EZMONEY
07-23-2008, 02:05 PM
I am very proud of myself today :yay:
One year ago, today, I jumped on the :goodscale and saw the numbers 201...I was :yikes: shocked! I had never in my life weighed over 200 pounds. It was right then and there that I promised myself to do something about it and stick with it for a year. I have done that :cp:
Now, this weight didn't :s: sneak :s: up on me :no: And I wasn't in denial about it :no:...I just didn't want to do anything about it....just kept hoping it would magically :wizard: disappear ;) I was aware that getting it to go :wave: bye-bye :wave: was going to take effort. I was becoming LAY-ZMONEY ;)
At some point early in this adventure I decided to cal it my "journey of better choices."My story is not anything special. I have been here at 3FC for a long time and have seen many of you overcome tremendous obstacles to achieve your weight loss :bravo:. I have read your stories of personal demons that have attributed to some of your weight gains. I have :angel: prayed with and for many of you. My story is nothing like that but I want to share it with you because I know there are times when many of us give up too soon. I have been guilty of that :yes: And that is why I am proud of myself today.
For me, and only speaking for me, any kind of diet was not going to be something I would stick with.....what if I couldn't have :cheese: or :jeno:...not an option :no: I thought about calorie counting, and although I think it might be best for me, I was sure I wouldn't follow through with it....it might take too much effort....I'm not that good at math ;)....it would take too long....again, LAY-ZMONEY rears it's :fr: ugly head!
However, I did have an :chin: idea. I figured out that I could live on less :yes: After all I have been living on less already. My son and daughter ran off and got married, my step-daughter took off for college and knucklehead nephew went and enlisted in the NAVY :cp: so there were less kids runnin' around the house. Angie had entered pre-menopause so there were other things I was getting less of :o
HERE IS WHAT I DID THAT WORKED FOR ME ~
BREAKFAST BEFORE JOURNEY ~ Nothing! Some mornings I leave at 3am so no time!
NOW ~I don't care what time I leave, I eat a healthy breakfast. Sometimes oatmeal ~ or cold cereal ~ or whole wheat toast and turkey bacon...I mix it up.
LUNCH BEFORE ~Anything leftover from dinner...pizza :jeno: ~ sandwiches of ham and cheese ~ bags of potato chips ~ when I was home I had nachos with tons of :cheese: ~ those wrapped pastry things :cookie: ~ easy to eat granola bars
NOW ~Almost every single day I have a thermos of low sodium - low calorie :chicken: chicken noodle soup, when I get tired of it...not often...I switch it up by making my own chili. I am not sure of the calories in my chili but I really don't care :no: and I almost always have a nice turkey sandwich, with meat from the deli...without all the nitrates (thank-you Vegan and Veggie Chicks for that one! :hug:) on whole wheat bread. NO CHIPS! or anything wrapped in plastic! And usually a yogurt.
SNACKS BEFORE ~ANYTHING I could grab! Calories were not ever considered! Many times we start at 6am or earlier.... we eat at 10am and that's it for food until I get home from work. I would hit the door starving around 3pm...grab a beer and a BIG bag of chips.
NOW ~ carrots :carrot: ~ olives ~ low-cal wheat and rice crackers are mine all mine :)
DINNER BEFORE ~ To be honest Angie and I have reasonably healthy food for dinner...my issue has always been portion control! Heck, only 1 :burger: burger left...I'LL EAT IT!....half a casserole...I'LL EAT IT!....half a pizza :jeno:...I'LL EAT IT!
NOW ~ I place a reasonable amount of food on my plate....when I finish that I :running: ruuuuuuuuunnnnnn :running: from the table! I have figured out that if I start feeling like I am going to :faint: starve to death, I will have enough energy to make it to the fridge!
AFTER DINNER SNACK BEFORE ~Klondike bars ~ chips and dip and chips and dip and chips and dip ~
NOW ~I actually count out a serving size of wheat or rice crackers.
Now, you all know that I am not perfect and I might...OK...I will cheat from time to time. I have had nachos ~ I have had a big bowl or two of un-buttered :corn: popcorn ~ I have had :jeno:
I just don't eat an entire pizza anymore ~ I don't go to fast food places except on a very rare occasion, before my "journey" fast food was, often times, my first choice on the week-end for lunch.
DINNER OUT BEFORE ~No problem getting an extra taco to go with that :cheese: cheese enchilada plate or getting a :jeno: pizza to go to bring home for the week-end lunches AFTER eating an entire Italian meal with appetizer of bruschetta and maybe sharing a :cookie: cannoli with Angie.
DINNER OUT NOW ~NEVER bring a :jeno: pizza home! I don't order that extra taco :no: and Angie and I do :love: date night :love: now a little different with FRIDAY NIGHT SPLITS...where we get one meal and split it, sometimes we add a salad or a bowl of soup but we have found that we can eat just fine on one meal!
EXERCISE BEFORE ~:rollpin: Hit and miss :frypan: I have been walking and doing 5K's ever since I quit :smoking: smoking 11 years ago. I would however, go for long stretches and be LAY-ZMONEY :yes:
NOW ~ Since I started this "journey" I have :running: walked/jogged 984 miles on the treadmill :tread: or dog walks which gives me about 250 hours of exercise! :woohoo: My dogs are very happy :)...and healthy!
I realize I have missed 500 :judge: JUDY'S because I wasn't at home sitting in my recliner...but I can live with that..not easy mind you but it is do-able ;)
WEIGH-IN ~I find, for me, that I can stay focused much better by weighing every single day. If I am up a pound or two I feel I have the:sumo: power and the :strong: strength to :frypan: beat down 1 measley pound at a time!
FOCUS ~I think about EVERY SINGLE MEAL and SNACK ~ If I do something un-healthy, I do it willingly...and I prepare myself to the consequences! If I decide to eat half a pizza :jeno: I know I will need to do a few extra :running: miles...and I DO IT! ....hey...what a slogan..."just do it"...;)
SUPPORT AT HOME BEFORE ~My family has always supportive of me no matter what I weigh. Through this "journey" they have encouraged and praised me :goodluck: My :love: WIFE :love: has always set the example in our home for good health. She does this by example with her :chef: cooking ~ her :yoga: yoga and her :trampo: exercise :running:
Other than an occasional "Who's your little friend?" when I step out of the shower, she never says a word to me about my weight. She knows that I know what to do about it or anything else un-healthy that I might be doing to my body.
SUPPORT NOW ~See above...I am a :luck2you: LUCKY MAN :irish:
another reason I am a very LUCKY GUY ~ :drinkup: is because of all of you!
I cannot thank you ENOUGH for the support you have given me this year :hug: I would :love: love :love: to :thanks: thank-you all personally but it would take up the entire page!!
I thank my Lord and Savior everyday for His gift to me and His gift of all of you :hug:
So there is my story! As I said nothing special about it but it's "my journey" and I'm stickin' to it! :)
Oh and by the weigh ;) I lost 31 pounds on this journey! I weighed in at 170 pounds today! That is quite a bonus....for me, it's not about the weight...it is about the journey!
One year ago, today, I jumped on the :goodscale and saw the numbers 201...I was :yikes: shocked! I had never in my life weighed over 200 pounds. It was right then and there that I promised myself to do something about it and stick with it for a year. I have done that :cp:
Now, this weight didn't :s: sneak :s: up on me :no: And I wasn't in denial about it :no:...I just didn't want to do anything about it....just kept hoping it would magically :wizard: disappear ;) I was aware that getting it to go :wave: bye-bye :wave: was going to take effort. I was becoming LAY-ZMONEY ;)
At some point early in this adventure I decided to cal it my "journey of better choices."My story is not anything special. I have been here at 3FC for a long time and have seen many of you overcome tremendous obstacles to achieve your weight loss :bravo:. I have read your stories of personal demons that have attributed to some of your weight gains. I have :angel: prayed with and for many of you. My story is nothing like that but I want to share it with you because I know there are times when many of us give up too soon. I have been guilty of that :yes: And that is why I am proud of myself today.
For me, and only speaking for me, any kind of diet was not going to be something I would stick with.....what if I couldn't have :cheese: or :jeno:...not an option :no: I thought about calorie counting, and although I think it might be best for me, I was sure I wouldn't follow through with it....it might take too much effort....I'm not that good at math ;)....it would take too long....again, LAY-ZMONEY rears it's :fr: ugly head!
However, I did have an :chin: idea. I figured out that I could live on less :yes: After all I have been living on less already. My son and daughter ran off and got married, my step-daughter took off for college and knucklehead nephew went and enlisted in the NAVY :cp: so there were less kids runnin' around the house. Angie had entered pre-menopause so there were other things I was getting less of :o
HERE IS WHAT I DID THAT WORKED FOR ME ~
BREAKFAST BEFORE JOURNEY ~ Nothing! Some mornings I leave at 3am so no time!
NOW ~I don't care what time I leave, I eat a healthy breakfast. Sometimes oatmeal ~ or cold cereal ~ or whole wheat toast and turkey bacon...I mix it up.
LUNCH BEFORE ~Anything leftover from dinner...pizza :jeno: ~ sandwiches of ham and cheese ~ bags of potato chips ~ when I was home I had nachos with tons of :cheese: ~ those wrapped pastry things :cookie: ~ easy to eat granola bars
NOW ~Almost every single day I have a thermos of low sodium - low calorie :chicken: chicken noodle soup, when I get tired of it...not often...I switch it up by making my own chili. I am not sure of the calories in my chili but I really don't care :no: and I almost always have a nice turkey sandwich, with meat from the deli...without all the nitrates (thank-you Vegan and Veggie Chicks for that one! :hug:) on whole wheat bread. NO CHIPS! or anything wrapped in plastic! And usually a yogurt.
SNACKS BEFORE ~ANYTHING I could grab! Calories were not ever considered! Many times we start at 6am or earlier.... we eat at 10am and that's it for food until I get home from work. I would hit the door starving around 3pm...grab a beer and a BIG bag of chips.
NOW ~ carrots :carrot: ~ olives ~ low-cal wheat and rice crackers are mine all mine :)
DINNER BEFORE ~ To be honest Angie and I have reasonably healthy food for dinner...my issue has always been portion control! Heck, only 1 :burger: burger left...I'LL EAT IT!....half a casserole...I'LL EAT IT!....half a pizza :jeno:...I'LL EAT IT!
NOW ~ I place a reasonable amount of food on my plate....when I finish that I :running: ruuuuuuuuunnnnnn :running: from the table! I have figured out that if I start feeling like I am going to :faint: starve to death, I will have enough energy to make it to the fridge!
AFTER DINNER SNACK BEFORE ~Klondike bars ~ chips and dip and chips and dip and chips and dip ~
NOW ~I actually count out a serving size of wheat or rice crackers.
Now, you all know that I am not perfect and I might...OK...I will cheat from time to time. I have had nachos ~ I have had a big bowl or two of un-buttered :corn: popcorn ~ I have had :jeno:
I just don't eat an entire pizza anymore ~ I don't go to fast food places except on a very rare occasion, before my "journey" fast food was, often times, my first choice on the week-end for lunch.
DINNER OUT BEFORE ~No problem getting an extra taco to go with that :cheese: cheese enchilada plate or getting a :jeno: pizza to go to bring home for the week-end lunches AFTER eating an entire Italian meal with appetizer of bruschetta and maybe sharing a :cookie: cannoli with Angie.
DINNER OUT NOW ~NEVER bring a :jeno: pizza home! I don't order that extra taco :no: and Angie and I do :love: date night :love: now a little different with FRIDAY NIGHT SPLITS...where we get one meal and split it, sometimes we add a salad or a bowl of soup but we have found that we can eat just fine on one meal!
EXERCISE BEFORE ~:rollpin: Hit and miss :frypan: I have been walking and doing 5K's ever since I quit :smoking: smoking 11 years ago. I would however, go for long stretches and be LAY-ZMONEY :yes:
NOW ~ Since I started this "journey" I have :running: walked/jogged 984 miles on the treadmill :tread: or dog walks which gives me about 250 hours of exercise! :woohoo: My dogs are very happy :)...and healthy!
I realize I have missed 500 :judge: JUDY'S because I wasn't at home sitting in my recliner...but I can live with that..not easy mind you but it is do-able ;)
WEIGH-IN ~I find, for me, that I can stay focused much better by weighing every single day. If I am up a pound or two I feel I have the:sumo: power and the :strong: strength to :frypan: beat down 1 measley pound at a time!
FOCUS ~I think about EVERY SINGLE MEAL and SNACK ~ If I do something un-healthy, I do it willingly...and I prepare myself to the consequences! If I decide to eat half a pizza :jeno: I know I will need to do a few extra :running: miles...and I DO IT! ....hey...what a slogan..."just do it"...;)
SUPPORT AT HOME BEFORE ~My family has always supportive of me no matter what I weigh. Through this "journey" they have encouraged and praised me :goodluck: My :love: WIFE :love: has always set the example in our home for good health. She does this by example with her :chef: cooking ~ her :yoga: yoga and her :trampo: exercise :running:
Other than an occasional "Who's your little friend?" when I step out of the shower, she never says a word to me about my weight. She knows that I know what to do about it or anything else un-healthy that I might be doing to my body.
SUPPORT NOW ~See above...I am a :luck2you: LUCKY MAN :irish:
another reason I am a very LUCKY GUY ~ :drinkup: is because of all of you!
I cannot thank you ENOUGH for the support you have given me this year :hug: I would :love: love :love: to :thanks: thank-you all personally but it would take up the entire page!!
I thank my Lord and Savior everyday for His gift to me and His gift of all of you :hug:
So there is my story! As I said nothing special about it but it's "my journey" and I'm stickin' to it! :)
Oh and by the weigh ;) I lost 31 pounds on this journey! I weighed in at 170 pounds today! That is quite a bonus....for me, it's not about the weight...it is about the journey!