Progress

First off, I'm down 8 pounds since Tuesday! I was stunned, seriously. That makes a total of 16.2 (and the point 2 is important) pounds since I started on Feb. 9. I'm really proud of myself and fairly surprised that I seem to be doing this. I've felt so defeated for so long when it comes to my weight. When you fail over and over at something your whole life, it's hard to rationalize the effort to start over. Especially when you have so much to lose; it just seems like an impossible goal to achieve.

When I went up a pound last week, I never would've imagined going down 8 this week. But if there's one thing I have learned in my life of dieting, it's that weight loss is a roller coaster ride and you just sorta have to keep on putting one foot in front of the other and do your thing.

I've been using Sparkpeople to keep a food diary and weight-loss tracker. I really can't say enough good things about the site. You simply input your goal (for me, it was to lose 40 pounds by my next dr. appointment in Detroit, April 24) and it tells you exactly how much you need to eat every day to meet it. There are message boards, groups you can join with members who have like-minded goals, exercise videos, etc. All for FREE. My nutritionist at Henry Ford kept repeating that: "Did I mention it was free?" It's a pretty cool place. You have your own profile page like on My Space or Facebook and you can post blogs there, too. Here's a screenshot of my food diary for this past Thursday:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/Cindi94/Misc/diary.jpg

I recently revamped my goal and now I have more calories to eat - before it was 1,700-2,000, so that's why it seems like I didn't eat near the calories I was supposed to. And that was a bad veggie day for me, I know. See how it keeps track of water intake, calories, carbs, fat and protein? Then you just do a search for the food you ate and click to put it in your diary. If it's not there, you can input it yourself and other members can access it for their use later. This was a real eye opener for me and really puts things into perspective. Not only does it keep me on track by showing me, in black & white, the value of everything I put into my mouth, but it also lets me know that I can eat maybe more than I thought or maybe things I didn't think I could. As long as I meet those guidelines every day, I can have whatever. I do try to keep track of sodium, too, and it allows that and does it for me in separate area. I've also noticed that snacking isn't evil and if I can spread out those calories as much as possible, then I'm not hungry - ever. It's a good thing.

So check out Sparkpeople if you're so inclined. I think it's been the best tool for me so far. And to think I was dreading keeping a food diary! This is better for me because it totally breaks things down. Plus I can type and not write. I've become very lazy about handwriting, as I think a lot of people are.

Gearing up for another week! Thanks everyone again for reading!