Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Week Four

Another 3.4 pounds down this week, for a total of 18 pounds in four weeks!  I'm so excited.  Not just for this reason, but also because my husband has been inspired by my discipline and has decided to join me with my weight loss goals!  I have waited for this our whole eight years of marriage. 

There was a six-week stint while we were dating that John jumped on the weight-loss band wagon.  But he felt so deprived that, even though he had lost about 25 pounds, he abandoned the program, never to return.

In anticipation of the time when I would be off the injections, I began reading about options for eating nutritious food going forward so that I could continue on my journey after the injections ended.  I read through the Prism weight loss book written by Karen Kingsbury.  Though I had been on this diet before and was very successful on it, the big headache with it is the weighing and measuring every little thing that I put in my mouth.  Since it's faith-based, the benefit of this program is that you have devotions designed to encourage you, to challenge you, and to love you through each prism phase of the program (a total of four six-week phases).  I vascillated between the thought, "Wouldn't it be great if I could do the Prism thing but not have to worry about all the weighing and measuring?" and "I think I need the weighing and measuring to keep my discipline."  Then I picked up a South Beach diet book. 

In the South Beach book, I read all about the glycemic index of food.  Dr. Agatson, the author of the program, explained how foods high in sugar caused the pancreas to go crazy making glucose, oftentimes overmaking it in attempts to calm the blood sugar down.  The extra glucose then stores itself in our fat cells.  He explained that, if we eat foods lower in glycemic index, the blood sugar is regulated.  The pancreas doesn't have to work nearly as hard to keep the blood sugar within normal limits, so there's no need to store the extra glucose as fat.  Huh!  Why didn't anyone ever explain this to me before?  And, cool thing about this program, the good doctor doesn't want you weighing and measuring your food!  He just wants you to eat modest portions of the right foods and let the weight loss take care of itself.

John and I were eating dinner, and I was telling him about all the things I learned in Dr. Agatson's book.  I said, "I was just thinking...I'm not sure yet whether I would choose Prism or South Beach.  But either way, I figure if you eat what I eat for dinner, you're bound to lose weight, too."  By the end of the weekend, he was gung-ho to join me on my endeavor. 

I tried to get John to wait until I finished with the injections so that I could focus on one thing at a time, but he was so ready to go.  How could I say no?  He started on the 15th of February and lost 10 pounds this week!

I think this is the element I have been missing.  Knowing that we're both striving toward the same goal has given us a joint focus.  And when the injections are finished and we're truly eating the same food every day, what a load that will take off my mind, not having to have the sickening sweet stuff around all the time to tempt me.  Woo-hoo!  I can't wait to see what lies ahead.

Enjoy your day.  Enjoy this blog.

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