Finally! No. I’m not reporting anything about writing. LOL I’ve had trouble focusing, and I’ve been struggling to find the desire to write. So nothing is happening on that front. I can’t really expect anything to happen since I haven’t been doing anything to make it happen.
But what I have been doing is trying to lose a few pounds. I’m overweight. Have been for about 20 years. In the last few years, I’ve packed on even more excess baggage. Getting older, Iguess. So one of my New’s Years’ resolutions was to change my diet and try and get more exercise. I set a goal of losing 40 pounds by the end of May.
Yes. For those of you who read my blog regularly, that’s when I’m taking my cruise. LOL And yes, the prospect of being seen in public wearing a bathing suit is some pretty good motivation. It’s also a good reminder that I’m going to want to be in good enough condition to hike around the Mayan ruins at Tulum without getting out of breath. I want to be able to take the stairs on the ship rather than wait, and wait, and wait for the elevators. I want to be able to enjoy every possible activity without sitting out because I just don’t have the energy.
So yes, the cruise has made it much easier to stick by that resolution. Here it is the end of March and unlike years past, I’m still working to keep that resolution. I was doing so well at first. I lost a pound or two a week steadily for the first six or seven weeks. I’d lost about 16 pounds, and then it happened.
The dreaded plateau
.
Ugh. You know the one. The kind that makes you want to quit trying. The kind that makes you wonder if you’ll ever lose another pound. The kind that brings on that little devil who sits on your shoulder and whispers in you ear, “Go ahead, eat that pizza. You ate nothing but rabbit food last week and what did it get you? You didn’t even lose a half a pound.”
It was the kind of plateau that made me look at my exercise bike and think, “What’s the point?” For three weeks I went to the gym at least twice a week and continued to climb 4 flights of stairs at work every day. Twice a week at the gym, I’d get on the scale and see little or no change at all. Once it even showed a 1/4 pound gain!
Talk about discouraging and disappointing. Part of me wanted to give up. I admit it, but I kept telling myself, “It’s just a plateau. Every dieter hits them.”
My daughter and I went to the gym tonight. I went to the scale and held my breath. I moved the weights on the bar to what it registered last time. The little thing wasn’t balanced, so I tapped it down a couple of pounds. Still out of balance. Confused, I tapped it back the other way thinking I’d been too hopeful.
Nope. The unbalanced bar remained in the same place. I’d pushed the weight the wrong way. My brows lifted in surprise as I slid the weight back toward the lower setting. The bar finally balanced in the middle.
I’d lost 4 pounds since last Monday! That was only 5 days! Sure, a pound or so was probably water weight, but still. I was ready to squeal. The blasted plateau is behind me. I’ve finally broken through that invisible barrier where my body has finally stopped fighting the inevitable and turned loose of some fat.
buy Austin Powers in Goldmember
Hallelujah.
It’s been hard — counting every calorie, denying myself so many of the foods I love. But it’s working. I’ve tried to lose weight before. Usually I make it to five or ten pounds before I fall off the wagon. This time I’m doing better. The incentive from the cruise is definitely one of the reasons. But another reason is my family. My husband and daughter are also trying to shed a few pounds this time. Neither have the weight problem I do, but it wouldn’t hurt either of them to lose that little pooch around the middle or their love handles. Having the majority of my family on board with the healthier eating has helped a lot. (My son is a 16 year-old boy with a hollow leg. LOL He can eat anything he wants without worry. We’ve all told him to enjoy it while he can.)
So… I’ve now lost 22 1/2 pounds. Yes, I’m counting that 1/2 pound. I worked hard for it! LOL My original goal was to lose 40 pounds by the time I set sail on May 30th. Since I spent 3 weeks on that plateau, I may not quite reach that lofty target. I have nine weeks left. I’d have to lose 2 pounds a week every week to make that goal. Not likely. But I can still get close. Surely I can reach the 30 pound mark. That would require one pound a week. I may even make it to 35 pounds.
In any case, that long-awaited break-through has renewed my resolve. I’m going to keep counting those calories, and I remind myself that the exercise (however dreaded) is needed.
And I’ll be waiting at least 6 more weeks before I go shopping for that bathing suit. 🙂
Nita
AWESOME, lady! You are my inspiration! I’ve been off the wagon for a few weeks. Now I’m going to hop back on!
LOL Lexi, I don’t think I’ve ever been anyone’s inspiration unless they looked at me and thought, “I need to go on a diet so I won’t get that big.” 😉
But I’m glad I could help get you back on the wagon. Good luck! And may those dreaded plateaus be few and far between for you.
I wish you the best of luck and I think you might just surprise yourself. I know how hard this is, I have been on a diet my whole life.
The hard part for me is keeping it off.
I hope you have the time of your life on the cruise.
Thank you, Mary!
Nita, I’m with you here!
I’ve tried every damn diet going. I lost weight, only to gain again. So I tried another. People poo-poo this diet because they haven’t read the book.
“Oh, you just eat meat, right?”
Yup, I’m on the Atkin’s diet, and, though I haven’t weighed myself since the start (6 weeks ago), I have lost 13 inches off my waist and 10 off my hips. My trousers hang off my ass. I have only one chin instead of three. I feel more energised, happy, healthy, and I’m never hungry. The weight loss has been the same for my hubby.
We love the food–which forces me to cook proper meals–and we haven’t craved or eaten anything that we shouldn’t have.
When you hit a plateau, reduce your carb intake to 20 carb grams a day. The weight literally drops off.
D’you know, that first week, I lost 10 inches (4 by day three). Every morning I woke up thinner. It’s an amazing diet, and now I know why it works and that it’s safe, I don’t listen to anyone who says otherwise. Of course eating just meat is bad, but Atkin’s isn’t like that.
I never thought I’d say or do this, but I’m quite happy drinking tea with no suger or milk. I don’t miss soda, sweet stuff. In fact, sweet stuff now tastes so sweet it’s gross.
I told myself I would drop 3 dress sizes by Christmas thinking it was a dream. It isn’t. It’s happening.
Whee!
:o)
WooHoo! Go Emmy! I’ll remember that about reducing the carbs if I hit another plateau.