I haven't see much from Weight Loss Kos in the past few months, but wanted to check in about my personal struggles.
I've lost about 70 pounds since May 2010. I haven't lost anything in the past 2.5 months, mainly because I haven't really been trying. I've been habitually grabbing a sleeve of crackers and eating them all before dinner, cutting down workouts, and helping myself to extra portions. Nothing binge-like or excessively sabotaging, but not really trying to stay on track.
Two interesting items:
Obesity 'leading driver' of breast cancer - yet another motivator!
Our enteric nervous system may drive emotional behavior (perhaps including emotional eating, eating disorders, etc.)
This week I've buckled down more seriously and aim to reach my goal weight by next summer.
Summer
The heat wave crossing the country hasn't hit New England yet (due today!), but it's plenty hot for me, especially since we don't have air conditioning at home.
Advantages: plenty of fresh summer produce - and I really do love salad, watermelon's a delish lo-cal treat, and you can't use the excuse that it's too cold to exercise outdoors. Endless days for bike riding, hiking, camping, dogwalking, and other outdoor fun.
Disadvantages: feeling sluggish in the heat, the excuse that it's too hot to exercise outdoors.
Body Dysmorphia
For the most part, I have a pretty healthy body image. I'm proud of my progress, and am confident that if I stick to plan I'll reach my goals. There are times I feel like I'm almost too hot for my age!
But there are still times I look at recent pictures of myself and all I can see is a tiny head on a huge body. I see my body as it was a year ago.
I don't see the strong, confident woman I know myself to be. And I don't know how to see her. I know when I look back on them in a few years all I'll see is a happy memory. But I look at them now and can hardly tell the 70 pounds is gone.
Any ideas how to train my eye to see myself more realistically?
Everything Adds Up
I'm a calorie-counter. It's the only thing that really works for me to lose weight. Calories in/Calories out, even if it's not immediately visible as changes on the scale or inches from my waist, makes sense for me. I use a bodybugg to help get a more accurate idea of calorie burn and adjust my eating accordingly.
Yesterday, I added up all the little things I grabbed and ate, practically without thinking about it. It came to about 200 calories extra.
Now you might say 200 calories isn't much. But when I'm counting on maintaining a 500 calorie deficit each day to stay on track for 1 pound of weight loss per week, 200 calories is almost half my planned deficit.
This is one of the reasons why I think I'm doing everything right and then don't see anticipated changes on the scale. I'm not logging in all the little things.
Those little things really do get in the way of meeting goals.
So it really is essential to log all those tiny, seemingly inconsequential extras. Because unless I'm honest with myself about what I'm consuming, I can't make progress towards my goals. I feel nit-picky and obsessive when I log every single thing, but if I don't those extra calories really add up.
Cycling
I'm proud to say after my vacation injury, I'm back biking to work and recreationally on the weekends. My legs are still a bit bruised, swollen, and stiff but cycling really helps. I am certain that it's made my healing a lot faster than it would have been otherwise.
I've neglected my cycling series of diaries, mainly because I've been too busy doing to write about it. Or maybe it's Summer braindead. Any ideas for subjects?
How's your summer fitness or weight loss program coming along?