Baby Steps to Eating Healthy

Continuing my series on Transforming in a Fat Prejudiced Society, today’s post is how to make baby steps to eating healthy. In July 2014, I completed my 1st round of Whole30 which is very simply eating meat, vegetables and fruit in their most natural state, which means eliminating foods with added ingredients  (see graphic at right–Whole30 Nos).

This experience was awesome, but for me, 30 days wasn’t long enough to keep me on the straight and narrow beyond 4 months. Christmas time, which is difficult for most everyone, totally killed my weight loss for the year, and I realized that sugar was indeed my enemy, along with dairy which is a big time trigger food group for me.

I’m now 90 days into my plan to implement this for the entire year and maybe the rest of my life. Again, I didn’t just wake up for my first baby step and conquer this (although I do believe if you’re really fed up, you may be able to, so don’t restrict yourself. It’s always worth a try! You can do anything for 30 days, right?).

All of that being said, this was a process. I’ve been working on modifying my behavior over the course of years and have been successful doing it. The behavior changes didn’t result in weight loss, but they did result in control over food options. Now, to share how I did that.

It’s really very simple. You are ready for change emotionally. You are ready, right? You’re ready to give the effort? Or are you just wanting change to come without your effort because that only exists in really bad infommercials, and none of that is for sale here. This is for the person who is ready for change. Sick to death of feeling like you do emotionally and physically. Yes, you! You’re ready!! You can do this!!

So the very simple step is to not buy anything in a package. Of course everything comes in packages, so let me clarify. If it went through a “process” to be edible, then don’t buy it. At this phase, if I wanted lasagna, I made it. Macaroni? I made it from scratch. If it is worth having, it is worth you making it yourself. What? You can’t cook?? No excuse. YouTube exists! Blogs exist. You can find step by steps everywhere on the web now. So you have NO excuse for not being able to cook. Don’t want to cook?? Then consider a raw food diet. That is actually a very viable option. Check it out.

This step made shopping very easy. I skipped all of the prepackaged meals and sides. I bought the ingredients necessary to make the items I wanted. My cooking skill improved. There are lots of healthy eating resources out there for free recipes online. People just love sharing what they’ve cooked and how they did it. I personally love the Clean Eating Magazine. The great part about this is almost all of these resources are on FB, too, so you can combine this step along with the previous step of making your environment positive. Add the healthier FB pages and unfollow those that aren’t healthy, so it isn’t in your face how to create a tripe chocolate, oreo cookie, peanut butter, chocolate whopper, dessert because honestly, who needs any one of those items much less all of them in the same dish?!

So, back when I was taking my first step toward healthier eating for me and my family, my shopping buggy was full of items like milk, cheese (although processed–that’s a different process than what I’m referring to) and juice. I skipped all the aisles with crackers and cookies and went straight to the canned fruit and vegetables. I bought fruit in it’s own juice instead of syrup. I bought plain canned vegetables without anything else added other than salt. I then went to the pastas and bought angel hair pasta because it’s quicker to cook. I do prefer the brand that is made with vegetables, so I suggest those. It is a healthier option.

I did eat beans and rice at the time (although I do not now). Choose Basmati or Jasmine rice, they have a lower glycemic impact. Use real butter instead of margarine and eliminate items with added sugar as much as you can begin doing. Of course, the next step is meat. Get it from the meat department. Fresh meat, no added seasonings because they almost always include sugar or brown sugar.

Add your own spices and be careful–many of them have added sugar and flavor boosters that border on addictive. Stick with simple spices that when added together are awesome like garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, Thai seasoning free of sugar, there are many options out there. Just be sure to get the unsalted options because you’ll add salt also to make your mix, and you don’t want it to be too much salt.

Finish up in produce and bread. While I don’t eat bread now, I did choose breads higher in grains. They are really good. I was eating the 12-14 whole grain option, and it was really good, but baby step up to that if you need to. Look for bread options that say no high fructose corn syrup and low in sugar.

Have a blast in the produce department. You may be walking into this area for the first time in your life. What? You mean that squash doesn’t come already sliced and frozen when it’s born? 😉 Now don’t get me wrong. Frozen is ok, too. I actually forgot this aisle. This does help in prep time and makes cooking faster. Totally ok as long as it doesn’t come in sauces. Just raw veggies or fruit, frozen.

I do encourage you to get some fresh produce and begin adding it to your meal plan. Potatoes, white and sweet. Squash and zucchini. Spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, onions, everything you need for your salad. I’m from the south, so those are my go to veggies, but there may be other options where you live. Eat what is in season because it will have the most flavor. As far as fruit, have fun with it, but be careful with those that have a higher natural sugar content. They can sabotage your weight loss goals. Eat them in moderation–those are grapes, apples, and really ripe bananas. Eat plenty of citrus and berries. They are lower in fructose. Enjoy nuts in moderation. Eat them in their raw state. You’ll be shocked just how awesome they taste! Be careful for peanuts, many people have allergies to peanuts an don’t even realize it. If you have gut troubles, eliminate beans (not string beans) and peanuts.

So that is your first shopping trip of eliminating processed foods. There are no canned meals or boxed meals in your shopping buggy. You’re reading labels and avoiding anything that has sugar or high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient. Some items may have sugar as an ingredient lower on the list, and that’s ok for this baby step phase with the plan to eventually buy only items free of sugar.

You can totally do this. You’re going to feel very good about yourself and so good about your improved cooking skills. You’re even going to see that you’re having fun. I would love to share more of what I’ve learned about cooking and preparing healthy food, so if there is a place that you would like for me to start, please comment. Let me know what types of food you like, and I will show you how you can do it at home. Hey, I’m all about simple and fast. I don’t do the long elaborate recipes, so I’m not expecting that of you either. So what would you like to see?

Come back soon. I will be writing on the next big phase that you may want to join me on. It’s called #Fit30. I will be writing on it this weekend. Don’t miss it!

Strike a Pose. This Week’s Challenge.

People who have 100+ pounds to lose generally also have a great deal of emotional baggage that they are carrying around with them. As part of our program, our challenge this week is to “Strike a Pose,” and post a confident photo of ourselves to our secret group.

This challenge came about as a result of conversation about mirrors and feeling the need to hide from them. There are a couple of problems with not confronting the mirror. One problem is that we will ignore the fact that there is a weight problem needing to be controlled. According to a person’s body type, it is possible to gain nearly 20 lbs before your clothes force you to deal with the problem.

Secondly, avoiding a mirror can make you become disconnected with yourself. Before you know it, other people have seen you more than YOU have seen you. You begin to feel ashamed, lonely, and a number of negative adjectives. It is important to remain connected with the strong, confident you who is a beautiful person. Once you begin feeling as if you aren’t beautiful, weight becomes even more difficult to lose. It’s almost as if you feel like you don’t deserve anything good.

We are going to work on taking that confidence back. All of these ladies are awesome women. They each excel in their professional lives. They are caring and giving, and they deserve to feel confident. I don’t expect that because they will take time for themselves getting ready for a photo, snap a photo, and post it to our group that a brand new perspective will result. I realize this will be an ongoing process, but it is a very important step toward embracing the beautiful person that they each are.

Week One Results of Weight Loss Group

As I promised, I am posting our results from this week. Now, keep in mind that this week wasn’t focused on making major changes. The biggest change (which is big enough all on it’s own) was getting our mind set and ready for this journey. We all had slips and falls along the way (and we will still have those from time to time), but everyone is onboard and feeling ready to take on another week one decision at a time.

This morning was weigh in, and our Week 1 weight loss (as a group) is

Getting Started Is the Hardest Part

Yes, getting started is the hardest part of any battle. Fortunately, I did not have to start this battle alone. My journey of one has now turned into a journey of four. We are the Fantastic Four! I am leading the group, leading helps me dig in and be totally focused because I know they are counting on me (find what works for you), and we have been using this week to get used to documenting our intake of food, drinking more water, getting our mind sharp and ready for battle, and identifying our food triggers.

We have set our schedule, and our weigh in day will be Monday mornings. We will be measuring two ways, 1-by scale (using the same scale, the same time of the day each time we weigh), and a snug fitting outfit. We will be documenting how that outfit FEELS on our body as we go. This is for those times when the scale may not show a decrease, but it’s obvious that there was a decrease. Some may use a measuring tape, but I just wanted to keep it simple. Not too much to have to keep up with.

The results so far this week have been good. I’ve seen several photos of meals taken at lunch or supper that were really great decisions. The goal of our plan is to try to make better decisions one at a time. We don’t want to over think anything. Just what is best for us and our body. We scheduled a cheat treat on Saturday this week and planned to eat light, no carbonated drinks and light salt on Sunday in preparation for weigh in.

We are hoping to have some good results. Because we all have at least 100 lbs to lose (each), I explained that no weight loss will not be seen as a negative. We will celebrate the loss of visceral fat from the inside and know that the scale will catch up eventually.

We are also tackling some nasty negative self-talk and emotional hangups. This will definitely be an ongoing battle. Fortunately, my BS is in Behavior Analysis, so I am prepared to help with plans to work through these obstacles.

We really appreciate your support, and hope you will be there for us tomorrow when we post our results. It’s a very vulnerable time, and we really need to know that we have the support of those who may be inspired by our journey. Please leave us comments to let us know you are reading and wishing the best for us.

Meal Planning? What’s that?

A member of Our Weight Loss Journey group has brought up a very important topic in our support group. Meal Planning. I have to say that this is not a topic I have covered much. I will have to do some research to see if there is a meal plan system out there that will work for me. I am the type of person who is a bit A.D.D., so my attention is easily taken off of what I should be doing and is on to something else.  I may start really strong on planning, and a couple of months later I have stopped doing it somewhere along the way and have completely forgotten that I was even supposed to be planning my meals.

So I am going to our readers. Maybe some of you do meal planning for your family. Do any of you have a plan that really works for you that you can share with us? If so, I would love for you to be a guest writer for me on that topic. The way you’ll do that is to write an article complete with links to the appropriate places, and then contact me that you have the article ready. You can email it to me, and I will post it here for you. If you have a blog of your own, you can actually write on your blog, and I can reblog you here, whichever works for you will be fine.

I don’t mind accepting when I need help. The question now is, who of you will help us?

Critical Fat Facts! What the Fat MUST Know About FAT!

Not staying on your eating plan can be detrimental to your weight loss and health, too. Notice I called it an eating plan not a diet. The ladies (yes, plural because we’ve picked up another lady and we’re happy to accept more) that are joining me want to lose a significant amount of weight also. There’s something I want to share with them, AND YOU as we get started.

If you have less than about 10 lbs to lose, completely erase the word DIET from your vocabulary, at least as it pertains to a short duration of behavior change that will result in the desired amount of weight loss you need to be at your ideal weight. Now, I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade, and this doesn’t mean that there isn’t a cheat day in our future–there will be 1 trigger free cheat day per week once we get this train going; however, the short diet I just defined will should NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER be a part of a person’s life after they have gained approx. 10 lbs over their ideal weight. For some, that’s high school. For me, that was junior high. Worst yet for the generation coming up now, that’s even elementary school.

Once your body has created fat cells, they never go away unless you have liposuction done (the consequences of lipo will have to be covered in a new post). You can lose weight, yes, and they call that “losing fat,” but in reality, you’re not losing fat. They should call it, “shrinking fat.” The fat cells are emptied of the energy substance that is inside taking up less space and making you appear smaller. You are smaller. This takes nothing away from the weight loss you have achieved. It does, however, mean that you absolutely can NOT have the attitude that you can just diet for 30 days and go off of your diet (like people do who only have small amounts of weight to lose–YOU AREN’T ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE, SO STOP EVEN CONSIDERING THOSE PLANS).

It will be more critical for someone with larger amounts of weight to lose to always stay on their eating plan. Those empty fat cells can quickly be refilled (and once full the creation of new fat cells occur) defeating the entire purpose of a weight loss program, increasing your frustration, increasing your sense of hopelessness, and increasing the chance that you will stay sick, tired, and die sooner than you should.

I’m sorry to be the messenger of bad news. I have almost 200 lbs to lose, so I can tell you that the journey seems very long for me, too. I completely understand how you feel after reading this, but we CAN be successful if we stick to our plan. Once I learned more about fat and have a better understanding about how it works, I can now see that I can’t compare myself to the skinny mini who gained 10 lbs over the course of the year and needs to lose it. The way to go about losing that 10 lbs will be totally different for her than it will be for me! REALITY CHECK!!!

Once we reach our goal, we will be able to develop a maintenance plan that includes foods we love while still ensuring we are eating healthy and not filling any of those emptied fat cells by weighing every single week–addressing ANY weight gained IMMEDIATELY!

SO…don’t feel all blue! I know. It stinks! I wish I had addressed the weight gain immediately once I gained it, or at the very least, at the end of the year when I had a checkup and the doctor said, oh…you’ve gained 5 lbs this year. I should have been like, BAM–LOST IT in a couple of months! We didn’t, so we have to do it now. Join us. We’re on this journey. We’re going to make it by sticking together, sharing ideas, recipes, exercise plan, etc. Having a support group is critical to the success of your weight loss plan, so be sure if you don’t join us, that you will join someone.

BATTLE–IF YOU DARE!

Yes, a Wii Fit Plus battle it is! This started out as a quick idea, but it is quickly coming together in my mind. It is an awesome opportunity for anyone with Wii Fit Plus to spend untold minutes or hours attempting to beat the top performer’s score. There is a lot of potential for exercise, but because it is a competition, it will be fun. It’s not like you’re just doing to do it. It will be to prove you are the most determined on that day.

The way I am going to start this competition is to start out with the games. We will start out with Balance Games and Aerobics games. I will then add the Strength Training, Yoga, and Training Plus options.

The WINNER IS DETERMINED by their score. They will also post their calories burned as determined by the Wii Fit Plus piggy bank. This is just to show how effective our battle is. We will share how many combined calories we have burned. Here are the graphics you will find on my FB page. Of course you can join me there by following me on FB over on the left side of this page.

Projecting Goals, Not As Simple As It Seems

If you read my article where I realized I had only gained 5 lbs per year over the course of time (since high school–that’s a lot of weight), you will know that I had done a bit of analysis to see how that was possible. Well, let me be the first to tell you that my analysis was lacking. Apparently, I didn’t take into consideration times when I would eat whatever I wanted and would realize I was gaining weight because of how my clothes fit (or didn’t fit) me. This realization would prompt me to be more mindful, and I would get back on track. There is no way to quantify that. BOO! I like being able to see numbers and follow them down!

I guess I can use numbers by counting calories. If there is anything more boring than counting calories, I’d like for someone to tell me what it is. Grrr. Fortunately, I do use the Lose-It app on my iPhone, and it scans the label and automatically inputs the information. The problem is, I don’t eat a lot of prepackaged foods. I cook from scratch, and I’m using a lot of fresh produce, so there are no bar codes for those. grrr. Oh well.

As for having information to add for fitness, I have an idea for how to get me moving. I think I am going to sponsor a Wii Fit Plus event on my FB page. I know several of those I follow use the Wii Fit, so hopefully they will like the opportunity for a little competition. I have my fingers crossed!

No Meat — Not Enough To Lose

If anyone thinks that eating a vegetarian diet alone equates to weight loss, they are wrong, or at least on a short term scale they are wrong. I have not eaten meat (but eat fish and seafood; although not at the frequency of previously eating meat) since I posted here that I would stop eating it. I can’t even remember how long ago that has been now. It seems like it’s been at least a month.

I didn’t reach any of my goals set last week, so I will back off and just attempt one goal. WATER! My only goal this week is to drink my water allotment for the week. I have read that hunger is frequently a signal for lack of water consumption. The same for being tired, so my goal this week is to reach for my water bottle first before eating to satisfy hunger, and before taking a nap. Maybe that will help me reach my goal. I have done better, but I have not yet reached my goal on an consistent basis.

Not Brave Enough – Lost Anyway

Last week scared me. I started doing daily workouts, and when I weighed, I showed a significant increase in my weight. It totally messed up my goal to lose 1.73 pounds a week, and now, I am over 6 lbs behind on my schedule. Well, I’m not going to obsess about that. I want to be brave enough to start my working out again and not stop even if the scale does show an increase for a period of time.

I realize that water intake and retention has a lot to do with whether or not you lose, and I have been trying to work on drinking more water. This is a terribly weak area for me. It is not uncommon for me to go an entire day without drinking anything at all. It’s not really terribly uncommon for me to go a number of days with only a couple of cups of milk. I don’t completely understand the connection between muscles and water, but it seems that I remember there being a significant connection between the two. I need to read more about this connection, and I will share what I learn.

My goal this week is not going to be to lose weight. If I lose, then great, but my goal this week is completely focused on consuming water and restarting my daily Gorilla workouts. I have to be brave enough and trust that working out, eating well, and drinking adequate amounts of water will do the trick.

I have never really understood why I don’t drink a lot. I think most people would think that means I am drinking a lot of sodas or something, but no. In many of these cases, I’m not drinking anything at all. I’m sure that can’t be good for the body, so MY GOAL IS SET.

Exercise Started. Feeling Stronger. Weigh-in Monday.

I have started my exercise. I am using the Gorilla app for iPhone, and I love it. You input the number of pushups you can do, and it determines the level you are on. I could do 15 pushups, so it put me on level 2. Let me tell you, these exercises are no walk in the park. I was sore after my very first day. I am still sore, but I feel stronger. I already feel like my core is tighter. My knee has been giving me a hard time from falling last month, but it doesn’t seem to be stopping me from working out. The negative at this point is form. I know my form on some of these exercises isn’t right, but I know that eventually I will get there.

So just one more day to weigh-in. I had sushi and ice cream this week. I’m wondering how that is going to impact me. Check back with me on Monday morning to see how my weigh-in goes.

Wait a Minute, What About Life Exercise?

You will want to read my last blog post to fully understand this blog post. The blog post is entitled, “Just 5 lb Gain a Year.”

I found that I should be able to lose approximately 94 lbs in a year if I cut back 602 calories a day and workout using a circuit training type workout for 30 minutes a day, every day. Then as the next day progressed, I realized I hadn’t worked out, but I had been physically busy all day long. This reminded me of the fact that there are a lot of things that we do every day that count as exercise. I do realize that this could be a dangerous way of thinking, so I want to add in a way to measure whether I did enough for the week.

As you know, I weigh weekly. This is my way of knowing that I am on track and the my weight is going down. I want to lose AT LEAST 1 lb per week, which would be a 52 lb weight loss in a year. I am definitely on track for that prize, but I would like to lose 90 pounds or close to it which will increase my weekly weight loss goal to 1.73 pounds a week. I will update the widget on my blog (over on the left margin at the bottom) that is keeping up with my weekly weight loss to include my weekly goal target. I am sure some weeks I will lose more and some weeks I will lose less, so this column will let me know that on average I am on target.

So…the measurement I referred to…that will be the weigh-in. When I weigh in, I need to be losing 1.73 lbs a week. If I do not lose that much, then I will need to make appropriate adjustments to my eating and exercise to increase the loss for the following week. Weighing in weekly will give me the opportunity to make those crucial adjustments to my plan. I feel good about it. I feel ready!! I have been eating some wonderful food, and what is great is that the majority of it is healthy food. The other great part is that some of it isn’t healthy food. I am enjoying it in moderation and still losing weight because of the work I am doing in other areas of my life. No need to go all food Nazi.

So what is your part in all of this? Keep reading. Keep “Liking” the posts, so I know you are reading or comment. I LOVE YOUR COMMENTS. It really does help me to know that people are checking out my progress. It makes me more aware. Thank you for the role you play in my weight loss plan.

Note: After updating my Widget, I see I am ahead of my goal!! But I don’t want to let that derail me by making me feel to confident, so I will continue as if I still need to work on reaching my goal. 🙂 I’m very excited!

Just 5 lb Gain a Year…

THIS IS A VERY COMPREHENSIVE POST. IT IS VERY INFORMATIVE AND COULD HELP YOU CREATE YOUR WEIGHT LOSS PLAN. YOU WILL MOST LIKELY NEED TO READ IT MORE THAN ONCE. DON’T JUST SKIM OVER IT AND MISS THE POINT. LEAVE YOUR QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS IF YOU NEED HELP DETERMINING YOUR PLAN.

I was talking to my mother-in-law about my son’s weight. He’s 9 months old and considered by his doctor to be “overweight for his height.” We had a discussion about just how ridiculous it is to start such a measurement so young! She agreed that he is in no way a “fat” baby. Yeah, he has a fat roll on each of his thighs, but other than that and a little bit of a fuller face, he is a lean little machine. I’m not worried, and I will NOT permit the negative programming that screwed up my head to be preached to him.

While we were talking, I mentioned to her that since marrying my husband, I had gained about 10 lbs a year. When I go back to my earliest recollection of my weight, which would be 198 lbs in 1991 a year out of high school, and compare it to my weight today on average I have gained just over 5 lbs. a year.

313.1 (today’s weight) – 198 (1991 weight) = 115.1 pounds gained over 22 years

115.1/22 = 5.23 lbs gained per year (on average)

Given there are 3500 calories in one pound, in order to gain 5.23 lbs in a year, I would have to have eaten…

5.23 lbs X 3500 calories = 18,305 calories overeaten over the course of one year. How hard is this to do? Let’s see what it equates to on a daily and weekly basis.

18,305/365 = 50 calories over each day or 1 sugar free snack cup of Apple sauce

18,305/52 =  352 calories over a week or 1 Tuna Melt Sandwich

WOW!! Somehow, I don’t feel like I am such a PIG now! I definitely see how this happened!!! Keep following me! You’ll see it, too, and you’ll see how I will keep from adding another pound to my numbers (even as I continue to lose weight).

Let’s flip this to exercise. I NEVER exercise. Why? Because you work your butt off for nearly nothing! Not to mention, IT’S BORING! I’m referring to the gym type of exercising of course.

According to Fit2Flex blog, you can burn 50 calories in 5 minutes doing 5 simple exercises for 1 minute each. See the link for those exercises. I think I can definitely give that amount, DAILY, to help offset what I tend to gain over the course of a year. Do you see that? If I hadn’t looked at exercise the way I had, I could have offset the amount of weight I was gaining.

The fitness industry wants to sell us all kinds of things, but in reality, what has been said by so many is true! If we exercise just 20 minutes a day 5 days a week, we should prevent weight gain for the year.

Losing weight is a different story! I think this is where we lose our way. I am almost positive this is where I lost my way. I have 22 years of 5.23 lbs to lose, so I can’t just do 20 minutes a day 5 days a week. I need to do that minimum to ensure I don’t continue to gain, yes, but to begin reversing the scale, I have to add more.

How about some math. My brain will hurt after all of this analysis…

Just using the numbers I have so far (which is based on my weight gain according to my metabolism…you’ll need to consider your numbers)…I am only taking into consideration exercise at this point. This will not take into consideration an improved way of eating. This is basically the same, mindless eating pattern that I had over the course of these 22 years.

According to my analysis, it would take me three (3) years to lose the 180 lbs I have gained over the course of 22 years plus the amount to reach normal BMI. In order to lose this weight, I will have to workout 1 hour every day for the next 3 years. Again, this is keeping with the same mindless eating pattern I was in before, which I will not do. I am improving my eating, so this number can actually be reduced. This is just the worst case scenario. This workout isn’t just a basic stroll either. This is the Fit2Flex workout…an hour long, so that is a relatively intense workout considering the duration.

Reducing my caloric intake will have an even greater impact on this goal. If reducing my caloric intake could do half of the work, then I could lose the weight in 1.5 years. It is a lot easier to cut 50 calories than it is to burn 50 calories. Cutting my mindless eating, caloric intake 602 calories a day and exercising 30 minutes a day, every day for 1.5 years…I should be able to reach my goal.

I will review my current eating to determine if I have decreased my caloric intake by eliminating all meat and eating fish/seafood only. I am hoping the changes in meat and dairy that I have made will be enough.

I know this blog post was a little more complicated because it wasn’t one that you could read without analysis. Look, if you want to lose weight, YOU HAVE TO THINK. You can’t just say, ok, I’ll workout and cut back. It’s just not enough to do that. You need to know how much you need to workout and how much you need to cut back. It will take a lot of thought and basic math to come up with your numbers. Take time out to determine your plan.

Ding, ding, Weigh-in Day

Today is weigh-in day.

I lost 1.5 lbs this week.

New BMI 57.3.

My new weight is 313.1.

My goal was to lose 2 lbs per week, so I have 2.4 lbs to lose for next week to be on goal. I am not going to obsess over that. I will continue doing what I am doing because apparently, I am doing something right.

So What’s the Plan?

Plan? You mean, I have to have a plan? Well, of course..uhh..I have a plan. The question is how does my plan vary from past plans that didn’t work out. Maybe it’s not the plan to blame, but me for not keeping it. Maybe the fact that I didn’t keep it tells us that there was something wrong with it.

If there was one thing that I could point to and say, “This is what went wrong,” I would have to say trying to change too much too fast. Because I have gone through many baby steps before, I jump right into them. I guess I think that the “baby steps” are easy, but they aren’t. I guess if they were, a lot of people would be making them.

So where do I start? Well, I guess I’ve made my first baby step, and maybe even more than one.

1. Albeit anonymously (for the most part), publicly accepting how much I have gained, and how much I truly need to lose.

2. Restarting an online diary to help me work through the process.

3. Reaching out to people who have been apart of my life journey in one way or another in hopes they will participate in this journey with their support, comments, and advice.

4. Looking for my next step…which shows I am ready to make the next one. So I guess the question now is, where next? I think the next step is documenting. I had been documenting, but got off track. Getting started again after several weeks, shouldn’t be a difficult step. I use Lose It to document my meals. I use both the online and iPhone version.