Progress Pics - 2, 4, 6 weeks
 

When I look at the scale, and see a number that I haven't seen since I was 15, I almost don't believe it. My body doesn't FEEL smaller. Sure I feel better and healthier, but I (for some reason) thought that I would feel significantly different. That's why I'm SO happy I thought to take pictures. Because then I can see them and say "I may not feel different, but I sure do look different!"

http://www.akeenedesign.com/Images/6weeksb.jpg
http://www.akeenedesign.com/Images/6weeksa.jpg
http://www.akeenedesign.com/Images/6weeksc.jpg

OMG! You look sooo good.. Congrats on the weight loss.. Wow you are so thin, your truely an inspiration to us all that it is possible and you can do it.

It's the incredible shrinking woman!

You are doing great, and I can totally tell the difference. :hug:

You look terrific!!! You have got to be loving your new body! Way to go! Anything special thats helping you lose? Great Job!

How tall are you? Hope you don't mind me asking.

:bravo: You look great!!!

wow, your getting so thin! Your smiles should be getting wider!

wow! you look HOT! woo hoo!!!

Oh wow you look AWESOME!! Congratulations!! Celebrate!! :woo: (Not with food, of course LOL)

Hehehe! Thanks everyone!

Counting Calories, although I've come up with my own "Harry Potter Diet," which I've never really told anyone about because it's nerdy. And I'm barely 5'5" tall

Haha, yeah... every time I take a picture, I'm waiting about 10 seconds for the camera's timer, so I get distracted and I'm worried about standing in the right place and trying to be in the same stance.

Wow! You did a great job you can really tell the difference...especially in your legs and stomach!! Way to GO!

You look amazing!!! Good idea taking the photos in the same outfit, too - definitely emphasizes how much you've lost - way to go!!!

You look fantastic! And please do tell me about this Harry Potter Diet ! You've got me curious now! lol!!
Wendy

Yes...I'd like to know your Harry Potter diet also. You look fantastic!!! Great job!

The Harry Potter Diet
 

Okay, here it is... the secret to my success: The Harry Potter diet.

As an avid reader (and re-reader) of the books, moderator of Harry Potter forums and writer of Harry Potter fanfiction, you might call me a "Harry Potter fan." It's one of those innocently guilty pleasures that I can live out online without my friends knowing the full depth of my obession.

While rereading the books recently, I began finding tidbits of healthy eating habits and created my own Harry Potter diet based off of quotes or occurances from the books.

THE HARRY POTTER DIET


1. Before almost every quidditch match, someone makes a fuss about Harry eating his breakfast (usually bacon or other meat). It's good advice! Begin your day of broom-riding with a healthy, non-sugary breakfast.

2. "Music is greater than any magic done at Hogwarts" says Dumbledore, and it truly is! It has been my magical motivation to avoid sweets. I used to buy a snack every day at the vending machines (unhealthy AND expensive) but now I save those 5 dollars a week, and buy myself 5 songs from iTunes instead.

3. "Hearing voices nobody else can hear isn't a good thing" Hermione says in The Chamber of Secrets. You know which voice she's talking about... that one in your head... no not your conscience, the other one. The one that tears you down when you look at a skinny person and tells you that you'll never be thin. The one that tells you that if you eat a doughnut, you'll be happy. Take Hermione's advice, and stop listening to that distructive self-talk.

4. "It doesn't do to dwell on dreams and forget to live" Dumbledore tells Harry in Sorcerer's Stone. Sitting and thinking about working out won't get it done! Why sit and dream of a good body, when you can live, and work hard to get that body?

5. Before I hit the kitchen, I tickle a pear. In order to get into Hogwart's Kitchen, you have to find the picture of the bowl of fruit and tickle the pear. So, before I go into the kitchen for a meal, I let myself have a pear or other fruit to hold me over until mealtime. I find that if I don't turn to fruit in-between meals, I end up like Ron, my mouth so full of food that I can't speak properly.

6. Everyone enjoys a Butterbeer now and then, because life's too short to deny ALL culinary pleasures. When I'm upset or stressed, I know not to act like Winky the House Elf and drown myself in such harmful pleasures.

That's my secret. I also tend to have a Harry Potter book close at hand at all times. When the cravings get bad, my last resort is the book. Nothing is better at keeping my mind off food than my favorite book. By the time I read 10 or so pages, I usually find the craving is gone.

Hopefully that wasn't too nerdy for y'all, :)

OmG I Love Harry Potter too! my whole household is obseesed w/ it! So cool you have picked out those things in it!! i love it and will keep it in mind! Not Nerdy for me!!! love it! And you look Hot baby!! Keep it up!

Also a big HP fan. I think Jo Rowling is a genus!!

How wonderfully imaginative! I think it's great that you've been so successful by using that which you love. After all, that's the real key to success, isn't it? And that key can be as elusive as the Snitch for some people. Congratulations!

By the way, yeah, I'm 35 years old and I stood on the street outside of the book store at midnight to get HBP. I had it finished by morning! We all love Harry Potter here, too.

Very cool diet guidelines. I think you just gave me exactly what I needed to get back on track today and stop feeling down. Thank you for sharing!

i love that harry potter diet. i too am a big( no pun intended) harry potter fan!

Hahaha! I love that so many of you are HP fans! I was there at midnight, too Mummy Tummy :-P Too fun.

First of all, you look AWESOME!! Not only are you thinner, but you are standing straighter, which shows you are more confident.

We love Harry Potter in our house too. I never thought about incorporating it into a diet, but that is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO cool!!!:cheer:

Wow, i do that too!

I can't help coming back to this thread and looking at your pictures! You look great! You look really young at the upper right picture....:carrot:I hope i could see that change in me ...eventually!

You look great! You look fit as well as skinny. Good job! :cheer:

You look wonderful! And I also noticed you had kind of the same starting stats as me...so seeing that that kind of change can happen in only 6 weeks is a REAL motivator! Thank you so much for posting those.

Do you work out, or do you mainly work on your diet? What do you do for work-outs?

Ashlie
You look wonderful, I need your inspiration I"m trying to lose weight and I want to weight to go pass 175 because that is what it said this morning I've been trying to drink Green Tea and all that stuff I've been doing 2 days a 30 crunches and my stomach does look flatter. But my thighs are just blah! and I think I'm hendering myself in letting this guy that likes me in College to ask me out first of all he is shy and doesn't really come on strong... Well Ashliebelle please can you private message me I'd really appreciate that

You're looking good hun

You look awesome!!!

I'm not a Harry Potter Fan :(, but I really enjoyed reading your diet based off the books. It was so incredibly creative and inspiring! The part that really stood out to me was thinking about exercising and having a great body instead of actually exercising. Thanks so much for sharing that!

You also look INCREDIBLE!

You do look fantastic! Nerdy or not - it is WORKING :)

You look great!!!! I was thinking of reading my HP books over again Now I will !!!

You have done a great job keep up the good work...

i didn't think that was nerdy at all. i haven't read any of the harry potter books or seen the movies, but how inspiring that you found inspiration in your favorite read. that was genius. and apparently, it's working. it doesn't matter how silly you may think it sounds to others, the point is....it's working for you.

thanks so much for sharing your trick with us. i think it is very motivating and pretty much "On Target"!!!! :)

This may sound weird, but I want legs like yours! They're so pretty!

Thank you so much everyone! I'm flattered that many of you are interested in more specifics as to what I'm doing to lose the weight. First and foremost, the most important thing I've learned in my few weeks at 3FC is that everyone is unique and that one person's diet plan doesn't fit all bodies.

One thing that makes me unique is that I started treating my Attention Deficit Disorder just before starting my diet. Before that, I could NEVER interpret what my stomach was telling my brain. If you asked me if I was genuinely hungry, I would automatically say yes, because my ADD brain was always hungry for seratonin, which I got by eating. Seratonin

So, treating my ADD has been a big part in losing, since I now have impulse-control, and can interpret my stomach's "hungry" and "not hungry" signals.

Other than that, I've been focused mostly on diet rather than exercise. I count calories, zigzagging through the week to get an average of 1200. And zigzagging is not for everyone, but my body has a natural cycle of hungry and not-so-hungry days (which I've just found out recently), so I'm working with my body. When I tried to eat 1200 calories every day, I would be frustrated because one day I'd have 300 calories left and forcing myself to eat, and the next day, I'd be at 1300 calories by 4 in the afternoon and ravenously hungry. Don't work against your body.



I keep myself motivated by reading the journal entry I made on the day I began my diet. The day I began dieting, I had read my journal and in 9 months, I had sworn to lose weight on three separate occasions. "And this time I mean it!" I read all three times, and I became SO discouraged. So I made a commitment, and wrote a journal entry that wouldn't let me forget my commitment. I'm going to go ahead and post part of my journal entry, which will make this post even longer than it already is, but I think this might be able to help some people as much as it has helped me:

Every time I reread it, I smile. Even if I've had a bad day with eating, I know that I weigh less than I did when I wrote it. I'm reminded that with the help of friends, family and (most importantly!) God, I CAN achieve my goals, no matter what they are, and if I can do it, so can you!

Your journal enty is VERY inspiring. Thank you for sharing it! You said everything I was thinking before I began my weight loss.

Ashliebelle you look wonderful and I love love love that you got your inspiration from HP. I am 34 and my sis is 44, and we are both HP fanatics. I have my Roonil Wazlib shirt that I sleep in (my husband says I'm a dork), and my sis has one that says Avada Kedavra :fr:. You are doing great and you put your ideas into words beautifully. Thanks for sharing! :high:

This is very inspiring to me. especially since I seem to be platueing the past few weeks and was starting to feel like it wasn't worth the let down every time I stepped on the scale.

but seeing how much your body changed with just over 10 pounds weight loss has made me realize that every pound is a victory! I just hope to get one of those victories soon hehe.

I wished I'd taken pictures...You look sooo good. Keep it up.

OMG look at those arms. Woo go girl! You so rock!

OMG!!! You look great:wave:!!! Congrats on the weight. I hope to see the same results soon:cheer:. Keep up the good work!!!