Monday, December 28, 2009

45 pounds lost!!

Shawn discovered the bathroom scale yesterday. We're still sorting through boxes and this was yesterday's big discovery. So, this morning I weighed myself for the first time in several weeks. I'm pleased to announce that I've finally hit 45 pounds lost! It's been coming off slowly..averaging about 4 to 5 pounds a month. I'm certain that I'm now smaller than what I was when Shawn and I married 6-1/2 years ago.

What's ironic about this though is that I'm not really, truly trying to lose weight. (Yesterday I had dessert of homemade cupcakes with homemade icing and this morning's breakfast was homemade pumpkin muffins with Ghirardelli chocolate baking chips in them....mmmm, good diet food!) The weight loss is just an added benefit to changing our family's eating habits. I am overweight and I do need to lose the weight, but I'm not keeping a food diary, or counting points, or starving myself. I did really well using the Weight Watcher's points system after Sam was born. I lost a decent amound of weight then, but still ended 10 pounds heavier than what I am now...and I gained a considerable amount of it back when I stopped keeping a food diary.

My personal opinion (lacking any formal education on nutrition or physiology) is that my body now knows what to do with the food I'm eating. Before, I would consume margarine, cream of chicken soup, and boxed breakfast cereals. My body would get the monosodium glutamate or blue dye #2 and go, "Whoa, what's this and what do I do with it?" Then my body would store the questionable product somewhere (usually my abdomen, face, or hips) until it could figure out how to process it.

Now I like to think that my body recognizes what I put in it. When I consume butter my body recognizes the cream and salt and processes it the way it's supposed to. My homemade granola cereal includes oats, raw honey, butter, walnuts, organic coconut, and homemade vanilla extract. My homemade cream of chicken soup contains butter, freshly milled flour, whole milk, pepper, and chicken. Everything's easy to pronounce and easy to recognize. I like it that way.

I would still like to lose another 19 pounds before I would be at what I consider a healthy weight for my height. After reaching that goal and maintaining that weight, then I'll reevaluate and see if my body needs to lose more. I know at some point I'll probably have to increase my activity level or cut back on the homemade cupcakes to continue to lose weight, but for right now this is what's working...and I'm liking it.

Editing to add: Shawn came home and weighed himself this evening too. He's now lost 15 pounds since we changed our eating habits. There's such a noticable difference in his waist that I knew he must have lost a decent amount too.

5 comments:

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  2. That's awesome! I know you must feel physically better too. You look great! You birds with one stone..isn't that it?:)

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  3. Honestly, I thought you'd lost weight when you were at my house buying stuff from the yard sale, and that was in October. Congratulations! That's my goal for next year, lose a total of 50 lbs.

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  4. Thanks for all the kind words! I do feel so much better, especially my knees. The weight was really starting to take its toll in my joints.

    Rhyah, I cannot imagine you 50 pounds lighter, but I'll still wish you luck on reaching your goal.

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