Diet Renegade

Follow me as I eat real food, stop binge eating, and lose 100 pounds

Archive for February, 2009

Busting through my weight loss plateau

Feb 27

Posted by Gina in Compulsive Overeating, Emotional Eating, Food Obsession, Motivation | 6 Comments

There’s a fierce battle playing out in my life right now.  Its me against the scale.

Since starting my ‘diet’ several months ago I now find myself battling with 5 pounds. Its been up and down for weeks and I don’t seem to be making any progress.

Well, I may not be making weight loss progress, but I am making progress in at least holding on to my motivation for dear life.

I’ve reached a make or break point – a dreaded plateau – which will either end with failure or success.

In the past I’ve let these plateaus break my spirit.  They ruined my motivation and I would give in, drop my diet, and tell myself yet again “you just can’t lose weight so why even try?”

But this time is totally different.

This time I will not let this plateau ruin my spirit.  I’ve been so successful so far that there’s no reason why I can’t keep on losing weight and reach my goals.

Its all in my mind.

I can blame a million different things for my current situation, but really isn’t it all about my mindset?

My thoughts lead to my actions which either lead to weight loss or gain.

So what is really wrong with me?  Why am I struggling?

These 2 questions are the most important questions to ask during hard times.  Yes you can obsess over the little things like what you ate, what type of exercise you’ve been doing, etc.

But the fundamental issue that wins weight loss plateau battles is the concept of mindset.  So I’m going to evaluate these questions for myself.

What is really wrong?

I’m absolutely overwhelmed.

I have so much weight to lose that even the 37 pounds I’ve lost so far seems insignificant.

Its like the old cliche…how do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  That’s great but when you keep seeing that big elephant you’re thinking “holy crap, I’ll never get this done, why even bother?”

Cliches aside, this I believe makes or breaks a lot of peoples’ success.

I think its absolutely critical at this point to bust out the big picture.  Reaccess your major reasons for wanting to lose weight.

I re-read my post 65 reasons why I want to lose weight.

Essentially I’m trying to reset my mindset and get excited again about all the things that I will experience when I reach my goals.

But its also about the little things too…

I’m going to reset all my habits and make sure I’m doing everything I should.

I’m asking myself…

Am I eating the right amount of calories?
Are my portions too big?
Am I eating enough fruit and veggies?
Am I writing down everything I eat?
Am I exercising as much as I should?
Am I taking enough time to relax?
Am I connecting with people who support me?
Am I trying new recipes and foods?

But the biggest questions…

Am I realizing that I’m worth it?

Yes, thats right.  Isn’t that what this is all about?

I must tell myself everyday that my life, my health, my happiness is worth this battle.

Every tear, every struggle is worth it because it makes my resolve stronger.

I will push through this plateau and continue to my weight loss goals because I can succeed.  I have the power to win this battle, this war I’ve waged for years.

My motivation is unstoppable when I know in my soul that I am worth the fight.

I deserve success and I am willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it.

This is war and I’m ready to bust out the tanks.

Update: The day after I wrote this post I had my weekly weigh-in. I lost 3 pounds! Take that plateau!

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I gained 2 pounds and some perspective

Feb 22

Posted by Gina in Motivation | No Comments

Grrrrr…..darn it! I gained 2 pounds this week.  I’m trying to calm down and get over it, but its so hard!

The absolute most important thing for me to do now is to snap out of it.  It would be so easy for me to feel sorry for myself and go get a gallon of ice cream and say ‘why me?’ However, that was the old Gina, I do things differently now.

I am not going to let a gain this week tear me down.  It happens, its life and I must move on.  Its a new day and a new week and I have the chance to start fresh with a clean slate.

So I’m going to evaluate some of the things I did last week that probably contributed to my weight gain.

1. I wrote everything that I ate down, but on most days I didn’t actually tally up how many calories I was eating.  I used the excuse that I was too busy to push it off till the next day.  Well the next day came and I was ‘too busy’ that day too.

So if I would have just taken an extra 5 minutes per day and tallied up all my calories I would have known that overall I did in fact eat too much during the week.

Lesson definitely learned.

2. I ate out…a lot!  Now normally I do eat out at restaurants a lot during the course of a week.  But usually I eat pretty healthy options.  Not so this week.  I did go a little overboard and since I wasn’t being diligent enough about tracking calories, that just made it worse.

3. I didn’t exercise at all. Usually I get in a few miles worth of walking per week.  But this week I let myself be extra lazy.  That’s a no no!

So today I went on a wonderful 2 mile walk with my fiance to get my butt back on track.  It was so much fun and now I’m back in the groove and ready for my next walk.

This week I’m forcing myself to be much more strict and I am deliberately snapping myself out of my funk.

I will track everything I eat, count every calorie, walk, and eat healthy choices when I go to restaurants.

In the past when I’ve gained weight I chose to feel sorry for myself and give in.

This time I choose to succeed.

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What I Eat

Feb 19

Posted by Gina in What I Eat | No Comments

Ok, so I’ve realized that I haven’t really posted on what I eat. And since that’s a pretty important component to weight loss, maybe I should do that!

What I’ll do is break it up in two parts – a typical week day and then a typical weekend day.  I won’t go day by day (unless you want me too then please let me know in the comment section) but I’ll give you my mix-n-match menu items.  Oh and in case you can’t tell, I’m pretty boring!  I really enjoy eating the same things over and over again.  I’m sure I’ll get bored with my typical menu soon, but then I’ll find some comparable ideas and post them in the future.

Typical week day:

Breakfast

2 Wasa Crispbread Fiber Crackers with 2 tablespoons of light cream cheese and 2 pieces of fruit

Or

½ cup of low fat cottage cheese and 2 pieces of fruit

Lunch

Pre-cooked chicken strips

Or

1 can of tuna with light mayonnaise and 2 Wasa Crispbread Fiber Crackers

Plus

2 pieces of fruit, 12 raw almonds, ½ cup of low fat cottage cheese

Dinner

Turkey sandwich on 2 slices of wheat bread and low fat ceasar salad

Or

Oven-baked pizza

Or

Broth-based soup and low fat ceasar salad

Or

Grilled chicken breast with baked potato (topped with spray margarine) and rice

Or

Fast food grilled chicken salad

Or

Fast food grilled chicken sandwich and small fries

Or

Meatless tacos made with MorningStar Farms Crumblers and taco seasoning

Plus

1 Nonni’s Biscotti for dessert

Typical weekend day:

Breakfast

2 Wasa Crispbread Fiber Crackers with 2 tablespoons of light cream cheese and 2 pieces of fruit

Or

½ cup of low fat cottage cheese and 2 pieces of fruit

Lunch

Chinese food from restaurant – Lean meats, rice, steamed veggies, egg rolls, egg-drop soup, and fruit

Or

American food from restaurant – Grilled chicken sandwich and either broth-based soup or salad

Or

Any of the lunches from my ‘week day menu’ above

Dinner

Lean cut of steak, baked potato (topped with spray margarine), veggies or salad

Or

Pizza

Or

Any of the dinners from my ‘week day menu’ above

I only drink water, tea, or occasionally Vitamin Water

There ya have it.  I’m still able to eat my favorite foods, not feel totally deprived, actually enjoy myself while “dieting.”

Do you have any favorite foods that you eat all the time?

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Oops, my pants fell down

Feb 14

Posted by Gina in Feeling Beautiful, Motivation, Reasons to Celebrate | 1 Comment

Perhaps you’ll find this odd, but I’m so excited because my pants literally fell off!

My favorite pair of jeans that were too tight to wear a year ago, are now so big on me that I have to wear a belt for them to stay on.  Now that’s just too fantastic.

I even noticed yesterday that my shoes are kinda big.  I wonder if I lost some of the fat on my feet? Hmm, I don’t know!

It really is the little things that get me so excited.  I think all of us have to celebrate those little tiny successes, as well as the big ones, to keep us motivated and moving forward.

What’s one of your small successes?

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I feel great

Feb 13

Posted by Gina in Motivation, Reasons to Celebrate | 2 Comments

So I’m starting to feel pretty good about myself now.  So far I’ve lost 36 pounds and I can feel my confidence building back up again.

My clothes are starting to fit me like they are supposed to and I’m starting to go down another size.  I think this is my momentum phase.

As I’m sure you can understand, most of the time it’s really hard to get started with a diet.  No maybe its not I suppose if you’ve never dieted before, but that’s not what I’m talking about.  I’ve started diets dozens of times in my lifetime and at the start of every one I was always like ‘awww crap.’

So even though I tried my best to have a totally different attitude this time, it was still so darn hard to get started and build momentum. But now I think I have that momentum.

I can actually visualize what it will be like when I reach my goals instead of thinking, ‘oh it would be nice if this time I could do it.’ No, I actually know that I will accomplish my weight loss goal this time – and I will keep it off forever.

I’m actually enjoying eating healthy foods, I look forward to going on walks, and I haven’t binged in weeks.  I honestly can’t remember when the last time I binged was, and for me, someone who’d binge a few times a day, that is a fantastic accomplishment.

I’m getting exciting thinking about trying on wedding dresses in a few months, instead of feeling depressed about it.

Overall I’m feeling great and I haven’t felt great in years.

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Weekly Recap: I lost 4 pounds!

Feb 6

Posted by Gina in Compulsive Overeating, Food Obsession, Motivation, Reasons to Celebrate | No Comments

So today was my weekly weigh-in and to my surprise I was down 4 pounds, woohoo!  I was totally dumbfounded because I hardly ever lose that much in 1 week – usually its just 1 to 2 pounds per week.

Now my total so far is down 36 pounds and I’m just so happy!

What did I do differently this week?

Hmmm….I really don’t know.

I stuck to my boring eating schedule for the most part and I even ate an enormous burrito at a Mexican restaurant and ate In N Out Burger.

I usually do eat out much more than that in a typical week though so perhaps that was one reason.

All I know is I’m diligently tracking everything I eat and making sure I’m not going over my allotted calories for the day.

I guess its working.

I’m getting more and more inspired and focused as I lose more weight.  It seems to be this snowball affect for me – the more I lose the bigger my resolved grows.

I’m also getting more excited as I plan for my wedding this October.  Not only do I want to look beautiful in my dress, I want to look fantastic for my honeymoon.

My fiance, Jason, and I finally decided on where we’re going for our honeymoon: Kauai, Hawaii!

And I want to hang out on the beach, go hiking, zip lining, and just feel confident and comfortable in my own skin.

So thinking about all that makes reaching my goals that more exciting.

How was your week?  Please feel free to post your comments in the section below!

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