Ten Down

Before we went on vacation to Utah in June I weighed more than I ever had in my entire life, even when I was 9 months pregnant with either child. But I also enjoyed eating food more than I cared about being fat. So while I didn't like being overweight, I also didn't care enough to do anything about it. Actually I was more than overweight. According to my BMI, I was just over the edge of obese. Not a nice thing to be. Then we went on vacation. Between being asked if I was pregnant and seeing this picture of me:

(my arms look like puffy sausages and my skinny sister only makes me look worse) it was enough to tip me over the edge to caring.

When we got home, a friend of mine conveniently posted on her blog that she was doing the ABS Diet (hokey, scam-looking Web site, but the books are good!). She used key words like "haven't once felt hungry" and "awesome" workout plan, so I decided I'd check it out. I went to the library and cleaned them out of ABS Diet books. They have general overall books and books specifically on the diet and on the workouts.

I had already been exercising on my elliptical everyday, so all this plan required of me was switching out some of my cardio workouts for weight workouts. The books have pictures of all the exercises, which is nice. The "diet," which is more of a lifestyle change, focuses around 12 power foods which you are free to plan your meals around. I don't use their recipes since they feel like diet recipes. I've found that a lot of what we were eating fit nicely into the plan or only needed slight tweaking to work. Plus, I get to cheat once a week and eat whatever I want. So when I'm craving a hamburger, I know I am only a couple days away from being allowed to eat one. This helps keep me sane. Plus I'm allowed to eat ice cream.

While I didn't lose weight as dramatically as the books said I would, I've been following the plan for 10 weeks and I have lost 10 pounds. This is the first time in my life that I have lost weight on purpose, and only the second time I've lost weight period. The only other time was basic training, and you can't help that. So my whole life I've either stayed the same or gained. So I'm pretty proud of myself. I'm sure I could lose a little bit faster if I were to count calories and workout more, but as long as the numbers are going down, I'm all right with that.

And on a side note, why is it that on the way up we feel fat, but on the way down the same weight makes us feel skinny? I remember weighing exactly what I weigh now and feeling fat beyond relief. Now I weigh the same thing but I feel skinny. Crazy.

So I'm down 10 and I have 30 more to go before I'm at a healthy weight for my height. I'm out of the obese zone, though still in overweight. But I feel better and look better and don't get near as tired doing things like climbing stairs, which used to kill me. So here's to hoping my desire to be skinny doesn't ever wane behind my love of eating!