BFL in Hampton Roads

Slowly breaking through the plateau. Down 1.1 lbs this week.

Have hit a plateau.

Hopefully will be able to push through it this week.

Down a couple more pounds, on my way to “ONEderland” (where I’m under 200 lbs). What a journey! It’s not one I’m taking alone, however. There are many who are on this same path with me. To each of you, congratulations for making the effort — that’s the hardest part. I’m slowly getting back into the grove of thinking in “blog” mode — I used to be Hampton Roads’ most prolific blogger, back in the day. Then… I went silent. I decided it wasn’t worth the readership to “put myself out there without cause”. But … now… I have a cause. Join me on the journey!

I’m a bit remiss in posting this one: April 3, 2011. The end of Week 13. Not too bad, all things considered.  I’m going to try to come up with some more inspirational posts and get back to this .. life (in the form of a vacation away from work, but tending to things on the homefront — property ownership isn’t everything, folks. 🙂 ) has gotten in the way. But I’d have it no other way.

My goal is a 32″/33″ waist. Tonight, I went shopping for smaller clothes. It felt so good! I bought a pair of 35″ waist pants (who knew they made them in 35″s?), as well as a pair of 34″ relaxed fit jeans. These are the 34″s, and it goes to show I’ve not got too much of a “muffin top” to lose! Onward to better health!!

The difference 4 years can make. I started this journey in April 2007. I went from 298 to 209 then. In the following three years, my weight crept back up to 234, and so on January 2, 2011, I started the journey again. Now, I’m lighter, my waist has gone from a 38/39 to a 35 (I have 2-3 more inches to lose off my waist), and I think I’ve gotten myself in the mental frame of mind where I can say eating well and exercising is becoming more of a habit than just an exception to my daily life.

This is, by the way, the first time I’ve felt comfortable having a photo with my shirt OFF. I’ve still work to be done, and honestly wish I looked better, but that will come in time.

Now this is week 13 – it’s supposed to be an off week, so that you complete the cycle 4 times a year. I’m not sure I can be that “off”, however. LOL. We’ll see.

Have the headache from hell today, and … while I’m still losing weight, it’s slowed to a creep (that’s because I’m losing it properly. at current pace, I’d still lose 2.8 lbs every 14 days, which is 1.4 lbs a week… but when you go from losing 2-3 lbs a week to this… well, this is week 12. Between work and commute, I just don’t have much time for exercise, even though I do my best in the evenings. Yeah, I’m discouraged. I’m mentally beating myself up, which isn’t a good thing, but…it’s the way things are at the moment.

I’ve reached a plateau — next week is the 13th week. Supposedly, I should shake off the plan, shake off the FitBit, and everything — it’s the “jumble week” that allows you to start fresh the week after so that you can rotate through the plan 4 times a year. I’m not going to do it next week though. I’ll do it the week after, when I’m off from work on holiday. I won’t be where I wish to be, location wise, but that time is coming. Helen Steiner Rice wrote a poem I keep beside my desk, because it gives me inspiration:

“If I can endure for this minute
whatever is happening to me
No matter how heavy my heart is
or how dark the moment might be…
If I can but keep on believing
what I know in my heart to be true,
That darkness will fade with the morning
and that this will pass away, too —
then nothing can ever disturb me
or fill me with uncertain fear,
For as sure as night brings the dawning,
my morning is bound to appear.”

Or do they? What happens when you want to make major changes in your life, but you don’t have anyone to support you in living healthier, eating better, exercising, and the like?

One of the major components for success is to have a support system. The important thing, however, is to not give up in your journey, even if you do NOT have a support system.

As I discussed in the last post, there are limiting things that people say — and those limiting words become limiting thoughts, and have the potential of becoming limiting actions. In the end, however, it all comes down to…who are you making these changes for, and why?

If the answer you give to the first half of that question is anyone other than yourself, I suggest you go back and re-evaluate your reasons for wanting to make a change in your life. The why, at this point, is irrelevant. You have to want to make the change for you.

One of the things I suggest anyone do who is starting (or continuing) on a journey of self-improvement is to have a journal that you keep to write thoughts, notes, or even just inspirational quotes in. The written word has a power that merely typing on the screen does not.

You see, I’ve made (in my own humble opinion) a great deal of progress in my life these past 11 weeks. I’ve done most of it without a support system. But, as the title of this post goes, no one makes it on their own. I’ve had a couple tools in my arsenal. One, is the FitBit device (only available in America — sorry everyone else world wide) and its website with the food diary has done wonders in keeping me honest to myself and in check. The other is someone very dear to me, many hundreds of miles away.

The obstacles, however, have been tremendous. As you read in the past post, time is very much in short supply. I’ve had people who should have been supportive, but have attempted to thwart and sabotage my every move. I’ve had those who have acted or spoken to me in untoward manners that, in another place and time, would have sent me back into my pattern of bad eating and lack of exercise. When those things happen, and believe me, they will to you, too, you have to dig deep inside and pull strength from the person you’re making these life changes for. That’s why it’s so important to know that it is you that you are making these changes for. Not someone else. Not a loved one, or a friend. The strength has to come from within you.

The first time I was on this journey, I made the change for myself. The year was 2000, and D3 had introduced me to the program. I became healthier, lost some weight, but I was making the changes to attempt to salvage a relationship. Bad move, as my focus was external, not internal. It didn’t work, and neither did the relationship.

My second leg of the journey was in 2007, parts of which are chronicled here on this blog. I was making the changes for myself. I wanted to be healthier, to be more fit, and I was taking control of my life. Of course, there were setbacks there. I’d come out of another unhealthy relationship, yet we still lived together (due to financial reasons). That was a bad move on my part, but still…I was relying on myself. The pitfalls were that every time I turned around, I was being tempted with my favourite restaurant, or sugary treat, because habits are like comfortable shoes. They’re easy to get into, and difficult to cast away. The more weight I lost, the healthier I became, and the more evident it was that I was moving on with my life, the easier I found it to ignore these temptations. It took some doing, but they moved out, I moved on, and life improved.

Fast forward to 2011. January 2. Not a new year’s resolution (I gave up making them years ago). The weight I’d lost in 2007 I’d mostly been able to keep off. But inside, I still felt like I needed to do more. So, back on the journey I travel. What a strange, exciting trip this has been. LOL. I was 31 when I started out…. 37 in step two, and in 2 months and a day, I turn 42. Does it get any less stressful? No. Any easier? Well, yes, in fact, it does. I know what healthy eating is. I know what exercising requires. I know that you don’t see drastic changes until week 8 of your modification plan. I also know the benefit of a “free day” where I can eat whatever I want in whatever quantities.

No one makes it on their own…but then again…no one is truly on their own. Create your own support system, even if it’s just a journal where you can revisit where you’ve been. Write down your trials, your successes, your hopes, fears, dreams, ambitions…what you want out of life, what you want out of your health, and most importantly, what you want out of YOURSELF.

Then, and only then will you realize that even if you are alone, you’re not on your own. The greatest believer in yourself should be you. How about it? Are you ready to start on that journey? It’s up to you. No one can make that first step for you.

Week 11. March 20, 2011. I’d never let myself be photographed in elastic waistband shorts and a shirt with horizontal stripes before now. LOL. Perhaps I need to not allow it NOW. 🙂

“When it comes down to it, I let them think what they want. If they care enough to bother with what I do, then I’m already better than them.” – Marilyn Monroe

The three most limiting phrases in the English language: “I don’t…” “I can’t…” and “I won’t…” If I have to hear one more person attempt to sabotage someone’s self-improvement by saying “I don’t do that,” “I won’t help them”, “I can’t do that,” or anything like that, especially when it comes to something as simple as cooking and eating healthier…I am going to DONKEY PUNCH YOU INTO 2013! I’m sick beyond the beyonds if someone is attempting to better themselves by losing weight and getting fit and all you can do is bitch about not being able to eat take out or the restaurant selection thereof.

Sorry folks, I’m NOT a violent person. But I’ve had it up to HERE —^ when it comes to people who are so selfish or self centered that they can’t see beyond their own selves to be able to help someone out.

Have you any idea how bad eating out really IS for you? Take a time to read the labels on food. I mean REALLY read them. Read portion sizes (Pop Tarts are packaged 2 per non-resealable package, yet a serving size is *1* tart), read the sodium (remember those mg’s add up quick if you double or triple their “serving size”.  Almost anything in a can is heavy in sodium. Even frozen is better for you than that.  That’s why I do 99% of my own cooking at home. Dishes that are full of flavour, low in salt and fat, and no, they don’t take forever to cook.

The person I was referring to claims “I’m just too tired to cook when I get home.” Let’s compare. I’m 41, they’re 61. Okay, ball in their court there. We both get up about 5:45am. Both leave for work at 6:45am, both at work at 7:30. They work until 2:30, I work until 4:30. Even match. They get home at 3 pm, I get home at 6 pm. Ball in my court. They work with 28 students. I work with 109 faculty. They prefer eating take away Chinese, Kentucky Fried Chicken, etc. I cook healthy meals in 20-30 minutes. Game, Set, Match, I win.  “I don’t like to cook” they say. Well, I do like to cook, because I know what goes in my meals and that’s what makes me feel better about myself. It’s also how I’ve lost 28 lbs so far. They don’t like to exercise. Hell, *I* don’t like to exercise. But then there’s this:

“Just remember this: If you walk even just one step further today than you did yesterday, that is making progress. Progress is measured not in leaps and bounds, but in steps…and sometimes, baby steps.” – F. John Barker III

Looking for suggestions on what to cook? Visit my other weblog, “The Wannabe Gourmet“. Leave me a comment. Remember that just because you don’t like an ingredient in a dish (or can’t eat it) doesn’t mean you have to turf the entire recipe. Substitute. Retool. Recreate. Improve. Not only live, THRIVE.