Dieting sucks!!! I never realized that it's not just changing what you eat. It's changing when you eat, where you eat, what you shop for, who you eat with, and most importantly WHY you eat.
After two weeks working with Jenny Craig, I've learned that planning my week of meals is so much easier than I thought! My program allows me to order my meals and snacks so this makes grocery shopping easier...buy the fruits and veggies and skip the rest of the aisles. Even Clayton is benefitting because the freezer doesn't have room for frozen kids meals what with all of my frozen Jenny meals. While I'm cooking my Jenny meals, I've been taking the time to actually cook him meals every night. We've both realized we love raw spinach, raw okra, and kale. He's figured out that sweet potato fries are yummier than potato fries. We've eaten out at a restaraunt ONE time in the past 3 weeks...which for all of you that know us, that's amazing! He's had a McDonald's happy meal one time and chose apples over french fries.
I've realized that it does kind of suck to watch coworkers go out to eat every day for lunch. I miss Fuji!!! I've realized that my friends still love me when I say I don't want to go out to eat for dinner and that they love me enough to say OK when I asked if we could eat out somewhere that I could get a good side salad when we went out that one time for a friend's birthday. Of course, watching them drink grown up drinks was NOT fun but I realized that it's all okay lol!
On the bright side, I've realized that I FEEL so much better after just this short period of time of changing our food habits. I feel kind of like I did when I quit smoking. It's hard and it totally sucks sometimes doing without my favorite restaraunts, Tostitos and salsa, and ice cream. But then I realize that I took my kid to the park and actually got on the swings with him instead of sitting on the park bench. I can't wait to see how happy he is when I go on hikes with him.
In the mean time, I realize it's a small dent and it's only the beginning and I had a few stumbles. I went for two weeks without cheating and then wound up eating a slice of pizza the other night when I was taking care of a friend's kiddos. After I realized it totally made me sick to my stomach, I was happy to know that my lifestyle change was working. But my first week, I lost 9.8 pounds! I know my second weigh in tomorrow will not be any where near that!
YAY for two weeks down :)
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
My first blog attempt! Why I've chosen this newest road in my life.
Today started a new journey that I've been putting off for a while because of the daunting nature of this challenge. I started a Jenny Craig diet and I've made a commitment to myself that I'm going to succeed and I'm going to use the tools I've been given (actually they weren't all free, they cost a lot of money!). I wanted to put down in words why I've finally decided to start this journey so that when I'm frustrated or feeling like I'm floundering, I can look back and read this and remind myself.
I've slowly been gaining weight for about 5 years now, packing on the pounds, eating in bed, eating in the car, large sizing it every where, eating out everywhere and every day. I have tons of excuses. I'm bored. I like food too much to give it up. I'm too busy to cook dinner so let's go through a drive through. I don't want to wake up any earlier than I already do, so let's grab Starbucks or Shipleys on the way to work and school. Eating healthy and organic is too expensive. I went through a very depressed phase after a failed marriage, the death of my mom, struggling financially, going on bad first dates, being disappointed after another guy turned out not to be what I was looking for. And since I hardly ever date, I never get to the point where I'm interested in sex so if no one is going to look at it, who cares what it looks like. Eating out for lunch is so much better than eating at my desk because I get out of the office and socialize and that's healthy right?
However, I've started realizing things about myself that horrified me! I yoyo'd on fad diets...HCG, fat blockers, nutritional supplements, you name it and I probably tried it for about a month. Just long enough to lose 10 pounds and then I'd celebrate. Last month, I started a new diet with 3 different kinds of supplements to detox, metabolize, and suppress my appetite. When I read the line "do not take with antidepressants," I decided to just stop my antidepressants. Needless, to say I was a complete witch to be around and I spent way too much time in the bathroom "detoxing."
A week into the diet, I wound up driving myself to the ER with my 8 year old son in tow because I felt like I was having a heart attack. Not one of those "ohh I feel weird hope everything's okay" kind of weird...but the "oh crap I can't breathe and it feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest" kind of really weird. Turns out I reacted badly to the supplements but luckily I have a healthy heart. Blood work and all of the other tests revealed that my thyroid levels were 8.8 when normal is between .3-3 and all of my cholesterol levels were completely off the charts. As I was sitting there in the ER bed, waiting for a friend to come get Clayton from me, I had this horrible image in my head that I was going to die and have a heart attack or a stroke in front my baby and he'd have to be the one to call 911.
Two weekends ago, I went shopping, trying to find some summer things to wear to baseball games, tanks, shorts, capris, etc. In case you don't know, not many places sell cute clothes for girls over size 16 so I've had to start shopping at Lane Bryant. I was in the dressing room, trying on clothes and this thought actually went through my head "Well the 18 is fits perfect but if I buy the 20 I can grow into it." And I was like WTH did I just say?! What grown woman grows into her clothes?
Anyway lots of events have transpired recently that have illustrated to me the need to make a change. Some are funny, some not so much. It was definitely not fun being out of breath walking on a hike at scout camp. Feeling the mattress sag when I lay down. Seeing the fold of fat on my knee cap when I tried on shorts. Seeing clothes in my closet that I love and haven't been able to wear in years.
I have to say my moment of inspiration came from my friend who has been doing Jenny Craig since February. She kept turning me down for lunch dates and our weekly dinners out with the kids for pizza buffet. I saw how much weight she was losing and how motivated she was and how she actually got to eat...good food.So maybe now we can have dinner nights in, where the kids eat a pizza and we share our Jenny meals.
I'm listing my immediate goals now, so I can check them off one by one:
1. Make it through Day One without cheating. (check)
2. Save my lunch money every day that I would normally spend eating out to buy my Jenny food next week.
3. Wear a real size 16 (not the Lane Bryant make ya better about yourself 16 that's really like a 20).
4. Use the support of my friends on my Facebook group, the Road to Skinny, and support them all too.
Long term goals:
1. Weigh 150 pounds.
2. Stop shopping at Lane Bryant
3. Be able to sit (comfortably) in a seat at the ball games and theatres.
4. Be able to cross my legs without holding it in place
5. Be confident in my ability to do this.
I haven't decided if I'll share this or not. My blog is NOT going to be focused on my weight loss goals. It's going to be about ALL of the roads I choose to travel on, the detours I take, the wrong turns, the beautiful scenery I find along the way, my travel companions, etc.
~Julianna
I've slowly been gaining weight for about 5 years now, packing on the pounds, eating in bed, eating in the car, large sizing it every where, eating out everywhere and every day. I have tons of excuses. I'm bored. I like food too much to give it up. I'm too busy to cook dinner so let's go through a drive through. I don't want to wake up any earlier than I already do, so let's grab Starbucks or Shipleys on the way to work and school. Eating healthy and organic is too expensive. I went through a very depressed phase after a failed marriage, the death of my mom, struggling financially, going on bad first dates, being disappointed after another guy turned out not to be what I was looking for. And since I hardly ever date, I never get to the point where I'm interested in sex so if no one is going to look at it, who cares what it looks like. Eating out for lunch is so much better than eating at my desk because I get out of the office and socialize and that's healthy right?
However, I've started realizing things about myself that horrified me! I yoyo'd on fad diets...HCG, fat blockers, nutritional supplements, you name it and I probably tried it for about a month. Just long enough to lose 10 pounds and then I'd celebrate. Last month, I started a new diet with 3 different kinds of supplements to detox, metabolize, and suppress my appetite. When I read the line "do not take with antidepressants," I decided to just stop my antidepressants. Needless, to say I was a complete witch to be around and I spent way too much time in the bathroom "detoxing."
A week into the diet, I wound up driving myself to the ER with my 8 year old son in tow because I felt like I was having a heart attack. Not one of those "ohh I feel weird hope everything's okay" kind of weird...but the "oh crap I can't breathe and it feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest" kind of really weird. Turns out I reacted badly to the supplements but luckily I have a healthy heart. Blood work and all of the other tests revealed that my thyroid levels were 8.8 when normal is between .3-3 and all of my cholesterol levels were completely off the charts. As I was sitting there in the ER bed, waiting for a friend to come get Clayton from me, I had this horrible image in my head that I was going to die and have a heart attack or a stroke in front my baby and he'd have to be the one to call 911.
Two weekends ago, I went shopping, trying to find some summer things to wear to baseball games, tanks, shorts, capris, etc. In case you don't know, not many places sell cute clothes for girls over size 16 so I've had to start shopping at Lane Bryant. I was in the dressing room, trying on clothes and this thought actually went through my head "Well the 18 is fits perfect but if I buy the 20 I can grow into it." And I was like WTH did I just say?! What grown woman grows into her clothes?
Anyway lots of events have transpired recently that have illustrated to me the need to make a change. Some are funny, some not so much. It was definitely not fun being out of breath walking on a hike at scout camp. Feeling the mattress sag when I lay down. Seeing the fold of fat on my knee cap when I tried on shorts. Seeing clothes in my closet that I love and haven't been able to wear in years.
I have to say my moment of inspiration came from my friend who has been doing Jenny Craig since February. She kept turning me down for lunch dates and our weekly dinners out with the kids for pizza buffet. I saw how much weight she was losing and how motivated she was and how she actually got to eat...good food.So maybe now we can have dinner nights in, where the kids eat a pizza and we share our Jenny meals.
I'm listing my immediate goals now, so I can check them off one by one:
1. Make it through Day One without cheating. (check)
2. Save my lunch money every day that I would normally spend eating out to buy my Jenny food next week.
3. Wear a real size 16 (not the Lane Bryant make ya better about yourself 16 that's really like a 20).
4. Use the support of my friends on my Facebook group, the Road to Skinny, and support them all too.
Long term goals:
1. Weigh 150 pounds.
2. Stop shopping at Lane Bryant
3. Be able to sit (comfortably) in a seat at the ball games and theatres.
4. Be able to cross my legs without holding it in place
5. Be confident in my ability to do this.
I haven't decided if I'll share this or not. My blog is NOT going to be focused on my weight loss goals. It's going to be about ALL of the roads I choose to travel on, the detours I take, the wrong turns, the beautiful scenery I find along the way, my travel companions, etc.
~Julianna
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