Portion Control it is the key to weight loss

Portion control is the key to losing weight and keeping it off.  You have to learn what a “serving size” really is.
 I now know why I got so fat, for God sakes I was eating for 2 sometimes 3 people according to “serving sizes“. 
I was very resistant over the years to what I called “letting food consume and control my life”  well food was consuming my life, you don’t get up to 216lbs WITHOUT food being a controlling factor in your life, hello!
    I would listen to my skinny/healthy friend (Jenny) always talk about food and what was good for you and what wasn’t, reading labels on foods, & weighting and measuring everything.  I use to think that is WAY to much work, I have better things to do than keep track of what I’m eating each day.  I have now learned Jenny knew what she is doing (sorry I am so thick headed Jenny, clearly I should have listened to you over the years).  I just saw weighing, measuring, counting calories, planning in advance what your going to eat, and reading labels, as to much work, and not worth it.  Well I found that being lazy and stubborn about this isn’t worth it either.  All of these things are very very important to me now, and it has been the main factor of how I have lost the weight.  I learned it is a plain fact of life if you are going to lose weight you have to be conscious of everything you put in your mouth. 

You have to start reading labels, and find out what an acutely serving size is and more importantly what it looks like, (you will be shocked at how small a serving size really is, I know I was)

You will also be surprised how food can fool you, take a bagel or a bran muffin you may think these are good for you foods, (which they can be) but when they are big ones that is usually more than one serving size, which doubles the calories.  A lot of juices, or pop’s are more than one serving size per bottle/can.  Many foods are available in "single serving" size packages. You need to be careful because sometimes these are not just 1 single serving. Look on the package's nutrition label and find the "servings per package" or "servings per container" section.  If it says "1" then you do not need to measure or count the food out to know the your caloric intake will be, but sometimes it will say 1.5 serving or 2 servings per package, then you have just doubled your calories and didn’t even know it, so read your labels carefully.

I would assume everyone has measuring spoons and cups, but probably not everyone has a kitchen food scale, I would highly suggest purchasing one, it is well worth the money and will be so helpful for you.  The one I got cost a bit more than I normally would spend, but again worth it to me.  Mine is a digital one with a lot of bells and whistles, I got mine from the shopping channel QVC, but you can find them anywhere, Fred Meyers, Bed Bath and Beyond, Target, Wal-Mart, really most stores carry them.  I still for the most part weigh and measure everything, because it is to easy to falter.  I sometimes will sit down with my bag of baked chips and take out  a handful (which for my size hands I have found a normal handful not overly big of chips is “about” an ounce of chips which is a serving size)  BUT I will sit there and eat that serving and not even think about it and dive back in the bag for another handful, I sat there one day and did this THREE times, that was 3 serving of chips, NOT something I needed.  So now I try to make sure I weigh out ONE ounce of chips (1 serving size) and sit down and eat that, I don’t take the bag with me and eat directly out of the bag, because it is just to easy to over eat that way.  You just don’t realizes how much your eating unless you weigh/measure out each serving size. 
I would suggest if you are not familiar with what an actual serving size is and looks like, dish yourself up a regular meal like you normally would then read the label of what a serving size for that particular food is, and get out your measuring cups and scale and measure out everything you just severed up.  I did this with Roy when he started eating better, I had him serve up noodles for spaghetti, then I took it all out and measured it all, he had 5 to 6 serving of noodles, he had no idea what a serving size was or should look like. A bowl of cereal is another one I would over eat on.  Most cereals a serving size is ¾ to 1 cup, if you take your average bowl and dump cereal in it, it will be 2 to 3 serving of cereal.  
So start checking your labels to see what a serving size is suppose to be and weight and measure out your foods.  I like to use my fitness pal web site (there is a link for them on the right side of my page) there are many calorie counting web sites out there, you put in your current info, (weight, height, what you want to weight) and it will tell you how many calories you should be eating each day, and has an area you can keep track of what you eat each day, it’s a easy and free way to get you started to keeping track of what your putting in your mouth each day.

Food addiction

     For years I have said I believe that being fat and therefore being addicted to food is like being an alcoholic or drug addict, (not that I know what being an alcoholic or drug addict is like) but I think food is my “drug of choice“.  For people addicted to food I do feel it is a little harder because you cant just completely give up food, obviously we need food to live. You have to retrain yourself how to eat so to speak, you cant just give up the “addiction” all together.  Therefore making it very hard, to get a handle on this addiction.  My own opinion is that anyone that is fat is a food addict to some point, because if you weren’t addicted to food and wouldn’t be fat, it’s that simple.  None of us grew up saying oh I cant wait to be fat, I want to be fat, therefore if we weren’t “addicted” to food we not be fat right now. 

    I feel I am on my way to becoming a recovering food addict, and just like a drug or alcohol addict it will be a life long struggle for me, but I am preparing myself with the proper knowledge and tools to help me stay on the right track for the rest of my life, I know it wont always be easy but one I am prepared for and want to take!!  

I will explain how food is such a strong force in my life.
   I have always felt that people that have never had an issue with weight just don’t get it, (actually some fat people also I will explain about that in a different blog) frankly I have been embarrassed to sometimes talk with people that don’t have weight issues, because I feel they are just looking at me saying to themselves “just don’t eat it, it’s not that hard”  well for people addicted to food it is just that hard. 
     The first time I heard another fat person say “It’s like the food calls to me“, and they went on to say  “you get this overwhelming feeling you just cant fight,  knowing full well you shouldn’t be putting this piece of food in your mouth, but you just cant stop“.  When I  heard someone else say what I have felt, it made me feel good because I knew then others feel the same way I do, and it made me feel maybe I wasn’t so crazy, weak, stupid, and a horrible person because I couldn’t control this part of my life, if others felt the same way as I have. 

    I have heard now scientists are actually doing more and more studies on “food addictions”  they are truly finding that food addictions are very very similar to other addictions (alcohol, drugs, sex, or whatever your vice may be).  Not that we should use that as an excuse, we just have more information to help us understand that we are not weak, crazy or what ever you may feel when you just cant stop yourself from putting that doughnut in your mouth, when on one hand your brain is telling you don’t eat that because it isn’t good for you, and on the other hand you just cant stop yourself from eating it .  If you have ever felt like this just know your not alone.  Don’t feel bad about yourself or beat yourself up because you wonder why cant I just stop myself it shouldn’t be that hard to just say no, but clearly it is. You just need to find the right tools to help yourself control your food addiction. Not all things work for all people, the key is finding the right ones that work for you.  In future blogs I will write things that have worked for me and things others I have told me that work for them.

      Roy and I still struggle with the addiction part at times, it does get easier but there are times that it still can be overwhelming.  It is just a uncontrollable need/want to eat something knowing full well you shouldn’t be, and for me personally it’s never when I am actually “hungry“.  I am currently trying to pin point when this happens and I think for me it is when I am bored, mostly when I am home alone, just sitting around watching tv. Also for me now when this happens it is (sorry to all then men that are reading this) when I am around my period is when it happens the most. Most women understand the crazy and uncontrollable cravings related to their hormonal monthly issues, but that still isn’t an excuse to over eat, again the key is to finding tools that help you take control over it not let it control you. The only difference now is when I go on this I guess they call it a binge,  I use foods that are better for me, but that still doesn’t make it ok and hello those food still have calories and still will pack on the weight.  Yes I can say to myself it is better for me to eat baked chips opposed to regular chips, but like I said if you sit down and eat several handfuls, that is simply still to many, and not something I NEED.  When I get like that and find myself wanting to dive into a bag of the baked chips,  (that seems to be my “drug of choice” these days, I will put the bag out of site, and grab veggies.  I am getting better and better with being able to control this issue.  I keep talking to myself telling myself I have come to far and feel to good about myself self to throw it all away for a stupid chip, it’s not worth it!!!  The old saying is so true, NOTHING taste as good as being healthier feels!!!  (Well the actually saying goes nothing taste as good as thin feels) but first and foremost I love the way I feel better, physically, emotionally, and mentally, and secondly comes how I feel about the way I look.  So for me it’s not about being “thin” it’s about being healthier for life is what’s most important to me.  Loving they way I look now is just a great side effect per say of what I am doing, certainly not the only reason for doing this.

What triggered me “this time” around to lose weight:

     I say “this time” because I have tried many many diets over the years for many different  reasons, and obviously they never worked or I should say the weight came off sometimes but never stayed off.  I have never lost this much weight before, well I guess that would be I had never been as fat as I was when I started.  I got to the point in my life I use to think I was fine or dare I say happy with the way I was, but to put it simply I was in denial, because I wasn’t happy at all with myself, physically, mentally, or emotionally.

     I went to a new dr in May of 2009 weighing in at 216lbs and I am 5‘4, I had some concerns I talked to her about and OF COURSE she blamed all my issues on my weight, “being obese” (her words)  effects a lot of different things she told me.  Which of course this really pissed me off I hate the word obese. Of course no one thinks of themselves as obese they know they are fat but obese, no.  It is such an icky word, it just sounds gross.  I never thought of myself as obese and I still don’t think I was obese, yes according to the “charts” (that probably some thin bitch made up these charts) I was in the obese range, from what the charts say, 50lbs or more of extra weight is considered obese, so I according to the charts was obese. 

     A few months before May 2009 my husband was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure because of his weight, he went on meds for both.  I kept thinking I know how bad being diabetic & having high BP is for your body, you may “feel fine” but it is wreaking havoc inside your body, truly killing you slowly. I dint want to lose him and started think about how his weight is effecting him. Then I thought “take a look in the mirror yourself fatty“, just because my body wasn’t showing signs like high BP or being diabetic didn’t mean I was any healthier than he was at that point with the extra weight I was haling around.  Then I started thinking about my kids, especially Andrew (my son with Down Syndrome that will always need someone taking care of him)  I want to be there for my kids until I am old and gray, not fat and in my forties.  I had also been watching the Dr. Oz show, he talks about how as said above being overweight wreaks havoc inside your body, you may not notice but it is.  I have read that 20.9 million people have diabetes, and 6.2 million people are unaware the even have diabetes.  Dr. Oz talks a lot about how being over weight really effects your health, I’m not stupid I knew being fat wasn’t healthy, but I seriously didn’t realize how unhealthy is really was.  He also stresses that if you take action now before your body yells to loudly at you, you can reverse a lot of the issues inside your body that you didn’t even know about yet, just by losing some weight. 
But the clincher was right before I went to the dr for that appointment when the wonderful doctor told me I was obese.  I put on a pair of my jeans, (which I didn’t wear very often because they were uncomfortable, my friend was stretch type material, or really loose clothing) (keep in mind my jeans were stretch jeans, but clearly not stretchy enough for me) anyway I went to put on these jeans and they really were to tight to wear comfortably, so that pissed me off to begin with, but I said to my self, “ok fatty you have to break down and get a bigger size, it’s time to stop the denial, the pants just don’t fit your fat ass any more“.  So I thought ok I have to be fine with getting a new size……….18‘s, well I checked the tag inside to see what style the pants were called, and to my utter shock they WERE 18‘s, what the hell, that for me was rock bottom, I even had to get my glasses on because I was sure I read that wrong!!!  I hadn’t!!!  So I went to the “fat store” (Lane Bryant) and got a size 20, that just made me madder at myself at this point. (Now if you wear a size 18, 20 or larger, I mean no offense, I am just saying, for me personally I was shocked and didn’t like it. We all have our rock bottom and for each of us it is different, I’m just saying that was mine).  All this combined, my husbands health being effected by his weight, having to get yet again a bigger size, hearing Dr. Oz talk about all the effects of being fat, frankly started to scare me. Like I said I want to be around to enjoy my kids and life in general, I don’t want to die at an early age. This is what gave me the push I needed to finally do this and do it the right way this time, it helped me to make life style changes permanently.  I realized my life is very important to me, my kids, my husband and so many others, this is something I can do myself to make this a reality.

Before we get started a **warning about my future blogs**

I have to warn people, if you are going to read my blog be forewarned that I do use what some people may call offensive words, swear words and I use the word “fat” often, that is a word I always referred to myself as, I didn’t try to sugar coat the word that I was, I didn’t like the words pleasantly plump, or overweight I was fat and I knew it. I know some people don’t like that word but it is a word I use. So if swear words or the word fat offend you I would say you shouldn’t be reading my blog. 
Also I don’t spell well. Sometimes spell check doesn’t even know what the hell I am trying to say. Also I definitely don’t use proper grammar, or punctuation. So again be warned if you are a fanatic about spelling, grammar, or punctuation don’t read my blog