Day 19 progress photos! (taken on 1/6, 1/12, 1/19) This morning, I weighed 164. That is 20 pounds more than I weighed when I got married, and 32 pounds more than I weighed in college.

My goal is to break 150, (somewhere between that and 145) and to look somewhat athletic. I'll never look young again, but if I can get back to the point that I can see some muscle definition in my arms and upper back and legs, I will be satisfied. Here are the photos so far (and you can see that I changed backgrounds in an attempt to get better definition between the shadow from the flash and the grey pants):





Jodi

day 19: 164
148 by 48

Lookin' good, Jodi! But wouldn't it be faster to eat whatever the hell you wanted, and use photoshop?

Jodi, the results really *are* visible.



Your goals sound very reasonable.

(Anybody who'll allow themselves to be photographed in Spandex gets bonus points for courage, too.)

(And, being objective, if I saw only the current picture, I'd think "reasonably fit", while the first wouldn't get that reaction.)

Boy, you are one brave lady, Jodi! I admire your determination. I know someone with your obvious talents and gifts is not going to let a little thing like food and extra pounds get the better of you. You are doing great and I can really see progress.

Wow, Jodi. I'm impressed. Those are great results for such a short time. And what a fun idea to chart your progress visually.

It was the only thing I could think of to motivate me - the threat of failing miserably while everybody else was watching. Truth is, I do better when there is some sort of required weigh-in that happens in front of other people.

I do especially well if there is a prize at the end (I won the $100 prize in that ultimate body shaping class I did three years ago, the one that wrecked my back ) I haven't decided what to buy myself if I make this goal. And I know that the tougher part will be keeping it off after. Making it a true lifestyle change.

Kathy - did you work alcohol back into your diet once your weight came off? I truly haven't missed it that much (I miss chocolate and pastries the most) - and I find I feel much better when I don't drink (alcohol makes me fairly worthless, and really sleepy). Plus it seems to easiest to cut calories out of beverages, I don't miss them as much as when they come out of solid food. But I really do like the taste of wine and a nice cold beer, and I'm wondering if I'll be able to work them back into a weekend meal successfully.

Day 20 166

Jodi

Yes, I have worked alcohol back in. Too much so. Ideally, I'd drink a glass of wine two times a week, but when JF cracks these great bottles of wine it's just so hard to say no. I also have started drinking a bottle of good brew-pub beer on occasion. With beer, I used to drink lite, but I read somewhere that if you're going to imbibe, it's better to drink the brewery stuff, because it's much more full of nutrition. I think the alcohol has caused me to slide a bit. But, I don't dare weigh myself. I find those pound or two upward fluctuations too stressful. So, I let the way my clothes fit (and maddeningly, my boobs ) tell me how I'm doing, and only get on the scales only once a month or so,when I know I'm doing well.

The biggest prize for me was the fun of buying clothes again. I had literally stopped buying pants when I started bulging out of size 8s. At that point, I was alternating between the two or three pair that still fit, because I found it too depressing to concede to yet another size larger. When I got back to a comfortable 6 (and an occasional 4) shopping became the thrill of the hunt again, because clothes actually hung on me the way they're supposed to again.

Hint on chocolate from my recently diagnosed diabetic, chocoholic SIL who's made a lot of the same diet changes I have and gotten incredibly skinny in the process: She buys dark chocolate with a very high a percentage of cocoa (around 70%). Apparently if the fiber and carb contents are high enough in proportion to the sugar content, it metabolizes much more slowly and is okay, even for diabetics, albeit in limited quantities. She eats just a square a two a night, but at least she is able to get her fix.

Well, if I don't lean too far back on my heels, I read the scale at 97.5 today. I bet if I hung on to the towel rack, I could get it down to 97...

Gads, I had to buy the kids donuts for breakfast today. I had this incredible urge to dive into the case and smother myself with those chocolate sprinkled fat and sugar bombs.

Instead, I had an egg, a sausage, a small piece of whole rye and sunflower toast, and a half a grapefruit for breakfast. And Mr. Jodi made me a decaf latte with a dash of chocolate in it.

Day 21 165.5 (it is rather depressing to have lost weight, but only to be back down to where I STARTED at the beginning of this thread a year and a half ago!)

Jodi

148 by 48

Day 22 165

Good girl. Donuts are disgusting anyway. THey smell far better than they taste. IMO. Off to make a salmon patty for dinner.

quote:

Originally posted by teachum:
...Donuts are disgusting anyway. THey smell far better than they taste. IMO...

True. With two tragic exceptions: the ultra-dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting and the "old-fashioned" buttermilk cake with the crunchy irregular outside and soft cake inside at the bakery up the street. If it were not for those two exceptions, I'd never touch the things. (Thinking of strapping on those useless tennis rackets as snowshoes and going over to the bakery right now... ) (I think I'll see if I can get myself banned by going against the flow in this thread. I'll get myself revved up for it by having that last piece of fudge from New Year's Eve.)

quote:

Originally posted by jodi:

Instead, I had an egg, a sausage, a small piece of whole rye and sunflower toast, and a half a grapefruit for breakfast. And Mr. Jodi made me a decaf latte with a dash of chocolate in it.

Day 21 165.5 (it is rather depressing to have lost weight, but only to be back down to where I STARTED at the beginning of this thread a year and a half ago!)

Jodi

148 by 48

Day 22 165

Depressing! You should be jubilant. That's great progress. Bear in mind, this does not get easier as we get older. Good breakfast, btw. I've gotten to the point where I start fantasizing about my breakfast the night before. I really love these hardy, greasy breakfasts - yum. So even though I do craze the sweets and alcohol, I've reveling in all the fatty foods I eat to my heart's content that I heretofore avoided. Not a bad trade off, IMO. I'm more of a savory person than a sweet person, anyway.

Not me, I'm a sweet person. I saw some stupid diet wars show on some stupid talk show while I was making dinner the other day. One of the diet gurus was a "Raw Food" person. It's vegan, and nothing gets heated higher than 105 degrees, a lot of things get dehydrated. Everything you cook with is whole fresh food - so sprouted grains, and yeast and nuts and stuff make bread like items.(no flour). Things get zoomed up in food processors to make pate-like substances, it was all rather time consuming, but interesting. (The person who lost the most weight was on this diet).

ANYWAY, I looked online at the desserts - they use lots of dried fruits and nuts, and so I experimented one day, tossing prunes, raisins, unsweetened cocoa powder, almonds, pecans, and whole oats into the cuisinart, and processed it up till it was a paste that I could form into little balls. I stuck them in the fridge, and they were quite tastey, and definitely satisfied my sweet tooth. Problem is, dried fruit has a lot of sugar in it naturally, so even though they were good for you with all that fiber and such, I really should have only eaten a couple at a time instead of finishing the plate off in two days... I'm hoping that the virtue of restraint will come at some point along the way to 148 pounds!

Jodi

Day 23 165
Day 24 165.5
Day 25 164.5
day 26 165.5
Day 27 165
Day 27 164.5
Day 29 164
Day 30 165
Day 31 165
Day 32 165.5
Day 33 165
Day 34 165
Day 35 164
Day 36 164.5
Day 37 165

148 by 48

quote:

Originally posted by ChickGrand:

quote:

Originally posted by teachum:
...Donuts are disgusting anyway. THey smell far better than they taste. IMO...

True. With two tragic exceptions: the ultra-dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting and the "old-fashioned" buttermilk cake with the crunchy irregular outside and soft cake inside at the bakery up the street. If it were not for those two exceptions, I'd never touch the things. (Thinking of strapping on those useless tennis rackets as snowshoes and going over to the bakery right now... ) (I think I'll see if I can get myself banned by going against the flow in this thread. I'll get myself revved up for it by having that last piece of fudge from New Year's Eve.)

I would have to agree about the plain old cake donuts. Especially when they have just come out of the fryer. Uaed to have a neighbor who had one of those built in fryers in her stove and she would make cake donuts. Yum! But, not hard to resist as long as I don't go anywhere near them.