I weigh myself everyday this is not for everybody but you need to be in the right frame of mine to do this. I treat it as part of my day and it keeps me accountable I don't let the weight on the scale affect my day its just another tool on the weight loss journey. The way I lose weight is by chunks so I am quite happy if my weight stays the same or goes up a little because I know if I keep to my eating plan eventually my weight will go down by past experience I seem to be at my lightest in the middle of my cycle. You can find these things out by recording your weight everyday for about 3 months. The information comes in handy when your weight suddenly goes up 1.5 kilo's or 3lbs for no reason and stays there for about a week to 10 days and then starts going doing again it gives woman in particular information on what there body is doing in regard to fluid retention and at what time during the month, as long as I stick to my food plan and calories it always goes back down again. I really don't worry about how much I weigh until the end of the month and then see how I have gone for the whole month this gives me a much better picture of how I am going and stops the panicking over the scale going up a little.
Don't use the scale to beat yourself up or as an excuse to overeat because you didn't get the result you wanted. Losing weight is a marathon not a sprint so you need to look at the result on the scale as a guide to how you are going. The measuring tape is another really good guide to how well you are doing. What you have achieved in regard to exercise goals is also a good indicator as well as how you are feeling.
When I started this journey I was feeling really bad I was tired all the time I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs I wasn't sleeping very well and none of my clothes fitted. I was the heaviest I had ever been. I was very depressed and I had convinced myself this was how my life was going to be because I felt that at 48 I had left it too late, it wasn't possible to change. After getting home from a trip to visit family and friends, a very good friend of mine asked me that question you don't want anybody to ask and the one question you don't want to answer. He started with Ann I am really worried about you, what are you going to do about your weight I am concerned for your health. I said to him I know I need to do something about it I feel like I am out of control and at that moment because somebody had taken time to sit down with me and quietly ask the hard question I made a decision that I needed to do something about my lifestyle. I said to him I know I have to do this for my health but I want to do it slowly I want to get slimmer and fitter but I want to take it slowly small steps at a time (sparkpeople philosophy must have sunk in) I also knew that I had tried the fast way numerous times and it didn't work.
I started with a food tracker on sparkpeople and started counting calories nothing was out of bounds but it had to be tracked. SP gave me what I thought was a very generous calorie allowance and it was explained to me that a lot of people make the mistake of not eating enough I was definitely one of those. Because I don't like cooking I liked to use the meal replacements I obviously was not eating enough calories. I also started drinking water this wasn't that hard because I was a good water drinker anyway and gave up the Diet Coke I had a 3 can a day habit it wasn't doing me any good.
I also started to use frozen meals I knew that one of my biggest problems was portion control I had no idea of the correct amount of food to eat and how many calories were in that food. Lean Cuisines and Healthy Choice became my best friends I did supplement them with more vege's and just added in the calories. This helped a lot because I knew I was eating good food but I also new exactly how many calories I was eating. After about 2 months I was able to do a few meals for myself SP has a great tool for adding in a recipe and it gives you exactly what calories are in each portion I could break it all up and freeze it and it became a part of my food tracker.
I did this over quite a long period of time nearly 3 months I only really started exercising in the third month. I new I needed to get my food under some control before I could tackle the exercise as well. I did fall off the plan every now and then but once I had tracked my indiscretion and realised the calories I had eaten it was a big deterrent in straying to the bad side.
The biggest thing I discovered about this journey I had started was to change things slowly don't try to change everything at once its too hard. As soon as you feel you have one or two changes down add another one and so on. This is for life you need to be able to do this everyday a healthy lifestyle is something you do forever its not a diet that you go on and then stop its forever. You need to be able to live with the changes you have made forever.
Lifestyle changes are for life.
Ann
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