Monday, March 7, 2011

Well, it's official

I weigh less now than I have in the last 5 years.  Since I was 21.  Yay!

I hope you don't mind this celebratory post.  On December 15th I decided to start a long-term weight loss goal, and I'm committed to going until at least June 2011.  (What was I thinking starting 10 days before Christmas?!)  So I'm almost halfway through now, and I've lost about 16 pounds, putting me - in this last week - lower on the scale than I've seen since 2006.  You can see my weight tracking in the chart on the right.

The hardest part about this was committing to doing this at all, and doing it long-term.  I dithered over the course of six months because honestly I didn't really feel that bad about my weight.  I know good people for whom body weight is a very emotional struggle, I've read stories about the agony people have felt as they desired so strongly to change their body size, and I can understand.  For me, it really wasn't an emotional issue which is why I think it took me so long to decide to do a diet.  I finally did decide to do it because I realized that it's not too late for me to look and feel pretty.  I hope that doesn't sound really superficial.  But while I haven't felt bad about my body, I haven't really felt pretty, either.  So it would be nice to feel that way for a little while before babies and age and whatever else change things again.

So what am I doing?  Just eating 1500 calories a day.  That's pretty much it.  Some days it's more and some days it's less.  And every once in awhile I sit on the couch downstairs and finish off all of the chocolates in the house while watching a sumptuous literary adaptation.  Did I mention this was a long-term goal?  The biggest change has just been learning to resist things, or to take things in moderation.  Stopping after one portion (not always successful), have smaller portions in general.  I have tried to eat better, too, having more fruits and vegetables, and I've also added in a bit of exercise, but the main thing is I'm just not eating as much.  I still have a cheeseburger every once in awhile, but it's only  every once in awhile, and I go easy on the rest of my food for that day.  I don't have enough self-discipline to be really fastidious about all of this, and I'm not really into feeling miserable about my life because I don't get to have any pie.  I still have pie, I just have a tiny bit.

Anyway, that's what I'm up to lately.  It's been slow going, but I'm always quite happy if the numbers on the scale aren't going down, at least they're not going back up.  Just maintaining these low weights is a nice thing, too!

7 comments:

Barney Family said...

AWESOME, CONGRATS!! That's quite a bit, I'm proud of you for keeping with it!

Hannah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hannah said...

Good job! You are looking amazing.

Hugs from mom said...

That's awesome Breanne. One of the hardest things to do is change how you eat. I have a sister in law who teaches kickboxing, bikes, runs, and is basically just super active but she was only able to lost 50 lbs when she started eating just 1500 calories a day (on top of all her excercise). It's crazy how those numbers can add up too. Stick with it. I'm really proud of you.

Adrienne said...

Good work!!

Ross and Kathy said...

Good Job Bre! You know last year I committed to walking 2 miles each day. I finished the year having walked 730 miles - and I weighed 2 pounds more than on 1/1/10. This year I decided I'd walk 2-1/2 miles each day, but when the doctor put me on skin cancer medication I got sick to my stomach - for 7 weeks - and I lost 4 pounds. Go figure. I'm proud of you for your determination - of course we all know about Breanne's determination. But, ultimately I hope you're just plain healthy. Good Luck

Brooke S. said...

YAY! What a triumph! I too am trying to embark in a long term "21 year old weight" program...or at least 23! Way to go! Keep it up :)

Has it been hard to count the calories? I'd love to hear how to you do that when you have a minute. I like the exercise bit...it's the eating for me I'm afraid.