If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. Anne Bradstreet

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. Ether 12:27

Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season therof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul. And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion. D&C 59:18-20

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Step 4 -- Making the Decision to go all the way

In September 2006, I noticed that my weight was starting to creep up again. On October 6, I was up to 214 lbs. -- for a net gain of 8 lbs from the 206 low.

I decided that now was the time to go for it--to lose all the weight. I tried the program I used in 1980. That was my "smaller plate and no snacks" program. I used a salad plate for meals, filled it only once, and had no between meal snacks. I did drink sweetened herbal teas between meals. I started this in the summer and much of what I ate was from our large garden. I ate very little meat. Combined with 40 minutes of aerobic dance 6 days a week, this was a very successful program. However, in October 2006, it didn't seem to work for me, and caused even more nervous eating.

I decided to do a 1700-calorie max program. I allowed myself to eat anything I wanted, as long as I stayed within the 1700 calories. To provide some extra incentive, I rewarded myself with a penny for every calorie that I was under 1700. So, if I only ate 1500 calories, I earned $2.00.

Results

This was a short-lived step in my program, but a very necessary one.

Net Weight loss for this step: 5.2 lbs.
Total weight loss: 46.2 lbs.
Still in the morbidly obese category

You can see from the chart, that I lost pretty steadily for about 2 weeks, then stalled out.

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