Girl On a Diet Summary (And I Will Be Back in January!)

Hey everyone! I have decided that I will be going on a hiatus from doing this website until January. But I wanted to sum up my complete progress so far, as I have been way too hard on myself lately.

As my faithful readers know (all 300+ of them), I have been trying very hard for two months now to lose weight. To be honest, this is the longest and hardest effort I have ever, ever put into losing weight. Why? Well, I’ve never had this much to lose, for starters. Secondly, I usually lose all the weight I need/want to within a shorter time, then move onto other things. The weight usually comes off a lot easier and faster - within a month and a half. Or I would lose 10 pounds and forget about my diet.

I feel confident enough now about my current eating and exercise program, plus my slow but consistent weight loss, that I will be able to carry on with it without writing about it every day. By no means am I quitting my diet/exercise plan. It is no longer a “diet” for me now - I have successfully changed my eating and exercise habits. Sixty days is long enough to learn some lessons and create some new habits.

MY FITNESS SIX MONTHS AGO:
Just think… several months ago (June), I was so out of shape that going up one stairway made me a little breathless. Walking 1/4 of a mile down to the corner store made me out of breath! Exercising on a stationary bike for 15 minutes was enough for me to be tired. I was wearing cotton/stretch pants because none of my clothes fit. My stomach was HUGE. At one point, my waist was 36 inches. (I measured it probably back in late May or something). Getting up off the floor was painful. My diet consisted of anything I wanted to eat, plus LOTS of alcohol. I literally drank alcohol EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.

As for my body, my stomach was quite large, I had love handles and a double chin.

MY FITNESS NOW:
Now… after several stops and starts over the summer but sixty solid days now under my belt, I have turned my physical fitness around! Now, I can walk up 12 flights of stairs without getting TOO out of breath! (I did it the other day - I now park on the 3rd floor in my building and live on the 9th. Each floor is two flights!) I can - and do - work out for 45-75 minutes per day, doing cardio and resistance, about 6 days per week. I sweat and get slightly out of breath during the workouts and keep going. I also use a pilates muscle stretching thing, plus free weights for my arms and toning stretches. I purposely park far from the mall and store entrances now and go out of my way to go up or down steps when I can. As for my diet, I eat five or six small meals per day. Mostly healthy protein, whole grains, veggies and fruits. Yes, I cheat occasionally. Yes, I skip meals sometimes when I just don’t have time to eat or aren’t hungry. Best of all, I rarely drink alcohol any more. I only had maybe four drinks during the entire month of November! (Thank God that I don’t appear to be an alcoholic after all!)

As for my body now, well, the scale may have only moved down roughly 9 or 10 pounds, but I no longer have a double chin. I have my waist/hips back. I have muscles in my thighs and legs and some starting in my arms. I am wearing jeans again! My love handles are gone.

Seriously? I have a lot to be happy about right now. A lot to be proud of, and a lot to work towards. And I will continue. Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with a respiratory infection at the doctor’s yesterday and it is causing me a lot of pain right now, which is why I’m not yet asleep at 4am. Yes, I’m concerned that I have been sick with colds and infections for weeks now, but the doctor told me today that a LOT of people around here are having the same problem. It’s gonna be (and already is) a bad cold/flu season.

MY PERSONAL FITNESS GOALS:
I definitely have areas that I need to work on. Firstly, I need to learn how to regulate my blood sugar and meals. I need to stop eating so much cheese. I need to take more vitamins in order to help ramp up my immune system. As for weight, I don’t have an exact set goal weight, but the range is 115-124. My goal size is a two or a very loose four. I have a small frame, so these goals are not too extreme. My ultimate goal is to become one of those super-fit, slim people that everyone hates. My ultimate workout goal is to go back to jogging…

WEBSITE STUFF:
Changes will be coming to this site in January. I will be doing a snazzy new layout and start doing reviews on diet products… books, food, etc. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but have been too busy focusing on and writing about my weight loss efforts. From now on, I will only do personal updates maybe once a week (starting up again in January), and do reviews and other informational posts the rest of the time. I no longer need to write about my dieting efforts every day…

I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and New Year… and I’ll see everyone the first or second week of January 2008!