Today was my first weigh in day and I'm happy to report that since I've started I've lost 4.8 pounds! It may not sound like much, but to me that's a huge success! When I weighed myself last Sunday, I was starting at 267.1 and I'm down to 262.3. It was very pleasing, and encouraging, to see such a high number, considering I was only expecting a pound or pound and a half to be missing.
I owe my success to a website that a cousin of mine turned me onto called Lose It! (loseit.com), which also has a Smart Phone app of the same name. It's perfect for me because it puts everything into perspective. I've looked at the nutritional information on packaging before, but it never occurred to me how it all adds up over the course of a day. Sure, a three-pack of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups only contains 220 calories, but when you eat four packages at a time, that's 880 calories! Based on my current weight and the goal of losing 1.5 pounds a week, I should only be consuming 2,051 calories over the course of a day. If I were to eat four packages of Reese's, well I've just eaten half my days worth of calories and there's nothing nutritional about a chocolate bar.
Calorie counting may sound daunting to some, but it has allowed me to take a good, hard look at what I've been doing to myself. I don't want to kill myself over sugar any more, it's not worth it. Since I've been watching what I eat and exercising regularly (which I've done six of the last eight days, unheard of for myself), I can honestly say I feel that I am satisfied. I'm not hungry, I'm comfortable. I feel great!
I've also learned something about myself over the last week. I do actually have will power! I just had to want to lose weight bad enough before I realized that I do actually have control. I actually feel empowered to make proper food decisions. I spent the evening with a friend last night and she had veggies with dip and chips out on the table for snacks. I'm not going to lie, the chips were very tempting, but I stuck to the baby carrots and ranch dressing. Did you know that for every 30 chips you eat it's roughly 270 calories? I really had no idea. It makes me sad to think that I used to eat half a large bag at a time without a thought about it.
This all leads to the next step.
Step four: Remove all Offending Foods and Drinks from the Home
Why put yourself in temptations way with it laying around your house? If it's not in your home, it's more difficult to obtain. This way you're more likely to make a healthier food choice or realize that you're not really hungry in the first place. I feel fortunate that I've never been much for beverages other than water, however, I have a terrible habit of eating as something to do. I've stopped having things like ice cream in my house because if it's there, I'll eat it. I can eat a litre of ice cream in less than four sittings.
I feel good about removing the things that tempt me from my house. If I'm hungry in between meals, I'll slice up an apple or have some yogurt, rather than eating something full of empty calories and will only make me hungry again in the near future.
If you do decide to keep certain treats in the home, it's important to exercise restraint against either eating the item or eating more than the recommended serving. My husband picked up some butter toffee peanuts, one of my favourites, while picking up a few items from the grocery store. I have eaten some of them, but I've stuck to the serving size listed on the package. I know 1/3 of a cup doesn't seem like a whole lot, but I only eat that amount (I actually measure it out) and I'm actually satisfied with it. I just eat them slowly and one at a time to saver taste. At 250 calories per 1/3 of a cup, I can't afford to go over for risk of blowing my whole calorie budget for the day, especially on something like candy-coated peanuts.
It's also important to remember that just because you don't keep certain treats in your home, it doesn't mean you're never allowed to eat them again. It's okay to have a treat every once in a while, in moderation. Moderation is key. In past attempts at losing weight, I've cut things entirely out of my diet, such as my beloved Reese's, and it's only led to me having a craving and then binging. For myself, once I broke down and binged, that was the end of my attempt at weight loss because I felt like such a failure. This time, I'm allowing myself to have the treats I love, but I'm going to be careful about how much and how often I do. One package of Reese's is okay, four is not...
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