A couple of weeks ago I reached my goal of losing 30 pounds. It feels so good!! Several people have asked, "What have you been doing?" Well here's my answer. I've narrowed it down to 3 things that I think made the biggest change.
1. I counted my calories and made my calories count.
2. Exercise.
3. Bob Harper's Skinny Rules
Now to get to the nitty gritty details...
1. I counted my calories and made my calories count.
My biggest tool in this was an app I used on my smartphone called
MyFitnessPal. You can also just use this tool online at any computer, but having it on my phone made it really convenient and easy.
I input my height, weight, activity level, age, etc and set my weight loss goal at losing 2 pounds per week. The app automatically set my daily net calorie limit at 1210 calories. Net meaning that if I burned 300 calories exercising, I could eat 300 more calories that day. One really great thing about this app was that everyday when I would complete my food diary, it would say "If every day were like today, you will weigh x lbs in 5 weeks." This number was always very motivating. I would go through cycles with this as far as how strict and exact I was with it. I would go a couple weeks where I would measure with measuring cups and spoons exactly how much I was eating, then for a few weeks I would feel like I could eyeball how much "one cup of cereal" or whatever looked like, but then I would again for a week here and there break out the measuring cups and spoons to check up on my estimates, which there were sometimes I was shamed to see that my eyeballed "one cup" of cereal had grown to be nearly double what it was supposed to be. Oops. Also, along the lines of "making calories count," I paid attention to what things made me feel fuller for longer, these almost always were foods that were higher in fiber and protein. For example, I felt much fuller and could usually make it to lunch without snacking if breakfast included a cup of Quaker Life Cinnamon Cereal (160 calories), but if I had a cup of Malt-O-Meal Cinnamon Toasters Cereal (173 calories) I would almost always need a snack between meals even though it was more calories than Life Cereal. Food for thought... literally.
2. Exercise
I won't spend too much time on this because I feel like most of my success came from changing my eating habits. Until my brain issues stopped us from doing so, Robert and I were training to run a 10k which was another New Year's resolution we had this year. Running has NEVER been my forte. I was very proud of myself for getting as far as I did. The last run we did before we decided I just shouldn't do any more was the longest either of us have ever run at once (no walking breaks) and that's 3.5 miles. Go us!!!
Aside from training to run a 10k, to go along with my weight loss I made it a goal to exercise for at least 30 minutes 4 days a week be it running or something else. As far as the weight loss goes, like I said, I think the nutrition was the more important factor in my case. But I will say that on days that I exercised it was by far easier to stay within or under my calorie limit and I think that not only is due to the fact that I got to eat more to make up for the calories I burned off, but also I just felt better about myself and more motivated. Also, especially when we were doing really great with running, I felt healthier than I ever have and I think I owe a good part of that to the exercise, not just the nutrition.
3. Bob Harper's Skinny Rules
Lastly, towards the beginning of when I got serious about losing weight I came across this book. Robert and I are fans of the show "Biggest Loser" and our favorite trainer is Bob Harper. I saw this book on Pinterest, found and bought it for cheap on Amazon and then didn't really think anything of it until I came to my first weight loss plateau. When that happened I thought I'd try following a few of the rules, just the first three. It immediately got me out of my plateau. Every time after that that I either felt like I was plateauing or wasn't losing as fast as I wanted, I would choose a couple more rules at random to start following, and it worked like a charm every time. The 20 rules are:
1. Drink a large glass of water BEFORE Every meal-No Excuses!
2. Don't Drink Your Calories
3. Eat Protein at EVERY Meal -or stay hungry & grouchy!
4. Slash Your Intake of Refined Flours & Grains
5. Eat 30-50 grams of FIBER per day!
6. Eat Apples & Berries Every single day- Yes, EVERY-SINGLE-DAY!
7. NO Carbs after Lunch (eat 'lean & green' at night)
8.Learn to Read Food Labels so You know what you are eating!
9. Stop Guessing about Portion Size & Get it Right-for good!
10. No more added sweeteners-including artificial ones!
11. Get rid of White potatoes!
12. Make one day a week Meatless
13. Get rid of fast foods & fried foods
14. Eat a REAL breakfast
15. Make your own food and eat at least ten meals a week at home
16.. Banish High Salt Foods
17. Eat Your Vegetables-(no excuses)- Just DO it!
18.Go to bed hungry!
19. Sleep Right
20. Plan one splurge MEAL per week
The book talks about each of these rules in great detail, then more than half the book has meal plans and recipes to help you follow the rules. So helpful!
And there you have it - my weight loss journey. I got serious about it the beginning of May and 7 months later, I am 30 pounds lighter and, aside from - you know - needing brain surgery, I am healthier than I've ever been ;)
Good luck with your journey! Wish me luck with my next goal - helping Robert lose at least 30 pounds. Heaven help me!
