I've never been overweight before.
Growing up and all through most of my twenties, I was quite thin through no conscious effort of my own.
When I met my husband and got married, I put on almost 20 lbs in that year. You know, "the happy and comfortable" weight...
But still, I was okay with it. Friends I met after being married commented that I must have been too thin before that if I was 20lbs heavier then. Ideally, I would have liked to have dropped half of that. Then I got pregnant. Long story short, I've ended up with 10 more extra pounds after all was said and done at 2 years out from having my last baby.
Then slowly over the past year (six months?) that's crept up to almost another ten more.
I'm secretly hoping if I can just do something drastic to lose this thirty pounds, and tone up a bit, that then if I just keep up my activity level and keep my meals on the good side of "normal", I'll be able to keep things at an nice weight/shape without too much trouble. I'm hoping I still have enough of my old metabolism or hormones or whatever it is that if I can kick these extra pounds, then simply finding helpful, healthful ways of making meals for my family, being more intentional about activity, as well as finally being settled here without another relocation on the horizon, will allow me to just keep things at an even keel.
So for my first "drastic" attempt... because I'm rather wimpy and at this point I know I'm not motivated enough to read labels and count calories or even WW points and I'm definitely not desperate enough to cut out all carbs, or do a whole "lifestyle change" diet...
I'm doing the Special K "diet" for two weeks. Well, for at least two weeks. I'm giving it two weeks.
So far, it's good for me. You simply replace breakfast and lunch with Special K cereals, whole grain waffles, or their meal replacement bars. And use their protein bars, protein/fiber drink mixes for snacks, or think up a great healthy sustaining snack on your own. Then you eat one meal a day as you normally would... for me it's a good dinner.
For instance, day 1 of the "diet":
I had cereal for breakfast. But knowing that a "serving size" and my normal helpings of cereal are different, I made sure I specifically measured one cup of cereal out. And knowing that pouring that measly cup into a bowl with milk would seem like an awfully quick and piddly breakfast, so I kept the cereal dry and snacked on it like popcorn while reading blogs with a big glass of milk next to me. I also ate a grapefruit.
I didn't have a snack all morning since we were at church, and I really wasn't hungry until I was getting lunch ready for the kids at 12:30. I took my time eating a Special K Meal Replacement bar for lunch with a glass of water. Surprisingly, they really are quite filling.
I did have a late "snack" when we came in from being out all afternoon, while I was getting dinner ready, of the protein water mix. I think one mix could easily last me two snacks. And they're yummy!
Then for dinner I had a small helping of lasagna, garlic toast and salad.
And that's it.
I think I may have had three Robin's Eggs while playing cards with Ryan as well. :)
I was surprised I wasn't hungry throughout the day or bored with "not real food".
So we'll see how the rest of this two weeks goes, and what "plan" (and I use those quotation marks quite loosely!) I want to experiment with next.
Labels: eating
