Did FitnessPal Work For Me?

No! I do believe it could work for some people and it's worth a try but it wasn't going to work for me. I tried cutting calories in little ways through out the day and was always hungry. At some point in each of the 9 days I tried it for I got dizzy and lightheaded. In the meantime, it encouraged me to exercise more but then my body reminded me by day 7 why I take off one day a week. I was spending my day thinking about exercise minutes and calories and it robbed me of the stress relief I needed. I wasn't enjoying life anymore.

Those were the things I did early in the diet and they worked but they weren't sustainable. I have been about 135lbs for a year now and have decided to admit defeat. But that doesn't mean I am going to start living off junk food. I exercise when I can but as long as most days are 80% active in some form, I'm good. I try to mostly eat healthy and don't keep most junk food in the house but there are going to be times I have two hot dogs for lunch or chips for a snack.

But I am trying something basic that I used to do and haven't in a while. I'm stopping when I'm full. I used to eat all of the veggies first for the nutrition but then eat the amount I wanted of the meat and starch. I would eat past when I was full even though I was taking the right portion sizes. I did learn that from FitnessPal, veggies have calories too. I used to think of them as the kind of food you can eat a lot of guilt free. I learned what portions were and that I actually eat the right amount, sometimes less. My barrier was how OFTEN I had to eat because of the dizziness. I eat some veggies first then move on to the meat and starch but it's easier to stop when I'm full because I am eating a better balance of everything. I learned about how much exercise I really get in a day too.

I no longer am expecting to loose weight. As this last year proved, it's not going to happen. But by admitting that it's easier to focus on "health" not "pounds". The scale only tells you pounds. It doesn't say if you're healthy. But I am active and even if I don't formally lift weights I do lift heavy things and am building muscle. Perhaps some fat has changed to muscle and that's why the scale isn't budging.

That leads me to a conundrum. In December I got the dress for my Brother's upcoming wedding. It's a 12 and by Jessica Simpson. It still fits but is slightly snug in the space right around my rib cage. It still fits comfortably around my belly. I am trying to walk with 1lb weights more to help burn fat but since it's my chest and rib cage I wonder how much that would work. If the wedding was this weekend I'd be fine but I might find myself needing a new dress. It's a shame though, this one is so pretty. Zach took this picture of me (hence the look on my face). it was taken on 8/20/2013 at 2:00pm.

I was just trying it on to get a feel for the fit. Sorry my hair is such a mess.

My first plan is to ask the dryer cleaner about making that part bigger. They have a seamstress who adjusted two denim skirts for me. My only concern is that it will look like it was adjusted. I don't even know if making it bigger is a possibility.

When I call it a diet I periodically get frustrated and eat a bunch of junk food because I start to think, "why can so many other people eat these things I love but I can't? So instead of calling it a diet I am simply calling it "trying to be healthy". That means being as active as my body can handle and trying to eat mostly healthy, stopping when I'm full. It's the best I can do. But it might stop my "it's not working anyway" splurges.

Sometimes that's what it takes to actually be healthy. That's the real goal after all. They say weight management becomes easier when you remove stress. Perhaps removing the stress of trying to get the scale to say a specific number will help my health in other ways too. I have honestly given the diet my best effort but the extra exercise was putting stress on my knees. Running might be better then walking but if you harm your knees so you can't run the results will be worse then if you walk at a manageable pace and don't get hurt. I tried cutting out carbs and found myself constantly nauseous and dizzy as well as hungry and cranky. I have learned a lot about my body from this diet but I have also learned that when I personally do the things they say actually works for weight loss my body breaks down. I just read this in the Huffington Post and I think this former Weight-Loss Center Consultant says it best.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/iris-higgins/an-open-apology-to-all-of_b_3762714.html

The core things of mixing cardio and weight training exercises with eating healthy foods do work for weight loss. I have read a ton of personal stories that prove that to be true. I think it's worth doing. I really enjoyed those routines. But I can't handle them anymore. I modified them to be smaller. The new routines will burn 181 calories according to FitnessPal but are only for when really necessary. My walks burn 381 calories for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 4 mph. If that's my only option then that's all but it's what I can handle.