wdarling

Continuing with the initial assessment document I wrote up Saturday:

Prior Attempts

General account and effect:

I feel like I’ve been trying to lose weight for the past ten years.

I’ve gone on various exercise and diet kicks over and over. I haven’t used any fad diets or diets out of a book, but have tried to simply eat healthy using guidelines like those from the USDA, cutting out fat and sugar. These diets have never really taken calories into consideration, or if they did, they had very high calorie caps, like 3,000. The diets I chose were usually based on the notion of quality over quantity, although I now see that quantity is important.

In addition to addressing my weight by dieting, I’ve gone on exercise kicks. The most significant was in 2006, when I had a membership at a local gym and worked out 3-4 times a week for about eight months. I was very dedicated and even did things like a 6-week “boot camp,” took up running, did weight-training, etc. During this time I became very fit and toned but was discouraged by the fact that I lost hardly any weight. Everyone kept telling me I was “gaining muscle” and that’s why I hadn’t lost weight, but I was discouraged. I tried doing more weight work, because that’s supposed to be more helpful for weight loss that aerobic work, but I still didn’t get anywhere.

Finally I got a new job and stopped going to that gym. I went to another gym for about a month later in the year but gave up on that fairly quickly as well, because again I wasn’t losing any weight. However, my “diet” during that time wasn’t helping me, so that was probably the reason I got “stuck,” not because exercise didn’t help.

Weight management and weight regain:

I’ve rarely put any effort into weight maintenance. The one time I can remember doing it is after I lost about 20 pounds at UGA. I was careful to watch my diet for about a year after that. I remember I didn’t eat pizza for a long time because I was still avoiding fat. However, eventually I got loser and loser with my restrictions and soon was up to no good. Since then the general pattern has been for me to lose some weight, give up, and then eat anything and everything, not just giving up, but rebelling against the whole diet idea. When I make a mistake, I don’t stop myself and then make up for it, but instead I go crazy in the other direction. I am determined not to do that this time.