Weight No More!

I've had several people ask for details about my weight loss, so I'm going to open myself up a little here. Plus, I'm so proud of how far I've come! :D This is long-winded, so be prepared.

Let's start at the very beginning, well, not the very beginning. Let's just say that I've never been thin (nor am I now), and weight loss has always been a struggle for me. My pregnancy was a difficult time because on top of high water-retention, I have mild arthritis, which made standing all day long while I taught pretty much a nightmare. There was no way my feet could handle working out once I got home! In fact, there were times that the pain was so bad I was afraid my feet were just going to give way and that I would fall on my face while standing. This is necessary to understand, because this was the reason I gained so much weight during my pregnancy.

Grant was taken by emergency c-section three weeks early because my blood pressure was skyrocketing. Here's the weight breakdown for the month or so after he was born:

On December 30, I lost 7.5 lbs of baby, 2 lbs of placenta, 2 lbs of amniotic fluid (11.5 lbs). During the next two weeks, I continued to gain water to the point that my maternity clothes didn't even fit. During the month of January I lost 20 lbs. of water (whew!). I couldn't even start to exercise until the middle of February because of my surgery, and even then it was slow-going. I was very careful what I ate and was doing all I could, but I wasn't losing anything.

It was so frustrating! I've never been that heavy in my life; my clothes didn't fit, when I exercised my knee and hip joints would get so achy I could barely walk the next day, and I hated the sideways glances from others at my stomach (not kidding, people stare at large bellies, even in the middle of conversations with the chubby person), I didn't enjoy being in pictures with my brand new baby, I cried often out of self-pity and frustration, and I felt horrible about myself. One night I realized that I didn't want my friends and even extended family to meet Grant because if they did, they would have to see me, and I was humiliated with my size. That was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I didn't want to live this way! I wasn't sure how, but I knew I was going to make changes.
[right: taken Valentine's Day, after 30 lbs of baby and water were gone; left: taken a little earlier]

In addition to all this, I have other, bigger, motivators. First, I want to do all I can to protect myself from dementia, like my grandfather had--exercise and health will help with that. Second, if I develop high blood pressure with my next baby, a c-section will be the only option. And once I've had two c-sections, my doctor won't let me try a VBAC with any subsequent children.

So....

I started by going to WebMD for tips, and discovered a weight-loss calculator. I plugged in my weight, age, gender, and other details, and it told me how many calories I needed to be consuming to lose 1-2 lbs per week. Then it had me enter every single piece of food I'd eaten that day and counted the calories--this was the real clincher, I believe, in my ability to start to lose weight. It was incredibly eye-opening to see just how many calories a tiny piece of chocolate contains, or even how many a banana contains. I was eating healthy foods, but was eating too much of them. I wasn't gaining weight, which was a good sign that I was eating pretty well, but I wasn't going to lose a pound until I changed the portion sizes.

So, by the time I started tracking my weight-loss, I'd already lost 30-35 pounds (most of it was baby and water, though). Here are the things I've done, many of them new tricks in my book, to lose another 40 since April:

• track a days' worth of meals on WebMD once a week
• exercise 5 times per week
• Wii Fit and Wii Active -- very helpful during the bitter cold and boiling hot months, especially with a baby
• weigh self 1-2 times per week (Wii Fit has a great calculator that tracks progress and helps me stay motivated)
• WALK -- I've heard many places that successful weight-losers do this a lot. I hate running, and it's way too hard on my joints, but this is something I can (and will) stick to
• switch to skim milk (I've held on to my 1% way too long)
• eat whole grains for most of my carbs
• always eat breakfast (Multi-grain Cheerios, measured out, is a favorite)
• use a smaller plate and smaller fork (now I am full on WAY less food, so my stomach must be shrinking)
  
• eat slower (I had terrible habits from college days where I had no time to eat, so I was always ahead of my stomach's signals)
• stop eating earlier in the evening
  
• gather healthy recipes and tips (some work better than others!)
• research and plan my menu before going to eat out, and then asking for a to-go box at the beginning so I can put half of my food into it right at the start
• not snacking (another bad habit, this time borne from pregnancy--if I do snack, it has to be nutritious)
• not drinking my calories--I've fallen in love with Crystal Light and Sobe Zero LifeWater
• not rewarding myself with food (especially after I've worked out)--this one is a hard one...
• eating whatever I want, in moderation--the minute I tell myself no to a food, that is the only thing I can think about (often, I find that junk foods aren't as appealing as they used to be, now that I know how long I'll have to work out to burn it off)
• allowing myself one small treat per day (yes, as Crystal said, Smart Choice fudge bars are my new favorite splurge--delicious 100 cal bar with fiber and very low fat)
  
• allowing myself one big treat per week (like pizza, but with the grease dabbed off)
• allowing myself one day per month where I can eat whatever I want (usually saved for a special occasion)
• Weight Watchers tips from and motivating discussions with my cousin, Crystal--I think I'm a fan of this program!
  

At first, the weight just fell off. Now I'm to the stubborn fat that I've been fighting my whole life, but I'm determined to make this work! For me, this has been a lifestyle change more than anything. I don't feel like I'm constantly depriving myself of things, but I'm in more control of myself when it comes to how much I eat and how I exercise. I'm only halfway to my goal, but this is something I feel I could keep up my entire life. I feel better about myself and about life now.

Often, I've felt in life that I would never be able to lose weight--that it was just not within my power to do. Here's a quote from Elder Neal A. Maxwell that really has helped me recently:


"Discouragement is not the absence of adequacy but the absence of courage."
CR, Oct. 1976

I was the only thing standing in my way, and when I got the courage to really break down and do what it took, I was successful. I hope to lose 40 more pounds, but if that isn't in the cards for me at least I can feel like I'm doing all I can to be healthy and well-balanced.

I feel great!