6 Reasons Why I Should Lose Weight... and Will

I'm determined to reach my goal weight this year, so to motivate myself I'm going to state six reasons why I should lose weight and share it with you. When I find myself feeling down, low on energy or unmotivated, I'll refer back to this list for inspiration to carry on and not give up.

Except for number one, the list is in no particular order.

1. To stick around longer for my family; they need me. (Yep, the family in the picture to your right, which by the way, is our first family photo. I must say, by looking at this picture you'd think the kids are out-growing the adults. Hmm... they just may be.)

2. So I can be happier with myself and my body.

3. So I can wear something sexy for hubby and not feel so icky when I do.

4. To live long enough so I can inspire several more people with my writing.

5. So I can go swimming without feeling embarrassed.

6. So I can share my weight loss success story and inspire others.

Wow! I'm already motivated after that. I may think of more reasons why I should lose weight later, and if I do, I'll update this list. In the meantime, feel free to comment, and by all means, if you're on your own journey to weight loss, I invite you to share the reasons why you should lose weight below or in a post on your own weight loss blog.

I'm so motivated now that I believe I'm going to publish this post and head to the Ab Lounge to exercise. I may even do some additional exercises that don't involve the Ab Lounge and that's not on my exercise plan. Writing a list such as this one really does work!

Times When I Get the Munchies

I'm not sure what all the benefits of drinking Green Tea are but I'd say one of them is that it helps control hunger cravings. I say this because since I've been drinking Green Tea quite frequently, my cravings are now less and less. In fact, I don't get as hungry as I use to, which is a good thing if I want to reach my goal weight.

Green Tea may be helping me with my hunger cravings, but there are still times when I get the munchies, and it's usually during certain activities. Therefore, I've decided that since I can't avoid those activities, I'm going to have to find a way to fight the need for an unhealthy snack during these times or at least find an alternative. Okay, I know the alternative would be a healthier snack, so I guess I should have said I need to find a way to force myself to stick with the healthy alternative.

With that in mind, the activities I'm referring to are when I'm reading, which I LOVE to do, and finally, when I'm watching TV or a movie. What do I snack on? Unhealthy snacks, of course: things such as leftover ham, leftover turkey, lunch meat with no bread and potato chips. I know, I know, a BIG no, no, but since I can't seem to get the munchies to go away during these two activities, I'm going to at least do my very best to replace the unhealthy snacks with healthy ones such as grapes, apples or nuts.

During what activities do you seem to get the munchies the most, and what do you do?

Photo credit: G-tastic

Weigh-In #8

It's been over a month since my last weigh-in, so I thought I'd better give you an update... When I stepped onto the scale Friday morning, I weighed 284.4 pounds. Yes, I know that's not a lot for a whole month, but at least the numbers are starting to go back down instead of up. That said, I'm not overly joyed with the 1.6 pound weight loss, but I'm thankful.

I'm still drinking the Green Tea often and my hunger cravings aren't as bad as they use to be. I'm also watching what I eat and have plans to begin exercising again. I know there will be a number of exercises that I won't be able to do without triggering an asthma attack, but there's always quite a few that I can do that will still burn calories. I figure once I get rid of a lot of this weight, my asthma will improve and allow me to add some of the other exercises that I'm not able to do to my routine. I guess I'll just have to see, and I'll do my very best to keep you updated. With my new writing schedule, I should find more time to get this blog back on its feet.

Stay tuned for my next weigh-in on Friday or Saturday. Hopefully, I'll have a bigger weight loss to report. Until my next post, take care of yourself and stay healthy.

Previous weight (10-29-08): 285.6 pounds
Current weight: 284.4 pounds
Total lost since last weigh-in report: 1.6 pounds

Update on My Journey to Weight Loss

I've been so busy lately with paying clients that I've been unable to post an update, but now I should have things back on track and be posting on a regular basis again. I've reworked my schedule, so hopefully I'll be able to get back to keeping this blog up-to-date as I intended when I first started it.

Since my last post, I've made a few lifestyle changes. I'm now drinking lots of green tea (mint flavored) and have started drinking coffee again. Usually when I drink coffee, I add a little cream and two teaspoons of sugar, but I've decided to omit the cream and sugar. However, because I don't like black coffee, I've replaced cream and sugar with one teaspoon of No-Fat, Non-Dairy French Vanilla Creamier. I've read that green tea helps with weight loss, and I've also read that drinking coffee isn't bad for someone trying to lose weight. That said, my plan is not drink as much sweet tea, so I'll replace my sweet tea with green tea and coffee. But since I'm not a big coffee drinker, I'll probably drink more green tea than coffee. I'll keep you updated on how this works, and I'll post my next weigh-in results on Friday.

Photo credit: Dano

Returning to Continue My Journey to Weight Loss

First off, I'd like to apologize to y'all for my absence. The good news is I'll be returning, but the bad news relates to why I haven't updated you on my journey to weight loss in a while. The truth of the matter is when I first started this journey I weighed in at 278 pounds. One week later I was at my highest weight ever: 284 pounds.

I've been struggling with my weight for over 10 years, but I've never weighed over 278 pounds until I began blogging about my journey to weight loss. When I decided to blog about my journey, I became serious and really buckled down to buy and eat healthy foods. I don't know if it was a coincidence or not, but soon after I got serious about losing weight, I reached my highest weight ever. So to be honest, I became very discouraged and had no motivation to continue blogging weight gain after weight gain--and not being able to get back down to under 280 pounds didn't help matters any.

I was doing everything I possibly could to lose the weight and at least get back down to less than 280 pounds. I even ordered one of Jillian Michaels' workout DVDs and was excited when it arrived in my mailbox. Unfortunately, that excitement faded the first night that I watched the DVD. I picked out a few of the exercises from the DVD for beginners, but within five minutes after I started exercising, I had an asthma attack. I sat down and figured I'd decrease the amount of exercises I chose to do and give it another go the next day. Again, I failed. This is when I really got down in the dumps, because I realized that my asthma was going to keep me from performing the exercises I wanted. I tried to take my inhaler before doing the exercises, and although it helped a little, I was still unable to do the amount of exercises I needed to burn enough calories.

I've had asthma since I was a teenager and it has never stopped me until now. Of course, it has gotten worse over the years because I smoke (a habit I picked up before I discovered that I had asthma). It's hard to quit smoking after I've done it for years, but that is among my plans as well. I figured I'd lose my weight first and then quit smoking. I have to take things one day--and one step--at a time.

Last time I blogged, I weighed in at 282 pounds. Now that I'm re-motivated a bit, I want to continue sharing my journey to weight loss with y'all. However, to keep myself motivated, instead of weighing in every week, I'll be weighing in every other week. With that said, I'd start over at my weight today, which is 285.6 pounds.

Please forgive me for my absence and pray for me as I continue to fight this battle with my weight.

Sixth Weigh-In

After two weeks of weight gains, I'm happy to report that this week's weigh-in was a success! I weighed in this week at 282.0 pounds, which is a weight loss of 2.8 pounds. I plan to really increase that loss next week, because I've decided to up my workout so I can burn even more calories.

When my husband first bought me my Ab Lounge a couple years ago as a Christmas present, I worked out on it every night for about 2 months, and during that time, I lost 50 pounds. However, like all new exercise equipment, once the new was worn off, I let it sit and collect dust. I know, bad idea, but this time around, I plan to continue my workout on it, as well as do the workout from a new video I ordered. The new video is due to arrive to my door on Wednesday, so I'm really looking forward to burning more calories with the Jillian Michaels for Beginners -- Frontside / Backside video.

In addition to my new workout routine, I'm going to increase my protein and fiber intake. From all the research I've done over the past few months, I learned that eating foods high in protein and fiber helps burn fat. With that said, I plan to put the information to the test, and you'll be able to tell if it works from my weekly weigh-in reports and updates.

When I started WAHM's Journey to Weight Loss, I announced my goal weight, which I hope to reach by this time next year. That goal weight is more of a long-term goal, so I've decided to aim for a short-term goal as well. With the holidays just around the corner, I'd like to be a bit on the lighter side this year. With that said, I'm setting a new short-term goal to lose 24 pounds by Christmas. I realize 24 pounds may not be a big number to shoot for, but it's something, and I don't want to set a goal too high. If I meet my short-term weight loss goal, I'll be happy, and if I lose more than the short-term goal I've set for myself, that would be even better, of course.

Until next time, enjoy your weekend and God bless you and yours.

Reasons Why I May Have Lost 2lbs.

Diana commented to congratulate me on my first weight loss, and she also asked if I'd share what I did differently since my first weigh-in where I gained weight instead of losing it. So, per Diana's request, I will let you know what changes I made, which I believe played a big part in my 2lb. weight loss last week.

Thanks to some wonderful advice from Diana, I stopped drinking fruit juices and turned to water with a couple teaspoons of orange juice for flavor (another generous tip from Diana). In addition to drinking flavored water, I drank Diet Pepsi instead of regular Pepsi, since it has no calories (only one a week), and I enjoyed a few glasses of instant tea with sugar. Finally, as I already mentioned in my latest post, I increased my workout on the Ab Lounge and started watching my calorie intake.

Although this update is a bit short, I believe the above-mentioned was the reason I lost 2lbs., and now I'm hoping and praying for another weight loss this week.

The Toughest Challenge Thus Far: Natural Body Cleansing

With healthy diet foods in my refridgerator now, I offically began my natural body cleansing this morning. Since I'm not much of a breakfast person, I normally skip breakfast. However, all that changed today. For breakfast, I had a peach. Come lunch time I was grocery shopping, so I didn't have any lunch. As for supper, the kids enjoyed hamburger helper as I ate salad with Italian dressing. And truth be told, the salad was more filling than I thought it would be. Aside from Italian dressing, my salad had two cans of tuna, lettuce, shredded carrots, cucumbers, homegrown tomatoes and cauliflower.

Each Friday when I go to the grocery store, I usually buy a Pepsi, but today, I exchanged my Pepsi for an orange juice, and for supper, I gave up my sweet tea for grape juice. Yeap, today and tomorrow will only consist of fruits, vegetables, grape juice, apple juice, orange juice and water -- a part of my natural body cleansing.

Although I'm proud of myself, the natural body cleansing is proving to be my toughest challenge thus far. It's hard not actually eating a meal, and then I watch the kids snack on chocolate chip cookies with milk. As hard as it was not to sneak one cookie, I didn't. Instead, I snacked on mushmelon, one peach and a couple cucumbers that I put in vinegar. The hardest thing is knowing I can't have the same thing the family is, but to do this right, I know I'll have to resist those temptations, and come Sunday, I'll get to enjoy a normal meal, which should make things a whole lot easier.

After this weekend, I'll continue eating healthy diet foods, but I'll return to an actual meal for supper. The only difference is I'll be replacing unhealthy food with healthy diet foods, counting my calories, watching my portions and doing 50 reps on the Ab Lounge. Hopefully this will work out for me and I'll lose a few pounds.

Subscribe to my RSS feed or via e-mail to keep up-to-date on my journey to weight loss. I'll be announcing my first weight-in next Friday, August 8, 2008.

Keep me in your prayers, please.

Is It Really Low in Fat?

As I ventured to the kitchen to start supper this evening, I discovered that someone had cooked and eaten all the spaghetti noodles. The only solution in order to have the spaghetti I had planned for supper was to take a 14 mile drive to the grocery store. Although my actual grocery shopping is done on Fridays, I figured I'd at least check out the local farmer's stand on my way, as well as the labels on what I had planned to buy for my journey to weight loss.

Once in the grocery store, I headed straight for the vegetable section. While my plans included buying fruits and vegetables for the week, I love veggie dip with cauliflower, so I decided to read the labels on the veggie dips. I read the label on the regular one and then compared it with a fat-free veggie dip. Would you believe the only difference in the labels was the regular veggie dip had 1 gram more fat calories than the low-fat? It's true, that was the only difference. The calories and everything else were the same, but to top it off, it only had 1 gram less of fat than the regular veggie dip. Truth be told, it's not really low in fat, now is it?

Even though I'd determined I could go with the regular veggie dip, I still opted out of buying it, because it does contain a lot of calories. Oh well, I'll eat my cauliflower raw or in salad with Italian dressing (unfortunately, I'm giving up my favorite Ranch dressing for Italian).

My next stop, after spending approximately 20 minutes comparing food labels in the grocery store, was the local farmer's stand. There I priced organic fruits and vegetables, since I like homegrown tomatoes, peaches and etc. better than store-bought. I had only planned on pricing the fruits and vegetables I wanted to buy Friday (or should I say today, as it's after midnight), but I ended up purchasing 3lbs. of tomatoes anyway. Then on my way back to the van, the lady asked me if I wanted a box of peaches she had. I started to tell her I'd be back tomorrow to buy more, but she told me they were free. Since peaches were on my list, I took them and thanked her for her generosity. I appreciated the free peaches, and I'm sure she'll appreciate my business (I plan on becoming a regular).

Natural Body Cleansing With Healthy Diet Foods

In order to begin my journey to weight loss, I spent yesterday doing a bit of research. Well, first, I had to complete a writing project, but soon after, I was wading through all the free weight loss advice I could find on the Internet. And of all the information I read, I kept coming across the same advice, which suggested that it's best to cleanse your body. As a result, I chose natural body cleansing as my starting point.

Rob, from the Former Fat Guy blog, said, "We should begin to experiment and test and then keep what works and discard what doesn’t." Therefore, I believe I'll do just as he said and experiment to see what will work for me and what won't. After all, Rob experimented and was able to lose a whopping 300lbs.! So I figure if it worked for him, it can work for me too.
I tell ya, this guy is an inspiration, and I'm still reading his archives to see what I can experiment with, and I look forward to sharing those experiments with you.

With that said, this journey and my first experiment will begin Friday. Why Friday? Because Friday is when I'll be able to visit the grocery store to get the healthy diet foods and drinks I'll need to start my natural body cleansing.

Now to explain my first experiment... So far everything I've read about natural body cleansing involves eating only fresh fruits, raw vegetables, and drinking fresh juices such as apple juice, orange juice and grape juice, as well as drinking water. I'll stick to eating only the healthy diet foods mentioned above, as well as drinking juices and water for two days. The experiment will be with the juices. What I've read suggested "fresh" juices, but instead of "fresh" juices, I'm going to buy my apple, orange, grape and vegetable juices from the store. Surely there's not much difference, but we'll know in two days.

To keep up with my updates, subscribe to my RSS feeds or via e-mail, both are free.

Photo credit: Dlisbona

How I Went From Petite to Obese

After I escaped domestic violence in 1998, I stepped onto the scale and was shocked to learn I weighed over 200lbs.! Being big was not something I was use to. I was born small, and in my teen years, I wore a size 8, but the low self-esteem and depression from being in a bad marriage caused me to give up on myself and my body. I knew I was turning to food for comfort but didn't realize--or maybe I just didn't see--I was getting bigger by the minute, and that's when I went from petite to obese. If only I had taken care of my body, stayed active and made better choices -- but I can't turn the clock back.

Since then I've been on numerous diets, but the problem is sticking to them. Sometimes I feel so lonely. Yes, I'm doing this alone and for me, but the feeling of loneliness is pretty depressing. This is one reason I started this blog, so that maybe that lonesomeness will go away. The other reason was to share my journey with everyone. I'm hoping WAHM's Journey to Weight Loss will inspire other men, women, teens and preteens struggling with weight loss to follow in my footsteps. In fact, I'm here sharing my journey to show that it can be done.

Unfortunately, there's obesity on my mother's side of the family as well as my father's. So even though I was lucky enough to be petite in school, I didn't make fun of others. I'm a nice person and making fun of others hurts feelings. In fact, I was best friends with a girl who was approximately 4ft. tall and a little overweight. It truly is what's on the inside of a person and not the outside. Speaking of what's on the inside and not the out, my cousin--who is more of a brother to me--weighs over 600lbs. He may be a big guy on the outside, but on the inside, I think his heart is bigger than he is, so to speak. He's very sweet and has struggled since birth with his weight. When he was born, he weighed 11lbs. Many believe he may have a medical condition that makes it harder for him to loose the weight, but if you know him, I can almost guarantee he'd become your best friend--a true friend.

I've watched my cousin over the years, and my worst fear is being in a situation that he found himself in a month ago. His kidneys had shut down on him, and his blood pressure was dangerously low when he arrived at the local hospital. From there, they decided he needed medical attention fast and made arrangements to have him flown to a bigger hospital a few hours away. However, the crew aboard the life flight refused to fly him because of his size. The alternative: his brother drove him in a truck to the hospital. Mind you, he was in bad shape and needed medical attention on the trip, but due to his size, the life flight and ambulance refused him.

When my cousin finally arrived at the hospital he was supposed to have been flown to, the doctor who took over his care was not happy with our local hospital. From what I heard, that doctor said my cousin could have died, and the hospital should have flown him instead of having him brought in by family members. This is my worst fear, being near death and having the people trained to save my life refuse me because of my size. Now my cousin had a happy ending. He's now home and his kidneys are back to normal. However, the situation could have had a sad ending, but I thank the Lord that it didn't.

If you will, please join me on my journey and help spread the word about my blog to others. When I say join, I mean cheer me on, pass along your free weight loss advice, encourage me when I'm down and/or set a goal for yourself and literally join me. If you choose to join me by setting a goal for yourself, then please feel free to share your updates. Just use the comments section below to share your updates, cheer me on, pass along your free dieting tips, share your words of encouragement and/or just to say hello.

Introduction

Welcome! Through WAHM's Journey to Weight Loss, you'll read about how I'll melt the pounds off through prayer, faith, hard work and determination. Furthermore, you'll discover free dieting tips based on what will work for me and what won't, as well low-calorie recipes, free weight loss advice and much more.

My entire journey to weight loss will not involve surgery, diet pills or weight loss programs. How do I plan to lose weight without all those things? Simple, the old-fashioned way, so to speak. I'll watch my food intake and hopefully find the time during my busy life to exercise as well.

I'm here to share my journey with you to show that one can lose weight without expensive surgery, diet pills, costly weight loss programs, and most importantly, without starving yourself or eliminating your favorite foods.

Let's begin this journey to weight loss with my before picture (taken today) and personal weight information.

Height: 5ft. 5in.

Current weight: 278lbs. (Yes, this is rather embarrassing, but, again, with prayer, faith, hard work and determination, that humiliating number will drop).

Goal weight: 144lbs.












Join me Monday as I reveal how I went from petite to obese. To ensure that you don't miss a single post, subscribe to my RSS feed or opt-in to receive the free updates via email.