The 8000th Day 1

I am trying this again. Another diet. Another way to live. Hopefully..... scratch that... not hopefully. This time I WILL stick with it and be successful.

Start weight ~240. I will weigh tomorrow morning after being successful today. This will minimize the fake weight that people usually lose in the first day. I have 100 lbs to lose. As an adult the lowest weight I have been is 136. I am 5' 6 1/2". XL bones.

I have eaten today:

4 Yogurts - Calories 380
4 Reeces - Calories 420
Wasabi Party Mix - Calories 110

right now I am at 910.
I am shooting to keep it under 1500 today. We are having chicken quesadillas tonight for dinner. I will keep it at half a quesadilla and that will keep me under 1500.


I have lost "the weight" a few times. Or at least lost enough weight to really feel good about myself.

Age 18 - lost from 187 down to 140 (low of 136) over a period of three to four months. I felt so much better. I worked full time in restaurants (on my feet all day) and was going to school full time. I remained around 142 for a least two or three years. Then I started to creep upwards. I remember working two jobs the summer I was 22. I remember at that point I had gained up to about 160-165 and I remember feeling fear, or that I didn't feel like I knew how to make it go down anymore. I met my husband that fall and know I was right around 168 that Thanksgiving. By the time we moved in together that next spring I was up to 175 and didn't know how to turn it around. I gained up to 185 by that fall, but would manage at times to get it back under 175.

By age 25 it had climbed up to 195? I was doing a lot of physical labor at the time and I know I felt the weight in my back and knees by this point. My 14's barely fit, if they did at all. I don't remember. I don't think I have any .... I do have one pair of 16's from that period. I think I bought them and immediately started to lose...

I lost down to 163 over the period of 2 or three months. I was eating low glycemically and had no food in the house at all during this time period. I do remember feeling really, really cute at 163 after being close to 200. There is a world of difference in how people view you at those two weights.

By the summer of 2001 I was back up to 190? I was doing a lot of comfort eating during this time. I remember eating until stuffed a lot of nights in a row....

Until 2004 I gradually gained up to 240. I changed jobs that fall and immediately started losing. The new job wasn't near as stressful as the old one. I think I used a combination of diet pills, low calorie, spurts of low glycemic at this time... I got down to 193. I received a lot of compliments from people at work. I could once again fit into a size 16 and a XL shirt. It opened up a world of clothes again. I have a lot of cute clothing from this size waiting for me in storage.

Over the last 4 years I have gradually put it all back on. I am here again. 240. Swollen ankles. Bad knees. Bad back. I am getting higher and higher blood pressure. The sugar fog I experience at times reminds me that I will end up with diabetes if I don't get this under control soon. My brother has type one... most of my extended family has/had type II.


Right now I am only going to focus on getting back down under 200 lbs. I think having to think about the whole amount I need to lose is a little overwhelming. At 200 lbs I will be able to wear a ton of clothes that are toted up. It won't be as hot this summer if I weigh less. My knees won't hurt and my ankles hopefully won't swell like they have been. Forty pounds. That is doable. I am going to try to cut out the more refined carbs. I am not going to say that I am not going to eat any. I have a real issue with the all or nothing mentallity. I will take each day as it comes and hopefully even with the bad days that I am going to have, if I can keep the running average somewhere between 1000 - 1500 calories per day, I will be doing really well. The last time I lost weight (starting from 240) I know that over the course of 31 days I averaged 1000 calories per day and lost 21.5 lbs. I am hoping to mimic this. If I could lose around twenty, I know the success breeds success thing will kick in and it will get easier. I am wearing a pair of 20W jeans. Reality check time.

Using the calorie calculator at freedieting.com tells me that right now my maintenance calories are 2486. At 140 my maintenance calories will be 1861 (at the same activity level). I need to get used to eating 625 calories less a day to get where I am going. If I walk 1/2 hour per day I will burn an additional 230 calories. I can lose almost 1/2 lb per day during this initial phase of weight loss. So... I am going to go walk for the next half hour. =)