122: Progress Project: Casey Elliott, Session #2

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From a peak weight of 295 pounds (134 kg), TipsOfTheScale listener Casey has invited us along on her weight loss journey. Today, Casey returns to share her latest update.

If you missed Casey’s first session, click here.

The Past Six Weeks

Casey shares that during the past 6 weeks she started out strong, but then had a really tough time with some illnesses that knocked her down. She had a stomach bug and then a sinus infection one after another. Due to these illnesses, Casey hasn’t been able to be as active as she normally likes to be.

Casey shares that she suffers from borderline personality disorder, which causes her to tend to see everything as very black and white. She is working to get part of her life more into the ‘grey area’ and being okay with that. Casey struggles with this black vs. white mentality in her weight loss journey because she is either 100% on point—exercising well, eating perfect, drinking water—or else she feels like is going into a downward spiral.

Casey says she and her family can all “see” when she is acting unreasonable (and sometimes even joke about it) but at times she feels powerless to change this thinking. Casey discusses that the scale plays into this problem as well, and usually she either weighs herself several times a day or doesn’t look at the scale at all.

Casey’s trainer recently told her that the fact Casey has come back to weight loss several times over the past few years shows that she is not ready to give up. This, and other instances of reaching out for help and allowing others to respond honestly has helped Casey get her mindset back on track. Casey feels like it’s good to get a support structure in place when you are having a good day, so that you can rely on it when the tough days come.

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Despite the struggles that arose in the past month, Casey dropped 3 pounds (to 221 pounds – 100.5 kg), and 6” from her 5’6” frame. Casey says she is getting more specific on where she measures, and jokes that she is considering getting small tattoo lines to indicate where to take her measurements. Casey and Sam discuss how progress pictures can be deceptive if the pose is slouchy versus standing up straight, even if the photos are taken on the same day.

Activity

Casey says the momentum for exercise was difficult with being sick. She stopped running, because her knees and hips were causing her pain. Instead of giving up entirely, Casey decided to shift instead to lifting weights with a weight set at home, and doing cardio through tabata intervals and playing soccer with her kids in the park for an hour. She also shifted her activity to 5 days instead of 6. Working with a trainer over the summer was very beneficial, and now Casey wants to internalize her workouts, and rejoin her trainer in the spring.

Food

Casey is making a shift from “super strict clean eating” all the time to eating that way during the day, and then eating dinner with her family. Casey finds that the black/white mentality with her meals was holding her back. Casey and Sam discuss how going from a framework of yes/no foods to moderation with food can be a tough transition.

Casey tracks calories on My Fitness Pal, and over the summer, she had only been eating 900-1200 calories per day. She has now bumped her calories up to 1800-2000 depending on her activity.

With a more bountiful eating plan Casey is looking forward to holidays and parties; and the winter months seems less stressful since her eating can be a little more relaxed. Casey has some plans in place to handle the upcoming holidays. She and her husband get rid of the leftover Halloween candy after their kids go to bed on Halloween night. At Thanksgiving they plan to make not quite as big of a meal as in previous years. Casey will have a slice of pumpkin pie, and will definitely get in some activity that day to help balance things out.

“Just because one thing is a no doesn’t mean that everything has to be a no. I get to choose what I indulge on.”

Casey discusses how she is learning that bingeing is different than indulging, and indulging give you back power and control that binges take away. Planned indulgences help her to get through the week. New Year’s last year she made a resolution to not drink alcohol in 2014. Casey plans to have one drink on New Year’s Day of 2015 as a celebration, and loves the fact that with not drinking at all this year she had proven she is strong and has powerful determination.

Goals and Perspective

10 pounds of weight loss per month was Casey’s original goal, but instead of looking a the failure of not losing her goal amount, she is working to focus on the progress that did, in fact, happen. Casey spoke to Adina from TOTS and read an article by Adina discussing that sometimes when the scale goes down we self-sabotage. Casey’s short-term goals are now:

  1. Only weigh in and measure on Wednesdays
  2. Track all meals and stay in calorie range
  3. Work out 5 days per week for at least one hour

Casey has committed to telling herself that if she unexpectedly misses a workout for some reason, it’s not the end of the world. She hopes that a goal of 5 days of exercise each week instead of 6 will offer her schedule some flexibility. Casey plans to post her weigh-ins on her Facebook page each Wednesday. She also stays accountable with friends and her trainer. A huge motivation this month is that Casey’s best friend is also starting to lose weight. Casey grew up around the Narcotics Anonymous (NA) community and shares that TOTS is like her NA in a sense, because it gives her strength and hope when she hears all the successes community members have had. 

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On Casey’s Workout Playlist

Contacting Casey

Stay tuned for Casey’s next update later this fall!

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