Progress

Well, I finally have been making progress after being on a weight loss plateau for months. I started doing a weight loss program through work. I didn't really know what it would be when I started. Basically, you eat only when you're hungry, which for most people is supposedly 1-2 times a day. You also are supposed to time yourself when eating by eating for 10 minutes, taking a 5 minute break, and then eating for another minimum of 10 minutes, and stop when you're comfortable. You're not supposed to eat when you first get up, but instead you drink watered down orange juice and wait to be hungry. The idea of that is that most people are dehydrated when they wake up and confuse it with hunger.

So far I've lost a little over 5 pounds in the last 5 weeks on it. I don't know if it's the actual diet, or the fact that I've been better about exercising 3-4 times a week, or a combination of both. Some of the principles of the program are hard for me to follow though. First of all, I generally am hungry 3 times a day, including when I first wake up. I have waited a few days, but usually I need to eat within an hour or an hour and a half after waking up. So I end up taking my breakfast with me to work. Another problem is that I don't have a 25 minute lunch break. I get 20 minutes for lunch, the same as the student I see during that time. If I don't eat during that time, I don't get a break until after 3:00. It's kind of hard to follow these things if I can't just tell my student, "I'm sorry, I'm at a level 3 hunger right now and I need to stop what I'm doing and eat." A lot of the stuff makes sense, but it doesn't fit with my lifestyle. Counting calories works well for me. I can't quit the program though because if I don't finish I have to pay the district $100. So I'll stick with it. At least I'm losing weight. So far I've lost 40 pounds since last year! I didn't start out measuring so I don't know how many inches I've lost. I do know that I started out wearing a 16 and now I wear anywhere from an 8 to a 12 (only in petites). So that definitely tells me I'm moving in the right direction. I'm a little behind in reaching my total goal, but sickness over the winter held me back. But now I'm back on track and looking forward to losing this last 20 pounds!