Sandy701's Journal, 10 January 2012

No walking today...overcast, cool-ish, and damp with drizzle. I was up early (for me) to take DH to work. I'll go back and pick him up for his appt. this afternoon and, of course, pick him up at the Dr. office afterward. He probably shouldn't be driving after the eye appt., so this is the only way to not leave a car stranded someplace. I'm thinking of heading to Sam's while he's being looked at, since I'm over on the far side of another town anyway.

Paula (jsfantome) had a journal entry today about the last pounds being brutal to drop. I left a comment but thought I'd expand it a bit here on my own journal.

When I first set a goal for myself, it was way too large to think about in its entirety. In fact, I actually wanted to (still want to?) have 135 as my goal, but couldn't face the harsh reality of having to lose 100 pounds....100 POUNDS???!!! So, I went with 145 so I'd have to lose "only" 90 pounds.

Ninety is a nice number to divide by 3, so I looked at my journey in thirds....again, because it's just way too daunting to think of trudging all the way through 90 - NINETY - pounds.

I felt my first third (235-205), with some mini-goals in there too, would be the easiest part. The first weeks on Atkins usually give you the highest weight loss, in pure numbers, so it's really exciting and motivating to see those numbers drop, even if the overall number is still pretty high. And, because the loss is higher, clothes start to fit differently right away and so that's positive feedback. All this was true for me, even though I only lost 6 pounds in the first 2 weeks, not the higher amounts that some people can achieve. Still it was all pretty motivating.

I expected my middle third (205-175) to be the most challenging. I thought it would be complete drudgery, with a good amount of weight lost, but still so much yet to go, and still so far from goal. I was wrong. The middle turned out to be not so bad after all. I was in a groove, didn't have to think so much about what to eat, and wasn't overly tempted by other food. Now, that's not to say I didn't have some challenges in the middle, but it wasn't as bad as I'd feared.

As for this last third (175-145), I THOUGHT it would be slow, but VERY smooth sailing, thinking I'd learned how to do this WOE and would have it all under control. WRONG!!! This third has been the most challenging, perhaps because I'm so anxious to just be in Maintenance mode. I'm not anxious to run off and eat a ton of things I haven't eaten in over a year-and-a-half, but I'm just more than ready to stay in a comfortable groove with food and exercise and not have to make the changes I'm going to have to make to drop the last pounds. I'm coming up against my old "I want what I want when I want it" thinking .....HARD! Plus, I'm feeling entitled to have the weight drop with what I'm doing already. That's all dangerous thinking for me.

I need to realize that I'm NOT solidly on plan....there are foods that create problems for me in loss mode, foods that I KNOW create problems for me and yet, I still eat them, somehow expecting the outcome will be different, thinking I can somehow sneak them by my body's mechanisms. Insanity, right? And.....kinda funny, too.

Well, maybe by writing this, it will help me be more accountable (thanks for that word, Buffy) and regain my focus (is that another 'frig word?).

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1369 kcal

Fat: 94.62g | Prot: 86.31g | Carb: 41.88g.   Breakfast: Brown Sugar & Honey Breakfast Sausage, Pieces & Stems Mushrooms, scrambled eggs. Lunch: ribeye steak. Dinner: Armenian cucumber, Wishbone ranch dressing, romaine, Organicville non-dairy ranch dressing, salad toppins. Snacks/Other: Endulge Peanut Caramel Cluster Bar, honeydew melon, Land O' Lakes Sugar Free Whipped Heavy Cream (pressurized - purple cap). more...

1724 kcal

Activities & Exercise: Resting - 16 hours, Sleeping - 8 hours. more...