Do it for her. . .

[MeganV]

I've been looking at posts on this site for a few months now and I am completely inspired by all the success stories and the bravery of you all to be so honest with your challenges and struggles. So, now it's my turn. . .

My name is Megan, I've been overweight for the last 10 years. I say overweight because in that period I've gone from being 'a little chunky' to morbidly obese and everywhere in between. I have had no life changing events happen that have caused this, no reason behind it, I just like food. I've never saw a reason for me to change, I've always been happy with myself and confident, never hid away. And I've always been honest, yes I am overweight - but I am happy. I wouldn't change it just to suit how others thought I should be.

Until now.

It's wrong to want to lose weight for someone else. But I do.

I met her after 11 long hours in the hospital, I was holding my sister's hand as she gave birth to her beautiful daughter. My niece. The cord was cut, and there she was. The only person in the world who could make me want to be more than I ever thought was possible. I can't have children of my own so I have no idea how that feels. But what I felt at that moment must come close. A wave of unconditional, protective love washed over me. And that was it, I was gone. I was no longer a free spirit with no responsibilities, I was an Aunt.

In the 18 months since she came, my life has changed for the better in so many ways. And now this is the last thing I need to do. I am unhealthy and overweight. I have to lose weight. It's not just purely cosmetic, I want to be healthy. To live longer to watch her grow up, celebrate the important days and be there for her through the bad ones.

If I can't do it for her, I can't do it at all. And that is just not an option.

 

[bexh78]

Oh Meg that made me well up! What a lovely reason to want to lose weight. Good luck with your journey, you seem like a very brave lady x.

 

[MeganV]

Hi Bex,

Thanks! I don't know about brave, but committed definitely. Which I suppose is a good thing considering the mountain I have to climb! But one week in, 6.5lbs down and I'm even more determined.

Good luck with your goal too x

 

[MeganV]

Week 1

I got on the scales early on the Sunday morning. I was disappointed, but not surprised by the number staring up at me, 17st 7lbs. Considering that I am 5ft 6, I know that I am hugely overweight. Around 7 stones, 95lbs or 43 kgs if you prefer. It all meant one thing, I needed to take action.

So, here I am. I decided that calorie counting is the way forward for me. I like food, I like the variety, the choice that is available to you, everywhere you look. I’ve never eaten massive amounts in one sitting. I just eat the wrong things, far too often. So I knew severely restricting diets weren’t for me. By counting calories I still eat what I want, until my limit and then stop. Simple as that. This is a rule I can stick to.

I’ve also upped my water intake. I used to have maybe 1l a day, now it’s 3. Plus whatever tea/green tea I consume.

I limit myself to 1250kcals per day. And decided that after weigh in on Sundays I would allow myself the treat of 2000kcals for that day.

I managed to stick to this quite easily to my surprise. Although I couldn’t help weighing myself every day. I found it encouraging to see the weight decreasing, even if it was only by half a pound. It’s all in the right direction.

So it arrived, Sunday morning weigh in. I stepped on the scale and was so relieved. 17st 0.5lbs. A weight loss of 6.5lbs. Another sign that this is all worth it.

 

[MeganV]

Week 2

Week 2 started on Sunday, yesterday. It was my cheat day. My treat day consisted of a small korma sauce from the takeaway, a small portion of chips, 3 poppadoms and a glazed doughnut. Earlier in the day I had a quorn chicken sandwich on thin sliced bread. My treat day calories came to 1800 and I was stuffed. That was good enough for me.

Today weirdly I still feel quite full. I’m continuing with the water intake and I already feel better for it.

My task this week is to lower my carbs. I’ve been having in the region of 150g a day within my 1250kcals. That’s way to much. I’m aiming to lower it to 70-90g a day. Being vegetarian is making it a bit harder to up my protein, but I do like a challenge!

Bring on Sunday.

 

[monkeypants]

Hi Meg,

I love your story. I've got the same amount of weight to lose as you and I've had a life changing year too. I've just started today on low-calories and lots of exercise routine. Will be keeping a close eye on your diary as it seems very similar to the plan I'm planning on doing. I did something similar in the summer and lost 7kg, but I needed to lose a lot more, so back on it again and hoping to lose 88lbs.

 

[MeganV]

Hi Mandy,

I'm glad you liked my story. It's nice to see other people on here with similar goals. It helps knowing you have that degree of support.

I'm going to give it one more week concentrating on my food intake, and attempting the carbs challenge I've set myself, then next week's challenge is introducing more exercising.

So I'll be updating this diary as often as possible. Hopefully it will inspire others like the stories on this site has done for me. I look forward to you reading it.

Lets just hope I can stick to it.

I wish you loads of luck on your challenge too.

x

 

[monkeypants]

Hi Meg,

What's the carb challenge your doing?
Are you drinking lots of water? I've been training myself to drink 3 litres a week, and now I can't live without it! I'm also finding that since I increased my water intake my sweet tooth is going.

 

[MeganV]

I'm drinking 3l a day and I agree, it's stopping me craving. It's brilliant!

My carb challenge is to limit myself to 70-90g a day. I've been having double that. So hopefully that will help with my weight loss. And stop me being as tired and sluggish. Worth a shot anyway.

 

[monkeypants]

Ah I see good luck - keep up the protein so you've got energy for the day! I saw a nutritionist and she tracked my 'normal' diet for the week, and told me I don't eat enough protein, so I've increased that a lot.

 

[RainbowRose]

Hello

what a lovely story and I just think how proud your pretty little neice will be when you tell her one day that the reason you look and feel wonderful is mainly because of her!

I have loads more than you to lose, but like you I wasn't eating any vast amounts of food, just lots of wrong food and 'somehow' forgetting to exercise???

You have the right idea, introduce something different every week. I only restarted last week but have replaced all the goodies (that were really baddies ) I used to have with healthier option and drink water all day, from drinking a full litre with a meal to sipping my way through another litre or more throughout the day.

You WILL do this and will look fab at all your family events this year that include your lovely neice

Good luck

 

[MeganV]

Mandy, thanks for the tip on protein. I find it quite hard to increase that much as I'm a vegetarian. But eggs and Quorn are rapidly becoming my friends!

Rainbow Rose, thank you for the encouragement. It really helps! I can't replace all the goodies in the house as I don't think my house mate would be very impressed But I've managed to restrain myself as of yet! I'm quite impressed with myself! I used to be very sporty, but since suffering a serious injury a couple of years ago I kind of just gave up. I'm insistent that by the time September comes around, I will rejoin my old club and take it back up again. That's another of my goals.

Thank you both again for the words of encouragement.

Megan

 

[MeganV]

So, week 2 is going relatively well.

I'm keeping up with the 3 litres of water, and a few cups of green tea. I am managing to keep under my daily calorie allowance too, normally eating 1100-1150kcal a day. But reducing my carbs is proving very difficult. I've got it down to around 100g a day.

It would be a whole lot easier if I could eat a big steak or a piece of chicken, but unfortunately the Quorn alternatives have more carbs than the meat products. Oh well, it's my choice to be vegetarian, no-one else's, so I shall get round it somehow.

To be honest, I'm not feeling very hungry, very often. And it's making me realise just how much I was eating for the sake of it, which led to me being overweight. It's a steep learning curve, but hopefully it means that as the weight comes off, it will stay off forever because i have learnt to eat better.

So, this is my update for week 2, no hunger pangs, lots of fluids, less carbs, no diet lapses so no reason to berate myself. So Sunday is looking good.

All is well.

Oh and good luck to anybody reading this who is looking to lose weight. It will be worth all the hard work in the end.

 

[MeganV]

Week 2 Results

Well Sunday arrived and I have to admit I woke up late and rushed to get up and out on time for a big football match so I didn't get a chance to weigh myself in the morning.

I spent Sunday day in the pub with a group of friends and I started out so well, pints of water for me all afternoon. Then I gave in and had a couple of pints of lager. Which then led to rather a lot of gin and diet lemonade being consumed haha. Safe to say when I got home weighing myself was the last thing on my mind. I had an awesome night out though so I am not berating myself too much

I weighed myself first thing Monday morning and was very happy to see I'd lost another 3.5lbs in week 2! It must have had something to do with the fact I only ate 2 poppadoms the whole of Sunday day! Good times, but not very health concious I know.

So, it took me until Monday evening to get rid of my hangover, whilst my friends laughed at me feeling sorry for myself, but it also meant I hardly ate much on Monday either. Just a hangover cure of spaghetti on toast (which does actually work miracles, I swear).

Tuesday arrived, pancake day. Now if ever a day was invented to be my diet's downfall, this was it. But I was very sensible, kept my calories low all day and treated myself to 2 pancakes in the evening.

I'm finding sticking to the low calorie diet quite easy and I'm wondering if I'm doing it wrong as I very rarely get hungry or crave things, which I expected I would. Maybe it's all the water I'm drinking.

Anyway, I'm not expecting much of a loss this week, as I know everyone plateaus after the first couple of weeks and it's TOTM for me too, which always plays havoc with the scales. But I shall keep plodding on as even 0.5lb loss is still a step in the right direction.

I hope everyone else if having success with their weight loss. Good luck to you all.

Megan