Decided to give posting a try - fell off but I’m back

DaniSimonemfp

Hi everyone, so I fell off for a while with tracking my calories and eating healthy and just staying focused and so I decided that maybe I should try posting for Accountability. In my defense, though I don’t need any, Christmas Thanksgiving, and then January, which is my three kids birthday month has been pretty difficult for me to stay on track. I have done better than I expected however, since it seems like I’m kind of more maintaining The 10 to 15 pounds I’ve lost and so while I haven’t reached my goal weight yet and I did put on a couple extra pounds possibly due to bloating since my cycle is coming. But I figure posting is something I didn’t do before and maybe this might be helpful to stay accountable. I am also going to be going on vacation this week a short vacation for a wedding in the Caribbean and this past weekend I was in New York City with my two girls celebrating their birthdays and even though New York has a lot of healthy food options. It’s just kinda hard to find them. They’re kind of all spread out. It’s a lot of walking which is great. I did over 15,000 steps most days. I still felt like the healthy choices were less available and less appealing. I did do well with not eating gluten not having eggs and a few other things that I am not supposed to eat due to a thyroid issue. So I actually feel really proud of that. For example I had a grilled cheese on gluten-free bread and I was able to enjoy tomato soup and I’m not really supposed to have that much dairy, but I find that Dairy in terms of cheese ice cream all that doesn’t seem to affect me the way eggs affect me.

So I felt really proud of myself and it was really delicious which had me thinking. Maybe I need to buy some gluten-free bread and start eating that In The sandwiches at home so that I have more variety in my diet. Another thing that I felt very proud of was that I ordered gluten-free pasta. We went to Tony Napoli’s, which is a very famous Italian restaurant in New York City in Midtown near 42nd St. and it was so tasty. I’ve been eating gluten-free pasta for a while, mostly from Aldi And it’s typically not that great, pretty gummy and overall just doesn’t taste so great but the one at Tony Napoli was so good and I did not miss the gluten at all. I also did not eat any of the bread on the table, even though I have called myself a self-professed breadaholic.

So what I’m doing now is deciding to look at all the positives #1, in the past I probably would’ve gained like 10 or 15 pounds and completely erase any of my progress. I am still pretty much in the 10 to 15 pound range of weight loss that I was able to achieve. I started out close to 170 and this morning when I weighed myself, I was about 152. At the end of the week before last I was 147 so yes I did go up but again I feel like as I get older I’m 43, 44 this year I noticed that my PMS symptoms are worse so for example the bloating is the next level my stomach looks pregnant. Also, I start to notice some symptoms earlier, which will have me confused like what is my period coming? And then it’ll be like a whole week before it comes so I do know I need to give myself grace.

Another thing I’m proud of? At the hotel we stayed at on 37th St. it was pretty busy and there were so many people there which consequently meant that often it was long waits for the elevator. After breakfast the first day, my daughter and I decided to take the stairs and walked about 10 flights. Then another day we took the stairs again to and from but this time we were more prepared and we walked back up again took a couple breaks not many and I felt really good about myself. For me booty ain’t a thing. All I need to do is do some squats or like I mention take the stairs and I will have the results of somebody who is probably overloading on protein and doing heavy leg days. So even though my tummy is more bloated than I wanted it to be the booty is popping lol.

Anyway, I just want to be accountable and to be honest with what I am going through. I found it difficult to find good and appealing available food even though I still feel good about many of the choices I made for example I had hot chocolate once but most of the time I just opted for tea. I also found that it was hard to get water and then have to deal with going to the bathroom all the time, but I still chose to drink water and just kept an eye out for different baths that I could visit. And again the gluten-free and the walking in the stairs I’m gonna celebrate that because I feel like in the past it’s been worse, but I feel like through this process. I am understanding this is what it needs to make a lifestyle change.

And no, I did not reach my weight by my Caribbean vacation, but that’s OK. I am learning that I am building the mindset that is necessary to make the lasting permanent changes that I want and even better than that I am learning to be kind to myself to give myself grace to not treat myself as if I’m just making excuses even through this process. I realize I cannot do a 1200 cal a day diet most days. It just does not work for me. It leaves me starving and irritable. It also makes it where even healthy food that I love ends up, taking up too many calories and I can’t even enjoy my meals so my goal is to start posting more often. When I’m in the Caribbean I don’t know how much I can post so I might have to just do something like this with a synopsis of how everything went, but outside of that my goal is to post here maybe daily or a few times a week and just keep checking in. Keep You know discussing whether or not I was able to meet my calories. That was one thing I didn’t also share that also I would go over my calories often and so this is why I realize 1200 cal a day wasn’t going to work so now I wanna be more strategic about my calorie so I feel like this can be what I used to do that I hope everybody is having a great week. Stay focused on your goals. Stay committed and give yourself grace.