Hi! I am doing good! So I'm happy to report back some of my progress.
First, I gotta say there were a few slip ups in the beginning. A few digressions into eating fatty foods. But I got things under control and re-motivated myself. I spend some time on here, or reddit, and read inspiring stories to keep motivated. Also, I created two cool spreadsheets for me to record my weight and track my progress. One spreadsheet has every day for a year (well, it started a few days ago, so it's a bit more than a year) up to January 1, 2016. Since my scale shows me weight, body fat percentage, BMI, and calories, I decided to record them all. Yes, I know body fat percentage is not always accurate with these kinds of scales. So what! I'm happy to be tracking my weight. I'm celebrating every single pound lost. I know some caution not to focus too much on the scale. Well, I find it to be pretty motivating. It gives me something to look forward to every day as I work toward losing weight. Sorta keeps me on track. I'm already expecting the progress, day-to-day, to be bumpy. I just want to see an overall slope downward trend over the long-term. That'll keep me happy. Plus, I made the spreadsheet nice and
colorful.
The other spreadsheet tracks every two weeks, on the first of the month and the fifteenth, through the year. I copied it from a spreadsheet I found on reddit. It's neat because it shows you your percentage accomplished toward your goal, and also your BMI and what weight category that places you in (healthy range, overweight, obese, etc.) Right now I believe I'm in the overweight category, but the spreadsheet won't show me that until I enter in the January 15th weight (because it needs some input to work). I'm really excited about putting in my weight numbers into these spreadsheets and watching and tracking my progress.
The reddit subreddits I hang around are called
progresspics,
loseit, and
fitness and
bodyweightfitness. Progresspics is pretty inspiring because it's all these pics and stories of people who've lost weight. Loseit is an encouraging place where people share stories and weight-loss goal victories. Fitness has some fitness advice. I am thinking about trying body weight exercises, especially after I get settled in my new place, wherever that ends up being. One thing about reddit though. They do not know or understand the McDougall diet at all. There is a lot of advice about counting calories, getting lots of lean protein (they mean meat, of course), and keto is all the rage. So I'll be the odd one out because I definitely do not intend to give up this way of eating.
Right now it's pretty cold to be jogging but I am managing to bike to work and back. I've debated joining a gym but I'm still not ready to commit to the price. For right now, I'll just try to walk, jog, bike, etc. for my exercise.
I've also taken some starting progress pics of myself. Some in my undies and bra and some clothed. Some with my face hidden and some showing it. I'm just not sure what I'll be willing to share when the time comes, so I'm over-preparing.
Although the clothed pics aren't the best because the clothes I do wear right now are generally a bit big, baggy, or hanging. Which tends to look lots better than tight stuff on me. Believe me. I'm really looking forward to wearing tighter clothing that looks nice! I'm actually very excited about that!
I did manage to jog for 1/2 an hour on Sunday. It was just too darn cold these past two days, not to mention my legs are still pretty sore. But at least I'm biking and I do intend to also get more walking in.
And the last little update is I came across an article by Lani Muelrath where she talks about eating starch to satisfy and cutting out the fat stuff like oil and nuts. She's maintained a healthy weight for years. I'm really glad I've come across Dr. McDougall's info in my life because I really like the idea of being able to eat until I'm full, eat healthy, keep my arteries clean, and maintain a healthy weight -- all easily and for the duration of my life. So it was a good article and too bad I don't remember the link to it. Heck. I just searched for it and found it, along with another one. So I'll leave you with some good reading:
[url]
http://www.lanimuelrath.com/diet-nutrit ... t-failure/[/url]
http://www.lanimuelrath.com/diet-nutrition/7-reasons-to-get-more-starch-in-your-diet/Happy McDougalling!