Progress

Yay...Onederland has come and stayed since last time I blogged. I have gotten into the 100s and have made it down to 194. I am very excited to have passed up that milestone and I am also so close to several others. In 3 more pounds I will be down 30 pounds. In 5 more pounds I will be out of the 190s. In 14 more pounds I will be at my halfway point (40 down, 40 to go). Although I have had some plateaus I am feeling very successful on this journey.

Babywise...I am getting closer and closer to completing my hours for my MFT license. I have approximately 100 hours left and I have officially ordered my testing study materials for my licensing exam. Why is this important??? As soon as I am licensed we will be getting on the baby making train. YAY!!! I am so excited! I feels as though I have been going through all of life with the goal of being a parent and now it is so close I can taste it.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about all I have waited through before trying for a baby. I really feel that the reason I have waited so long is that I really want to be the best possible parent that I can be. To me this means setting the stage as best I can beforehand. I love my parents very much...however, they could have done A LOT better job making things right before deciding to have me. I feel that I want to avoid as much pain in my future children's lives as possible. I cant prevent every heartache, but I can give them very loving and responsible parents, some financial security, and the best start possible by being very knowledgeable about pregnancy and child development. I feel that I chose the perfect daddy for them and he and I have gotten our careers established to support a family. We also love each other very much which is something my own parents lacked.

It makes me sad that this was not done for me. However, it makes me proud to know that I learned from their mistakes and that I will not allow that to happen for my babies.

Still Hovering

Ok...I am still hovering at 201. This is very frustrating for 2 reasons. One is that it has not taken this long to drop a pound or two since I started the diet and second I am so close to my next goal of getting below 200 that I can taste it. I know that it is common to plateau after losing a good amount of weight so I am not discouraged...just impatient. I started going to the gym yesterday and I went today so hopefully that will jump start me again.

Things are going well on the home front as well. I got home yesterday and Steve said that both he and the babies (our guinea pigs) have surprises for me. I looked and the babies were on the kitchen table and were standing on a DVD of the movie Juno. I had been asking for it and those thoughtful little piggies got it for me. Hee hee. Then Steve pulled out a big bouquet of flowers for his surprise for me. The bouquet was full of lilies and gerber daisies (my favorite).

What a sweet husband I have. I know that he will be a wonderful daddy to our human babies someday. Yay!

Slowing Down

I think that the weight loss is slowing down a bit. I have really been dropping weight faster than I ever have before. It is official that I am down 20 pounds in 1 month. I am down to 201 and I am hovering there. My doctor told me that I can gradually reintroduce carbs back into my diet so the other day I had some strawberries and then the next day I had gone up 2 pounds (probably some sort of water weight). But it does make me nervous to have these carbs. Today I also had half of a whole wheat bagel. We will see what kind of difference this makes on the scale this week. But I have stayed basically at 201 for several days now and the scale has not budged (or gone the other way). I guess I am just going to have to play around with different foods to see how they affect the scale and my progress.

Too Messy

I dropped another pound today...yay! I am down a total of 17 pounds now! Things are going well.

Steve and I have been having a difficult time keeping our apartment clean lately. The topic came up that when we have kids it is going to be 10 times harder to keep things clean. Sheesh...This is something that we really need to learn how to stay on top of. We want to be CLEAN parents. I think that we just need to maintain some kind of cleaning schedule. Although...I also think that part of it is that our apartment is too small for all of our stuff. Maybe when we get a house that will help. Hopefully ;)

The Plan

Ok...So the plan is to wait until around March 2010 to start trying for a baby. We plan to try and by a house around August of 2010 (or before if possible). In order to do these things I have to get my MFT License (Marriage and Family Therapist), get down to between 160 and 140 pounds and we need to have a substantial "nest egg" to put down on the house. Sheesh, it really feels like a lot to accomplish in 8-13 months...ACK!

Onederland in sight!!!

I can't believe that i am already down 16 pounds in 3 weeks! This has been the most amazing journey. I honestly was getting to the point of believing that I would never lose the weight. I had given up. Now I feel that this is something that I have been and will continue to be successful on!!!
I am now down to 205 from 221 and the 100s are in sight. Just 6 more little pounds and I will be at 199. I am so happy with myself and the SBD.

Need to Exercise

I am still making slow but consistent progress towards my goals but I have not been able to make myself exercise. I have time in the morning but I am not able to get myself out of bed to exercise.
I still feel pretty fatigued...I think from lack of solid hours of sleep.
My new goal is to add some exercise to this new lifestyle.

Success and Fear

I dont know why...but every time I weigh myself I expect to have gained weight even though since I started the SBD I am consistently losing. I stepped on the scale today and to my surprise dropped another 2 pounds for a total of 13 pounds in 2 weeks.
I am at the end on my first 2 weeks today and should be starting phase 2 tomorrow. However, my doctor told me to do phase 1 for a month which will give me another 2 weeks on phase 1.
This actually does not bother me. I am now adjusted to this new lifestyle and it is pretty easy for me to stick with. The part that concerns me is that I am now TERRIFIED of carbs. I kinda don't want to do phase 2 for fear of losing control. I am afraid that if I am given an inch that I will take a mile. I have had so much success on phase one that I dont want that to end.
I have a long history of yoyo dieting and I dont want to repeat the past. ACK...I guess I have 2 more weeks to figure out how I will handle reintroducing those "good carbs."

Another one bites the dust

Another Pound bites the dust!!! Yay!!!
I was very nervous when I went to weigh in this morning because I did not completely follow the portion guidelines yesterday. I did not have very many veggies with dinner and I had more cheese than I should have. However, I still managed to lose a pound.
I think that my metabolism is finally starting to turn around.

Success and Nails

So I think I am on day 9 now of Phase 1. I am already down 10 pounds but I can sense things slowing down. This has been the first time in a long time that I feel like I can make a diet a lifestyle. I just feel healthier and like I am doing something good for myself with this diet. After the initial cravings subsided I also feel that this is a very dooable and easy diet to be on. I dont really have to pay attention to every bite I take or count anything. All I have to do is follow the basic guidelines and I lose weight.
Yesterday my husband came home from work and told me that he was so proud of me and my committment to the SBD. He explained that he went out and bought me a gift card to get my nails and toes done to celebrate.
I am very proud of myself and I have noticed that my friends and family are all very proud of me too. They have seen me struggle and struggle with my weight for years and now see me excited about this and doing well.

First Week

Ok, so I have officially been on the South Beach Diet for 6 days now. The first three days were HELL! I felt sick and had the biggest headache I have ever had. I looked up sugar withdrawal online and found out that it is normal to feel sick when you are "detoxing" from sugar. Now, on the 6th day I feel a lot better and I am starting to adjust to this new lifestyle. I have been on a lot of diets before but I have a good feeling about this one. So far I went from 221 pounds to 212 pounds in 6 days. Yay! So far so good.