3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

As you can see from my signature I have been for awhile. Off and on. Sometimes off for years. I was even a moderator at one point of a folder called the Men's Corner. Not that men do not use all this board and that there are not many folders we already find useful. But just like other specality folders I thought it had a place. I still do. I think it would be a good idea to add it again.

Anyhow I am at a very good place with eating and getting healthy now, it is pretty exciting. I had a mis-diagonsis of manic depression years ago, early 1990s. How do you get a diagnosis wrong like that? In my case it was as simple as saying gee do you think I might be manic depressive? Took lithium for a couple of years. Thankfully nothing the last 15 plus years. But in a few months after starting lithium I went from the low 200s to around 280-300. I got as high as 330s.

When I originally joined 3FC I was down to around 230s-240s. I got up to the higher 280s around January of 2010. Then around July 15th 2011, I was 277. About that time there were news reports of the studies saying what foods added what to weight gain. Nothing new or shattering but for some reason seeing french fries add this much weight something clicked.

Some of you probably know what I mean. Somehow all the stuff in the back of your head, the latent things getting you to change, just click and you GET GOING. Well this time I have no doubts that it is going to be a lifelong change.

From July 15th I am now around 262. For me it will be fantastic to be under 250. That is my big goal for now. I want to make that by the end of the year, if it happens sooner, great.

So what I have been doing since July 15th? I thought this would be impossible since I went to fast food 2 to 4 times a week but I have not had a single fast food trip since then. I have not had any french fries. I finally really internalized the basic nutrition advice that simple carbs are basically sugar and you can eat a lot of them and still feel hungry. I got off the carb cycle of eat carbs, feel hungry, eat carbs.

I am also exercising more and even though it has been a relatively small amount of weight I see so many positives. A blazer that had been tight, almost unwearable in mid July is now loose. I live in a two story house and going up I hardly feel it now. A bunch of clothes have gotten much better on me, and clothes I could not wear I am. I think I have more muscle now since I am doing push ups on a regular basis. So I may have lost even more fat than the scale is showing.

Best of all my eating habits are so much better now and I have so much I can still improve on. I will say in the last 8 weeks I have still averaged 1 to 2 restaurant trips a week including one buffet, and a Melting Pot dinner. Enjoyed those also. And they were ok. I have many more good days than bad now. And without having those fast food trips. I swear that is the single biggest and best thing I ever did. The trips themselves were bad but then I was still hungry. It has just been great cutting those out.

I want to move on to preparing more 'real food' a couple of times a week in batches for work lunches. I am doing Kashi lunch meals currently. They are fantastic but I would still like real food. And more real food breakfasts. I am doing Orgain now mostly. You can find it on Amazon. Great stuff, but expensive, and still processed.

Also doing more areobic exercise is a goal. But the main thing is...everything I have done is sustainable and I have room for a lot more improvement. Going to dip below 250 and stay there for life and then see how further below I can go and healthy I can get.