Rethinking the whole thing and looking for my second wind

Ah...  well.. we've all heard me b*tch and moan about the roller coaster - heard me go off the deep end a few times - the worst one being a short time ago.  I watched it happen again, but this time I went off on some hershey kisses and other low carb dieter no no's.  For 2 days, I thought it was over.  As close as I get to 200 lbs, I always end up gaining.  I keep examining everything I do.. and analyzing everything to death.  It definitely makes me nuts.

This last shot I went back up to 222 and change in a week and a half or so.. about 17 lbs.  I've already begun to take steps to fight this and spent a lot of time researching and rethinking everything. 

I stopped taking the Chantix and in two days 5 lbs came off and I'm not feeling so unwell..  it was like a medication induced flu or something .. and it definitely was kicking my butt.  Ok.. so I'm still smoking..  I'll forgive myself for that and get back to my original task of getting the weight off.  I'm just going to accept that I can't make 2 major changes at once and be done with the thought.

Ok.. so new plan:
I've backed off of the exercise some.  I was going twice a day, 6 days a week.  Two hours a day of cardio for the most part and three days included an hour of weight training.
I haven't been to the gym since Friday.  So that's three days off and tomorrow I'll do 30 minutes of cardio with an hour of weights and that's it.  So.. I'm going to do Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for 2 weeks.... then try to up it a bit and see what happens.

I already mentioned that I'm off the chantix - and already seeing a difference.  I'm concerned about the Crestor and lasix, but I'm going to keep up with that and try other changes.

I've gone back to my fit day to see what I was eating when the weight was falling off of me.  At over 300 lbs I was eating between 1000 and 1400 calories a day.  I haven't weighed and measured anything in a while.. rather eyeballing it, but I think it's time to go back to the scale and measuring spoons for a while.

I added tomato and onion to my veggies.. I'm taking them back off.  I got back on the sugar free French vanilla creamer and I'm taking it back off and replacing it with half and half for my coffee (which will now be limited to 3 cups a day).  I added diet Mountain Dew and Diet Snapple - taking them back off.  I could be sensitive to the artificial sweeteners in those.

Setting new goal:  Since I didn't make my original goal of 180 by June 30th (which might have been too lofty), I'll get back to thinking in terms of 10 lbs at a time.  Today I weighed at 215 and change.  I'm shooting for 209 right now.

Anyway. it's a place to start.  Any ideas are appreciated - I'm pretty well at a loss and a definite plateau which is something I expected but had no plan in place to deal with.

Lori

SW  TODAY:  215.8
Goal weight:  209

Lori, now here's the thing about you doing the diet Dew...that stuff is full of caffeine which will elevate your insulin levels and although it has zero carbs per serving, it contains concentrated orange juice in it which also has an affect on your blood sugar.  And the carbonated water is full of sodium which will cause water retention.  Something else I never did understand, why does it have to contain Splenda AND aspertame?  That stuff would give me a headache.  And I'm sure that that creamer was stopping your weight loss because they have corn syrup in them.  If you are really sensitive to carbs, try using heavy whipping cream instead of half and half.  You use less of it so there are less carbs.  And if you put a hint of vanilla extract in it....voila, vanilla cream coffee!

Oh boy, quitting smoking and dieting are a ****** I think you made the right choice of not combining the two until you get it all together.  You and I are 'special'.  I call it the one step forward and two steps back diet!  So keep dancing Sister! 

Mary

  

Mary... I honestly had no idea about all of that with the diet dew.  I knew about the caffeine, and the aspartame (which is why I was ditching it), but had no clue about the oj.  Today is the first day I didn't pop open a bottle.. and this afternoon I began throwing ketones again.. AMEN!

Hallelujah Sister...Ketosis!  

Mary

Hey Chicky,
I think you reevaluating your scenario is a great place to start.  Keeping your goals to reachable increments is a good idea - the more motivation the better.

I definitey think that trying to lose weight AND quit smoking is extra extra hard.  Are they the two most commonly used New Years Resolutions?  So you decided to do the two hardest resolutions at the same time???  You've got one helluva set of cahoonies, if you ask me.   One at a time, girl.  Best thing you can do is break it down.

Focusing on food, and exercise in a "one at a time" regime is a good idea.  Try to find a cycle in each that works for you. 

Your head is in the right place.  I've got nothing to say to you to change your plans.  It looks like you've got a great plan laid out.

Love ya!!

Hahahha.. hey.. it wasn't my idea to quit smoking.  My doctor has been getting on me for a long time and this past visit he blew a hissy fit and just wrote the rx for the chantix.  I did tell him at the previous visit that when I hit 180 I would make a sincere effort.  I guess he figured I'd never hit 180.  I gotta grow a set one day and learn how to say "no" when it's no.

I got dressed and undressed 3 times today - kept getting ready to go to the gym then backed off and remembered the "plan".  I'm too conditioned at this point for the cardio to help me with the weight loss.  It's VERY hard to get up to my target heart rate for fat burning.... I just gotta back off some.... then make another run for it in a couple of weeks.

 

I feel for you.  I'd really suggest putting the scale away, doing the math, making a plan, living the plan and not checking with the scale to see what it says.

And stay low carb, yes on heavy cream vs half and half, plan sweets (see my fudge recipe), and stop overtraining in the gym!

Then just be good to your body.  It's God's temple...you wanna mess with that????

Thanks..I normally don't do sweets (diabetic).  I had an indiscretion.. but I was just being spiteful with myself.  I saw that recipe, and the one you posted for the cheesecake - was thinking of trying to make the cheesecake.  Jon loves cheesecake and since he's doing the low carb as well (more like the OWL on Atkins), I thought he'd enjoy that. 

Lori:
Sounds like you have a great plan!  You are an awesome success already! 

Best wishes for continued success,

Kim

TY Kim.  Just gettin' back to doin' the do the way I used to do it!