At my heaviest, I weighed over 400 lbs. I don't know how much over, because I stopped weighing. Judging by the rate of loss when I first started taking it off, I'd say I was around 425. I felt like hell. All the time. My back, which was mangled in a car accident back in 1993 (back when I was a skinny girl), was a constant source of pain and worry. I had sleep apnea. My blood sugar was starting to be a real problem.
Over the course of a year-and-a-half, I lost 180 lbs. I felt great! I was still fat, but I felt amazing! I could walk for hours (though the plantar fasciitis would give me grief the next day)! I used a program called My Fitness Pal to log calories and exercise, and I was religious about it. Very dedicated! My blood pressure was amazing, my resting pulse 60, my A1c down to 5.4.
And then I just stopped. I don't know what's happened. I have spent the past seven months just eating. Is it because of the surgery, the stress, the fearing it was cancer? The relief of it just threw me into a celebratory pig-out that I don't know how to climb out of? I don't know. I do know that, for months, I kept being "good" but kept not losing--I plateaued and, no matter what I did (add calories, subtract calories, increase exercise, decrease exercise, etc.), I just couldn't lose. Three plus months of 1250 calories a day, and no loss. I kept telling myself that it didn't matter, that being healthy was the reward, regardless of the number on the scale, but that's not true--the number on the scale mattered, because when you're holding yourself down to that few calories a day, that number is your only tangible reward.
It's not just me--yeah, I've gained almost 50 lbs, but my husband's gained a good 30 lbs, too, and he's never been "big." We're just eating everything we want. Ice cream with Chambord and black raspberries, gourmet cheeses, jalapeno poppers, and peanut butter! Constant peanut butter! See, I used to have one Clif Builders Bar (chocolate mint) a day--I would actually break it in half and have half for breakfast and half for lunch. Then it became two bars a day, one for breakfast, one for lunch. Then it was two for breakfast, and two for lunch. Understand, these bars have 270 calories a pop. In an effort to break that one, I switched to yogurts. I started with light yogurts, one for breakfast, one for lunch. But then I developed a taste for the Greek yogurts--Chobani Cherry, to be precise. That's almost twice the calories of the light. And then I wanted two. And then? Granola on top. And suddenly my low-cal bar replacement was worse than the bars. So I cut that out, too, and it was replaced by an overwhelming urge for peanut butter. I would just slather it on bread and eat four pieces. Yes, it's low cal, low carb bread, but still. And I'm left wondering--is the urge for peanut butter (which I went YEARS without eating) a way for my body to make up for the protein I'm not getting from bars and yogurt anymore?
I don't know. But I'm sinking myself, and it's devastating.
I did come across a blog today, a very nice lady who's lost a good bit of weight and talks of going back to daily logging/journaling to keep track of her weight if she should begin to gain again. I know she's right--I have to start daily logging again, even if I'm screwing up. Because then it's there, in black and white, and I can't deny or pretend. And from there, maybe I can get this turned around.
But I'm scared. Terrified. I don't want to be contemplating wheelchairs again. I don't want to be unwilling to go to movies because my ass is too big for the theater chairs. I can't do that again. Please!
Over the course of a year-and-a-half, I lost 180 lbs. I felt great! I was still fat, but I felt amazing! I could walk for hours (though the plantar fasciitis would give me grief the next day)! I used a program called My Fitness Pal to log calories and exercise, and I was religious about it. Very dedicated! My blood pressure was amazing, my resting pulse 60, my A1c down to 5.4.
And then I just stopped. I don't know what's happened. I have spent the past seven months just eating. Is it because of the surgery, the stress, the fearing it was cancer? The relief of it just threw me into a celebratory pig-out that I don't know how to climb out of? I don't know. I do know that, for months, I kept being "good" but kept not losing--I plateaued and, no matter what I did (add calories, subtract calories, increase exercise, decrease exercise, etc.), I just couldn't lose. Three plus months of 1250 calories a day, and no loss. I kept telling myself that it didn't matter, that being healthy was the reward, regardless of the number on the scale, but that's not true--the number on the scale mattered, because when you're holding yourself down to that few calories a day, that number is your only tangible reward.
It's not just me--yeah, I've gained almost 50 lbs, but my husband's gained a good 30 lbs, too, and he's never been "big." We're just eating everything we want. Ice cream with Chambord and black raspberries, gourmet cheeses, jalapeno poppers, and peanut butter! Constant peanut butter! See, I used to have one Clif Builders Bar (chocolate mint) a day--I would actually break it in half and have half for breakfast and half for lunch. Then it became two bars a day, one for breakfast, one for lunch. Then it was two for breakfast, and two for lunch. Understand, these bars have 270 calories a pop. In an effort to break that one, I switched to yogurts. I started with light yogurts, one for breakfast, one for lunch. But then I developed a taste for the Greek yogurts--Chobani Cherry, to be precise. That's almost twice the calories of the light. And then I wanted two. And then? Granola on top. And suddenly my low-cal bar replacement was worse than the bars. So I cut that out, too, and it was replaced by an overwhelming urge for peanut butter. I would just slather it on bread and eat four pieces. Yes, it's low cal, low carb bread, but still. And I'm left wondering--is the urge for peanut butter (which I went YEARS without eating) a way for my body to make up for the protein I'm not getting from bars and yogurt anymore?
I don't know. But I'm sinking myself, and it's devastating.
I did come across a blog today, a very nice lady who's lost a good bit of weight and talks of going back to daily logging/journaling to keep track of her weight if she should begin to gain again. I know she's right--I have to start daily logging again, even if I'm screwing up. Because then it's there, in black and white, and I can't deny or pretend. And from there, maybe I can get this turned around.
But I'm scared. Terrified. I don't want to be contemplating wheelchairs again. I don't want to be unwilling to go to movies because my ass is too big for the theater chairs. I can't do that again. Please!
 |
| About 25 lbs shy of my heaviest, on the upswing |
 |
| Obligatory duck-face, about 170 lbs down |
 |
| About 180 down |
I have promised myself that I will not regain the weight this time.
ReplyDeleteMy goal thru much of my weight loss was to just not regain what I had already lost. I had some very long "plateaus" but I kept eating healthy foods and eventually I would start to lose again.
Never give up. We are coming into the hardest time of the year. Give yourself the gift of good health.