November 16, 2011 - Honesty and Accountability

Today is the day to be totally honest and hold myself 100% accountable.  How am I doing that? By posting it here for the world to see. Full disclosure. It is easy to hide the facts and not be accountable to anyone. It is easy to move up and down the scale in private. However, taking the EASY route isn't accomplishing anything and I have a lot ahead of me that I still need to accomplish.

Here it is - Day 17,011.  haha  For easier reference, we will just start with Day 1 (I know... AGAIN!). That's the beauty of our lives, right? If we don't get it right, we can always start again! We all have our struggles - losing weight is just ONE of mine. It isn't easy. By being accountable to someone besides myself and the scale (which obviously isn't working well right now), I will do better. I have come too far on this quest to not finish it. I need this "push". I always hear that the last 10-20 pounds are the hardest to lose. I could not agree more.

Weigh Day 1 -  170.6  (ooooh the honesty hurts....)

I no longer have just 20 pounds to lose. I now have 30 to lose! I have gained 10 pounds! GAINED, not lost. I put these 10 extra pounds on since the beginning of October and it started when I was "eating for a marathon." It didn't help that I had two half marathons the following two weekends either. I just never got out of that eating phase. I enjoyed it too much to leave it!  An excuse...

Reaching my goal of walking 1000 miles slowed down my walking.  It is like weight loss... you hit the goal and then stop doing it. Unfortunately that's a very real problem. Reaching the weight loss goal will start a whole new set of challenges for me. Once I am there, I will have to learn to stay there. The key will be to not stop paying attention. I will ALWAYS have to work at it. I know that.

I have been suffering with back and nerve pain since October. Pain slowed me down. Pain made me depressed. Depression made me SIT DOWN.  But yet another excuse.  I can no longer let pain be an excuse. Pain does not control me. Not again. Not now. Not ever.

The REAL reason I gained 10 pounds is because of eating WHATEVER and WHENEVER  I wanted: candy, chocolate, fried chicken, salad dressing, holiday coffee drinks, desserts, etc. ... the list goes on! I quit paying attention - okay, that's not true, I knew exactly what I was eating - I simply quit caring. I gave up.  I. GAVE. UP.  (very detrimental words when said together)

Today I am refocusing and starting over. Again. There is no room in my life to GIVE UP. I am counting calories to get a very tight grip on my intake. (Remember: calories in MUST be less than calories out! It is a S.I.M.P.L.E. FACT and the ONLY way to lose weight.)  Just watching what I eat has been successful in the past to maintain my weight but it hasn't helped me lose weight. (I was able to maintain my 99-pound loss for a very long time and that's a positive thing! Hitting that 100-pound-down mark seemed to be absolutely impossible for me though. No more!) I have played in this same ten-pound range for a year or more. Hitting 170 again this morning has been an eye opener ... and I don't like what I see!  Not at all.  It is time to get very serious. I read about too many people losing weight... losing focus... regaining it all. I REFUSE to let that happen to me.

So as much as it hurts to post this little "post-of-honesty", I am posting it. I am going to be accountable and I am going to lose this weight. I AM going to reach my goals.

Anyone care to join me on this honesty train and lose those unwanted pounds? Working together is far more effective than going at it alone. Having a support system is ALWAYS helpful.

My two favorite helpful tools...

"My Fitness Pal" - a great place to keep track of your calories and weight. We can be 'friends' on there. It has a very thorough list of food. As an app, you can scan in the bar code on your food so you don't have to look it up (that feature doesn't work on my iPad though - darn it).

"Dailymile" - a place to keep track of various types of exercise, not just walking/running. You can also have 'friends' on there as well.

Hopefully I will see some of you jumping aboard!

November 23, 2011 - Weigh Day 2.   The day BEFORE Thanksgiving! That worked out well!  ;)