Oh my goodness, I must have been so excited about my FIVE pound loss that I forgot to post it!!!! I am now 335 and I started at 356 so I have lost a total of 21 pounds!! I just can't wait for these pounds to shed...I get excited to get up in the morning and walk! I am excited to eat healthy! I just wanna stay this way and let the pounds shed! I just wanna STICK WITH IT and I will! That's all for now. :)

Starting week four tomorrow and I am super excited to weigh in and also to get week four underway! Every two weeks, My husband and I have a cheat day so today was our cheat day. It felt good to order whatever I wanted and to have frozen yogurt with gummy bears for dessert but for some reason I feel so guilty. I shouldn't but I do. Oh well, tomorrow is week 4 and so far I am doing great! Hope too see a 2-3 pound weight loss!!!! :) Will post results tomorrow. I hope someone, somewhere out there is reading this.......

Just finished my workout and I'm mad! Am I mad at myself? No. Did I not do so well? No, I did great but my stupid App messed up and didn't record the distance correctly. I don't know why I am so mad, I know how far I went, I have been walking the same route. I guess it gets me mad because now every time I look at the log...I am going to see that..when I know I did it...It just bothers me. *Insert frown*

Today we are talking Portions because we can eat the things we want to eat (sometimes) but only in moderation. It's hard...I know..but hopefully these tips I nabbed from cookinglight.com will help us.

1. Before Eating, Divide The Plate
   Here’s a simple rule to portion a plate properly: Divide it in half. Automatically fill one side with fruits or vegetables, leaving the rest for equal parts protein and starch. This way, you begin to see what a properly balanced meal looks like. Spaghetti and meatballs? Steak and potatoes? They’re only half a meal, incomplete without fruits and vegetables.
2. Pre-Portion Tempting Treats
   The bigger the package, the more food you’ll pour out of it. When two groups were given half- or 1-pound bags of M&Ms to eat while watching TV, those given the 1-pound bag ate nearly twice as much.
3. Head Off The Mindless Munch
   Five minutes after eating at an Italian restaurant, 31 percent of people couldn’t remember how much bread they ate. If you’re worried you might do the same, have the bread removed from the table.
4. Downsize The Dishes
   If you’re one of the 54 percent of Americans who eat until their plates are clean, make sure those plates are modestly sized. On a standard 8- to 10-inch dinner plate, a portion of spaghetti looks like a meal. On a 12- to 14-inch dinner plate, it looks meager, so you’re likely to dish out a bigger portion to fill the plate. When researchers gave study participants 34- or 17-ounce bowls and told them to help themselves to ice cream, those with the bigger bowls dished out 31 percent more ice cream.
5. Limit Your Choices
   The more options you have, the more you want to try. In one study, researchers gave two groups jellybeans to snack on while they watched a movie. One group got six colors, neatly divided into compartments; jellybeans for the other group were jumbled ­together. Those given a mix ate nearly two times more.
6. Use Your Power For Good
   Most homes have a “nutritional gatekeeper” who controls 72 percent of the food eaten by everyone else. The person who chooses food, buys it, and prepares it wields power. If that’s you, take advantage of it.
7. Avoid A See-Food Diet
   Office workers who kept candy in clear dishes on their desks dipped in for a sample 71 percent more often than those who kept their candy out of sight.
8. Turn Off The Television
   The Vast Wasteland leads to vast waists. It’s not just the couch-sitting. TV distracts you from how much you’re eating, and the more you watch, the more you’re likely to eat. In a study comparing how much popcorn viewers ate during either a half-hour show or an hour-long show, those who watched more television ate 28 percent more popcorn.
9. Think Before You Drink
   Pour cranberry juice into two glasses of equal volume: one short and wide, the other tall and thin. Most people pour 19 percent more cranberry juice in the short glass because the eye is a poor judge of volume in relation to height and width.
10. Serve Good-For-You Foods Family-Style
    Not all portion-control strategies are about eating less. You can have as much as you want of some foods. Place the foods you want your family to eat more of―salads and vegetable sides―within easy reach on the dining table. In a soon-to-be-published study, Wansink found people who kept baby carrots in plain sight ate 25 percent more during a day.
    

Weigh in July 7th

I am happy to say that I lost 3 pounds! Three pounds does not seem like much until you add it all up. So far a total lost of 16 pounds!!! 340 pounds is were I am at right now. SMALL victories = BIG results in the end. It is the beginning of week 3 and the craving are starting to kick in...this is usually where I start to slide...and cheat a little. BUT the difference this time is that I don't have to cheat. I can have a cookie if I want to, I just can't have the whole sleeve of cookies. I don't want the whole sleeve of cookies because I don't want to look like a big round cookie myself. I don't wanna huff and puff just tying my shoes AND neither do you! We can do this. We will do this. We are doing this. And if you aren't then today is the perfect day to start, not tomorrow, not in a month but TODAY.

Let me leave you with a few quotes I found to help us through this:

No matter how slow you go, your still lapping every one on the couch!- unknown.

If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you. - Fred Devito.

That voice in your head that says you can't do this, is a LIAR. - unknown.

That voice that says you cannot do this, is a liar...WE CAN DO THIS. We will do this. We will Stick with it!

Good night every one! Tomorrow I am going to discuss portions! Please if you have anything to say about portions, tune it and respond!

Started this journey at 356 on June 23rd. I am going to weigh in every week. So far...

June 23rd- 356

June 30th- 343

Weight loss a total of 13 pounds so far!

First Goal: 331 pounds (25 pound loss)

Reward: PEDICURE!

I weigh it tomorrow and will post results.

Here goes nothing..................................

WELL here goes nothing...

I am 5'4 and 343 pounds... Two weeks ago...356 pounds. It was time for an awakening. I cannot believe that I have let myself get this big. I have been using food as a crutch since I was a child...Was I always this big?...no but food has always been a comfort for me. Since my dad left when I was 9, my mother would cheer my brother and me up by taking us out to eat. I am definitely not blaming my mother, I just remember a lot of dinners and lunches out. I was always around 175-180 in high school and thought I was huge...then something happened I tried really hard and lost weight. I went down to 140-150 then I met a guy who now is my loving husband. I was around 150 when I met him and he was a big guy, I started eating out with him and eating bigger portions...I gained weight, 190 now...Then I got married. I had my first daughter and gained a total of 100 pounds with her and didn't lose it. I did diet after diet...dropping weight and gaining it back...then I lost two people very close to me and my food became an even bigger comfort. I recently had my son, I gained more weight with him and never lost it. SO now I am at 356. I became comfortable with not being able to do things because I was bigger...comfortable with seeing my picture and secretly gagging...comfortable with not being able to tie my shoes without sitting on the floor....being big became normal. I even made up jokes about my weight...thinking they won't judge me if they know I know I am big too. Then I went bowling with some friends...I thought I was dressed pretty cute (well mom cute) and had a great night taking pictures and having fun. I asked a friend to post some pictures she had taken from that night. She did and I saw it, My GUT. I guess you could say I finally became aware of my condition. After that things became a lot less normal... I realized that my emotional connection to food was crippling me and that I needed to make a change and STICK WITH IT. So it has been two weeks of eating healthy and exercising. I walk a mile every morning, Mon-Fri and Sat I do stomach exercises. Sunday, I rest. I have been drinking lots of water too. I am happy about the changes I am making...I just want to stick with it this time. My first Goal is to lose 25 pounds, I have lost 12 pounds so I have 13 pounds to go. My reward is a pedicure! :)

If you stumble across this blog and you have a story, don't be shy please share it! If you need encouragement...please follow this blog. If you have encouragement to give, please share it.

I hope I will find people out there like me, that we can help each other Stick with this!