Day 3
I started dieting last week, although my very first post is today. I came across some other weight loss blogs while surfing the internet, and I think this could be a very helpful and useful tool in keeping myself accountable and responsible for my diet.
I want to give a brief history of my struggles with weight and dieting. I grew up in a very very "food friendly" household. My Mom always kept dessert on the table and almost always had unhealthy snacks and cookies around. My friends jokingly referred to my house as "the buffet." Everything was served at my house loaded with bread, cheese, mayo, you name it.
I had always been a very small girl and only weighed about 115 when I was 5' 6". When I hit puberty, that all changed. About the time I was 14 years old, my weight climbed a great deal in a year. I was wearing a size 2 or 4, and then saw myself buying size 6, 8, and even 10. My eating habits had not changed, and I didn't understand it. However, I still didn't really mind. I was about average among my friends.
Right after I graduated from high school, I caught a cold for a few weeks. I probably lost between 5-10 pounds, and LOVED the feeling of being skinny. People commented on my weight loss and how great I looked, and I loved the feeling and the attention. I wanted more. I started taking diet pills and spiraled into what I call a mild form of anorexia. If my behavior had continued, I would probably now be a full blown anorexic. All I ate each day for 3 months was a salad with low calorie dressing and a piece of pita bread. I dropped about 40 pounds in those 3 months. Everyone was worried about me, and my mini eating disorder was out of control.
I can't describe what really maked me stop, but I just snapped. One day I found myself eating everything in sight. I gained some weight back, and flip flopped between eating nothing and eating everything. Binge, restrict, binge, restrict, repeat. Looking back, I'm sure this behavior destroyed my metabolism. This continued for about 2 years, until the restricting stopped. Then, it was just binging.
My senior year of college, I ate and drank all of the time. 2 trips to McDonalds a day, pizza, 12 beers a night. Pizza was an everyday staple for me. I continued this self destructive behavior and eventually got up to 170 pounds. That was my highest. I swore this would stop as soon as I graduated from college, but I thought the weight would melt away if I just cut out fast food and alcohol. I've lost about 8 pounds since then, but have had a difficult time losing the other weight I took with me from college.
Now, I'm really ready and I think this website is an excellent way to hold myself accountable. I think if I am writing down every bit of food I eat, and my weight each day, it will help me stay on track. I've never tried the Atkins diet (I love carbs too much) or Weight Watchers, and my plan is just to really cut calories and exercise. Weight Watchers is something I would consider, but I became an expert at the calorie content of almost ALL food items during my "mini anorexia" phase. For now, I'm shooting for between 1300-1600 calories per day, plus a small amount of exercise. I try to walk for half of my lunch break during work (30 minutes) and I also enjoy pilates and bike riding (SO easy, yet less work than running!) Once I get more into it, I will try to get back to running and possibly weight training. However, when I run a lot, I usually maintain weight, but probably gain muscle. I'm still in the beginning stages of my diet, so I NEED to see that number on the scale go down.
I weigh myself everyday, and I think that helps me stay on track.
Now that I've given my lengthy history, I'll talk about the present. I started dieting on Sunday. At that point, I weighed 162 pounds. I've been trying to eat more healthily and less and exercise a bit, so today I find myself down to 159. I ate a pretty big lunch, so I'm hoping for a smaller, healthy dinner to compensate. I've been drinking Slim Fast shakes, and I swear that they work wonders for my metabolism. I used to not eat breakfast, so this is my compromise. I'm still figuring this thing out, so I'm going to try to use the Food Tracker, and also change my weight. Good luck to all :)