I’m continuing with Overeaters Anonymous, and I’m continuing to lose the weight.

These days I’m dropping about 2-3 kilograms (about 6-8 pounds) a month.

It’s coming off easily, I’m not starving myself.

In fact, I’d say I’m eating better than I ever did before I started at OA.

Altogether, I’ve dropped from a size 20 down to a size 14 so far… and I think I’ve probably got a way to go yet.

As you’ll know if you’ve followed this blog for a while, I tried pretty much every diet there was before Overeaters Anonymous. None of them worked, because the problem wasn’t my body, it was my mind.

I didn’t realise that.

I had no idea that most of my habits were keeping me fat, such as:

• Eating a wide variety of foods. Variety encourages overeating. We humans manage our appetites better when we eat from a much smaller variety of foods, eating the same (or similar) foods over and over again for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
• Skipping meals, then snacking later in the day because I hadn’t eaten enough. This was common for me. Skip breakfast, then eat cookies at work. Skip lunch, and eat boxes of muesli bars the moment I got home because I was starving. Because I wasn’t giving myself three square meals a day I was hungry throughout the day, fixating on food and endlessly snacking on junky treats.
• Being ashamed to go to the gym because I was fat. Yeah, that doesn’t make sense at all! It took a lot of courage to return to the gym but you know what? What strangers think of you doesn’t matter. Your health and wellness matter. I sucked up the shame (and maybe sucked in my tummy wobbles a bit) and returned to the gym. Six months later I’m building muscle and strength, and my mental well-being is fantastic.
• Not understanding proper portion control. A proper portion is sometimes much, much less than we expect. I think one portion of Doritos is eleven chips! I mean, who eats eleven chips then puts the bag away? Nobody, that’s who! I’m learning that the size of my plate matters as much, maybe more, as what’s on the plate. I leave a space between items on my plate, I eat more slowly, and I find even though I’m eating much less it’s always enough.
• Not understanding PROTEIN v FAT v REAL CARBS. Protein fills you up and provides long-term satiety. Fat provides great mouth-feel and taste. Carbs provide bulk. So each meal I make sure I focus on high protein, a little bit of fat, and real carbs to help with fullness. By “real carbs” I mean vegetables and fruit, plus a bit of rice and oats. Bread isn’t food; it’s candy. And pasta is just junk. Both bread and pasta will fill your stomach, but they won’t keep you full. Plus, they’re addictive and you’ll crave them more. I avoid both.

It’s a learning curve! In my next post I’ll talk about what I’m eating day to day on a fairly tight budget, now I’m putting my health first.

On Friday I thought it would be a great idea to have some chips (fries) from the local fish and chip shop with my steak.

After all, the kids were having them. Plus, I’d been good all week. Diet and exercise had both been great, and I was feeling positive.

But now, Sunday evening, I’m still suffering from that decision. I came out in rashes and my skin has been tight and sore ever since. My digestion feels off, and I’m wishing I’d never eaten them.

I’ve heard that once you clean up your diet, you have less tolerance for junk. I’m starting to think that might be true.

Either way, I don’t want to eat hot chips again. I’ll pass next time.

Christmas is over, and I’m on holiday for a few days yet.

I’m thoroughly enjoying myself, doing lots of walking and lots of gym, mixed in with fairly normal eating that is back on plan again already after a blowout on Christmas Day.

Today I went for a three hour walk along Dunedin harbour, and followed that up with a trip into town to buy a Fitbit, then I went to the gym for a little over an hour with my stepdaughter.

My eating has very much settled into routine.

Typical breakfast is a blueberry smoothie (made with a scoop of protein powder, a scoop of collagen powder, a cup of frozen blueberries and a cup of water).

Typical lunch is a salad made with a couple of cups of slaw, a dozen raw almonds and a tablespoon of sesame dressing.

Typical dinner is meat of some sort (often a steak), together with mixed veggies or salad. If I have dressing or sauces of any type, I measure them, and I portion-control my meat carefully.

I don’t snack.

The weight is coming off nicely, and I can see and feel the difference in my own body.

I’m happy with my progress 😊

For our family, Christmas Day is always a day of excess.

I can’t see that changing any time soon.

So, instead of trying to eat sensibly and avoid everything that, well, makes Christmas Christmas, I decided I’m going to eat whatever I want today.

Then the excess stops Monday night, and I’ll get back to eating sensibly again.

So today was croissants for breakfast, then a few fruit mince pies, then lunch (which was ham, salad and roast potatoes), then dessert (pavlova), followed by more mince pies.

I feel like I’ve eaten enough for a week. I probably have. But I’ve also thoroughly enjoyed Christmas.

Monday night it’s all back to normal, and back to plan.

In the meantime, I hope everyone reading this has had a wonderful Christmas.

Best wishes from Dunedin, New Zealand 🙂🎄🎄🎄

I achieved 60 kg (132 lb) on bench today.

I’m really pleased about that. I’ve been a couple of months at the gym now, so it hasn’t really taken too long to start getting my muscles back.

Everything is still shooting up weights-wise. I’m up to 40 kgs on overhead press, and deadlifts are slowly coming back with repetitions on 80 kgs. Decline bench is sitting on 80 kgs, but I’ve always been strong on the decline, for a woman.

I’m being very careful with anything involving my lower back, particularly squats. I’ve had lower back problems in the past, and I don’t want problems again.

Apart from anything though, I want to shed fat. It’s coming off, but to see my muscles properly I need to lose quite a bit more – probably about 20 kgs of flab to go.

So that’s where I’m sitting. My clothes are definitely looser, and I’ve dropped a couple of dress sizes, so I’ll need some new gym clothes soon.

Have a great Christmas everyone!

I’m still doing Overeaters Anonymous. It’s still working for me.

I’ve also returned to the gym. It’s right close to my husband’s work. I go straight from my work (I finish earlier than he does), go to the gym every day, then get a lift home with him. That means I no longer have to catch the bus home, which is great as buses have been getting more and more unreliable.

Combining gymwith moderate, healthy eating and regular OA meetings, and I’m feeling heaps better. I’m also continuing to lose weight.

In short: it works if you work at it!

Doing the Daniel Fast didn’t work for me. I’m not good with moderation.

I need to find another strategy. OA does work, I’m just struggling with it at the moment. I don’t even know why. But I’m back in the saddle, and working towards being healed of my food issues.

That’s about all for today.

I’ve been at Overeaters Anonymous for just on a year now. It’s been a good decision.

Benefits:

• I no longer drink pepsi max. At all. I don’t even want to drink the stuff. I’ve replaced it with sparkling water (sometimes with a twist of lemon), black tea and tap water.
• I no longer eat chocolate by the family block. I occasionally have a candy bar, but that’s it. My chocolate addiction has decreased by about 90%.
• I no longer frequent drive throughs. I still occasionally eat junk food, but nowhere as often, and usually more restrained.
• I’ve lost weight and am getting fitter. Even thinking about starting to walk to and from work!
• I’m becoming more balanced and calm. I think I’m a nicer person as well!

It hasn’t been easy, and I’ve had plenty of slip ups. But it’s working for me.

I’m looking forward to my next year at OA, and I wonder what new benefits it will bring 😊

It’s been a while since I updated, so here I am.

I’m still doing OA, and have lost close to 10 kgs since I started. I’m probably down a dress size, but I’ll keep wearing my current clothes until they are too lose rather than buying new stuff right away. When I need to buy new, I’ll buy new.

OA is really working for me, mainly due to the accountability. I go to two face-to-face meetings a week (one on Tuesday night and one at Saturday lunchtime) and they really help me.

I also do occasional long fasts. They help too.

I’ve still got a long way to go until I reach my goal weight, but at the speed I’m going I should be there within a year.

More to the point, I’m starting to genuinely believe that I can do it.

I’m finding the combination of having a sponsor, going to meetings twice a week and logging & planning my food is working well.

So far I’ve lost about 20 pounds (since August / September last year). I’m a person who does NOT find it easy to lose weight, so this is kind of miraculous. I’m feeling so much better! I’ve got far more energy and am just feeling great.

I log all my planned food on My Fitness Pal but here’s the trick – I do it the night before. That way, I have a food plan set and ready to go, and don’t have to plan what to eat at the last minute. The last minute is precisely where binges and food craziness comes from. Pre-planning helps me avoid all that.

I’m sitting at about 1400 calories a day, which is workable. Sometimes I go slightly over or under that, and it’s no drama if I do. It’s about long-term consistency, rather than perfection. As long as I’m close to that target daily, I know I’ll be fine.

Cow’s milk is quite high in carbs.

Instead, I’m going to try half cream, half water as an alternative in my smoothies. That should get the carbs down and the fat up.