At least, for me, its easy to lose confidence if I’m not reaching my weight loss goals the way I’d hoped. There’s always the temptation to blame myself. You know how it goes: you tell yourself that you just don’t have the staying power or will power to lose the weight.

Here’s a trick – you’ve managed to lose 5 pounds so far, which may not sound like a lot when you compare it to your overall goal. The next time you’re at the grocery store – grab a 5lb back of flour, sugar or potatoes. Carry it around with you as you shop.

It’s getting heavy, hey??

That’s the amount of excess weight you used to carry all the time. Five pounds on the scale may not seem like much, but when you tote it around in your arms and think of it as the fat you’ve lost – - you realize what a big accomplishment it really is!

Also, remember – pounds aren’t the only measure of success. Make a list of other benefits you’ve gained by following your diet and exercise program:

• Maybe your clothes aren’t as tight anymore?
• Maybe you’re more flexible?
• Maybe your energy and stamina have improved?
• Maybe you’re eating a healthier diet?
• Maybe you’re losing inches and toning muscle?

If you can make one change.. you can make two. If you can make two changes.. you can make three. Get the idea?

My motivator for the week? I’ve lost 10lbs total so far (I’ve been at this roughly a month). With those 10 pounds I have also lost 12 inches! The inch loss is appearing (or I should say dissapearing) from my waist and hip area, mostly (right where I need it!). I was de-railed on my program .. right in the middle of it because I had a gallbladder attack and had to have my gallbladder removed. Using my usual and old habits.. I *almost* let that completely de-motivate me.. because once I step off my diet and workout program, for some reason.. it’s really hard for me to get back on it. Trust me, I will use anything as an excuse! And surgery felt like a pretty damn good excuse! Although, the gallbladder surgery was a pretty minor procedure (done via laproscope) – and my recovery was quick… hardly any pain after two days and the very small incisions are healing very nicely.

Luanne, my personal trainer, kept encouraging me and gave me about a week before she called and said “Come on down to the gym – - don’t be worried.. we’ll keep it light and simple, ok?” – - so I dragged myself in and I am really glad that I did. I felt so much better afterwards…and have kept up my regular visits..and feel really motivated to keep moving!

Good luck!

People ususally feel much better when losing weight, it’s true! Some experience periods of fatigue, as well, however. When you take in fewer calories than you burn, you force your body to turn to the energy it has stored as fat. This is a good thing! However, falling short on calories can make you feel tired and rundown.. and yes, even grumpy (ask me, I know!). As a result – some people get tired of dieting, but you don’t have to let an energy drain get in the way of your weight loss goals.

If you’re feeling fatigue every day, talk to your doctor. But if you simply have occasional slumps and less energy than yo uused to, try eating smaller meals adn then snack more frequentyly during the day. Save the piece of fruit from breakfast to eat in the middle of the morning, or hold off on the sliced veggies you brought for lunch and have them later in the afternoon. Eating more frequently can steady your blood sugar levels so you won’t feel a slump when your energy supplies run low.

Another good way to combat fatigue is to fit extra physical activity into your day. It seems irnoic to be more active when you’re feeling an energy low, but research shows that physical activity can actually make people feel more energetic, rather than less. It provides a psychological boost that can banish the blues. Getting up and moving also increases your self-confidence. AND regular exercise increases stamina, so you’ll build reserves of energy for more activity!

I happily slipped on my size 16 jeans today and didn’t even need to unbuckle and unzip them in order to take them off. I happily slipped on my size 14 jeans today and found them extremely comfortable! I even slipped on my size 12 jeans today and I think a maybe 5 more lbs and I can totally ditch my 16’s and 14’s and give them away to a woman’s shelter, or something.

I love when I get into a real mindset of diet and excercise – - it’s a real high for me, quite honestly. I find that on the days that I have a really super workout – I feel TONS better about myself, compared to days that I don’t work out at all. And it doesn’t take much for me, really – - 20-30 mins on the treadmill followed by a 15-20 min workout on my Bowflex working either my upper body, abs or lower body. After that, I’m walking on air. Compare that to days that I skip workouts completely… those days I don’t feel so hot at all.

Today I woke up and told myself that I needed an excellent work out – - if I keep going the way I have been, I might hit the 15lb mark by the time my kids start school (Sept. 5) which means I have hit my HALFWAY mark toward the total goal of a 30lb loss.

I find it is much easier to keep up the motivation and mindset that I need if I keep working at it every single day. I find that when I miss a day, or two, my motivation starts to slip. It’s just a matter of reminding myself how incredible I feel with a 12lbs weight loss in 3 weeks. When you feel that FANTASTIC – why stop? Why not feel that fantastic every day?

2 weeks.. 10lbs – - I guess that’s good, eh? I wonder if I can keep this up and make it 20lbs in one month?

Well, I’ll sure try.

After seeing that, I refilled my 1 Liter water bottle and hopped on the treadmill – engergized, motivated and encouraged. As I’m walking, I’m thinking about those 1.5 pounds I just lost. I thought about how much I had to put myself through just to lose that pound and a half. Constant attention to what I’m putting in my mouth, keeping track of how much water I’m taking in, reminding myself to get my ass up off the chair and get on the treadmill, or workout on the Bowflex or some other sort of exercise.

That 1.5 pounds was a lot of work, dammit! If it were up to ME – I would have lost at LEAST 5lbs considering the work I’ve been putting into this – - but I don’t appear to be in charge (obviously).

Today I walked a little faster, increased the incline on my treadmill a little higher and walked an extra 10 minutes than usual hoping to see similiar results this time next week when I get back on the scale – hoping that it loves me as much next week as it did today (if not more).

What hit me the strongest while I was taking my walk was that I can do this. My weight does not have to be my enemy and I don’t have to let it defeat me. I have complete control over what I do during the course of my days – I can tackle these 30lbs, just as I tackle all other obstacles in my life. Some hard work, dedication, motivation and desire.

Sounds easy, right? Haha – NOT!

Hmm. Maybe that idea has merit?

Anyways – I started the NutriSystemdiet program…. hmm… when.. oh yea – on Thursday August 3 – a week and two days ago. Combined with daily walking and doing stregth training on my Bowflex every other day… I have lost a solid 7lbs!

That’s 7 one-pound bags of sugar, man! I lost that! I’m thrilled and motivated enough to keep this up for at least another few weeks and see if I can’t just grab onto that target weight of mine once and for all!

I have to put a note in here of thanks to my new hubby – without whose support, I wouldn’t be doing this. He is SO encouraging (umm..sometimes annoying) and I probably wouldn’t have gotten into the daily treadmill habit if it weren’t for him and his encouragement (nagging). He knows how much I really want to drop these last 30 lbs – - he knows how much it bothers me.. and he also knows how much of a procrastinator I am… so he reminds me daily. He does wonderful things.. like today…. “Hey baby – how about I do those two loads of laundry… while you get on the treadmill? Deal?” He’s super!

I also am very happy with the NutriSystemprogram, so far. It’s extremely easy to stick to. I feel full.. I don’t feel like I’m starving. I eat 5 times a day – and the food is really quite good. I’m so pleased with it that I’m going to order another month’s worth when the time comes.

NutriSystem Nourish: The Revolutionary New Weight-Loss Program

My weight loss and dieting goals prior to the wedding really paid off and my pictures from the wedding are just wonderful. I’m SO glad I hit the dieting thing hard prior to the wedding – dropping those extra 25lbs really made a difference.

We honeymooned in Bonaire, South America and both of us went through the 4-day course to become certified as an open water scuba diver. That was so much fun and very exciting to go down 100 feet beneath the surface of the sea and see how the other half lives.

It’s great exercise, too! I lost a total of 11lbs on my honeymoon because we really spent about 75% of our time under the sea, scuba diving. And in the Caribbean, because of the heat – you drink just tons and tons of water – - I’m beginning to understand why Caribbean women look so good all the time!

It took awhile for my body to adjust to the extreme heat down there. My body reacts to heat extremes in a weird way – - it retains water.. LOTS of it. Within 5 hours of being there – my feet swelled up like little sausages, to the point where I could not even wear my shoes and had to invest in a lose fitting pair of flip flops until my feet went back to normal. It took about a day and a half until they returned to their normal size. I drank about a gallon of water to assure my body that I wasn’t going to deprive it of liquids – and tell it that it’s ok to let go of the water it’s retaining in my feet, because there is more coming!!

Strange that, eh?

Now that the honeymoon and celebrations are over – - I’m still on a quest to drop another 20-30lbs and will continue to write about that journey, those struggles and successes here.

The good news is that when I went to NY last month and had my next-to-last final dress fitting, I lost a full 3 inches around my waist… causing them to have to take the dress IN!!

Trust me, I’ve been having bad dreams about them having to let the dress OUT!

I have my final-final fitting on June 18th – - that’s when they’ll make the FINAL adjustments and inform me that I cannot, under any circumstances, lose or gain any weight at all until the BIG DAY on the 24th.

No pressure, really.

So, looking back over the past 6 months, what did I do?

• LOTS of water! TONS of water! Bottles and Bottles of water every single day. Even when I thought I had enough water – I had more water. To the point that now I feel like I’m dehydrating if I don’t have at LEAST 6-8 bottles of water in me
• Lots of walking – - mostly on the treadmill, sometimes outside. Every day. I didn’t walk at a really fast pace.. I kept it mostly between 2.5 – 3.0 MPH – - but at a slight incline, as well.
• Abs, Abs, Abs, Abs!! Mostly on the bowflex – - but some floor ab exercises, as well. I usually did these exercises 3-4 times per week – - every other day
• Looking back over what I ate the most of? Lots of fish – - Tilapia, Salmon, Cod and Tuna. And lots of chicken. Very little red meat and lots of veggies – - broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower.
• I supplemented with Flax Seed Oil and Green Tea.
• I snacked a lot on Dannon’s Light and Fit Fruit Smoothies, SouthBeat Diets Protien snack bars, Myoplex protein shakes, dried apricots, fat free vanilla yogurt and fruit/granola
• Tried REALLY HARD to stay away from Starbucks and my favorite 350 calorie heaven-in-a-cup

All in all – my goal was to lose 50lbs total by mid-June. I’m not there yet, but then neither is June, eh?

I have lost half of it – 25lbs. I estimate losing another 5-8 between now and mid-June if I stay on track – - which will put me 20lbs shy of my goal. But the strange thing is – - I’ve lost a heck of a lotta inches and dropped 4 sizes completely. So, while I’ve lost only 1/2 the weight… and I’m still not a size 8 (rather a size 12 – - used to be 16).. I’m still very happy, overall.

I think during the two weeks I’m in NY for my wedding – - followed by the 2 weeks I’m in South America on my honeymoon… I’ll probably (definitley) relax my dieting quite a bit – - and I’m ok with putting a little back on during that time (although, scuba diving and snorkeling are good exercise!)… I’ll be back at it again when I get home… still chasing that ellusive size 8!

I hopped on the scale today and discovered a very excellent 6lb weight loss since last week. Of course, there are two factors:

• I was on my period last week – can anyone say RETENTION?
• I had been off the diet – so much of it was probably additional water weight

But still! I’ll take 6lbs – - so I am now officially 1lb lighter than I was the day I let the diet go. Go me! I’m only 20lbs away from my absolute target weight and think I can hit that by June. I remain hopefull anyways!

LOTS and LOTS of brown rice and fish going on over here!

LOTS of pilates, treadmilling and toning exercising – - along with a bit of strength training on the Bowflex thrown in for good measure. I’m more determined than ever this time – - I just wish I hadn’t fallen off the wagon because those 20lbs may have already been gone by now!

Arggh.

Found a great, filling and healthy snack this afternoon when I got a little hungry:

About 1/4 cup Kashi GoLean mixed with about 1 cup of StonyField Farms Fat Free Strawberry Yogurt make a REALLY yummy, and filling snack!

Weight Loss: 2lbs
Inches lost: 4 inches

There just is nothing more statisfying than to see that kind of progress as payoff for all the hard work and planning I’ve been doing. Thus far, my total loss on my Body for LIFE challenge has been: ……..drumroll……….

15 total pounds
20.5 total inches

I could stop now and be completely thrilled with my results. Seriously. But, I still have that 150lb mark to hit – and I’m going to hit it by my wedding on 6/24.

Over the last few weeks, I was kinda getting tired of weighing in and seeing a .5 lbs loss.. or no loss at all. So, this week I changed things around a bit. Changed my cardio schedule by increasing another day a week and increasing the rate at which I walk, including a small change in the incline on my treadmill.

For my foods – I played around there, too. I had gotten into a rut of eating some of the same foods over and over because it’s easy to make large quantities of it – - then refridgerate portions for lunches and meals later in the week. I was doing LOTS of tuna and tilapia…asparagus and broccoli. This week, I threw in some lean red meat for a few meals and have been eating lots of baby spinach and fruit – - black grapes, raspberries, blueberries.

In additiona, I added that Flax Seed Oil supplement to my diet a little over a week ago.

Plus – I haven’t had my sinful ‘cheat’ for two weeks. Yesterday, I had to take my daughter over to the sports store to get her a new swimsuit for gym class. (she ripped hers in a MOST unflattering way on the diving board in class yesterday. Poor kid!) On our way, she wanted to stop at Starbucks because she LOVES their caramel apple cider drink. She felt that she’s been really good and lost 10lbs herself – - she deserves a treat.

I wasn’t going to – because I am WEAK when face to face with a caramel machiatto, seriously. But, as we were driving, there was this cop behind me – - and no matter what, I hate driving with cops behind me and realized if I made a left towards Starbucks, we’d ditch the cop, right? Guilty conscience or something – or at the very least, a weak justification.

So, through the drive-thru we went. Now, I have tried and tried and tried – but I just cannot drink my latte with skim milk. I just can’t do it. I’ve tried over a dozen and a half times and I just let it sit and get cold – and at $4 a cup at Starbucks, that some expensive garbage. I can drink it with 1%, however Starbucks does regular milk two ways: Whole or skim – no in between.

So, I’ve become one of those annoying Starbucks customers whose order is 15 gazillion words long. “Hi – I’d like a grande caramel apple cider… and a Triple Grande, Half Skim Latte with 2 Splendas please”

I realize that 1/2 skim and 1/2 whole milk gives me approximately 1% milk for my latte and the whole drink comes out to about 120 calories total – compared to the 310 calorie drink that makes up my favorite machiatto!

The girl looks at me like I’m from planent Mars.. “What, no machiatto today, Lisa??” (How embarassing is it that the Barista knows me by name AND drink??).. I say “No, I’m trying to watch those calories, ya know – have you ever LOOKED at the nutritional info on those machiattos? Woosh!”

So, she tells me that she can’t stand skim milk for her latte’s either – - BUT… she tried a skim milk latte once with honey, instead of splenda… and she says she LOVES them and now that is all she drinks. Something about the honey and the milk together makes it totally tasty.

I’m skeptical. But I’ll try it next time because I’m game and always looking to drop a few of those empty calories out of my regular diet. I’ll let ya know how it goes!