The title describes why I’ve gotten a bit, shall we say “curvy” over the past 6 months. My parade of food and drink came to a screeching halt at my son’s soccer game yesterday when my other son said, “I can see your belly button.”
“What? No, no you can’t,” I protested.
My husband stared down at my belly, “oh my God, I can see it too.”
“Like my gut is hanging out or you can see my belly button through my shirt?”
“Like I can see it through your shirt,” my son said.
It’s not like I have a protruding belly button. Hell, I don’t even have an outie. I was hurt and offended now, not going to lie.
“Ok, stop. I get it. I need to lose weight. I get it. I’ll start tomorrow.” I mumbled, defeated.
Later that day when we were home, I brought up the belly comment again and how I joined myfitnesspal.com to lose weight “since I have a belly.” I also announced I was aware I’ve gained weight.
“Yeah, I wanted to tell you you’ve gained wait, but I felt bad.”
Ouch.
That is all it took. As harsh as that was to hear, that is what I needed. Last night I stood in front of the mirror and pulled my shirt up. I exhaled to let my belly out and turned to display my profile. There before me was a woman who looked 6 months pregnant. Yep, it’s time.
Measuring
I immediately grabbed a pen and paper and measuring tape and headed upstairs. I took off all my clothes and stepped on the scale; 144 pounds. When I put the measuring tape around my waist, hips, bust and legs, here is what I got:
Waist: 34
Hips: 38
Bust: 37
Thighs: 37
So I’m all ears folks on weight loss tips. Seriously. Many hangry days are ahead of me. I’m scared for you and I’m scared for me. I get ridiculously hangry as I LOVE TO EAT! So here’s to my 1,600 calories. I wonder how many calories my wine is.
Wine has calories!!!!!
How many calories though and is there low fat wine, that’s good?
One can only hope ?
Having done this before (and, frankly, needing to do it again) here is my best advice: prioritize your calories. Don’t get rid of things you genuinely love, you’ll only end up hating your life and binging. Just decide that this thing is worth it, therefore other things are not. And it should change, day to day, if you don’t want to go insane. Don’t tell yourself that you can eat like a damned rabbit every day because all you really care about is the brownies or you’ll get sick of brownies and find yourself ears-deep in a wheel of cheese. Trust me.
Excellent advice and I’m going to try really hard to say no to myself. It’s crazy that I think the majority of my calories comes from beverages.
This is where I found WW to be really helpful for me, but any tracker that works for you is good. Basically, you want to be able to plug in ALL the things you actually consume now, so you can see which balances with what. For example, you can totally grab drive-through breakfast… or you can have a reasonable breakfast… and later a cupcake and a latte. Maybe a glass of wine later.
I’ve been there last year, when I suddenly realized I gained 10 kg (22 pounds) in a short period of time. I managed to loose ALL of it in 3 months, and now I try to maintain my weight by eating normally again, but in a healthier way.
I think the MOST important, is to know how many you need to ear per day, and how many every single bite is worth in numbers. What I did was to calculate on the internet how many calories I SPEND a day, and cut 400 out of them. For example, I spend 1600 calories everyday day, if I eat 1600 calories I will maintain my exact weight, but if I cut 400 and eat 1200 a day, I start loosing weight (I used an app to calculate how many calories was my food worth).
But of course, don’t go military and forget to eat what you like ! A bite of chocolate sometimes, a glass of wine or more, a slice of pizza… I didn’t cut all of that, because then it would feel like prison. In addition to that I also allowed me a cheat meal or two EVERY week, where I would eat a pizza and a half, McDonalds, or any greasy carb packed meal I craved at the moment. This actually helps your metabolism go back on track, so it doesn’t looses it’s efficiency 🙂
Also : drink at least 1-2 liters of water per day, it helps getting rid of the fluid retention, that also counts as weight ! And don’t skip meals, that makes your body want to stock the next thing you’ll eat and transform it as fat.
Sorry for the loooong comment, don’t hesitate to ask me anything if you need. Best wishes ! 😉
OMG… YOU ARE AMAZING! Such great advice! I can do that. Myfitnesspal.com has recommended 1,600 calories a day. I did well today coming in just at my limit. I think a cheat meal is an AMAZING idea.