Plateau

I am at a very plateaued place, and I am in roller coaster mode. Of course, I only have 5 to 10 pounds to reach the first final goal I set, but I have decided I would like to drop that goal by another 10 pounds just to see if I can do it.

I went through almost three weeks of up and down weight, and let me tell you, that gets very frustrating.

My daughter gave me a couple of ideas, and I think I am going to use the one where I add 100 calories to my current calorie count.  I have been trying to stay between 1100 and 1200, but I think I am going to allow myself, for the next week to reach 1200 to 1250 each day, and then I will drop that by 100 and see if it makes a difference.  She also mentioned varying what I am eating, but I really enjoy my salads at lunchtime, and I can actually eat more in a salad then if I have eggs, bacon, and toast, even though with those three items, I would be eating fewer calories; of course, I need to add the butter for the toast and frying the eggs, but still, food-wise, it is less food I am eating.  I will see if upping the calories for a week and then lowering them will help bring me off of this plateau.

So, it has been about a week of adding the calories, and I actually added almost 200 calories to my diet.  I am ranging between 1300 and 1400 calories per day, and guess what - it has worked.  I have finally begun to drop some weight again.  I will probably stay at this calorie target for a few more weeks and see if I still continue to lose a few pounds or ounces here and there.

I guess my daughter was correct when she said that your body can decide that you are starving it, and then your body retaliates by retaining weight to fight off starvation.  My goal was never to starve myself, but sometimes, I forget that my body knows better than what my mind is thinking.  Who knew you could lose weight by eating more.  Of course, not too much more because then I would really begin to gain again, and weight gain is not my goal.

Give Up Nothing

This refers to much more than just quitting because you do not think you can continue.  No, this is about the food itself, and then on yourself.

Give up nothing that you enjoy, or better yet, Give up Nothing That You Love; yes, I am talking about food.  Instead of giving up on food that you enjoy, either cut the serving in half or eat only what a serving is because if you force yourself to give it up, then you will get frustrated and see it only as something you are losing out on.

For instance, I love chocolate and did not want to give it up, so what I did was to look at serving sizes, the number of calories in the serving, and then decided what I could and could not live with.  I made changes.  I have gone to eating Peppermint Patties, the mini ones, and Unwrapped Mint 3 Musketeers that are also mini bites.  Each of these alternatives are only 15 calories per piece.  Could I live with that?  Yes, I could, and I do.  Do I eat only one?  Heck no, I have anywhere from two to four, sometimes five, depending on what I really want and if I have the calories for the number of pieces I plan on taking.  I titled this post “Give Up Nothing” because it really is about not giving up those things that you really enjoy eating.

What else have I not given up?  Eating out, but I am careful where I choose to eat out at.  Living in a small town, we have very few choices, and that does help.  I still eat at subway; you can always find something low in calories to eat at subway, and Pizza Hut, but my family has gone to eating the personal pan pizzas rather than buying medium and large pizzas.  If you have less to tempt you, then you will not feel like you have to eat more; besides, we never could eat an entire large pizza and always threw some of it away.  Of course, the other factor in that is that I cannot eat the red sauce because it makes me sick, but I can eat the white sauce and the BBQ, both of which I really enjoy.  The rest of the family enjoys the red sauce.

The other places around us are Sonic and Wendy's, and I never liked Wendy's food.  Sonic, on the other hand, well, have you looked at their nutritional menu?  Their hamburgers, although very good, are astronomically high in calories.  I can make a hamburger at home with almost 1/4 the calories, and much healthier for me.  In my house, we have gone to buying 90/10 lean ground sirloin; yes, it is more expensive, but we also do not eat beef that often.  We now eat more pork, chicken, turkey, and fish.  All much better choices for us and also leaner with less calories.  It is a wonder what you can do with those meats when you start looking for recipes on the internet.

So, as I said, do not give up what you really enjoy.  Look at what the choices are in that food group, and choose wisely and with your health in mind.  Calories count, but so does enjoying what you are eating.  You be in control of what you choose.

130 and Still Working On It

I left off discussing the benefits I have received from losing weight, and I stopped with number 3, which was working out at the gym.

3.  I consider this a benefit because it has helped improve my health as well as helping my back, legs, and hips.  For the past ten or more years, I have been undergoing spinal manipulations as well adjustments to my hips because they have been going out of place.  There had been times when my hips were 2 1/2 inches out of place, and it caused a variety of back aches and pains.  Since losing weight, I have had fewer problems with back pains, and my hips are less out of place than ever before.  I now only need maintenance adjustments and those less often than before.  Before, I had to be adjusted at least every two weeks, and now I can go once a month.  Being at the gym has also allowed me to improve the strength in the muscles in my legs, especially around my knees, both of which were replaced during the past 7 years.  The first knee I had done did not recover as well as the second one, and the result was that the knee never recovered its 100-degree bend.  That has been something I have been working on at the gym, and the bend is improving, but I still have trouble on the one machine that required me to lift the leg at the knee resulting in a bend behind me.  It is also at the gym that I do a lot of my walking on the treadmill, and that walking has helped me to walk more without the use of my cane.  At one point in time, I needed a walker to take walks outside, and I needed the cane to walk around the house and from my car to places I needed to visit.  Know, I walk around my house without the use of my cane, and at times, I can walk to and from my car without the use of the cane.  If I talk a walk outside, I still use the cane because of the uneven ground and pavement.

4. I have received many great compliments.

I think the best compliment that I have received from a number of friends and family is that they did not realize it was me because of how different I look because of the weight loss.  I also enjoy being told that there is less of me to love, I'm a loser - referring to the weight loss, and how I am now the smallest looking person in our home.  I have also received nice compliments about how proud people are of what I have done in my life, and that I am an encouragement to them to work on their own goals.

Even though I started losing weight for myself, it has been nice to have friends and family say nice things about me.  It was very hard for me growing up because I was never that extremely thin child who looked like they were walking on sticks.  My bone structure has been, and always will be, on the larger side, but know I am aware of that fact, and I do not plan on making myself look anorexic but be a nice acceptable weight, which my doctor finds an acceptable weight for my build and age.  I am getting much closer to my goal, and wondering if I might consider losing another ten pounds.  I do not ever expect to become as thin as I was when I was seventeen years old because in my mind that is an unrealistic expectation.  If I try to set a goal that is unreasonable, then it will become disappointed, depressed, and unhappy with what I have already achieved.

All good goals must be set with success possible.

This is what people are now seeing, and I am finally believing the results are true:

                            

Taken on February 22, 2016.

And here is what people used to see:

Taken in the early summer of 2014.

I really like the difference, and I am finally proud of myself for being able to make a major change in my life.

5.  I am eating a much healthier diet.

I take more notice now of what is in the food I eat.  I do not just the calories, but I do look at the amount of sugar, carbs, and protein in the food.  I also look at the amount of fiber available.  I have not, at this time worried about the sodium content because some better food choices have much more sodium than the high-calorie food it is replacing.  One food that is making an appearance in our diet much more often is fish.  Fish is high in protein and low in calories, depending on which one you choose.  Chicken and pork are also served more often than beef because beef is high in calories. I did find a chart on Pinterest that lists the different types and cuts of meat along with their nutritional values.  This chart is going to play a role in choosing what meats we eat in the future.

What are the drawbacks to changing my lifestyle and losing weight?  I will deal with that next time.

What Are the Benefits?

When it comes right down to it, the one question you must ask yourself is - What are the benefits of what I am doing?  I.E. What are the benefits of losing weight?

In my opinion, here are some of the benefits for me.

1. I feel much better about myself.

Since I am doing this for me - first and foremost - then I am reaping all the rewards, and since I am in control, I am the one telling myself what to do.  In essence, I am the one who can look at myself and say - you are doing great, and then pat myself on the back, and this makes me feel good about ME.

Do I really believe I am not getting outside help?  Yes and no; there is no real help coming from my friends and family, per say, but there is God in my life who I know is also encouraging, strengthening, and supporting me, but it had to start with me.  God can assist but not unless I do it; without me doing it, He cannot help.  With that thought in mind, I do feel much better about myself because I started this process, and I am the one who decided I could stay with it and succeed.

2. My overall health is better.

Of course, my overall health would get better because I am carrying around a lot less weight.  In addition, I am using my cane a lot less for walking.  After my first knee surgery, I had a lot of problems with the new knee, and the foot on that leg also created a number of problems, the least of which was when it developed drop-foot; in case you don't know what that is, it is when the toes turn under causing you to basically trip over them or catch them on anything that gets in the way.  After my second knee surgery, which went much better and the knee healed better, I was using a walker because of weakness in both knees.  I did eventually do away with the walker in the house, but if I took a longer walk outside, I still needed it.  Now I walk without the cane in the house, and sometimes outside of the house for short distances, and when I take longer walks outside, I can do it with just my cane.  You see, sometimes my toes still turn under especially if I have not been doing my exercises with my foot.

Besides the walking, my blood pressure has gone down as a result of the weight loss, and that is always a good thing. 

The last health issue is 'metabolic syndrome,' which means I was borderline diabetic.  I was on insulin once a day and a pill for to regulate blood sugar twice a day.  As the weight came off, my sugar levels went down and my doctor stopped the insulin, and later reduced to pill to once a day and then lowered the dosage of the pill.  He is hopeful that at my next check up, I will not even need that pill.

I love being healthier.  It also means I do not tire as easily because I have more energy.

3. I work out more at the gym, which I am truly enjoying.

More about that and other benefits next time.

Harder Than I Made it Look

My daughter kept telling me that it looked so simple for me to lose the weight that I lost, but let me assure you, it is not an easy undertaking, but well worth the effort.

I may have looked easy from the outside, but inside it was a continual decision to stay with the program and the new eating style.  I had to want this and want it very much, but it also had to be something that I knew I could live with.  I could not take away the things I really enjoyed, and for me that really is chocolate and meat.  Now, my intake of red meat has declined, but I have discovered that I do not really miss beef because I have a decided preference for chicken, turkey, pork (a definitely favorite), fish (but I check which ones are lower in calories), and occasionally ham (the spiral pre-cut ones that are easier to serve since they are pre-cut).

From my point of view, it has always been a matter of what I eat and do not eat, but it is now measured out in appropriate portions.  At first, it was a pain to weigh everything out, but over the past year, it has become a habit.  Last summer, when I was on vacation, I took my scale along, but seldom weighed out my portions because I did learn that over time you can determine some portion sizes by the look of them.  Over the three weeks I was on vacation, I lost 7 pounds, so I did okay with not weighing out everything.  Also, you will be surprised by what you find actually already recorded in the MyFitnessPal database.  There were things there that I had not expected to encounter but found them anyway.  It never hurts to do a search, you will be surprised at what you find.

The keys to any weight loss program are determination, perseverance, a true desire to change the way you eat, and making it a lifestyle change that you can live with.  Did I ever think I could live on a weight management program that required I had to count calories?  No, I never did because I tried it over thirty years ago and it was a pain to look everything up in a book, guess about things not in the book, and try to figure out how many calories in a portion of a favorite recipe.  This app has made all of the possible, and I truly love having it as part of my life, and it really is now an integral part of my life.

So, the following pictures were done by my daughter to give and side-by-side view of both of our journeys over the past year, but the before picutres do date back to more than a year ago.  It still shows what progress we have made.

The before picture is from the summer of 2009, and the after is August of 2015.

So, What Do You Eat?

So, what can you eat, and how have I changed what I eat?  This is a very good question to consider when deciding you really want to lose weight and that you want to make a lifestyle change.  At first, I did not think about the foods I regularly ate, but as I began losing weight, I started looking at packaging information and especially the number of calories in what I was eating.  That change in itself was eye opening for I was surprised at how many calories were in some of the food I generally ate.

Take bread, for instance; we generally bought Iron Kids white bread, and for two pieces of bread it is 140 calories.  Okay, so I decided to make open face sandwiches for lunch and that cut the calories in half.  Then, Oscar Meyer Turkey Bologna was 50 calories per slice, but who uses only 1 slice, and Miracle Whip was 40 calories for 1 tablespoon.  Lettuce was a minimal 8 calories for one cup, but who puts a whole cup of lettuce on a sandwich.  Finally, we have the cheese, and depending on what cheese you use makes a huge difference.  Kraft regular slices of cheese are 70 calories a slice, Sargento Provolone is also 70 calories.  Now, if you add chips to your lunch, you are now adding anywhere from 140 to 160 calories for 11 to 13 chips or a 1-ounce serving.  If you also add a pop, 12 oz. size, you are now adding another 140 to 160 calories depending on which one you choose.  Altogether, your lunch 658 calories if you use two pieces of bread or 588 if you make an open faced sandwich (I averaged the chips and pop to 150 calories each).  I forgot to add a small dessert, but depending on what you like, you could add anywhere from 120 to 320 more calories, and if you add fruit or cottage cheese to your lunch, then you are adding 60 to 120 calories more.  That could bring you up to 773 calories if you stay on the low side of the fruit/cottage cheese and dessert.  Even yogurt can run you up to 100 to 150 calories.

Now, I found some changes to make in what I included in my lunch.  First, I found that Sara Lee makes a delicious bread that runs only 45 calories per slice.  It is called Sara Lee Delight, they also have hot dog and hamburger buns that run 80 calories per each.  In addition, Kraft, Bordens, and Sargento make cheeses using 2% milk which reduces the number of calories in them; each slice is about 40 to 50 calories, and Kraft also makes a Sharp Cheddar cheese using skim milk, which reduces a slice of cheese to 25 calories (allowing you two slices if you really want them).  Also, Miracle Whip light has only 20 calories per tbsp.  Then, I found Great Value 97% Fat-Free Smoked Ham at Walmart that has 30 calories per slice.  Once I make an open-faced sandwich using those ingredients plus lettuce (and yes, I use 2 slices of meat but only 1 slice of cheese), my sandwich is now only 158 calories compared to the 288 of the previous sandwich.  I do not drink pop, I have never liked the taste since I quit smoking umpteen years ago, so I drink mostly water; once in a while I'll have 2 to 4 ounces of cream soda, about the only pop I like anymore.  I avoid the chips as much as possible - I can live without them most of the time, but if I really want a chip type of food, I have found Special K Cheddar Cracker Chips a good substitute, and I can have 25 chips for 120 calories; sometimes I will have only half that number depending on what I decide to have later in the day.  So, even if I add the total number of chips and the cream soda at 4 ounces, I would still only have 335 calories compared to the 588 or 773 of the above lunch.  I save fruits for a middle day snack, and I don't like the taste of cottage cheese so I never eat that.  Now cucumbers I have found make an enjoyable snack or alternative to having chips with my lunch.  A good sized cucumber can have up to 38 or 40 calories - what a difference compared to the 120 of some types of chips.

Now, my greatest weakness is chocolate, and that is one food I have not deleted from my diet.  I choose my chocolate carefully, however, and have looked at numerous alternatives.  During the summer, one of my choices is Arctic Fudge Bars from Dillons - Kroger - they only have 100 calories per bar.  The low-calorie one has only 80 but I think the taste is rather flat, so I choose the higher calorie ones.  In addition, York makes a mini unwrapped Peppermint Patty that is only 15 calories per piece, and the Unwrapped Mint Three Musketeers is only 16 calories.  In addition, if you can find the correct ones, the Tootsie Roll Mini-Midgees are only 11 calories per pieces.  It all depends on what you choose and how much you choose to eat of it.

So here is a list of some of the things we have chosen to add to our food list, or have altered to fit our food calories better.

Kraft Skim Milk Sharp Cheddar slices = 25 calories per slice
Borden Fat-Free Sharl Cheddar slices = 30 calories per slice
Laughing Cow Wedges = 35 calories per wedge
Sargento Reduced Fat Provolone slices = 50 calories per slice
Crystal Farms Light String Cheese = 50 calories per piece
Special K Cracker Chips = 1 oz. 120 calories
Ballpark Smoked White Turkey Franks = 45 calories per link
Great Value 97% Fat-Free Smoked Ham = 30 calorie per slice
Sara Lee Delightful Healthy Multi-grain Bread = 45 calories per slice
Sara Lee Delightful Wheat Hamburger Buns = 80 calories per bun
Rhonda's Swai Fillets (fish) = 4 oz. is 70 calories
Cod (Kroger Frozen Pacific) = 6 oz. is 120 calories
Pollock Fillets Wild Caught (Walmart) = 6 oz. is 90 calories (raw)
   When it say raw, it means you weigh it before you cook it.
Pork Loin Boneless = 1 oz. 40 calories (4 oz. is 160 calories)

We also choose chicken and turkey over beef because beef has more calories, and when we want hamburger meat, we buy 90/10 ground sirloin instead of regular ground beef.

Again, chocolate is a favorite of mine, so I check the package for calories, and I choose bags with smaller pieces so I can eat fewer of them.  Cookies are the same, I look at the package if I really want cookies.  I also look at the size per piece so I can choose smaller amounts.  With the Special K Cracker Chips and other chip or cracker choices, I will usually on have half of a serving.

Following this lifestyle (notice that I do not call it a diet or a plan) does take perseverance, determination, and desire.  You have to want to do this, and you should focus on doing it for yourself.  If you do not do it for you, you will find it harder to remain with it.

So, here is a picture of me two, maybe three, weeks ago, and since then I have lost at least 2 more pounds.

So, has my effort been worth the time I have put into this new lifestyle?

What changed?

Written late in August.

I have now been using Myfitnesspal for 9 months, and believe it or not, I have now lost a total of 95.8 pounds.

First, what does that look like?

Well, here is a picture of me before I determined that I had to do something to lose weight.

This is me in June of 2006.                                   This is me in June of 2014

And the following pictures are of me this year.

               This is me in July.                          This is my sister and me in August.


Second, what has changed in my life as a result of the significant weight loss?

The first chance is the fact that I find it easier to climb the stairs, walk, and do other everyday chores. I also am able to go to the gym and workout more.  In, addition, my blood sugar and my blood pressure have gone down, which means my health is improving.  I also have been seeing a man who adjusts me on a regular basis.  Before I started losing a significant amount of weight, my hip could be out anywhere from half an inch to two and a half inches.  I know this to be true because my daughter has seen how my hip was hiked up further than the other one, and once, this guy took a picture of how bad it was and showed it to me.  During that time, I generally had to see him every two weeks, and I could tell I was out because my back and hips hurt. Now I can wait three weeks between sessions, and I have him work one the muscles in my shoulders and legs that hurt from doing weights to help strengthen those muscles.  The weights also help tone up the muscles.

In 2009 and in 2012, I had knee surgery, so I have two new knees.  Losing weight has also helped with my knees because after the surgeries the muscles in both knees were weak; now I am able to finally build up the muscles in both knees by doing some of the weight machines at the gym.

I am enjoying my new energy and my stamina during workouts h as improved.  I like my new life and am working to lose more weight.  I do have a goal in mind but am working on that goal in small increments.

I need to mention the improvement in self-esteem that has also occurred.  I now feel so much better about myself, and I feel like a winner.  I even feel proud of myself knowing that I have been able to adapt and continue this life style, for that is exactly what this is; it is a life-style change, and I never call it a diet because diets cannot be lived on for the rest of your life.

I know this post is not very long, but it was written some time ago, and I want to publish it so I can start the next post.  My sister gave me a number of ideas to write on, so the next one will be on what food choices have changed, but let me tell you, every change I made was liveable for me.  I did not make any changes I could not live with, and the biggest one for me is chocolate.  I did not cut chocolate out of my diet, for as I have said, I am the one in control of what I eat, and nobody tells me what I can and cannot have except me.  I love being in control - it is what I can live with.

If you are interested in trying to follow the plan I set for myself, I would be willing to help in any way that I can, so if you need an accountability partner, please contact me.  In addition, if you have questions, please contact me.  I know that not everyone is comfortable with posting questions or replies on comments, so, if you choose, you can email me at the following address: 4031.isa@gmail.com

I am willing to help in any way that I can.  I just want to be an encouragement to anyone and everyone who have been like me and wanted to do something to control their weight but felt it was an impossibility.  Let me assure you, that for years, I felt exactly the same way.  You cannot go through life being continually told by family and friends that you are 'fat' and then allow yourself to think that there is nothing you can do because that is just the way you are.  I understand that overweight people can find a way to like themselves and believe that there is nothing they can do to change, because that is exactly how I felt, and by listening to all the negative things people close to me said about me, I believed what they, unfortunately and unknowingly, encouraged me to believe.  This one step in my life has finally changed my life, and for the first time in a long time, I finally feel good about me.

If you want to be the person you truly want to be, the person you can see yourself becoming, then please consider trying the Myfitnesspal app or online site.  My mother does all her recording online, but my daughter and I do it on our iPhones, and sometimes I record on my iPad.  One word of advice, however, start with a calorie goal that does not make you suffer, give up too much at one time, or is too rigorous for you.  I started with 2400 calories but went down from there.  The program is designed to drop 50 to 100 calories every time you lose 10 pounds, but this is easy to ignore once and a while because you can choose to say yes or no to the drop, but don't do it too often because by dropping calories you also drop your pounds.  When I finally was able to not exceed my calorie intake limit, I started slowing leaving calories each day, and when I began walking, I did not add those calories until the end of the day when I knew I would not eat anything else.  This too has helped me to lose weight.

More than anything, I want to be an encouragement to anyone who wants to finally drop the excess pounds.  Health should not be the only reason you want to do this, although it is a very good reason, but you should want to do it first and foremost for yourself.

God bless, encourage, and uplift anyone who decides to give this a fair and honest try.  Please contact me if you need assistance, encouragement, moral support, and information.

I'm in Control

Now, I don't want anyone to think that weight loss is easy or that it will be the same for every person because it is not and will not be that way.  What has made this method of weight loss effective for me is the fact that I  am in control.  I do not have anyone planning out my meals or telling me what I can and cannot eat, but me; this one important fact makes this even more effective for me.

Before, when I tried dieting, I was told by someone else what I could and could not eat. I was told what I would have to give up.  I was expected, then, to not only give up things I liked and eat things I did not like, but I was also expected to never again eat the things I was supposed to give up.  What kind of real like expectation is that?  Well, it was one that I could never live with.

So, as I said, what makes this program, system, method, or vehicle of weight loss effective for me is that I - me, myself, and I - am in complete control of what I eat.  The program does not make the calls as to what I can eat nor does anyone else.  This is the one major point to remember if you should ever want to try this method - only you are in control, and you do not have to give up any of the foods you like.  What you do have to give up are the calories.

A good example of this occurred in the middle of June.  My cat, who was very special to me, and the only pet I had ever owned, became extremely sick with a major infection. Now the infection cleared up, but my cat did not recover.  He gave up eating and drank very little, and hardly slept, and not sleeping for him was extremely unusual because he slept more than he was awake during the day.  He became very weak, lost weight, and could only walk a short distance before he had to plop down and the floor and rest, and then it was hard for him to get up.  I finally had to make the call to have him put to sleep.  I was completely devastated, and afterwards, I needed something comforting, so my daughter and sister took me to Sonic where they purchased me a Triple Chocolate Master Blast; now it was only a small but it still had a total of 900 calories.  I enjoyed every delicious bite, but as an exchange for indulging, I ate less for supper and made sure I did not go over my daily allotted calories.  So, you see, you can eat what you want, you just have to make some changes to fit what you want into your calorie count.

Okay, so you are in control, but you do need something else.  You need to be committed to seeing this through.  On my last blog I said you need determination, which you do, but once your are determined, you then need to be committed.  Remember, this is your life we are talking about and only you can make changes that matter in your life.  If you are not really willing to make a change, if you cannot be committed to the change, then this nor nothing else will work for you.  I wanted this, and I was determined to try to make this work.  I am now committed to this, and I have not been discouraged in such as way as to give up, and I have not failed.

When I started this, I did determine one other thing.  I was going to do this for me, and I was going to at least try to see if they platform could work for me.  I was very pleasantly surprised at how success it had been; how successful I have been to stay the course; how proud I am of myself that I have finally found something that I could make work.  I am completely in control of what I eat, and it has made some major changes in my life.

Those changes are what I will discuss in my next blog, but just to keep anyone who reads this update as to my progress, I will add that from April to June I lost another 18.4 pounds.  With the 51.8 from the previous months, it means I lost a total of 70.2 pounds since I began in November.

Is this platform working for me?  Heck yeah!  Can it work for you? Only if you want it to because that is the only way any weight loss can work.  You have to want it to work, but it really helps when you, and no one else is in complete control of what you are doing. Hey, it's your life, so who else better to be in control.

God & Determination

There are two things that helped me start and stay on the program I am now using.

God was the first thing I needed to begin and maintain what has become a life change for me.  God is the one who helps and encourages me to stay true to this eating pattern.  I know I can turn to Him whenever I feel discouraged, like when I hit the plateaus were I stop losing or go on a rollercoaster ride of gaining and losing.  I always know He is there for me, so I do not become completely discouraged and give up.

Determination was the second thing I needed.  Now, I have been determined before, but what I lacked was a platform whereby I could make a change and monitor what I was eating.  I have to admit that I have felt determined in the past, and the desire to lose weight has been with me for a very long time; the problem was that I did not know how to go about it.  Oh yes, there is the concept of just eating less, but how can you do that when you don't want to give up certain foods.  That was one of the major factors that stopped me many times before I even started.

As I said before, my doctor made many suggestions, and one of those suggestions was counting calories.  Now, anyone who is of the older generations and remembers what it was like to try to count calories will remember that you had record everything on paper, you had to look up foods in books, and you had a real hard struggle with meals that came from your favorite recipes or from restaurants. It was not an easy task and became frustrating very fast, and what generally happened was that you gave up.  Absolute frustration that leads to giving up puts an end to anything whether you have the determination or not, and even knowing that God is on your side may not be enough to keep you going in the fact of frustration so overwhelming that you do not know how to make something work effectively.  With that said, so ends any attempt at losing weight, and if you lost anything, you immediately gain it all back.

So what if you have determination and God on your side?  How do you go about gaining your GOAL?  That is where the platform came in for me.  MYFITNESSPAL was a God send for me, and the fact that I even stumbled upon it was great.  Here was something that would count the calories for me, and not even just that, it also had the calorie count for restaurants and fast food places.  I could also add my own recipes and it would give me a calorie count for my meals.  With that said, I past the first major roadblock in my personal goal to not only lose weight but to make a life change in eating that I could live with.  That fact was also one of the major roadblocks in my quest for losing weight.

If whatever way you want to use to lose weight, it has to be something you can live with for the rest of your life.  Any diet you choose is never going to be something you can live with because all of them are to last only as long as you are losing weight.  They do you cover what to do to maintain that weight lose.  Myfitnesspal has a setting for maintaining your weight, and for those who need to gain rather than lose, there is also a setting for that.

Let me, right now, warn anyone who decides to use this wonderful app to lose weight that it is not a magical app that make weight loss easy.  Weight loss is never easy, and anyone who convinces themselves or anyone else that is lies.  Nothing worth really having in this life is easy; there will always be struggles.  It might start easy or seem to, but you then hit areas in your life that make it much more difficult and that is where God and determination step in to help, at least for me.  You see, I know that my determination to succeed is coming from God and that God helped me find a platform that would work with my determination.

So how much have I lost?  Well between January to April, I lost another 26.8 pounds, and I was not ready to stop there.  Was it easy to shed those next pounds?  Heck No!  It was a struggle, but once again God and determination were on my side.  Between that 26.8 pounds and 25 pounds I lost before that, I have seen a total loss of 51.8 pounds; I first-time achievement for me.

I was not done at the point; I still had more to go before I would reach my goal, but I was not going to give up, become frustrated, or lose heart even as more changes in my eating had to change to continue on my personal road to success.

Dieting

The most horrendous word in the English language is 'diet'.  To me, it is a word that breaks down into two words: 'die' 'it', and most time diets do die.  No diet is meant to be lived on for the rest of one's life, and in order to lose weight and keep it off, at least for me, it has to be something I can stay on as a new lifestyle.

This is me at what is probably my heaviest, and I must admit I was never proud of it and have wanted to do something about it for a long time.  I just did not know what to do.  It was not until last November that I became very determined to try something if I could find something that would work.  To date, I found that pills, regimented diets, and regular diets did not work for me.  My doctor suggested those foods you buy, but I could not afford that, and I knew they would have too many foods I could not eat.  I cannot eat tomato based sauces or recipes - tomatoes make me want to throw up because of an encounter I had with stewed tomatoes when I was a child, plus they give me bad heartburn as in the case of sauces made with tomatoes, canned tomato pasta, and canned tomato sauce - nor can I eat anything too spicy.  I also dislike most vegetables and especially most of the cooked ones with the exception of cauliflower, glazed carrots, and corn.  Other vegetables I prefer to eat raw if I eat them at all.

The next thing my doctor suggested was sending me to another doctor who would put me on a calorie diet.  See, there is the word again - diet, and again, we were talking about money I did not have.  So, I decided I would look for something I could live with on my own.

The first thing I found was a calorie program that started me at 1200 calories, and I knew that was not something I could start out at.  It was dropping too much too soon and meant instant failure.  I wanted something that I would not fail at and something I would be able to live with over time.  So that program led me to an ad for another program called My Fitness Pal.

Now, My Fitness Pal can be used three ways.  There is the on-line program, an app for your cell phone, and an app for iPad.  Better yet, it started me with 2200 something calories, so I thought I would try it.  One of the best features is that you can scan the bar code of the food you are eating or type in the type of food it is and it gives you the calorie count without having to look it up in a stupid book that only lists the most common types of food.  Second, you can put in your own recipes and it will figure out how many calories are in a serving, and even better, if you find a recipe on-line or on Pinterest that you want to try, you can copy and paste  the URL code and it will match the ingredients (most of the time) for you and also give you a calorie count for a serving.  The one glitch with recipes by other people is that they do not always tell you what constitutes a serving size.  It will say it serves 4 but does not tell what the portion size is and you usually cannot figure out the actual size of a serving until after you make the recipe.

Okay, so I decided I would try this app and see what would happen.  The first thing I discovered was that I certainly exceeded my daily allotted intake, so I had to make some adjustments to what or how much I was eating.

Now, this app is very nice because you can go back to the beginning of your records and see how you have done over time.  In the first month - November to December - I lost 15 pounds and that includes having Thanksgiving dinner, and from December to January - the dreaded Christmas food season - I lost another 9 pounds.  That was a total of 25 pounds in two months.  It was a very good beginning, and, for me, I found it very easy to do; now that does not guarantee it will be as easy for everyone else, and that is something I will address in on coming blogs..  The one surprising thing, but it should not have surprised me, was that for every 10 pounds you lose, your calories are dropped.  Of course, you could tell the app that you did not want to drop the calories, but that simple fact is part of the reason you can keep losing weight.

Overall, I felt very happy with myself because I had finally found something that worked and that I was able to live with because I chose what foods I would and would not eat and nobody became the food police saying 'No, you can't have that,' unless it was me that said it.  Donuts, for instance, I found out how many calories one donut had and decided to avoid them unless it was to have it as a treat, but if I chose to eat one, then I have to give up the calories someplace else during the day.  Do I eat donuts now - no, and I find I do not miss them, and they now have ended up tasting too sweet.