Waistline Musing, Why is Exercise Not Enough

Is one of your goals to get into shape and lose weight this year? I know it’s one of my goals. It has been one of my goals for the last two years, now going on three. As you can tell from the last sentence, losing weight is hard.

I so wish exercise was enough for me to lose this extra weight. That was my hope at the beginning of last year but it wasn’t enough.

Getting Started with Exercising

My first goal in my weight loss journey was to get into regular exercising. At first it was hard. So. Very. Hard. I would find any excuse to avoid exercising. Then I had a friend offer to be my accountability partner. I really didn’t want to do it. But I knew deep down inside, I really needed it. I said yes.

After a few weeks of not wanting to exercise, I suddenly didn’t want to let my friend down. I found a time that worked for me and every weekday morning, I got my exercising in. At first exercising was brutal. I ached and thought I would die before my exercising time was up. But then it started to get easier. I felt better and could do more. I was hooked.

I also thought with all this exercising, the weight would just be falling right off. Oh. How. I. Was. Wrong!

While I was building up muscle and getting into shape, the pounds didn’t budge. Sure I lost a few pounds but in general no big change.

My Weight History

You see I never had to worry about my weight until I was older. I was a fit and skinny kid. I could eat what I wanted and not see a pound of difference on the scale. But I was also active too. Then I met my husband, we started dating and there were a lot of late night second dinners eaten. The pounds started to come on. For both of us.

My weight stabilized again, at 50 pounds heavier. Yes, that is a 5 followed by a 0. I tried some things. I went on a 1000 calorie diet, exercise after work 3-5 days a week and saw a 20 pound weight loss, but then the weight stopped coming off. I got discouraged and gave up. Gaining the 20 pounds back in a few months.

Pregnancy and My Weight Loss Triumph, for a Short While

But then I got pregnant with my daughter. And the morning sickness came and stayed for 5 months. A funny thing happened, when I couldn’t eat breakfast or lunch for 5 months. I lost weight, a lot of weight, 20 pounds, without exercising at all. I did gain some of the 20 pounds back, by the end of my pregnancy, but I walked out of the hospital weighing less than the day I found out I was pregnant. I was ecstatic.

Over the next few years, I lost more weight and eventually lost 50 pounds. I thought I had it made, I had conquered this weight battle and was done. But after 4 years of keeping the weight off, it slowly crept back on, all of it.

I stayed at that heavier weight until I was pregnant with my son. The morning sickness came and the weight went. I continued to lose weight until I was back down 50 pounds. But again at the 4 year mark, the weight came back on.

Thinking back now I can see I was busy when my kids were little. Caring of them and doing my housework. I had little time to sit and eat a snack, I naturally cut back on my calories. But as the kids go older, I had more freedom in my time, more time to eat, and the weight came back on.

Why oh Why is Exercising Not Enough to Reach My Goals

Even with exercising five days a week, the weight persists. You see I can’t exercise enough to overcome my eating habits. There are too many opportunities to take in calories and just not enough waking hours to burn them off. I have to make an eating change to reach my weight loss goals.

If you are exercising but not seeing a change in the scale maybe it’s your calorie intake too. I have yet to figure out the best plan for me to reduce my calorie intake, but I’m working on it. I had some good success in the past with eating half of what I normally eat.

For the last few months I’ve been working on not eating seconds, 4 days a week. Thanks to my accountability partner. It’s a good start for me but it doesn’t seem to be quite enough to make the scale budge.

Eating half of what I normally would eat, may be the ticket for me. After all it has worked for me in the past.

I have a hard time, when I tell myself you can’t eat this or that. It always backfires on me and I only want it more. But if I could eat half, that just might work.

I have to make my plan and then put it into action.

But I would like to hear from all of you first. What tips or tricks have worked for you to reduce your calorie intake? Have you had a great success in losing weight? I would love to have you share it with me.

 

Just so you know, I’m not a health professional. I’m a mom who is in this battle of the bulge and I’m out to win it. I’m just sharing my thoughts, successes and failures to encourage others on their weight loss journey. I’m not giving any medical advice, just sharing my journey and hoping you will share yours too.

 

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