All the Weigh's Questionnaire - Day 9 and 10

I follow the blog All the Weigh. From Kenz who created this delightful and ebullient blog, I have learned so much. She has Friend Makin' Mondays and all sorts of ways to connect to a community of weight loss bloggers. I never go very far into my morning without checking her posts. She has a quality which makes the reader feel as if she is a personal friend and over time I think that is what she is! Her journey is heroic and her hard work and honesty is inspiring.

On this Saturday morning as I try to catch up with day 9 and day 10 of my 100 day challenge, I am going to answer the questions she posted on her blog today. She advises honesty and asks that if someone answers the questions to let her know. She also Twitters which I have not ever started doing and even those messages are delightful. Visit her blog. Here are the questions:

What was your highest weight, what do you weigh right now and what is your goal weight?

My highest recorded weight was 285. My current weight is 227. I did the first 85 with real ease and then regained to 227 (having vowed never to see 200 lbs again) during a period of transition and stress. I lost the rhythm and pattern of eating that was stable and just right for me -- and returned to all of the bad habits of a life time. I am on a 100 day challenge to get back to 200 and to stablize my eating again. It's been a battle.

2. What is your #1 motivation for losing weight?

Inner well-being; and a sense of being able to manage impulsive and addictive eating and the blood sugar swings that create emotional swings too, Most of all my motivation is health and well-being. And I wouldn't mind having some clothes that make me feel beautiful and fashionable either. I want my children to have a good role model; I want my legs and feet to feel less tired at the end of a day. Health. Health. Health. I want to dance with life and with food -- to feel that what has replaced my bad eating is joyful eating, happy eating, pleasurable eating and eating as an exploration and adventure of tastes and smells. I ate a Hawaiian papaya the other day -- a small one and honestly, I've never tasted anything so good and it was a perfect food!

3. Have you always been overweight?

No. I was a thin child. I didn't gain weight until I was 30 years old, but the compulsive overeating and over-reaction to carbs and sugars was there from pre-adolescence. I remember when it started and I remember want to eat more and more of certain foods and not understanding why? I have always had an overeating compulsion, triggered by concentrated and processed sugars and starches.

4. When you want to give up what inspires you to keep going?

Everything in my life inspires me. I have a job which I love. I work with people who work hard and love their work in an organization that matters and in which I feel wanted and of service. Yesterday I laughed with a group of people over silly nonsense like I haven't laughed in years. I have adopted children and I want to them to love good food and to eat what is healthy and wonderful and be able to manage their selections. I was so proud of my first 85 lbs. I have bad knees and I want to be thin and fit because I want to live to be very very old and enjoy every day. I am happier than I can ever remember being -- I love where I live and my children are happy here. I want to "be the change". My 18 year old is healthy because she worked with me to gain control as a teenager and stablized at 130. I want a more active life; I am sedentary because my legs and feet hurt. I love food when I am eating the right food; the enemy is not food, it's the addictive food

5. What is the #1 thing you look forward to when you hit your goal weight?

Maintaining it and feeling stable! Every single day - feeling stable about food! Being aware and loving my body -- even as it wrinkles! I am healthy! I want to stay healthy!

6. Do you have support on your weight loss journey?

Yes I do. I have no one in my life who tried to sabotage me or encourage me to eat the wrong things. I have cheerleaders and I'm developing blogging buddies. I want to learn more about the things that create a blogging community. I live in a very accepting and caring area.

7. What is your favorite exercise?

Running. But I am not sure I will be able to run again. I once came in last in a half-marathon and I was so proud of myself. I am still battling to find a way to exercise every day in a moderate way and begin to build strength. My days with children and work are long -- I have 4 children at home and I am single. I like the bikes at the gym and Kenz has inspired to me begin lifting and working on an elliptical machine.

8. What is the most important thing you have learned on your weight loss journey?

That a lifestyle and eating change has to be permanent and that it takes one day at a time. Yesterday I ate chocolate at the end of a stressful meeting. Those slips remind me that there is no turning back from this commitment. Having experienced the first 85, the next 100 will be completed and then maintained! It is a one day at a time process and when I am living fully within one day at a time and am more present and more generous with my own spirit I am filled with joy.

9. What is one thing you have given up that you miss the most?

I have given up nothing except high glycemic foods which trigger my eating and swings. I miss nothing. I can have anything, but I choose wisely and I time what I eat wisely. I am losing again and my energy is again higher than usual -- and I have lots of energy.

10. What is your strategy for losing weight?

I eat really nutritionally dense foods, whole grains and proteins. I try to get the most nutrition our of everything I eat and I experiement with new foods. I eat vegetables (which I never liked before) and sprouted breads and brown rice. I eat 3 meals a day and at least 2 snacks. I don't eat anything with sugar sgyrups of any kind in it. I avoid processed foods. There are no forbidden foods but if I eat ice cream or a piece of chocolate I do it last thing in the evening because it doesn't set off my wanting more and more and more. I think cookies are a forbidden food but I've never thought about it until answering this question; I eat alot of them and I don't really like them so I've eliminated them. I'm aware and learning more and more about nutrition and glycemic indexes. I eat like a diabetic in many ways. But it's mostly portion control and exercise as Kenz says -- but I also am influenced by a writer who wrote a wonderful piece (see my links section) about eating really wonderful pure and fresh foods from the earth. If I want something very unusual in the way of a treat I plan for it. That's the strategy.

Oh and when I wake up in the morning I look forward to my breakfast -- I never ate breakfast -- not for years. Now it is absolutely my favorite meal of the day and I take real pleasure in it.

Day 9 and 10 flew by with work, chauffering kids, and the rush of the week. I was so tired on Thursday night and so were the kids (we get up so early) that we were all asleep at 8:30 p.m. As I write this on a beautiful Saturday morning, my little one is feeding out cat and chatting with me and everyone else is still asleep. I cherish these early morning minutes on the weekend. I am going to increase my activity this weekend and will have more to say at the end of today.