Realistic Goals

So this week I was approached by my husband who so tenderly let me know that he thought the goal weight that I had in mind was unrealistic. I had finally come up with weighing somewhere between 165 lbs and 175 lbs. I remembered when I weighed this amount and I liked the way my body looked. That became my number. I didn't have any other information to get this number, it just seemed like a good number.

I spoke to my trainer about it, which if I can stop here a moment and just give her kudos. 

Lori is the most awesome person. She has been with me from the beginning. She has always pushed me past what I thought I could do. She has believed in me, when I didn't believe in myself. Lori has a genuine concern for my health and well-being. The care that she has had for me is simply amazing. I am blessed to have her in my life and am so happy that I can call her friend. 

So as I was saying, I spoke to Lori about what would be a reasonable goal for me. She asked me what I wanted my body fat to be. "I don't know. Who walks around knowing what they want their body fat to be." She gave me a scale of different body fat percentages and I chose 20% body fat. She then calculated my lean body mass. This is what I need to live: organs, blood, bones, muscle and skin. Basically everything but fat. To my surprise, for me this is 157 lbs. So if I had absolutely no fat on my body, I'd still weigh 157 lbs. (I told my hubby I was 'big boned'.) With 20% body fat my goal weight is 195 lbs. That is considered a fitness build.

Now you may ask, what made me choose 20%. They truth is 24%, which is still fitness build, would put me at 206 lbs. Quite frankly, I don't want a 2 in front of my weight. Rationally, I understand that I am almost 6 feet tall and that I have a large frame. Even though I would weigh 206 lbs, I wouldn't look like it. My body would be lean and fit, but for me there's just something about me weighing 200 lbs that I just don't like. I realize it's all mental and I am comfortable being only a few lbs less than 200 lbs while I figure out why it's such a big deal.

With that said, my new 'realistic' goal is 195 lbs. I currently weigh 237 lbs. I am 42 lbs away from my goal weight! That's so close I can taste it! It's like I am in a triathlon. I am about to finish the first race. Then I'll move on to muscle tone and fat decrease. Finally, I end in maintenance. It's all about endurance now.

Below you'll see my current 4 month pics. Thanks for allowing me to share my journey.

FAQs

Hi everyone! It's been a few weeks since my last blog. I'm working to get back to posting at least once a week. Please be patient with me. I've decided to make the theme of this blog FAQs or Frequently Asked Questions. So here I will share with you all the answers to the questions I get about my journey. Ready?! Here we go:

1. How much weight have you lost? To date, I have lost 78 lbs
2. How much do you weigh? 247 lbs
3. How long have you been on your journey? Since October 27 (Surgery Date). Next week will be 4 months.
4. How often do you workout? I workout 5 days week, Monday-Friday. I have 2 rest days (Saturday and Sunday).
5. How long are your workouts? I workout out with a trainer 3 days a week for 60 min, plus 2 days a week I do an hour of cardio, 3 days a week I do 3 hours of cardio (broken down into morning and night). So anywhere from 2-4 hours a day.
6.  What do you do during your workouts? For cardio I do: swimming, cycle, Zumba, P90X DVDs and my newest is a hip hop class. With the trainer I do a lot of core work, abs, weights, exercise on the exercise ball (too much for me to remember). I just show up, do what she says and wait for her to tell me we are done.
7. Do you regret having the surgery done? Not at all. Knowing everything I know now, I would do again in a heartbeat. It gave me the help I needed to get on track and now I am able to control my life.
8. What's the thing you like best about having the surgery? Well of course the weight loss. It's pretty awesome to see your body change from week to week. 
9. What's the most frustrating thing about having the surgery? Not being able to guzzle down a 16 oz bottle of water in 2 min. Because my stomach is so small, I have to take small sips frequently. 
10. Do you miss the old food you used to eat? Not really. I remember how things taste, but now I look at it so differently. How something is going to affect my body is my number one concern when eating now.
11. What is the biggest change in you? How I look at food. I use food as fuel now. Eating is not an event anymore. It's something I have to do in order to live. Simply put.
12. Have you suffered any side-affects? Yes. I am lactose-intolerant at the moment (they tell me it may change later). I'm having some hair loss. This is because of the rapid weight loss. It should start growing back when I hit my 6 month mark (the cool thing is no one can see it). My taste buds have changed drastically. I have a very delicate pallet. I don't eat a lot of strong flavors. I hardly eat any meat. I eat turkey maybe once a week. So seafood it is!
13. What size are you wearing now? I wear a Lane Bryant 14/16 top and a 20 bottom. I think I can go to 18 though, I'm just not ready. I can wear an XL top in Old Navy.
14. How are you emotionally? I am the best I have been yet! Like ever! I mean I was smaller before but I wasn't fit and my inner being wasn't as healthy.
15. Do you cook different meals for your family? No. What I cook is what everyone eats. My family has been very supportive of me and they don't gripe about the lack of junk in the house.
16. What do you eat now? I can pretty much eat anything I want. I don't eat sugar because it creates fat. I don't eat hardly any bread. It fills me up way too fast. I still do about 2 protein supplements a day to compensate for my lack of traditional meat.
17. What's your goal weight? This, I can't seem to decide. As I see the changes in my body, my answer changes. I'll say between 165-185 lbs (I'm 5'10'' so there's really no getting smaller than that for me).
18.  Do you have a goal size? Yes. I want to go into ANY store and wear a size large.

Whew! That's about all. If you have more questions just send them to me and I'll answer them. I have a NSV (Non-Scale Victory) to share before I go. I am able to fit into my hubby's clothes. This is probably the most exciting thing for me. When your lounging around the house, sometimes there's nothing more comforting than your husband's jersey or sweatshirt. That's all, until next time...

3 Month Update (new pics)

Mental-Diet-Exercise! That really sums up the key to this whole weight loss thing (in that order). The issue is most of us don't get past the mental or we try them out of order. We change our diet but we don't exercise. Or we exercise and eat the same crap. All the while we haven't had that 'Ah ha' moment. We haven't dealt with what got us to the point of the excess weight. A lot of the time, it's because we don't know where to start.

When I started my journey I was soooo scared. I new that this was it! I had to do it this time. Through much prayer and fasting I made some requests to God. I literally cried my heart out, explaining to Him how I had had enough and I needed Him to really come through this time. I asked Him:

1. To give me the drive to never give up.
2. To not allow me to crave the things that would stop or stall my journey.
3. To not allow me to have any side affects
4. To reprogram my mind toward food
5. To heal my body from all ailments that would cause me not to reach my goal.

The awesome thing is...He heard me (and pitied every groan)!!!!!! He promised me that if I tried my very best, He would bless my efforts.  He has been so faithful. He has blessed me with such a drive, that it's as if my life depended on it. The funny thing is, it does. I am healthy and my mind is renewed. I don't even desire to have the bad foods. Now don't get me wrong, I may say, "Wow I wish I could eat a burger." However the thoughts that immediately follow are, "How much would I have to workout to burn that? That grease would probably make me sick. I'll probably get a headache afterward, then I'll be tired. It is soooo not worth it."

Who is this woman? The dialogue that goes on in my mind now is so different. I am no longer satisfying my addiction, but I am taking control of my body. I am cleaning my temple and showing it who is in charge. Everyday I am re-inviting God in. It reminds me of the show 'Clean House'. Family members of the homeowners come over but they don't stay as long. It's so uncomfortable to be there but they love their family member so they still come. After the house is clean, the homeowner is so eager to show them the house. Just as I am opening doors to rooms that God never could come in because it was filled with food, with a lack of self-worth, with pity. I can hardly show Him one room, before running to the next and opening the door. I am free! I am happy! I am content in state I am in.

These past 3 months have been challenging, but if it doesn't cost you anything, is it worth anything? It cost me not so much blood, but much sweat and tears. I am happy to say that after 3 months I have lost 69.4 lbs and I give all glory to GOD!!!!! His love for me is amazing and I am overwhelmed by His grace towards me. I still have a ways to go on this journey but I know that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength! Phillipians 4:13

Update

Well it's been a little while since I've blogged, so I thought I'd catch you up. First, Happy New Year! I did indeed hit my goal of 50 lbs gone in 2011. That was amazing. I was so excited. I am still on the fitness bandwagon. I workout 5 days a week Mon-Fri. 3 of those days I do an additional workout in the evening. Working out has really become a part of me. I don't make excuses of why I can't, I just do it. I know that it is needed to hit my goals. I don't believe I have ever had the determination that I have now.

I feel absolutely amazing. I have waaaaaaayyyyy more energy. I don't have the pain as bad in my knees when climbing stairs. My body is literally being sculpted in front of my eyes. It's amazing to see the changes from week to week. Hubby is very happy! :) I currently am wearing an 18 in shirts and a 20 in pants. I have yet to buy any 20s though. My 22s are sagging pretty badly now, so I think it's time I took another trip to the store.

Today I hit another milestone, I have lost a total of 60.4 lbs!!!! I decided to look up things that weigh 60 lbs. Here's what I found:

• The average 9 year old boy
• 6-10 lb bags of potatoes
• 5 adult 10 pin bowling balls (the BIG ones) 
• 3 car tires
• 6 fat cats
• 2 microwaves
• about 8 gallons of milk
• 240 sticks of butter
• Christopher holding a 15 lb dumbell

I am mighty proud of myself. I currently weigh. 264.6 lbs. If you recall, before I was subtracting 5 lbs from my weight to account for the difference when I switched scales. Well, that got old. I know my new scale is the right weight because it matches my doctor's office. So...what I did was I changed my start weight. If I had my current scale when I started my journey, I would have weighed 325 lbs (yikes). So now, no more calculating at the scale. I know...why am I still talking about those 5 lbs. I worked for them and I can't let them go away because I got a new scale. It's just part of my process.

January 31st I will be posting more before and after pics so stay tuned. I am hoping to lose 9.6 more lbs by then. That would put me at a 20 lb mark for the month and a 70 lb loss in 3 months. It's pretty ambitious but I'm up for the challenge. Thanks for all of the support and accountability!

                                                    DETERMINATION!!!!!