This is the fourth consecutive week that I have attended our local Overeaters Anonymous. The attendance ranges from four to nine people counting myself. I guess there are more people, but some have stopped attending. I feel as if I need to make this program a part of my life...forever. I don't get real excited about the idea but I do see the value of the program and I am most definitely an compulsive overeater.
3/26/15
What finally got me to my first OA meeting? Desperation, self loathing and fear. After spending most of the last twenty plus years battling weight loss and and weight gain, I am the heaviest I have ever been. A sense of hopelessness that I have never felt before has settled into my heart. I hate my weakness and in turn hate myself. How can I love others if I do not love myself? I fear this is the end. I fear I will never again have the strength to loose weight. The little devil on my shoulder tells me, "Why bother? You will only gain it all back plus more. Why put yourself through that again?" I don't want to believe him, but I do. This scares me! I have never given up before, and I won't now! This is what got me to my first OA meeting, OA is my last hope. What was my first OA meeting like? I didn't like the meeting, but I didn't dislike it either. I found myself guarded and quiet, wondering how this group could possibly help me. There were four other people at the meeting, I wish there had been more there. The quote, "Fake it till you make it." was mentioned, so I will continue to go to the OA meetings in the hopes that OA can change my life. I didn't realize that a Higher Power is such a large part of the OA program. Of course my Higher Power is God. Life has been busy and because of that, I have stopped going to the gym. When I don't workout I eat horribly! Ice cream, cardboard pizzas and M&M's are not good for anyone to eat, let alone an overweight woman in her forties! BAD Dawn, BAD!
Trish texted me this morning, asking me if I was heading to the gym, she is finally feeling better after the fall she took off of Bullet the other day. I didn't really want to go, I'm fighting a cold and am sluggish...or maybe its the horrible diet. Probably both, anyway I told her I would go. She made me promise to make a goal of eating better and she did the same thing. We have to check in with each other each night to report how we have done. I don't want to do it, but I know I should. Since the biggest Winner ended I have gained weight, lost weight and gained weight again. I would like to blame it on my crazy busy life, but that is only partially to blame. Mostly, I have enjoyed eating freeling and you can see it in my waistline unfortunately.
It is funny, Cammie and I are never on the same page. When I am being good she is eating at Pizza Pie Cafe and gorging on ice cream. When she is watching her diet I'm sucking down theater popcorn and cheese cake! We were talking the other day and decided that we both need to get on the same page, diet wise, because then we could support each other better. Well, I bought fruit and vegies and a bunch of chicken yesterday. It will be a refreshing change from the junk food we have been eating. Unfortunately I have been eating whatever I want to eat, pizza, theater popcorn, pie, you name it I have eaten it. The good news is I have been working out at least five days a week.
Today Trish and I decided it was time to get back on the healthy living wagon. We are going to weigh ourselves on Fridays in order to keep each other on the straight and narrow weight loss path. We have both gained a few pounds since the Biggest Winner Contest ended but we are ready to get after it again. ![]() I find that if I eat a little something before I work out in the mornings I don't feel as sick to my stomach. Once I drank a protein Slim Fast drink. That was a mistake! I barely made it through the workout with out throwing up! What seems to work best for me so far, is if I eat about 100 calories. These are the three things so far I can eat without feeling sick during the workout. 1/2 Kellogs Protein Bar (or) 1 small banana(or) 2 Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies http://www.skinnytaste.com/2013/09/chewy-chocolate-chip-oatmeal-breakfast.html Here is some more information that Kelsie gave us in one of our nutrition classes. For what ever reason the format she sent it to me in would not let me copy and paste it into this.
Well the Biggest Winner adventure has come to a close.
I have lost eleven pounds during the ten week program, my cholesterol levels have improved and so has my strength and endurance. The best part is, I lost three inches off of my hips and two inches off of my waste! I didn't take any pictures Saturday morning when we had our final blood work and body fat tests done, and I forgot to take pictures at the closing ceremonies that night! The winner of the contest lost over thirty pounds, what an accomplishment. The average weight loss was 12 lbs. They said there had been a combined total of over 600 lbs lost during the contest. Now that is cool! At the closing ceremonies they announced the winner, gave out prizes and served us a nice healthy dinner of soup, salad and bread sticks. This has been a fun experience that I have enjoyed immensely. I will be continuing my weight loss adventure with the support of good friends. I was going to do the Biggest Winner next semester, but it looks like I may need to have a few different surgeries done, and I don't want to let my team down. Trish and I will enter the contest again this fall, we are going to request to be on the same team. It is nice to have made another friend, she is a tough little cookie and fun to be around. We met Thursday over at Jessie's apartment. Everyone brought healthy snacks to share, we filled out surveys, talked about the good times we have had, and planned our last few things we still needed to do as a team. I look ghastly pale! I was so dizzy that night. Here are the snacks I took to share. Peanutbutter Balls Romayne Walker 1 lb natural peanut butter 3-4 scoops vanilla whey protein powder honey or agave The amounts above are approximate. All you do is mix fresh peanut butter with vanilla protein power and sweeten it with honey or agave. You want it to be the consistency of cookie dough. Roll it into bite size balls and place on wax paper, then freeze. Take out of freezer about 15 minutes before serving. Fruit Dip Melodi Johnson 16 oz Cool Whip 3 small containers of yoplait or Dannon yogurt (any flavor) 2 T sugar or freezer jam (same flavor as your yogurt) Mix all ingredients together and serve with any fruit. My favorite combination is 2 raspberry yoplait lights, one blackberry yoplait light and raspberry freezer jam. Served with sliced strawberries and bananas. Saturday was our fourth and final challenge, it was another fun one. Jessy and I were the only two from our team who were able to make it. I almost didn't go because I had been sick for the last week and a half. But I drug myself there and am glad I went. Although I would have had much more fun had I not been shaky and weak through the entire thing. We joined the purple team who were missing team mates also. There were four different events. #1 Bouncy Ball Flag TagWho thinks up this stuff? Fat kids on exercise balls bouncing around a gymnasium. Talk about a recipe for disaster! There were a couple good crashes. Fortunately no one was seriously injured, only some scrapes and bruises. But it was worth it, fun was had by all! Goal: snatch the flags from the other teams before they took yours. Jessy had my flank, but I still lost my flags almost immediately. I have decided I'm not aggressive or competitive enough. #2 Hungry Hungry Hippo![]() The irony of the name of the game does not escape me. Each team stood together at a wall, with each teammate touching the wall. One team member ran to the center of the gym, snatched a ball then ran back to their team, ball in hand. The heavier the ball the more points it was worth. The next team member then left the wall in order to sprint for their chance at a ball. This continued until all the balls were gone from the center of the gymnasium. The team who gathered the most balls/points won. #3 Tribute Challenge![]() The trainers had a bowl with challenges written on pieces of paper. Each team had to choose a tribute to participate in the challenge before the challenge event was known. The challenge was won by the last tribute standing after the challenge event. Luke didn't get a picture of me doing my part for the team. I had to stay in plank. After the other teams tributes gave out it was between me and a man, the last two fat kids holding plank. The crowd was going wild. Our team mates screamed and cheered us on! I stayed in plank for three minutes and collapsed just before the other guy did, darn! #4 Tractor Tire FlipEach team had to flip their tractor tire 50 yards. We broke up into groups of twos. Jessy and I were a pair, we had to flip the tire the first ten yards of the race, then run to the thirty yard line to flip it another ten yards since our team was so small. I needed longer arms! |
AuthorDawn--Momma Bear.
March 2016
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