I am a 48 year old woman who has gained 100 pounds in 6 years. This is a picture of me and my bff Kathy at a concert recently. This picture is what confirmed to me that I am out of control. My friend would say she loves me just the way I am, I say I want her to be able to love me for many years and at the rate I'm going the chances of that are narrowing. I find myself in a place where I am again faced with an addiction which threatens my life. That addiction is food this time. I am a recovering drug addict (20 years clean) and alcoholic (17 years sober) smoker (10 years smoke free) and this is by far my biggest challenge. I can't just quit eating, abstaining won't work. I then started thinking about solutions and this is what materialized.
I spend a lot of time on the internet in the evening but have very little time during the day when recovery meetings, weight watcher and other things that could be helpful are happening. I have a wealth of loving friends who I know have been kind enough not to say anything, but I'm sure are worried about me, and a group of college agers who love me also. I started thinking about how I could use my time effectively and involve the people I love and who love me in my healthy weight loss journey. Blogging became a solution.
For me this whole journey is made up of 4 parts:
1.Accountability- I am gong to journal the good, the bad and the ugly as I work through this. I am going to be very honest about how I'm feeling in a "G" rated way. I will follow the 12 steps and share them along the way. (I will post the steps later)
2.Honesty- I will be honest about my weight from beginning until I reach my goal. I will be honest when I have bad days, and ask for help when I need it.(both very hard for me)
3. Action-I will do some kind of activity every day. My job enables me to move much during the day so I will commit to doing something for 10 minutes everyday and more as time goes on.
4.Outreach- I will work harder if I know I'm helping someone else also. If you know someone who you think this may help please pass it on so we can help each other.
I will start my journey tomorrow, Wed. 10-21-09. My goal is to lose 100 pounds in a healthy way by working the steps with you, and being accountable to you. Thank you for helping me.
You know what really works for me as far as keeping it under control most of the time is nutridiary.com. And of course, hanging out with healthy people much in the same way we hang out with sober people. I found joining the Y center has kept me fit and enjoying it--no joiner's fee through the month of October. Lots of classes, swimming, aerobics, yoga, you name it--wherever you are starting it's a great place to be--lots of support and encouragement from other people trying to do the same thing. I talked to a woman not to long ago who had a t-shirt on that said "I lost 85 lbs, ask me how" I asked her how and she told me with so much pride and sense of achievement that it was inspiring. It works if you workout. hehe--good luck and it takes a tremendous amount of persistence.
ReplyDeleteThank you Tracy.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great attitude you have about your new journey, Danielle. Honest, candid, realistic.
ReplyDeleteAny time you want someone to walk a few miles with.....pick up the phone.
Jim R.
Danielle I at one time lost a lot of weight you would be better telling your self 10 pounds at a time 50 pounds is a lot ... give your self a month to lose 10 then do 10 more the slower you lose it the better chance you will have keeping it off -Jodi-
ReplyDeleteDanielle.... What I did was ate a lot of boneless skinless chicken breast and salads.....ate no and i mean NO candy, cakes , cookies things like that for a year and i lost 157 pounds.... this is what i did i ate a lot of stir fries
ReplyDeletei danced for an hour in the a.m and p.m. got a pair of 5 and 10 pound weights and had the 5 pounds on my wrist and the 10 on my ankles. and walked up and down the stairs for 20 minutes in the morning and evening just stay away from all sugars and fatty foods.... i did eat corn bread twice a week.....stay away from red meat and pork if you like liver that would be ok just make sure when you cook something that you us i cant believe its not butter.... if you have a stationary bike that would be a good one too......... just keep your self active and you will do it just make sure that you eat not eating isnt going to help you have to add fuel to the fire to make it burn..... fresh veggies , popcorn with out a lot of butter that is more like a treat.. i also ate those rice and or corn rounds they come in a bag all different kinds... they arent bad...... fresh fruit too but not a one right after another maybe a apple or banana a day if you can keep to the white meat you will do better tuna, chicken turkey the problem i had was that im a coke freak i drink it all day and i would have been able to lose more if i had stoped the pop..... don't drink diet pop those are bad anyway........ a diabetic diet is a good one too well you need any more help just write me back Good luck i have about 60 that i would like to lose so im with ya girl -Jodi-
Yay for us. Thank you for all the info. I actually have a very dusty bo-flex altama, and ab rocket, a legersizer, and a megun bed to jump on after it all, just have to wipe the dust off and get going. I love the stairs idea I have a flight of those I could certainly utilize. Wow, you have really lost a lot. Way to go girl. you are my mentor!
ReplyDeleteOctober 22 at 1:20pm
ReplyDeleteDanielle: Just don't give up you will love your self so much better.....just make sure that you don't give up i ate for breakfast special k and skim milk and a half a bagel with i cant believe its not butter....... just keep the walking and moving around a lot and drink the water i don't like water so i flavored it with lemon or took some strawberries and but them in the water smashed... didn't taste that good but it was well worth it..... just remember some of the flavored waters are full of sugar so watch your sugar in take and your starches read all the foods at the store and make sure you buy things that have the lower starches and all that other bad stuff well got to run take care you'll do fine -Jodi-
Hey Jodi, thanks and that is a good idea. I'm really trying to look at it as making healthier choices one day at a time. Today has been a struggle just convincing myself that being a tiny bit hungry is ok. My body and brain just want to panic at that feeling. I'm used to just shutting it up with food. It's funny how you make a decision to stop doing unhealthy things like smoking, drinking, overeating and that very day s@*t hits the fan. It has been a day jam packed full of stress. I knew what it was when it happened so I didn't give into the addiction, but geeeeeeze.
ReplyDeleteAny ideas on healthy filling snacks? How did you do meals when you lost? What was the biggest change you made in your life to do it? I am hoping my blog helps others too so please jump on and give us advise once in a while. Thank you again for taking the time to respond!
jodi, feel free to say no to this, but you are such an inspiration and I have a few friends who are in the same boat I am who are going to follow my blog. Can I copy and past your notes to me so far to the blog so they can see it too? I think it would benefit them too.
ReplyDeleteSure Danielle have at it, Anything you want to use go for it....I just want to say something and you might want to think about it........ every time you cheat your just cheating your self........I'm not saying that its bad its just once you do the next time it will get easy then easier....so just remember its you that is going to get hurt by it then you might give up...... good luck dear Ive got to get going on it again isn't just really hard in the position that im in makes it really hard............ have fun while you are losing jodi
ReplyDeleteThanks for dinner tonight.
ReplyDeleteYou seemed edgy......understand.... As you, or perhaps it was Shanon L., said the other day: 'It's not like booze. You CAN'T just STOP eating all together!'