As I mentioned previously, I have been seriously focused on getting the lard off.
This process has mostly involved exercising on a daily basis and trying very hard not to allow my caloric intake to go over 1200 calories per day. I have to give some credit to Jim, when I expressed a desire to really lose some weight he started producing meals that were calculated to help with that aim. No cream sauces, few gravies, lots of veggies, etc. He has been supportive all the way and never has done anything to undermine my efforts, even going so far as to bake cookies very rarely, which is quite a sacrifice on his part.
When I first started the process, I weighed in at 198. This was after I had lost the five pounds I put on during the holidays when brownies, cookies, and peanut butter cups were produced in our kitchen on an almost daily basis and I, despite my best intentions, was not able to keep my little patty paws off them.
When I had my epiphany, my original aim was to drop my weight to 175 and then see how I felt. I know that I have sort of waffled about those goals, but today I am extremely elated to report that during my late flu and canker sore episode, I lost three pounds in five days and have achieved my first goal, which was to get down to 175.
By the way, I in no way shape or form endorse this as a method of weight loss. High fevers with the associated lack of appetite plus canker sores may be a very effective weight loss technique, but no one in their right mind would say this was a “good” way to lose weight. I also see no way to market this weight loss plan. However, it did work.
I was not interested in publishing my success until I was able to eat normally again and see that it was truly a loss and not just dehydration or the fact that I was no longer as full of shit as usual.
Apparently, it truly was a loss due to actual burning off of fat. Now I can report that my convalescence seems to be complete, my energy level is back and as soon as I am done reporting this news I am heading off to walk Ruby in the rather miraculous 70 degree weather that was ushered in by the thunderstorm that rolled through this afternoon.
I have set a new primary goal: I am now looking for 165. And I no longer feel like the idea of getting down to 150 is an impossibility. That is my new secondary goal.
When I reach my primary goal, it will be the first time I have weighed that small of an amount since before the (by now probably infamous) photo was taken of me in my can can girl get-up. At that time, I weighed 168 and had laboriously achieved that by running 3 miles a day and eating almost nothing.
When I get down to 150 that will be what I weighed during my senior year in college, a time when I swam a mile every morning.
My thighs no longer rub together when I walk. My wedding dress is now a little too big for me. I think I’m getting out my free weights this weekend.
I know what you want, so without having to be asked, I append two photos. One was taken June 18, 2007, when I was at 195. The second was taken about five minutes ago.
An interesting side note: The shorts in the first picture are now long enough they hit me just over the knee. The ones in the second picture were so short last year I did not wear them out of the yard. It’s the same shirt.
I’m pumped.
Ms HMH, has anyone ever told you you have great legs?!
Meanwhile, well done on the weight loss. In the last year, I have lost and kept off 12 pounds and it feels fantastic. For me, it’s also exercise and low-carb rather than low-fat eating. That seems to be the combination that works for me – and also keeps my blood sugar low.
Thanks for the compliment on my legs! I am actually pretty proud of them, and they are JUST like my mama’s. She still has great legs at 81.
I subscribe to the philosophy that one should eat a diet balanced in all nutrients. No low fat, no low carb, just don’t overdo on the total calories. After all, our bodies need it all, in moderation.
I like you very much in both pictures.
I take my hat off to your dedication.
Chapeau!!!
What is that instrument of torture that you have your foot on in the first photo.
Come for a virtual chat IMMEDIATELY when you want to stray from the dietary straight and narrow. You can moan and grumble and complain about life, but do it BEFORE you reach for that forbidden food, whatever it is.
That “instrument of torture” you mention is my broad fork. It is actually a lot less torturous to use than you might think. What it does is loosen the garden beds like a rototiller does, only without producing the hard pan that that tool will, plus it requires no fossil fuels to operate. It is actually easier to move around than the motorized implement, and makes no noise. I can go through one of my 4×20 raised beds and loosen the soil and it takes me about 15 – 20 minutes.
Elliot Coleman touted this tool in his book “Four Season Harvest”, and after I lusted after it for four years Jim got it for me for a birthday present.
A post that talks about it is here: https://healingmagichands.wordpress.com/2007/06/18/broad-fork/
I think you have a very sensible outlook on this issue, which is essentially a matter of health, even though it’s become so tangled up with cultural ideas of womanly perfection and thus quite difficult to deal with rationally for many people. Essentially, to have balance in one’s physical life matters as much as achieving balance in other areas. And it changes, doesn’t it, as our lives change.
Thanks for this post.
xo
Heh heh. I gave up on ideals of womanly perfection when I was 15 and Twiggy was the ideal. I had breasts and hips and curly hair. I knew at that moment I was doomed to imperfection forever if I allowed other people, especially the fashion industry, to impose the ideal upon me.
“no longer as full of shit as usual”… let us know the verdict on that part, willya? 🙂
Congratulations! I wouldn’t recommend the fever diet either, but whatever works.
I wonder about that 150 goal, not to be defeatist, but simply because you mention having to run 3 miles a day and eat almost nothing. Doesn’t sound too balanced to me. Perhaps your body is stable at a higher weight?
Being full of shit is always relative. . .
The 150 goal is probably doable, but I’m not going to obsess about it. Of course, I have to admit that when I say I ate “almost nothing” that is what it felt like at the time but in retrospect “almost nothing” added up to about 3000 calories a day which is why I had to run and swim. When I went on the draconian program to try to get back down to 160, I really did eat almost nothing for the period of time I was losing weight. But when I got there I went back to my old patterns which included lots of beer (very fattening) and cookies (ditto) and promptly regained it all.
I believe somewhere between 150 and 160 would be a good weight for me.
I’m thinking of packing up about 20 pounds in a back pack and toting it around for a while just to remind myself of what I’m not carrying now.
Well done you!
I still have a lot of weight to lose, though I’m still down the original 10 kilos I lost after the first operation. I’m lucky I haven’t put on any “chemo weight”, which seems to be a common complaint.
Next month, I’m going to get serious at the gym. You have inspired me.
Oh, dear. Now I have to stay serious! Chemo weight has just “got” to be fluid retention from the poisonous chemicals. My friend Maggie’s husband had an inoperable brain tumor that eventually killed him. The anti-seizure medications they had him on made him blow up like a water balloon.
Well done! And I agree with charlotteotter – you have gorgeous legs.
“blushing”
Hoch!!!!!
It’s so refreshing to hear this kind of narrative after the stories I hear from some clients who have decided over the years that they can eat anything they want as long as there is no (fill in the blank), or similar doomed enterprises… Get dem weights out.
Weddings and birthdays are classic pitfalls.
(saluting) Yes ma’am! I have already been pre-conditioning my arms during the evening Ruby walks, doing the curls and what-not without the weights. Even that has informed me about exactly how conditioned my triceps are —
“I’m thinking of packing up about 20 pounds in a back pack and toting it around for a while just to remind myself of what I’m not carrying now.”
That sounds like it might be a really good thing to do – it should certainly help focus the mind on what has been achieved!
It probably would be, and the extra work would probably help melt more fat off. However, I have to say I am enjoying the higher energy level I have from the fact that I’m not toting around that extra 23 pounds. And compared to 6 years ago, not carrying around the extra 50. My god. That is a telling number, isn’t it?
Well done Ellie, you are rightly proud of achieving this primary goal weight healthily (apart from the fever) and I echo the comment about your fantastic shapely legs! Its odd, though, isn’t it that the more we exercise the more energy we seem to have – one would think it would be the other way. But I know I soon start to feel sluggish if I eat too much rubbish and don’t get any proper exercise for a few days.
Eating rubbish is the worst thing about food in America. I don’t eat that much of it, either. When I am eating cookies, they are homemade. They are still rubbish, really, but they are fresh preservative-free chemical -free made from organic ingredients rubbish!
How can we not have more energy when we are toting around less extraneous tissue? When we exercise, our cells are better nourished and the crap is cleaned out of them.