Stepping up my game

vjdelta

I spent all my life yo yo-ing madly. I was "chubby" by age 5, went on my first diet at 13. I had this image of myself as perpetually fat. Odd thing, I recently was going through pictures for a memory board for my dad's funeral and found that for much of the time I remembered myself as fat I was actually pretty normal. I hit my high point about 8 years ago somewhere above 300 pounds- quit weighing myself after 310- I would bet I hit 320, but not sure.

Decided I needed to get healthy without dieting. No weight goal, Just needed to learn to hear my body again. Needed to learn how to eat deliberately, with intention. Needed to quit using food as anesthesia. So I did, For eight years I had a set of rules: I can eat anything I want but it has to be exactly what I want. I have to eat frequently. I have to stop before I am full, I went from a size 26-28 to a size 18-20. I was down to 266 when I decided I needed to kick things up a notch. Still following the same rules. It is still about conscious eating. It is still about choices. it is not a diet but an eating plan. I have set a weight goal based on BMI below 25- 165 lbs. I have set my goal to lose 2 pounds a week- high but that is still a year.

I am using the book The Simple Diet- I know, I said it wasn't a diet, mentally it is not. It works for me because I am single and live a career obsessed life with an unpredictable schedule. It is truly simple:
3 replacement shakes a day
2 meals (Lean Cuisine, Smart Ones, etc)
5 fruits, veggies

The replacement shakes and meals have to meet certain calorie/fat/protein values. Easy to follow, well suited to recording all on this site. I am also doing exercise daily- started with 15 minutes a day on my Gazelle, am now doing 30, working up to an hour.

munchgen

That is AWESOME- Keep up the good work!!!