The Trials and Tribulations of Weight Loss

In some ways, this journey through diet/lifestyle change and exercise is one of the hardest things I've ever gone thru.

The benefits and rewards are outstanding...I've lost 55 lbs as of last Friday, I eat much much healthier..I am conscious of what I'm eating.. I'm now treating my body as the temple it deserves to be.

The setbacks, however, seem to affect me much more than I would have expected.. Ankle/Foot pain temporarily derailing my exercise efforts, gaining a pound or two which brings my motivation down, finding out I'm not eating enough calories to sustain my weight loss. The roadblocks seem to really hurt. One thing I'm trying to learn is not to be so hard on myself, but it is not so easy. I've come a long way..but I have a ways I would like to go yet. It reminds of when I used to come home from school and exclaim "I failed the test" and then find out my grade was a 94.

As one of my friends on a similar journey said, "I celebrate every pound down I go, and curse each pound that comes back on."

I've made further changes a result of the setbacks.

-Cutting exercise down from 6 days a week to 4-5

(However I have increased the intensity of the workout, and I burn around 600-700 calories

per workout over 45-60 minutes)

-Attempting to increase daily number of calories consumed

This is so much harder than I thought. After all those years of overeating and eating whatever I wanted, I find it much more difficult to eat more now. I've made a conscious decision (from the start) to cut my portion size and eat less...and now finding that I have to eat more is a

challenge - trying to find ways to mix up meals and add calories without necessarily adding

too much fat or cholesterol.

The night we went to Sweet Tomatoes, I had no problems at all reaching 1200 calories. But

mostly I struggle to eat enough...even though I've increased some..its still not good enough.

What I decided to do was to increase the amount (portion size) of my meals, as I feel I

already eat frequently enough throughout the day (approximately 5-6 times, every 2-3 hours).

I find it so funny that my problem is now the exact opposite of what it was just 3 months ago.

(and there are definitely worse problems to have than having to force myself to eat more!) LOL.

Today I'm trying adding a Protein/Energy Bar and see what affect that has.

Tomorrow's Protein Bar of Choice is Cookie Dough Flavored.. YUMM!

PS Now that I vented I feel much better :-) Who knew spilling your guts to a blog could be so therapeutic.