Hi, my name is Jane. I am 26 years old, and this is all about me losing-- weight that is. I am so disgusted with all the sterotypes about fat people, like that they sit all day watching TV and eat lots of junk food. Yes, there are people who do that, but it is certainly not true of everyone! We should all strive to be healthy if we are fat, thin, or average.

Whatever pretty package you want to wrap it in-- voulptous, big-boned, curvacious, bbw, big girl, that is how one would describe me. I thought this was just the way it would be for me always. I do not remember a time when I wasn't fat. At least I thought I was, and many of my adult relatives told me so. I look at my pics from back then and think, "No, I was NOT!"

Diet food was always in my life. My mother was always dieting or at least using diet products. These products are useful to dieters, but some of it I can do without. Now, I don't eat things that I don't like, just because I was taught it is "good for me." And now I eat things that I always thought were off limits, as long as I stay in my calorie range, and get a reasonable amount of vegetables and other healthy foods.

Being overweight, in my opinion, is not equivalent to being unattractive, or many of the other negative things that society has come to associate it with. For example: Mo'nique is beautiful, sexy AND a big girl. And Anna Nicole was just as beautiful before she lost 69 pounds. People can be beautiful in all shapes and sizes.

I don't want to lose weight so I can feel attractive, accepted, or for any person or group of people. I am doing it for my future health, and for my own personal achievement!

My plan is to eat a moderate calorie "diet" for the rest of my life rather than go on a short term diet. I would only do so if I felt it would be beneficial. I haven't joined any weight-loss programs, but I am open to the idea if I decide it would be helpful to me. I currently don't have any plans to do so.

I started about a year ago, and decided to find the reasons that I am overweight. I asked my friend's honest opinions of what they thought about my eating habits. The overweight group said that they did not think I ate enough to be fat. The average-size group agreed. My thin (underweight) friends said that they didn't think I ate enough to be that fat. I knew I ate healthy foods, but considered that I may not be aware of how many calories I actually was eating.

I used a formula (655.1 + (9.563 x kg) + (1.850 x cm) - (4.676 x age) to determine how many calories I need to maintain my weight, it calculated 2500 calories per day. By other methods, such as online weight-loss calculators, as much as 3500!

I had my doubts that I actually consumed 2500, and was positive I did not take in 3500. I began keeping a food diary, eating 2200 calories per day. I was already walking 25 minutes per day 5 x a week. At first it worked, I lost 4 inches each in my chest, waist, and hips. (I estimate I may have lost about 10 pounds at that time.) But after about four months I stopped losing weight.

Soon after, I decided to take it down to 2000 calories per day. That worked for a while, and I lost 10 more pounds. Three months later, there were no major changes so I tried 1800 a while. That was just not enough for me with walking 25mins, and using my Gazelle Freestyle 15 mins in the evening. I would get hungry hours before bedtime and be miserable all night. (I eat my evening meal 4-6 hours before bed.)

So now I am at 1900 calories and I expect to soon reach my first long term goal of 250 pounds. My ultimate goal? 169 pounds. I should be losing over a pound per week on an approximate 1900 per day calorie diet, not counting my 25 min walk and 15 min use of my Gazelle Freestyle. Let's see how it works out!

Tuesday's Menu:

Walked: 25 mins.
Gazelle 15 mins.

My Current Stats: 5' 9", 254 lbs, size 24/26 (as of 04/19/2005)

Today's Comments: Wonder why there are no drinks listed? I typically drink water or calorie free drinks.

Monday's Menu:

Breakfast: