Getting Started - Again

I've had been here before, staring at the scale wondering how my weight has gotten to this point. It was the highest non-pregnancy, non-medication related number I had ever seen on the scale and I knew that I needed to do something. I am now 39 and with each year, weight loss and lifestyle change is only going to get harder, so I need to make those changes now.

I have always known how to eat correctly, in fact most of our family meals are very health. We try to model good eating habits for our children and have always eaten a lot of different types of fruits and vegetables. We're also very lucky that our first grader is willing to try new foods and has a pretty varied diet for a child his age.


My problem was three-fold, very bad snacking habits that had gotten worse since our youngest son was born last summer, too large portions of the parts of meals that were higher in calories and not necessarily high in nutrients, and my love of microbrews, which tend to be much higher in calories. The question is how to do it, go all in or take it slow? In the past when I've tried to change my eating habits I've been really good for about 10 days and then it all falls a part. This time I decided to make a small but important change every two weeks and see what happen.

The Monday after Easter, knowing that we would have candy from the Easter bunny I decided that my first step would be no more sugar.  For me this meant no more sneaking into my kid's candy, no more handfuls of chocolate chips at night, no more ice cream while watching TV or folding laundry, no more little treats before choir night when I stop for a water.  After two weeks I was feeling better but was not really seeing any weight loss.  I decided to then drop Diet Coke and anything other than coffee in the morning, water throughout the day and one sparkling water.  I also started logging my food on SparkPeople, a great food tracking website and app.

While I was starting to see some weight loss, I realized I was still eating to many high calorie snacks and so I decided to temporarily go on a very low carb diet and then slowly add small portions of higher carb foods back into my diet to see where my worst triggers are. One of my biggest switches was changing breakfast from steel cut oats to scrambled eggs and avocado or cheese. After a couple of weeks, I'm no longer craving carbs, have more energy, and am feeling good in my body. I still might have an evening snack, but now it's cucumbers and pepper slices with a little bit of cream cheese.  At the end of June I'll increase my daily carb allowance and see if I continue to lose.  My ultimate goal is to reset my eating habits and cravings.

12 lbs down, 50 to go.  I'm closing in on the lowest weight I think I've been in 3 or 4 years, here's hoping I keep going beyond that this time.