Hi Loseforreal
Thank you for your kind comments.
Yes - it is true that I started my project in late February. I am not sure what date - but it was in the last week of February. I did not announce anything even to my husband about it - I just planned the meals with the concept of trying to be careful in mind, went out on a little walk in the daytime when he was at work and everytime he brought me in a sweet or chocolate biscuit - I said nothing and just put it in a drawer. At first when asked I said - "I will have it later". I had been on so many failed diets in the past and each time ended up heavier than before - so when the 1996 Weight Watchers attempt had the same result I swore never to
diet again and to be content to try and maintain my size.
I did all that I could to ignore my size - I very rarely allowed photos to be taken and never weighed myself.
The first time that I weighed myself was 14th March when I weighed 20 st 7 lbs. I only know what my start weight was is because my doctor told me what I had weighed when she saw me in November last year. Since I believe that it is impossible that I will have lost weight over Christmas and a February trip to Wales where the hotel served huge meals - I have happily taken the November 21
stone weight as my start weight. It is perfectly possible that I may have actually been a few
pounds heavier in late February.
I do weigh myself every day - and for quite a while I lost about a
stone a month (14
pounds). This has reduced a little over the last couple of months.
I have a project spreadsheet where I record all the influencing factors that I can think of - what exercise I do, what I eat, what I weigh - and as soon as I detect a slow-down I try to take some form of action - because I like to see ongoing results.
I started off walking only very small distances - but I did build it up to insane distances - but this did not happen over night. At first I was more than happy if I get say 2/3 of a mile walked. I increased as I was able so I can see from my spreadsheet that by 14th March (when I got methodical and started the spreadsheet) I did a walk that was 1.6 miles. I did not try to walk particularly fast - but was happy to simply get from A to B. As time got on I noticed that I had naturally speeded up. On 13th April I had got up to 3.3 miles, by the start of May I was on 4.3 miles.
When I got my pedometer it was brilliant - not only did you include the little bits around the house which all contribute to burning
calories - but it meant that if I went on other shorter walks I could get the "reward" of seeing a quantitive value for it. I found that this encouraged me to do more.
For a while - every time I hit a plateau or my loss rate slowed down - I just added a little bit to the distance that I would try and walk in the day.
I have no idea how many
calories I get. I find counting
calories counter-productive to my attempts at
dieting. I think that it is a very valuable tool that assists 99.9% of people to effectively lose weight - but I am the exception. The problem lies in my psychology. I eventually eat more
calories than I am allowed for the day or week and then I feel a complete failure. I then eat everything in site and stop making all efforts. I have failed so many times at this point. If I am undecided as to whether I should eat something I check out how many
calories are in it and that often helps me to decide - but generally I eat what I believe is a balanced
diet (I get protein, fruit, vegetables, cereal and milk each day and some
fat a couple of times a week) and I try to be moderate in my requirements whilst never getting hungry. I aim to drink 2 litres of water each day. I list in the diary everything that I have eaten in the day. I am generous with my portions so when I talk of a handfull - I mean a really big handfull plonked on a plate.
I do still use the bio-oil. I try and do two massages a day on my abdomen (but it is quite often just one) - this has always been my worst area - ever since I got big. I am just trying to encourage my skin to behave as well as possible. I think that the action of massage is possibly almost as useful as the bio-oil itself. I try and massage other bits of me too with oil or lotion once each day (thighs, boobs, upper arms, bum). Although I have some loose skin - I think that generally I am better than I deserve to be now that I am 2/3 of the size that I was. I still have a long way to go though and who can say how things turn out when some of the other rolls of
fat go!! I also take vitamins designed to help my skin cope and the water is good for the skin too.
Feel free to ask me any questions that occur to you. I may not know the answer but am more than happy to help to the best of my ability.
With luck we can all inspire each other to reach our goals. Good luck with yours.
Take care
Best wishes
Margaret
Don't we all? 
It goes to prove what I have always said about getting them young and training them up.... We have been together since he was just 22.
Linear Mode
