A BetterU Blog Post from…CARMELLA!
Photo by Evangeline Gala (www.evangelinegala.com)
I’d like to start off with a little history about myself. I have high blood pressure that is controlled by 3 medicines. My family has a history of stroke, diabetes, breast cancer and heart disease. My mom and her mom passed at 54 and 56 respectively. My dad was gone at 78. I saw myself gaining weight over the past year and I didn’t know how to stop it, but I knew I was in trouble. I decided to apply for this program and start dieting in case I was accepted and that was a blessing. I am so grateful to have been accepted. Thank you.
As I stated above, I started dieting about three weeks prior to joining. I didn’t remove food from my diet, but cut portions dramatically. After being in the program for 4 weeks now, I took out some clothes that I had stored away and THEY FIT!!! The challenge I have now is that I have finally hit a plateau with my weight. I understand that weight loss is not the only component of this program, but it was extremely motivating when I saw the pounds shedding off. I see a difference in some area of my body such as my neck, upper back and waist since taking the body scan. I never felt so disgusted with myself after seeing that scan. I cried the whole way home from the gym that night just asking myself, “How could you do this to yourself?” I realized at that point, I was in charge.
A major concern is belly fat. I reassure myself that if I eat the right foods and exercise, I will lose the belly fat. I am reading up more on how metabolism & stress are factors that attribute to this and hopefully the information I continue to gather will help. I started this program at 176 pounds according to my scale at home. That same scale now says 160 and hasn’t moved in over a week. So this plateau has brought some depression and lack of motivation to get to the gym. It’s been hard to push past this over the last week or so. I have been going to Golds an average of 2 – 3 times a week and on the days I am not there, I am at my home gym at the apartment complex. Every day I do 1 – 2 miles on the treadmill.
My routine has been to work out and check the scale. Not anymore, as I have decided to put the scale away for a month and focus on physical activity and good eating. Hopefully after the month, I will still see improvements and the scale will be nicer to me. I need to stop getting depressed and just focus on the end results. I will make myself and my family healthier. I have been making better choices as far as food, cooking more at home and eating out less. Our favorite restaurant now knows I am in this program and actually prepares special dishes for me. The support of everyone is overwhelming.