In this past week’s meeting with my therapist, I said that I felt like I was not losing weight fast enough. I’m still fat. I still have a “beer belly”. She stated that I needed to make lifestyle changes to be successful. In her opinion, I need to do better.

We discussed the life changes I’ve made to be able to lose 86 pounds. I used to eat at fast food restaurants about four times per week. That is down to about twice a month. And just to be clear, I’m not eating a burger meal, usually it is something small. I’m very careful to keep it under 200 calories.

One of the tasks I used to hate while dieting was writing down everything I ate. Now I actually enjoy seeing how many calories, protein, and fat I’ve consumed. I’ve been using myfitnesspal.com and it has made all the difference in the world. My friends on there are very supportive to the point that if I don’t log on for a few days, they send me notes asking me where I am and how I’m doing. Now that I’m logging my food, I also measure it before I eat it; not everything all the time, but putting my food into a 1 cup measuring cup helps me know how much my stomach will tolerate. All of these things that I thought were a pain in the ass, I am now doing.

I still make a lot of poor choices and I do need to make more changes such as exercising regularly. But with each pound lost, I feel like I am slowly making the changes required of me to lose the remaining 60 pounds. I only have 40 pounds to lose for my doctor, but I want to lose another 60. If this 86 pounds made this much of a difference in my life I can only imagine what losing another 60 pounds will do! I’m fairly confident that I will reach my goal but it is frustrating not being there already.