Alyssa, sounds like you're going great! Keep up the good work! As Sharon said, a number would be good. Then you can compare your progress.
I've lost another kilo, I'm now 21 Kg (46.3 lb) lighter than I was when I started. I have 2 weeks to go on these diet pills, then I find out how well I can maintain.
I still weigh 75 Kg (165 lb) and yet I am now slightly smaller than the national average typical female. That is still smaller than the US female average. According to BMI, I'm still at the top of the overweight range, just below "obese". Which just goes to show how wrong BMI is, at least for me. I can't talk about dress sizes because the system is different in Australia. I'm a size 12-14 on the bottom half, 16 on the top. easy child 2/difficult child 2 is very thin, tiny, and is a size 8-10. I think that's fairly close to size 0, US.
I was trying on clothes again today - because I keep old clothes, somewhere in the hoard there should be something that fits. My stomach isn't flabby any more, but it's not flat either. It's soft and saggy. So are other bits of me - my thighs, for example. My arse. It always was wide and flat. Now it's flatter. No wonderful Kylie Minogue bum for me, ever. darnit. My arms - I wave byebye and my arms keep waving, after I've stopped. My chin is now beginning to look a bit turkey-neck also. I never thought my first wrinkles would be my neck!
I had to do this, for my health. My appearance was not good before. It's not brilliant now, but in a different way. Still - again, appearance really doesn't matter. At least there are tricks I can do, to deal with sag. If I have to.
mother in law has been not hassling me as much lately, about how pale I look (so she's been saying). I've had it over and over, for the last seven months since I began this diet - "You shouldn't diet so drastically; a little of this won't hurt you..." (when "this" could be chocolate biscuits, a creamy sauce, a carb-loaded, fat-laden macaroni cheese) "...you're looking so dreadfully pale." And the emotive language increasingly came in - "You're looking sick/pale/ghastly white/dreadful/insert phrase here."
I was waiting for it on Saturday night - I've been staying close to home lately, either supervising difficult child 3 closely or just not wanting to get out and about with the pain levels I've had. So Saturday night's fundraising dinner was my body's first outing in the village for months. I wore a red dress that easy child bought for my birthday in June - amazingly, a summer dress in Target in winter! But I know it looked good. It looked good even when I was 15 Kg heavier.
In general I look better. I have curves. My hair is shorter, greys covered, styled to look younger. I wore some makeup. And in mother in law's hearing, people kept coming up and saying, "WOW! You look great! You look so much younger!"
And from mother in law, I heard not a thing. I was on tenterhooks but very happy to not hear her say, "But she looks dreadfully ill."
husband had been reading my posts at work today, I mentioned this problem in another thread. Tonight he said to me, "Has she still been hassling you? I spoke to her about two weeks ago when she was at me - again - about how pale you look. I let her have it, both barrels, about how important this weight loss has been, that you're doing it under specialist supervision, that you were heading for liver failure..." (a bit of an exaggeration. A bit, anyway. I WAS heading for lap band surgery, the doctor said) "...and that you really had no choice, and need every bit of help you can get, not sabotage."
When I think about it - mother in law has been very quiet on the topic for about two weeks. I think it must have worked!
I wish I could exercise more. Maybe that would help tone up my saggy bits. I'm feeling like the saggy baggy elephant. Or a shar pei. But my pain levels are just too high and it's taking ages to find out what is going on.
I last saw most of my family (siblings) in February. I saw one of my sisters and one of my brothers in July, they noticed a lot of change. I saw easy child at the same time, then saw her again a week ago and she reckoned I looked smaller again in those few weeks. The next time I see my siblings will be for difficult child 1's wedding. They're in for a shock!
I might wear that red dress...
One thing I do need to do - I need to make sure I'm taking my vitamins. I strongly recommend this to everyone who's dieting - make sure you take extra vitamins including calcium and iron (if possible) because chances are, you won't be getting enough in your diet.
I'm going to have to keep doing this even after I stop my pills in a fortnight. So I'm going to need you all to keep me going.
It will be interesting!
Marg
