Welcome to weight loss Wednesday! In January 2018 I chose losing 70 pounds as one of my impossible goals for the year. It seemed impossible because I thought I had tried every weight loss plan known to woman. I thought because I am post-menopausal and insulin resistant, I was absolutely unable to lose weight. Imagine my delight when I lost about 20 pounds, almost effortlessly. It was amazing! I stopped eating sugar and flour and started planning my meals – and eating what I planned. I kept track of my food on an app. Every day I wrote down what I ate, how I felt and what my plan for the next day was. It was amazing.
Then my weight loss stopped. I hit a plateau, and between August 2018 and December 2018 I gained and lost the same 5 pounds. So, I changed things up, I started intermittent fasting, I ate less, I ate more, I worked on weight loss skills and I did a LOT of thought work. Perhaps I was a special snowflake who was absolutely unable to lose weight? But I promised myself that I wasn’t going to quit, no matter what. I was going to do whatever it took.
In January 2019 I again chose losing weight as one of my impossible goals. I learned more weight loss skills and began using them, and I started losing weight again. This time very slowly, about 1 to 1.25 pounds a month – and I was frustrated. I had two peer coaches at my coaching school help me identify some places I could be doing better.
There was a long list of things I learned about myself:
- I wasn’t always honest about recording my food.
- I quit every weekend so Lee and I could enjoy eating together.
- I recognized that I had “diet Mentality” which is not surprising since I have been on some kind of diet my entire adult life.
- I eat emotionally and use food to comfort myself.
I thought I could handle anything with a little bit of chocolate. - I didn’t recognize when I was hungry or full.
- Every time I thought about eating something – I ate it.
- I learned that I was using will power instead of recognizing what was behind my eating and fixing it.
Here I am again in 2019 with losing weight as my impossible goal. I’m still not giving up! I am not following a “diet” and I choose what I want to eat each, plan my meals and eat according to plan. I mess up – a lot – but I don’t quit, and I don’t get mad at myself. There are no restricted foods, there is no calorie counting. I still use regular intermittent fasting, which I love and will probably continue the rest of my life. I have lost a total of 8 pounds since January 2018. I look good and I feel good. I am strong and flexible, I have less inflammation in my body, I have discontinued all of my RA medication and my doctor told me that I am in remission from all my auto-immune conditions. What a blessing!
I decided that I couldn’t overcome all my bad habits without help, so I have hired a weight-loss coach to help me learn to overcome all the habits that aren’t working for me, and to develop new habits that will help me lose weight a little faster. I can’t wait to see myself in December 2019. Come along with me on my weight loss journey. Every Wednesday for the rest of 2019, I am going to share a little of this journey.
If you can relate to being over-weight most of your adult life and feeling like you have tried everything, maybe we can explore more options together.
