Just saying Hi. You're doing great. Keep up the good work and awesome attitude.

Thanks, Happychubette. Good work yourself!
And you got me to page number 2!

Thanks everybody for comments on my attitude&positivity.

I have to confess that it's been a long way to this point in my life and hopefully as long a way yet to come. There are couple of important things that I've learned about myself lately and they have massively changed my attitude towards myself and my weight.

First one has to do mainly with the psychology of being overweight. I, as many of you, didn't at first notice that I actually was overweight. And even when the scale was telling me the numbers, I could not see myself as being overweight even when I tried. Only in photographs I saw me as I was, but still couldn't believe it. I just always thought "that's me".
Suddenly I realized I've always thought of myself as a fundamentally fat person. I don't even know where I got the idea from, since as a child I wasn't even chubby. So this self-image has actually nothing to do with your weight. I just never thought I could be beautiful or thin or even that my appearance could be of importance. And since I thought being fat was a part of my personality, I grew so accustomed to it that I couldn't see it when it really happened. I had just always thought of me like that.
I believe people tend to become what their self-image allows them to become. In my case, not thin and beatiful but overweight. Realizing this, I could finally address the real problem. Since I didn't want to be a fat person but thin and sexy, I had to start thinking of myself as thin and sexy..

Second point has more to do with the actual technique of eating. My biggest problem was (and still would be, if I allowed it) eating very irregularly. I could eat no breakfast and work happily till three in the afternoon. At that point I was really tired (having had literally no energy), eat late lunch and get even more tired. After that I'd be insatiably hungry for the rest of the day, my body craving for energy it didn't get earlier. So the only thing in that I can be thankful for is that I craved rye bread and salads instead of chips and candy. But I can only imagine the amount of bread and salad I poured in myself in order to gain my extra 10 kgs.
Now I've gotten my eating organized: breakfast when I wake up, lunch between noon and one, snack at three-four, dinner at six-seven, snack before I go to bed if I feel like it. Results (four weeks of extra-careful eating): I'm feeling energetic all day, I'm starting to feel hungry little before it's time to eat and the hunger goes away when I eat, I don't have cravings, my weight is going down, I feel the amount I'm eating is enough, sometimes even a lot (but I'm still eating everything I've planned to eat at the scheduled time, I'm done with skipping meals).

And then there's the third point, in a way more important than the first two.
I couldn't be in this stage of my life if I hadn't lived through everything I have first. So there's no time wasted, no wrong choices in the past. All the time had to pass for me to learn the things I've learned. All the choices were my best in the circumstances where they were made. I shouldn't regret the past, or worry about the future. The only reasonable thing to do is to try to do now as I know best, and come what may, I know tomorrow that I tried. If it works, good! If it doesn't, I'll just try again.

There's my philosophy for today. I hope it helps somebody. I know it helped me and writing it down clarified it some more.

Now it's bedtime here in Santaland. Sweet dreams!
Juliette

your eating times are the same as mine
i like to see somebvody else doing the same things as me - it makes me fell as though i am doing something right
good luck with the weight loss

Hi there, Sophie!
Right now those times really are working for me, I hope it's the same for you. It took me maybe week or two to get the system running and start believing in it. And another week to get my hunger reflex going (as it should, you know, feeling hungry when you've not eaten and feeling full when you have. ), but now the eating time system is doing the work for me.
Went to read your diary, keep up the work you're doing!
And about water: I don't think water can take away actual hunger, but often we feel thirst AS hunger (we think we're hungry when we are in fact thirsty) and in those situations drinking a good glass of water might stop you from over-eating. So my advice is: if you think you should eat something, drink a glass of water and do something else for 10 minutes. If you're still hungry after that, you probably are really hungry, if not, it was just thirst.
Have a good weekend!
Juliette

thankyou these times do work for me as i reckon they are just long enough to not be overindulging but short enough to fend off any hunger.
i have done well on the water side of things today
hope youve had a good day

Hi, everybody!
Been really busy and away from home so have missed my Monday morning appointments with my scales. But here are the measurements for this morning, so Wednesday this time:

Weight 68.5 kg
Body fat 28.5%
Muscle mass 33.6%
Body water 52.1%

It was my birthday in the weekend so I've happily eaten cake and everything I've wanted, but managed to stick to a reasonable amount of whatever I've put in my mouth, so I'm happy with myself.
The skirt that I planned to wear on my birthday actually fits perfectly right now. I didn't wear it though, because the thermometer dropped under -20 C.. But I'm saving it for the warmer weather.
My goal of reaching BMI of 25 is 0.5 kgs away and I'm really hoping to go below 68 kgs in about a week. I'm going to continue until about 67 kgs and then think again about what I want to do next.
Happy Valentine's to all of you!!!
Juliette

hi juliete! congrats on the weight loss and fitting into that skirt - you can save it for another special occasion .. you never know..it may be too big then!!
and well done for your portion control at the weekend - i hope you had a lovely birthday.
nice to see you back around here -i was wondering where you had got to! x

Hi Juliette!
Happy belated birthday! I really admire you: I wouldn't have been able to control myself in front of my birthday cake!

Congrats on your skirt fitting perfectly! I'm sure you look gorgeous in it!

Ah it's so good to see somebody else's ticker with kgs instead of lbs...I just can't relate to lbs! I never understand how much weight people have lost or have to lose!

Yes, me neither.. Did myself a spreadsheet chart for conversion. Whatever amount I need to convert I just enter in my table..
1 pound=0,454 kgs, so:
to convert from pounds: pounds*0,454=kgs
to convert from kgs: kgs/0,454=pounds

And then there are the British with their stones, which I've never quite figured out..
More information on that at Conversion of units - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Monday again:

Weight 68.0 kg
Body fat 28.5%
Muscle mass 33.6%
Body water 52.1%

Good things about those figures: This makes me officially "normal" according to BMI (24,97). In pounds I'm 149.8 which is also a nice new number.. And bad: The other figures, however, aren't quite what I'd want so I need to think can I do something about them... Not right now, though, because
A nasty flu hit me yesterday.
Fever currently up to 38,7 C.
Good things about that: can't go to work.
Bad things about that: feeling really rotten.
Hoping this will go away soon, and
Wishing all of you a good week!
Juliette

Look on the bright side of things: when you have the flu you can watch as much tv as you want and nobody blames you :P
I hope you'll get better soon!

get better soon juliette
well done on that weight loss..lets keep it up!

Thanks for the warm thoughts, girls!
They seem to have a cooling effect on my fever. ->
And yes, it's definitely tv day here.
Juliette

enjoy the day of television... Hope there's some fun stuff on that won't make you go too insane...