Proverbs31's 2011 Journey

[proverbs31woman]

Hi Everyone,

Here's my story. In 2008, I lost 25 lbs. while following the MWL plan and exercising. My main purpose in losing the weight was to get in shape so that I could have a healthy pregnancy. Well, after I got pregnant, the terrible morning sickness (which was all day sickness during the first trimester) and the stress of having a full-time job and being a new graduate student made it difficult to find time to cook and exercise. I gained about fifty pounds during my pregnancy, and since the birth of my daughter, which was about 17 mos. ago, I've only been able to get rid of about 10 of those pounds.

So, I'm here because I believe this is the healthiest, easiest, and most satisfying plan to follow. I'm not sure if I plan to do MWL or regular cause I'm still breastfeeding my daughter, but at this point, I just want to jump in and get going. As I learn more about what I plan to do, and what I've learned along the way, I'll post.

Here are my tentative goals. I will adjust them if necessary.

Starting weight: 186 lbs. (5/24)
1) Get under 175 lbs. before June 18th (Our Family Reunion)
2) Get under 170 lbs. by the Fourth of July
3) Get under 160 lbs. by August 1st
4) Get under 150 lbs. by the beginning of school (middle of August)
4) Goal: Get under 145 lbs. by my birthday (Sept. 21st)
Life Goal: Consistently eat on plan and exercise and get in the mindset of enjoying healthy foods.

[dragana]

Hi there,

Your story sounds so much like mine. I lost weight on McDougall before, then got pregnant, fallen off the bandwagon, gained 55 lbs and only lost some before getting pregnant again. Now after baby #2 I am trying slowly to get back in McDogall diet frame of mind, but it seemed so much easier before the children.

I will be following your story, since we have this in common. Good luck.

[proverbs31woman]

Dragana,

Thanks for your support. I'm sure you and I will both have much success.



I weighed myself yesterday morning, and I lost 2 pounds, so I now weigh 184 pounds. I would've liked to lose more, but I've been following the regular plan this week, andi think the amount of bread and tortillas I ate slowed my progress...but at least I've been progressing. This week I will try to follow the MWL program for the most part. I plan to eat fruit and/or oatmeal for breakfast and eat smaller MWL meals.

So far, so good.

[proverbs31woman]

Thanks for stopping by, Debbie.

I weighed myself about two days ago, and I've lost .6 of a pound. I now weigh 183.4 pounds.

[proverbs31woman]

Sorry for not posting in so long. I fell off of the wagon for a few weeks since the last post after doing a lot of traveling, but i'm back now. I've been back on plan for about a week now. I also joined a gym about a week ago. I've had about three workouts since then. I plan to start working out four - five days a week.

I've also decided to get braces to close the space in my front teeth, so i've been doing a lot of research on that. I know i need to be on this board more in order to get more supportand knowledge, so I plan to start checking in daily and posting more.


Here's my story. In 2008, I lost 25 lbs. while following the MWL plan and exercising. My main purpose in losing the weight was to get in shape so that I could have a healthy pregnancy. Well, after I got pregnant, the terrible morning sickness (which was all day sickness during the first trimester) and the stress of having a full-time job and being a new graduate student made it difficult to find time to cook and exercise. I gained about fifty pounds during my pregnancy, and since the birth of my daughter, which was about 17 mos. ago, I've only been able to get rid of about 10 of those pounds.

So, I'm here because I believe this is the healthiest, easiest, and most satisfying plan to follow. I'm not sure if I plan to do MWL or regular cause I'm still breastfeeding my daughter, but at this point, I just want to jump in and get going. As I learn more about what I plan to do, and what I've learned along the way, I'll post. 

Here are my updated tentative goals.

Starting weight: 184.6 lbs. (7/8)
1) Get in the 170s before August
2) Get in the 160s before school starts
3) Get in the 150s before my birthday (Sept. 21st)
4) Get in the 140s before the end of October
4) Reach goal of 140 before December 1st
Life Goal: Consistently eat on plan and exercise and get in the mindset of enjoying healthy foods.

[janluvs2heel]

Hey Proverbs-

If it is mainly the space between your teeth that is the problem, you may not find permanent results with ortho. Well, they can close it but it is hard to keep it closed. A lot of African-Americans have it & even ones who have had ortho still have the space & have to wear a reatainer, some 24/7, to keep it closed. Dont know how large diastema is but there are other alternatives, such as having the space closed with the use of veneers or other options. Your dentist should be able to advise you if that is possible or not. Have you had a consultation with an orthodontist yet? I was lucky, I had a diastema between my front teeth as well before all my permanent teeth came in, my dentist wanted my parents to braces on me, but my pediatrician told them to wait until all the permanent ones were in, smart man! Once they were all there, no more space. My daughter also had it, had to have a frenectomy, which is snipping that little piece of tissue above the teeth, that really helped, she was already in bands. Never opened up though, after the bands were gone & I dont remember how long she wore her retainer after that but you kids, they usually lose them pretty quickly or just forget about them!! Have your dentist check that out, because that could make a big difference. It is a simple surgical procedure.

[proverbs31woman]

Hi Jan,

Thanks for your post!

I've met with about 5 orthos, and the one that I've chosen said that I will have to have the tissue between the space removed at the end of my treatment and have a permanent retainer put in the back of my two front teeth in order to keep the gap closed. I've considered veneers, but they are too expensive and just not for me overall. I have a little crowding on my bottom teeth and a slight open bite, so I want that corrected with braces as well. I'd feel much more comfortable wearing braces rather than having veneers, and my space is too large to have bonding.

I'm having them put in on Monday. I appreciate your response. I will definitely make sure that address the idea of e gap returning when i speak with the ortho again.

[proverbs31woman]

I just started a modified version of Mary's Mini on yesterday. I've chosen sweet potatoes as my starch, but it's modified because I eat oatmeal in the morning.

I've been enjoying it because since I got my braces on Monday, it's been difficult to eat, and sweet potatoes are quite easy to eat. I've been putting a little black bean soup on it and having a side of squash or raw tomatoes. It's been very filling.

A good thing about having braces is that it hinders me from having unnecessary snacks because I've been brushing after every meal or at least most meals, and if I go through all of the trouble to brush, I don't want to have to brush again. Flossing is especially difficult, so after I floss at night, I have no intention of messing up all of that work by eating even something small.

So far today, I've gone to the gym this morning, abd i've eaten oatmeal. I'm about to go take a shower.

[proverbs31woman]

I weighed myself this morning, and I now weigh 180.7 lbs. The last time I weighed myself, which was about two weeks ago, I weighed a little over 185 lbs. I've been eating mostly sweet potatoes with a little beans and a lot of veggies such as raw tomatoes, squash, and cooked carrots. Now I wish I would've started following Mary's Mini a long time ago. I would've reached my goal. God has really been helping me stick to this plan. I know I couldn't have had success this week without Him.

I'm well on my way to reaching my first goal of getting in the 170s before August, and my stomach is already getting flatter. This coming week, I plan to try to addmore green and yellows to my meals. Maybe even snack on only greens and yellows. I found these canned, low soidum cooked greens from Glory Greens that I like, and I love cooked squash and zucchini. I also want to try other veggies such as kale. I am really happy about the progress that I've made so far.

[eri]

Good luck with Mary's mini!!

[proverbs31woman]

Thanks, Debbie!

I weighed myself this morning, and I now weigh 179.6 lbs. I have reached my first goal, which is to weigh in the 170s by August.

[proverbs31woman]

I've switched from eating sweet potatoes as my starch of choice to eating rice. I also made my first snap meal yesterday with tomatoes, kidney beans, spinach, and mixed veggies. It was very filling, tasty, and easy to make. I cant wait to make another one and experiment with it. Next time I plan to use less beans. Although they tasted good, I want to make sure that I'm following the principles of the MWLand not eating more than 1 cup of beans a day.

I loved the spinach in there although it kept getting caught in my braces. It was worth the struggle though. Next time, I'll add more spinach and veggies, and I'll top the meal with fresh, finely chopped red onions. I may also add some sliced red and green bell peppers and some fresh garlic and fresh basil.

I've been staying on plan quite well the last few days and exercising consistently. Yesterday, I was tempted to eat off plan, but I just focused on something else instead. I look forward to going to the gym tomorrow morning, and going to to the store to pick up more items for my next snap. Instead of eating rice as my starch of choice, i would like to try oatmeal because it's easier for me to eat with my braces in, but it's so difficult for me to think of eating oatmeal topped with veggies. I have to get over that

[proverbs31woman]

Thanks Debbie!

Today i went to the gym in the morning because i skipped yesterday. I walked for about 45 min and did an ab exercise. It was a light workout.

I also went eat out at Ruby Tuesday's. I was a little aoprehensive about eating out and trying to following the plan, but it worked out. I ate from the salad bar while there, and i brought my entree home. I had lettuce, blacks beans and corn, peas, red onions, grapes, tomato slices, and a little pasta, light rance, and honey mustard sauce. I know some of it wasnt on plan, but i'm proud of myself for not going crazy. Next time ill be stricter. My entree is salmon, mashed cauliflower, and steamed broccoli. I know that the salmon is not on plan, but i will allow myself t eat fish every now and again.

I may just eat half of the meal tonight along with some of the snap. I also tried oatmeal topped with snap today. Let's just saythat it's definitely something that will take some getting used to. Not sure if I'll eat it again like that. For now, I'll stick with my rice.

[proverbs31woman]

I've been doing pretty well, eating mostly a mary's mini with rice and veggies for the last few days. Warning...the following is a tmi...I wasn't as regular as I would have liked (maybe once every two or three days I'd have a BM). I noticed that it was because I was taking a multivitamin with a lot of iron in it. Since I've 86d those vitamins a couple days ago, I have been having a BM every day. I feel good about that. I'll weigh in tomorrow, and see if I've made any progress on the scale. I can't overlook the fact that my waist is getting smaller though even if I don't have a great number this week. The progress is slow, but I must continue. I am enjoying the food, but I also crave something off plan daily. I know that the more I say no to it, the stronger I will become.

[proverbs31woman]

I weighed mYself this morning, and I now weigh 176.2 lbs. I've lost 3.4 lbs since the last time I weighed myself, which was August 1st.

I feel really good about this number, and I'm looking forward to reaching my next goal of being in the 160s. I will be following the mary's mini with rice as my starch. I will probably eat a lot of cooked squash and raw tomatoes with it. I've tried snap for some days now, and I'm already tired of it. It's much simpler for me just to cooked some zucchini in the microwave and sliced up a tomato to eat with the zucchini and rice. I can't wait until my next weigh in next Friday.