liana

Well, for the past few months, I have been struggling with sleep.  It’s rare that I actually get a full night’s sleep.  I blame it on my weight and on stress from the economy.  Life hasn’t been easy and it’s affecting my sleep.  Now that I’m starting to lose weight and I’m not as broke as I was a few months ago, I would LOVE to sleep peacefully without my mind racing and tossing and turning all  night.  Any suggestions??

Ok, so this past weekend, I had a minor setback.  I can’t seem to resist chocolate!!  The cookie was just calling my name…and I gave in!  As good as it tasted, I immediately felt guilty.  I guess that’s a good thing.  So, I adjusted my calories accordingly and went on with my life.  I will NOT give in to the “cookie temptation” again.  I want to be thin!!!

First of all, I’d like to say, since I joined a few days ago, the support has been amazing.  I want to thank everyone for their nice comments and emails.  It means a lot to me knowing that there are people out there who can relate to what I’m going through.  Since I started my diet a week and a half ago, I have lost four pounds!  I’m so excited to see the scale go down instead of up.  I have not been starving myself, I’ve been staying full and I’ve learned to be creative with healthy food.  Tonight I made a personal pizza with reduced fat / organic ingredients and only 500 calories.  My boyfriend has been on the diet with me and he’s been seriously craving pizza.  Since delivery is too fattening and expensive, I made my own and it was delicious.  This makes the diet so much easier to stick with. As long as I can keep us both happy, we’ll continue to lose weight.

I have struggled with my weight all of my life.  Now at the age of 31, I am at my heaviest ever.  In the past year, I have gained 42 pounds.  I gained 25 lbs. from cortisone injections.  One in my wrist for Carpal Tunnel and one for a food allergy.  I also stopped taking birth control pills and noticed a slight weight gain.  But for the most part, my weight gain is from inactivity and poor diet. I lived in an apartment with a small kitchen, so I resorted to eating out and delivery for dinner because it was so hard to cook.  I have since moved and have a HUGE kitchen where I have learned to be creative with food.  I have tried many different diets and have failed at all of them so I decided to take a different approach.  I only eat my  meals now on the small dinner salad plates.  If it doesn’t fit, I don’t eat it.  I also cut out flour.  If I want bread of some kind, it’s whole wheat.  I have started being creative with pita bread and whole wheat wraps.  I also stopped all sugar intake.  Instead of butter, I use olive oil.  I try to incorporate some kind of monounsaturated fat with every meal.  I noticed that it’s helped control my hunger and I’m eating smaller portions and less calories altogether.  I am trying to maintain on 1200-1600 calories a day.  Sometimes that’s hard for me because I am a massage therapist and I need energy.  But I will make it work.  In the past four days of dieting, I have lost my first pound.  To some people, a pound isn’t much but to me, it’s the start of a brighter future.  I promised my boyfriend that if we ever get married, I want to be a skinny bride. lol  So this is my journey.  I ultimately want to lose between 70-90 lbs, but I will be grateful just to be healthy.