I haven't been posting because most of my extra energy has been spent working out and staying on track and trying to keep myself distracted from thinking of food when it isn't time to be eating it. I have managed to stay on track and since Oct 21, have lost a total of 13.3lbs which is wonderful, but still at this point very fragile. I am a food addict, and getting straightened out is like quitting smoking or drinking. I hate the craving attacks I get, but am learning to stave them off with something like seaweed snacks or mushrooms with salt. They have few calories. Its a matter of substituting good food for the bad and the good food needs to taste good. We've been trying new things which is exciting and keeps things interesting. The exercizing has been going well, we've started walks in the park on some of the nicer non pool days. I am getting stronger physically, but sometimes the treadmill is scary. I am not very coordinated and when I try to increase speed, I feel like I am going to fall, I also notice that I tense up my upper body holding on and thus it gets sorer than my legs. Its just a matter of staying on. The cool thing is that even though it is a challenge, I can hold on for an hour. The music is inspiring.

This is called the lazy river. It has current and you can walk with or against it. We do 15-20 minutes of each.
We also do excercizes and today I did 5 long laps forward and backwards. I am pooped. I did lose 1.5 pounds on the scale more would be nice but muscle does weigh more than fat and this was anafternoon weigh where last week was a morning one.

Today has been two weeks without soda except for club soda occasionally, a miracle for me, its also been two weeks since I've had anything sweeter than an occasional fruit bar. Last night was really hard not to start a snackathon. Sometimes, I just pray to fall asleep in the evening so the snacking craving will go away especially since I know that one snack can lead to another and another. The early part of the day is much easier and I do notice that what we have for dinner makes a difference, although the problem is that the lighter healthier dinners tend to make me hungry sooner and want to snack. So far, I have been able to not snack or limit it to soemthing like a popcicle, cucumbers, or seaweed snacks. I've also been putting on relaxing music from youtube to fall asleep so I don't lay awake in bed wanting to eat for too long. I also pray. 
Yesterday we went for a walk which is something we haven't done in ages. I did manage to go all the way around the park, although I had to sit three times. I limited the sits to three minutes. I would have preferred to leave the dog at home, but somebody else had other ideas. I am sure if we would walk him more often, he'd get used to going a steady pace instead of his combo of dwaddlefest and pullathon. He does love the park and it sad that he doesn't get walked much. 

Exercize

I did 35 minutes and one hour on the treadmill today.  A big record for me, especially considering that I couldn't do ten minutes not too long ago. I wish I could go faster, but I have issues with balance, so I have to take increasing the speed slowly. My goal is to do two miles in an hour. We go to the pool twice a week. They have a walking river with current and we walk 15 minutes with and 15 minutes against current. We do some treading water, excercizes and swim laps. Yesterday I did three long laps forward and backward which for me is really good. The biggest feat with the pool is getting there and sticking with the schedule because it seems that if we skip once, the next time is easier to skip and then we don't go much at all, but it we go, we keep going. The other days, I have been walking on the treadmill increasing a little each time. Some days, its very hard to get motivated, others its pretty easy.

My goals

I am really trying to focus on behavioral and attitude changes more than the actual pounds. I hope to go into specifics later as to why I have chosen these goals but here they are

Excercize every day
Take green coffee supplement
Cut way down on sugar including drinks
Wean off of night snacking habit
Work towards drinking a gallon of water a day
Healthy meals with variety
Only eat for hunger not for comfort
Slowly reduce portion sizes

Getting Started

I am attempting two goals, one to learn how to create a blog, the other to change some nasty habits that will hopefully one day at a time lead to losing a really big chunk of weight. Last week I weighed in at a hefty 333.4lbs, this week, I lost 5. Yay. Now onto the next 5. It didn't come on all at once, so it won't all fall off.