Going For The Bebe Goal: A Year Later
I'm overweight. I have been most of my life. Then a year ago today, I threw down the gauntlet to myself to finally lose the weight I need and get healthier.
A year ago today I wrote a post "Going For The Goal: A Bebe Flared Trench Coat," in which I challenged myself to lose enough weight by today to fit into the purple Bebe, flared trench coat pictured on the left.
I'd hired myself a nutritionist who put me on a reasonable, portion controlled, plan that was nutritionally balanced---no more of these no carb, grapefruit diets for me---but wasn't so strict that it sent me into whiplash binges. A treat here and there was totally acceptable.
And it's not like I hadn't tried a lot of this before, it was just this time I knew I had to get serious.
Well today I'm ready to report on my progress.
The suspense is killing you, isn't it? You're waiting for me to reveal the picture of myself in the coat aren't you?
Well the truth is...I can't. Not yet, anyway.
You see since a year ago I've changed my diet in very positive ways and lost a total of 26 pounds. And though part of me tells myself that's just a drop in the bucket of what I have to lose, my nutritionist encourages me to see the great stride that was losing 26 pounds. For example, try picking up 26 pounds of potatoes or oranges or kitty litter. It's an eye-opener.
So though I'm down a couple of sizes, I can't get into that coat yet. But yet is the operative word.
Why haven't I lost more? Because I went through spurts of losing and gaining five to ten pounds here and there and struggled to break the lifelong habit I have of using food to soothe myself. I'm also a bit of a control freak and when things get crazy, like just the other day when I found out I needed to finish three tricky projects due by the end of this week, I went on a bender of Thomas English muffins and fake spray on butter.
Yeah, I know.
Why English muffins, you say? It was the worst item I had in the house at 11 O'clock at night, and the only thing that gave me back my sense of control.
And of course last month I lost my beloved cocker spaniel, Daisy, and that too was such a stressful time, food was often my crutch.
It's that kind of stuff I'm still working on and man is that stuff hard!
But back to the positive...I've lost 26 pounds! Hooray for me for losing 26 pounds, adding more fruit to my diet, limiting my starch intake, adding light snacks to my day to curb my appetite at meal times, and figuring out new techniques to avoid using food as an emotional pacifier.
On another front, I'm trying to stop waiting until I've lost weight to look good on a daily basis. My podcast interview with Kelly Park from "How To Look Good Naked" for BlogHer helped with that. Just like the weight, I've had body image issues all my life too. Never feeling I looked as good as everyone else, blaming everything on the weight instead of being the best I could possibly be at that moment.
Well that too has changed. My nutritionist got me on the road to feeling better about my body and Kelly Park has helped to keep me there. I wear makeup more than I used to, I get a bit more dressy just to run errands, because after all, why shouldn't I look good when I go to the supermarket?
I'm very determined to maintain my progress and kick up my exercise a notch to get even more pounds off. How many and how long it will take, I don't know. I do know that I no longer want to give food the power it's always had over my life.
That means putting food in it's place, instead of in my mouth. I'll keep you posted.
