Committed

I will be updating my About Me page in July, 2010.

My original “About Me”, written in July, 2007:

My goal is to embrace the behaviors that will lead to sustainable, long term, healthy weight loss.  I try to focus more on my habits and choices rather than measuring my success with pounds lost.

I am a 30-something year old female from Northern California.  I am married and live in the suburbs.  I have 2 cats, but no children.  I have a very nice life - I love my husband, we live in a beautiful home in a fabulous community, and I have a great career.  I feel very blessed to have such wonderful friends and family as well.

I weighed in at 212.6 on January 1, 2007.  On that day, I successfully resolved to “quit” eating sugar and refined flour.  Over the next month, I lost about 9 pounds.  Other changes I have been working on include watching my portion sizes, limiting food consumption at night, and increasing my fruit and vegetable intake.  I have also been avoiding unnatural foods (such as dairy from hormone injected cows, preservatives like BHT, additives like MSG, etc).

Over the last 6 or 7 months, I have lost another 7 or 8 pounds, but it has been very slow going - sometimes only a half pound a month and sometimes nothing at all.  I don’t claim to have mastered my problems with emotional eating, but I can definitely claim progress.

I have also managed to make a habit out of exercise, committing to at least 20-30 minutes every day, sometimes more, of either walking, yoga, or pilates.  Exercise is the key to my mental and emotional health above all else, so I am very committed to this daily routine.

I wish everyone success on their journeys to change.  May you all be fit and healthy, both physically and emotionally.

Update written in July 2009:

Weight got as low as 195 in 2007, crept back up to 200-ish in 2008, and has continued to creep back up in 2009.  I abandoned the no-sugar, no-flour rules a while back but the experience left me with some good habits for incorporating whole grains and healthy sugar substitutes into my diet.

Most recently my weight was as high as 212 (just a week ago).  I’ve had a love-hate relationship with calorie counting for most of my life.  But, these recent weigh-ins have caused me to make up with calorie counting and for the last few days its been going great.  Nothing brings adversaries (me + calorie counting) together better than a common enemy (weight gain).

We’ll see how it goes.  Meanwhile, I’ll keep posting with my insights, progress, and even my setbacks.  I’ve got a new camera so you may also see some photo journaling from time to time.