Let Me Blow Ya Mind

         This week I went through a week of "no carbs after 3pm" which did nothing for me. I actually gained two pounds. I am not blaming the no carbs system but the absolute agony and stress of doing it. One of the components of a weight loss journey is managing your stress. I have never really been good at managing my stress. I am a little bit of a hoarder . I like to hold on to some things that are not really necessary and one of the most dangerous things I hold onto is stress. I take in things ( any situation fits here) and hold them inside. I rarely have a blow up or tantrum( except after a weight gain ha ha). I hear other folks problems and keep them to myself. When bad things happen to me I hold it deep inside and it festers there. Food was a good drug of comfort so I medicated and medicated. I also developed high blood pressure eventually as well a over a hundred pounds. I was trying to figure out what was going on with me to cause me to start gaining weight when I know how important it is for me to lose it. I think that I have figured out that my powers of stress hoarding and suppressing my problems that I did exactly what I did for years; neglect myself.
           So when I met with my chiropractor this week, I had a strength training workout with him and told him some of my problems while working out and realized that once again I have become weak and need to devote more attention to muscle building. He also told me that all of my blood work came out fine so I have no urgent medical problem causing my weight gain at this time.
             At the meeting after the meeting with my WW homies I had to realize that I am not particularly motivated which is a component of not being self aware of my so I am working on that. I was watching the Dr. Oz show that was about how to lose weight after 40. Sometimes I forget that I am 45 years old.  So the here are the tips that I got from the episode that I am going to try to keep up.
1)Strength training - after 40's need this because our metabolism has started to slow down. I cannot eat like I used to with few consequences and I need a little extra muscle to rev up my slow metabolism.
2) Eat soup before a meal. I made myself a big ole pot of WW Zero Point Soup recipe ( I call it 1pt soup and count it). Hopefully this will slow down the hunger I sometimes feel after eating a meal. I so admire people who feel satisfied after eating but I am not one of them at every meal. I will not have soup at breakfast by the way. LOL.
            Another tidbit I learned from the show was that as we grow older we have these cells that our brains are telling us that we are more hungry than we really should be. It's a hormone and stress thing and I need to work harder at controlling it.

Tam, Cindy and me at seminar

           This week my WW homies, Cindy, Tam and Bob went to a special WW seminar for people who have 75lbs or more to lose. This was a meeting with people who have successfully lost large amounts of weight and kept it off with WW.Because I have not lost all my weight after years of working at it, I went to see if there is more that I can do. There really is not a special trick to losing large amounts of weight. It's a lot of hard work, watching and accounting for what you eat, exercising, and figuring out what is going on with you (mentally and physically) that caused you to gain the weight in the first place. No tricks , no mirrors. I know that can sound discouraging and believe me I have been at this a while in my 40's, but I have to do this. No one can wave a magic wand or a magic scalpel and fix me. I have to fix me with the help of my magic WW fairies I call friends and the program.

Tam and Cindy

Melanie, Tam, Cindy and me

        There was a woman in the seminar who lost well over a hundred pounds in less than a year. She makes it sound easy ( although I am positive that it was not easy for her). Not everyone can have that result and I think that coming to grips with that is a first step for one that has so much to lose. Here are some takeaways from the meeting;
-MANAGE YOUR EXPECTATIONS
-STOP THE FEAR OF BECOMING WHO YOU ARE INSIDE
-THINK LIKE AN ATHLETE
-THE PRIZE DOES NOT GO TO THE ONE WHO LOSES THE FASTEST. THE PRIZE GOES TO THE ONE WHO KEEPS IT OFF THE LONGEST.