Cara's Weight Loss Journal (diet, health and fitness)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES, with reservations

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Cara's Weight Loss Journal, by Cara Showers

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.carasweightlossjournal.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: I am writing this blog to keep myself accountable to weight loss. This blog, and the friends I have met on here, has helped me stay on track week after week. If it were not for for this blog, I would have quit losing a long time ago and been satisfied with whatever my loss was at the time and gone on with my life. Losing weight is way to hard to do it alone. Blogging helps me through this one pound at a time.

MY REVIEW: The author of this blog joined Weight Watchers 3 years ago and, up until a couple of weeks ago, had lost 104 pounds. A great success story, except for one thing. Losing the weight is only half the battle. The easy half. The other half is keeping it off, and if this poor woman's latest posts are any indication, she's not going to be able to do it. As with most people who lose weight, once they reach their goal they return to the same bad habits that caused them to gain so much weight to begin with. And as they continue to put back on the weight that they lost, they find themselves unable to stop, until they not only put back on ALL the weight, but even a few pounds more.

I hope I'm wrong and that someone at her Weight Watchers meeting takes her in hand and points out that she's sabotaging herself for no good reason...

I recommend this blog, therefore, so that you can see just how easy it is to destroy your weight loss success if you lose your focus at the end -- what any person who has lost 104 pounds needs to do is say to themselves...okay, I stay on my diet for another 3 months, and only gradually come off it. That way, my body will have 3 months to become acclimated to my new weight, and then I'll be able to eat a bit more and it won't automatically convert into fat - which is what will happen if you start eating with abandon immediately.

Sample post

I've been hiding in a corner...

Blue, when you're right you're right. Was I on vacation? Nope, I was cowering in the corner beating myself up.

Can you believe that? Just a few weeks ago, I was on top of my game. On top of my world. Three years of total dedication to my weight loss and three weeks later I feel like a total failure.

I've been eating and eating and eating. I just can't stop. I'm not even hungry most times, I just feel the urge to eat. And then I wonder...

Why can't I get these last few pounds off?

Well, I'll tell you why. I have been doing some deep soul searching lately and I've come to some conclusions.

#1. I love food.

I have a passionate love affair with food. Any kind of food. My favorite, of course, are the baked kind. The sweet, sweet baked kind. But I can't limit my love affair to the sweets. No, I'm an equal opportunity food lover. I LOVE a great cheese burger. And I'm all over the cheese fries. Yup, I'm desperately in LOVE with food.

I kept thinking that one day I'd grow strong enough to over come this love and keep the food demons at bay. But I'm coming to the realization that THAT just isn't going to happen. So what I've got to do is coexist with my obsession with all things edible. I need to embrace it and recognize it for what it is and learn to live with it.

#2. If I really wanted to lose these last few pounds, I'd get off my lazy butt and do something about it. Uh hem. Which translates into... exercise!

Walking is great exercise. Tremendous exercise. It's helped me lose the 100+ pounds that I've lost so far. And walking is awesome for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. But I have to be honest with myself and say that walking--alone--isn't going to help me shed these extra few pounds. I need real exercise.

So somewhere I need to come up with the motivation to kick it in gear and commit to regular, hard exercise. I mean, I don't have to go crazy about the whole thing. Just regular calisthenics you know, would do the trick. Jumping jacks. Sit ups. Speed walking. Push ups. Lunges. Etc., etc.

I have all the resources I need. I've got ExerciseTV on demand. I've got DVDs out the wazoo. I've got several books (one of which is the Biggest Loser exercise plan). I'm equipped. I just need to do it.

So hear I go, crawling out of my corner of shame. Climbing up to my feet and taking that first step...

P.S. Thanks, BlueRaspberry for the email encouragement. You're always there when I need you. Love you!!

RECENT POSTS:
--HOT ONE!!! Weight Watchers magazine for only $2.99 a year!!!
--6 Pounds from Goal...
--One small step for Cara...
--Nobody puts Baby in the corner...
--I've been hiding in a corner...

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Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death