against everything we believe but it is absolutely true. It is so great! I lost weight by eating more! The diet Tracker feature is so perfect for figuring out what is good for you to eat...how much and when...I think tracking reminds me to eat smart. And by recording it, you learn to be truely accountable and more responsible for your weightloss or gain.
I gained 100 lbs after I divorced in 2001 and while I went through menopause till 2006. Strangely, during this period, I was getting more exercise and eating 1/3 less than I had ever eaten. I was no longer required to make breakfast, lunch, dinner, goodies, etc that I had done all those years I was married. So, in rebellion, I never cooked and only ate when I got to work. Turns out, my body was in "starvation mode" (I wasn't hungry-but my body thought I was) and then, I was stressed and probably a bit depressed so my body was making cortisal like it was going out of style until BOOM, I gained 100 pounds. The rest is a series of failed attempts to lose weight because I never figured out how until now...I needed to nourish my body and it would heal itself, from the inside out...And, that's what it's been doing now for the past few months. I've been losing the most weight during the weeks I eat the most and I am learning a whole new way of looking at my diet- NO diet is the answer...Only an awareness of what I am putting into my body- not less- just better and, actually, more.....woohoo!I
If you've never used the recipe maker or diet tracker before then I suggest you check it out ...play with it. After entering foods and/or meals daily and building your diary and programming in your "favorites" then the process of entering meals and snacks becomes simpler. It is really great to put in a recipe or the exact ingredience of your sandwich or salad and end up with a print out, for your cookbook or diary, of all of the nutritional values including vitamins, minerals, cholesteral, fats (each), protein, carbohydrates, fiber and calories per serving. Check out my "healthy salad" recipe as an example...You will soon find that you are conscentrating more on what you are feeding your body. You will also feel good about the knowledge.
In reading (alot) and learning that you can actually heal yourself of anything simply with nutrients your body needs to maintain optimum health. All of these nutrients are in Gods green earth. We just must eat all types of veggies (raw, in salads, steamed, stir-fried in Olive oil, in casseroles, in roasts, in omelets, wraps, any way you want. The less cooking, the more healthy). Lots of fruit, nuts and sprouted grains(better than "whole"grain) with as much protein, fiber and "good" fats as we can get (keep carbs low as they just turn to sugar). Remember to eat all natural/ONE-INGREDIENT foods. Have a steak, sweet potatoe with butter and some veggies or salad or any "real foods" mixed any way you want...just no processed, refined or enhanced foods. These foods are what is killing Americans AND making us overweight. NO chemicals are safe to eat and certainly do not preserve the nutritional value of our foods. Do you know; the method used to get laboratory rats morbidly obese in order to study them for diabetes is to be fed high doses of MSG. This chemical is in 95% of all fast foods! Restaurants use it to enhance the flavor of the "mystery meat" that's on your hamburger or in your taco or the "original" crispy batter of your fried chicken...NOT acceptable if you want a healthy body... And, you really shouldn't eat pork or shellfish or Birds of Prey/Scavengers or rodents for obvious reasons, they eat dead things and are filthy. Not only do they eat things rotten but, as a rule, they'll eat anything on the ground. They are bottem feeders and we shouldn't eat them. That's why the FDA cannot regulate safety on shellfish. They live in the sediments on the ocean floor. The ocean floor is toxic. It is littered and poluted so bad that the shells of the ocean are practically extinct on the Coastlines now a days. When I was young, we'd go to the Beach in Calif and find tons of beautiful shells. Now, maybe a few, black, sooty, sometimes deformed. Nothing I'd want to decorate my house with. Nasty! Don't eat em! What's sad is, the vegetables have are being contaminated too...If you must eat non-organic vegetables then wash them thoroughly then wash them again! All the fertilizer commercially used on the crops comes from waste in the slauderhouses and the dairy yards. The animals are herded in such large numbers and in such restricted spaces that they become deseased and, with the un-natural diet of soy and corn that they are fed with, they are also pumped full of hormones (to increase productivity) and antibiotics (to fight the e-coli and other rampant infections that quickly spread under these conditions). This "fertilizer" is treated with more chemicals then sold to the farmers for the crops. Then, throughout the season, while the plants are growing, they are regularly douced with pesticides that, in much smaller doses, are labeled as "Fatal or harmful if breathed or swallowed. These poisons are absorbed into the plant and, then digested by us. You can get most of the poison out if washed thoroughly or soaked in salt water. I just buy organic (especially the above ground veggies with not so smooth surfaces-like broccolli & lettuce's)...
I think God got it right when he made it all. He made ladybugs and other bugs to eat the bugs that eat the plant. This circle of life is all part of the miraculous process required to create the "perfect" foods and health and longevity and abundance we are mean't to enjoy. It's amazing to really LOOK at a vegetable. It's perfect... And, remarkably, it even tells us whats it's good for. Look at a cracked open walnut (looks like a brain=is good for our brains) and a tomatoe, when sliced (looks like the heart and vessels-good for same) even carrots look like an eye after slicing off the end. I marvel at the simplicity of a banana or the beauty of a kiwi...All fruits and vegetables are just incredible and delicious and so good for you. There is a plant created for curing or as a treatment for every single illness, symptom even desease. (Don't think the multizillion dollar food industry wants us to know that though. They are, most likely, in bed with the pharmacy companies and our health and lives are being munipulated by supply and demand...sell a billion, only 10,000 get sick, I get a dollar for every sick person gets "healed" by the pharmecuticals perscribed...We all (well, except the sick and the dead) wind up winning...ha! That's the game. "All I wanna say is that they don't really care about US") So, basically, Take vitamins, drink lots of water (a gallon a day if possible)...cut down on the carbs and red meat, sugar and bread, eat organic &/or good foods and keep a diary of everything you eat and drink (if you try to omit or fudge any of your entrys, you are only cheating yourself as you are your coach and you are in charge of your success - Failure is not a word or an option. If you stumble, no biggie, no one is grading you. Just get back on your goal and don't sweat the small stuff. You are in charge...And, finally, find a relaxing place &/or an activity you like (swimming, walking, jogging, yoga) and lay aside a couple of hours, 3 or more days a week, and do some exercise, that you enjoy doing, change it up for variety if you want. Stay reliable to yourself and always be there...even if you don't feel like exercising, just go and, I guarantee you, you will feel better when you're done and be glad you dragged yourself there and you will definately start losing weight and then, that will be your encouragement, in itself, to keep doing it. Including the 30 I've lost to date, I am going to lose a hundred pounds this year (2011). Anyone just starting out and new to this, don't feel like the lone ranger...Like you, I too am scared and have those pesky doubts try to drag me down. I just say, "Give me strength and perserverance" and, He does, at least for that day.
Good luck to all of you and keep in touch. We all are in this together eh?
Thanks for listening
Sue
