Gang, I tend to be silly and snarky and post mostly happy or goofy stuff. But I don't want to give anyone the impression that this hasn't been
really frickin' hard! I'm not some magical fairy creature that this is just happening to with no effort. As a binge eater, I'm still counting EVERY SINGLE DAY (today is Day 117) that I go without a binge (and probably will count forever). And sometimes I'm counting the minutes because as we all know, some days are just TORTURE. I have the same struggles, the same temptations, and the same difficulties changing my habits as everyone does. Nothing is coming "easy". I say this to make it clear that I'm not some freak of nature who just loses weight without trying. I'm not. I'm working at it HARD.
I do think I've had such good success because I've simply
committed 100%. Not to a "diet", but to a new way of life. I haven't put a single off-plan thing in my mouth in 117 days. I've made really, really significant and permanent changes to my lifestyle, mostly my eating. I've consistently made food choices based on "food as fuel" and "food as health" versus "food as entertainment". This has been a HUGE switch for me. I dropped diet sodas, dropped artificial sweeteners, dropped sodium (very significantly), and went from vegetarian to vegan. Of course I stopped binging and I started planning my meals, which I have recorded every single day of this challenge in our menu thread. Pretty major changes.
The exercise I do is cool, yes, but in my opinion, it is way secondary to eating. I'm mostly around an hour a day now, except on weekends when I do more for fun with my husband (mostly because our hobbies are sports-related). But I am very consistent and focused, which I think does count. A hour a day is PLENTY of exercise.
But I was a fat athlete when I came to this site -- I wasn't as focused as I am now (because it is hard being a fat athlete) but I was biking and walking and occasionally running carrying that extra 67.8 pounds around. And those pounds weren't going away, they were gathering friends.
Exercise wasn't going to save me from being fat. Changing my food habits IS going to save me.
I guess the reason I'm blathering on is to say that what I am doing, YOU CAN DO, TOO. If you choose to. It isn't magic and I'm not a "special case". Is it hard? Yes. Does it take focus? Yes. Is it impossible? No. Does it get easier? Yes. It definitely gets easier, not that there won't always be those super hard days when making good decisions takes EVERYTHING out of us. But the more days I stick to my guns, the fewer moments are quite THAT hard.
I just don't want people to dismiss the possibility that they can make these changes too, because YOU CAN. If I, Miss World Champion Binge Eater Extraordinaire, can make these changes, anyone who really wants to do it can, too.
I cringe when I look at my March pics (particularly the face shot in which I am so sweaty and nasty from pigging out and boozing it up during a poker night), but here ya go. It is reality. And even my awesome hat doesn't save me from looking terrible. ;)
March '08:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...se/before1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ese/fathat.jpg
July '08:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ese/after1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3.../bikeafter.jpg
Wow, sorry for the long post. :)