I mentioned last week that I had begun counting calories and measuring my food this week to try to break through this darned month long plateau. So drum roll...........................
It worked!!! After one week, I ended up with a loss of two pounds (exactly what I lost in the entire month of February!) Hooray! I'm so happy.
I haven't felt restricted this week. I averaged about 1360 over the course of the entire week, figuring in my off-plan meal as well. This coming week I'm going to bump it up about 100 calories a day. I want to experiment and see what my maximum intake can be while continuing losing at a rate of two pounds per week.
Today marks another milestone!
I've lost 20 pounds!
One more and I have hit the magic 10% that experts say marks a health improvement. I;m darned happy to get over this plateau and hopefully I can go another 20 pounds before hitting another one!
What have I learned from this? Clean eating, while it works, will not necessarily result in consistent weight loss without other checks and balances in place. All by itself, changing my eating habits to clean ones allowed me to lose the first 16 pounds with little real effort. Now, however, I have discovered, consistent results require more than just passively eating clean. I still strongly promote eating clean for all of the health benefits a chemical-free life can provide, and once I am at a maintenance weight, eating clean for the rest of my life will allow me to be fit and healthy with little dietary effort. I believe clean is the only way to eat. But for weight loss, weighing, measuring, and counting calories all seem to be a necessity for me.
Have a great weekend!
Showing posts with label weight loss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weight loss. Show all posts
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Friday, December 25, 2009
Dec. 25 - Reflections
I can't believe I forgot to post this earlier. My first mini goal was to weigh under 200 pounds for Christmas. My weight today? 199.8!!!!!
Victory dance!!! I am so happy to have accomplished my first goal deadline. I still have a very long way to go, but this energizes me to keep up the hard work.
My kids have gone to dad's so I've had time to do some thinking this evening. I've had an awful headache off and on all day today. I'm considering this a "food hangover". I simply can't tolerate refined foods. I probably never could, and I just got used to feeling terrible and lethargic. After less than a month of eating clean, my body is begging me to keep it up.
Weight loss is just a pleasant side effect to this lifestyle. I am high on the feeling - the energy, the cheerfulness, and the all-around health.
Last year I got new life insurance. I did all the requisite blood work and had the physical, and I am very fortunate to report that my health was so good - (cholesterol, etc.) that the company actually offered me a LOWER rate than normal. How fortunate could I be? I had abused my body with food for years. I was 60 pounds overweight. I wasn't working out much. And yet somehow, I remained healthy. I have been given a second chance to make the rest of my life different. I now have the opportunity to model a healthy lifestyle for my kids. I hope I can undo the past and help them to see that healthy is better and much more fun than the way things were before. I won't throw away the second chance I have been granted. I thank God every day for the way I am feeling right now.
This change is for LIFE. A life that is full of energy and new challenges. A life brimming with good health.
Okay, ***stepping down off soapbox***
Here is today's food, the good, the bad and the ugly. I figure if I am going to post on here, it's important to admit to the bad stuff and not just boast about the good stuff. A (*) denotes foods that are not clean. Otherwise I made a clean version of the food.
Victory dance!!! I am so happy to have accomplished my first goal deadline. I still have a very long way to go, but this energizes me to keep up the hard work.
My kids have gone to dad's so I've had time to do some thinking this evening. I've had an awful headache off and on all day today. I'm considering this a "food hangover". I simply can't tolerate refined foods. I probably never could, and I just got used to feeling terrible and lethargic. After less than a month of eating clean, my body is begging me to keep it up.
Weight loss is just a pleasant side effect to this lifestyle. I am high on the feeling - the energy, the cheerfulness, and the all-around health.
Last year I got new life insurance. I did all the requisite blood work and had the physical, and I am very fortunate to report that my health was so good - (cholesterol, etc.) that the company actually offered me a LOWER rate than normal. How fortunate could I be? I had abused my body with food for years. I was 60 pounds overweight. I wasn't working out much. And yet somehow, I remained healthy. I have been given a second chance to make the rest of my life different. I now have the opportunity to model a healthy lifestyle for my kids. I hope I can undo the past and help them to see that healthy is better and much more fun than the way things were before. I won't throw away the second chance I have been granted. I thank God every day for the way I am feeling right now.
This change is for LIFE. A life that is full of energy and new challenges. A life brimming with good health.
Okay, ***stepping down off soapbox***
Here is today's food, the good, the bad and the ugly. I figure if I am going to post on here, it's important to admit to the bad stuff and not just boast about the good stuff. A (*) denotes foods that are not clean. Otherwise I made a clean version of the food.
M1: Pumpkin bread, yogurt icing*, fruit salad with cantaloupe, blackberries, blueberries, and banana
M2: More fruit salad (no protein)
M3: Roast turkey, roasted potatoes, tzatziki, Greek salad w/ feta and hm dressing, 1 triangle white pita*
M4: Dark chocolate truffle* (You probably did not require the star on that one)
M5: leftover 7 layer dip from last night, multi-grain tortillas (these are hard to classify - they are all-natural with clean ingredients but they are high in fat - if I had a button for it I'd mark this with half a star)
So to analyze the day, it was high in sugar ( I had it twice) and low in protein (only present at 2 meals). Aside from that I'm very pleased. I feel like I conquered Christmas eating today!
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