{"id":22523,"date":"2011-09-07T08:17:45","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T15:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/?p=22523"},"modified":"2011-09-07T08:17:45","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T15:17:45","slug":"starting-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/?p=22523","title":{"rendered":"Starting Over"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve had to start over a few times in the last few years. When I decided it was time to lose the weight, I had minor setbacks. For example, I’d fluctuate up and down the same few pounds or I’d hit plateaus that lasted a really long time. I was lucky in that when I finally set out to lose 100 pounds, I never gained it back. A common occurrence is for people to lose a significant amount of weight and then for whatever reason, gain it all back and more. I am so grateful that wasn’t the case for me. That does not mean I had a perfect time of it.<\/p>\n

Gaining Weight<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The first set back was in 2009. After losing over 100 pounds, weighing in<\/a> at the lowest 143, I proceeded to gain 16 pounds. On New Year’s Eve my weight had gone up to 159.5.\u00a0 What was the reason for this weight gain? I was eating the same healthy way I’d eaten to lose the weight. I was still exercising 5 days a week. In fact, I was training for the Shamrock 8k<\/a>, the Hood to Coast Relay<\/a> race and the Reach the Beach<\/a> 55 mile ride.<\/p>\n

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\nThe reason: medication<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I started taking a medication that caused weight gain. It was slow at first. A pound here. A pound there. Then I was 5 pounds heavier. I told myself it was no big deal. I was still under 150 pounds (my goal weight). I told myself that it was the training. All that running I was doing. I was gaining muscle. Excuses, excuses.<\/p>\n

I peaked at 160 pounds. I was 10 pounds OVER my goal weight and not happy. I was angry that no matter what I did–how much I worked out–I could NOT lose any weight. What gives?? I saw a nutritionist. I saw my personal trainer again. I was feeling depressed. I’d come so far and here I was: a clique. Someone who lost a lot of weight and was gaining it back. Then it dawned on me. The medication. Maybe it was causing weight gain? Maybe it was making it impossible to LOSE weight?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI was right. I stopped the medication and immediately started losing the weight. Two pounds in fact.\u00a0 It took about ten months but I lost the 16 pounds I had gained on the medication. I didn’t do anything special: just my normal eating, calorie counting and vigorous exercise.<\/p>\n

Injury<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The next set back I had was last September. I successfully ran Hood to Coast and was feeling really good about life. I was prepared to immediately start training for the Las Vegas Half Marathon. I went for a run a week after Hood to Coast and realized I was injured.\u00a0 Overuse of my IT Band. Suckage. That meant months of no running<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I went a little batty at first. I was sad. I was angry. Depressed<\/a>. Stressed out. Anxious I was going to gain back all my weight. Then I snapped out of it and pulled myself together. I had to find alternatives to running<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I did physical therapy<\/a> (which was a negative experience), acupuncture <\/a>(also negative), massage therapy, lots of yoga, stretching. In the end it came down to this: I had to start all over from scratch. I took 6 weeks off from all running and then I started the “return to running program” my sports medicine doctor<\/a> put me on. I was starting all over. Walk, jog, walk, jog, eventually run…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nIn the end it came down to listening to my body and let it heal. I had to switch things up. Changing my workouts ended up being a GREAT thing. It ended the boredom <\/a>I was feeling.\u00a0 I started lifting weights just to have something to do and fell in love with it. Weight lifting was something I’d avoided for a long time and it ended up being the BEST THING I EVER DID. I immediately lost those last 5 pounds I had gained. My body changed<\/a>. I got toned. I felt better. I felt STRONG.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI was happy with the changes and even when I was “cured” from my running injury I still lifted weights because I realized just how important it was. The injury ended up being a GOOD thing!<\/p>\n

Starting Over<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Starting over doesn’t have to mean the end of the world. It doesn’t have to mean failure, either. It’s all part of the journey.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWhen I was trying to reteach myself how to eat healthy I had many slip ups. It was hard breaking a decade of bad habits overnight. If I had a “bad food day” I started over the next day. The next day was a clean slate, no mess ups. A new day meant I started at zero and could make better choices.<\/p>\n

Remember: starting over doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Keep moving forward and you will be okay.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

QUESTION: How many times have you had to start over? What helped?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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I’ve had to start over a few times in the last few years. When I decided it was time to lose the weight, I had minor setbacks. For example, I’d fluctuate up and down the same few pounds or I’d hit plateaus that lasted a really long time. I was lucky in that when I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,26,418,44,55,2721,84,91,92,101,104,2565,106,123,2663,138,1452,152,154,2559,171,318,319,1292,179,185,2778,2777,3588,2625,214,2973,224,236,2514,4277,258,274,297,298,3372,3212],"tags":[8617,518,4279,611,8645,708,1540,8662,4281,8810,4282,8865,1753,8757,4280,4278],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/over.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22523"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23050,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22523\/revisions\/23050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}