Constantly struggling!

Even after a large amount of weight lost I still struggle constantly. Every day I have to make choices to stay healthy. HARD CHOICES!  I love my new job however there are always opportunities to be tempted by food that makes me salivate and want to cheat. I don’t deprive myself by any means because what I know about myself is if I don’t allow myself to eat some treats I will crave them and then eat too many. Then I feel terrible about myself and that is just flat out counterproductive. I LOVE SWEETS. That is my biggest struggle. There are always donuts, cake, casseroles and so many other temptations available. I have to have just a little slice of cake or just a taste. I remind myself often how very hard I worked to get to where I am right now. It was a struggle but so worth it. I have changed my lifestyle and I intend to keep it that way. However, it is so difficult but I have a lot of strength and I want to continue to live a happy healthy life.

Time for change....

In 2009, my husband went to the doctor for a routine check-up and his doctor casually asked him if he had ever considered having Gastric Bypass Surgery. Brian's immediate reaction was why would I do that? I don't need surgery! I'm not that heavy! His doctor gently hinted that it might really be necessary for health reasons and he did qualify weight-wise. His doctor also mentioned having

this surgery may add 10-15 years to his life. After the shock wore off he began to consider making a huge choice. After some careful consideration of the risks he finally decided it was necessary. In preparation for the surgery he was required to lose 20 pounds on his own. He had to make some changes and start eating from the approved for list for after the surgery. He also had to cut back on his calories. Suddenly I started to slowly consider my own health and weight. I

had ignored this for quite a while and my husband’s changes to his diet made me really take a closer look at what I was eating. I had to make some CHANGES!

The first change was an easy one to begin with. The first thing I did was figure out how many calories I ate in a day. I honestly had no idea. I started

tracking my food intake on dailyplate.com. This was a huge help for me in the beginning to keep track what I was eating throughout the day. Up until now I had no clue. Another thing I quickly realized that I never felt full. I never had a full feeling and purely ate until my plate was empty. So, the first changes I made were to eat off of smaller plates. It may sound strange but that helped tremendously with my portion control. So, my first challenge was to go from eating 2000 calories in a day to 1500 calories. I also did not drink water to be healthy I drank it when I wanted to but also had no idea how much water I actually drank in a day so I started logging that as well on dailyplate.com . So, the first change I made was reducing my calories from 2000 to 1500. I also had to really realize that this was a chan

ge for the rest of my life. I had to remind myself of this often. Previously, I had tried different diets and failed because I knew they were just temporary. This was a decision to change for the rest of my life and it felt good!

Here I am at my sister's wedding around this time.

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