There were a few things that made a perfect storm for me to gain weight. Those things include being a working college student who had no regard for eating healthy, being a young married woman who wanted to cook "good" meals for her husband, and going on a birth control shot that totally threw my body out of whack. To make the story short I gained 30 lbs within our first year of marriage. To say the least I was extremely disappointed!
I tried all sorts of things to lose weight. I started working out, I tried "all natural" diet pills, I tried the Atkins diet, tried the South Beach diet, and the list goes ON AND ON AND ON AND ON...well you get the point! Eventually I just gave up and bought bigger clothes. I thought, I am just going to have to come to terms with the "new me" (notice all the quotations in my post...that's me rolling my eyes over and over!) and be ok with it. So, I went on like that for a several years, and then two children later I decided NO MORE! I was sick of my reality of just being OK with how I looked and how I felt. A close friend of mine was loosing weight and it inspired me to do it too.
So, this time I decided...no more crazy diets or pills. I was going to do this the old fashioned way: exercise and working out. SO, I did! I started calorie counting and working out every week. I tried to stick to around 1200 calories a day at first, and when I started working out more and was on a good losing streak I went up to around 1500. I also had little "tricks" along the way that helped me make it. Because I have to say, I LOVE to eat and I HATE to diet. So, I had to trick myself into feeling like I was still getting to eat what I wanted and wasn't on a diet. Some of those things were:
1) 100 Calorie packs {MY BEST FRIEND}! This allowed me to have snacks, eat sweets and little crunchy things like I had always done, while controlling my calorie intake.
2) Eating ice. GASP!!! Yes, I know all of the dentists of the world are appalled that I am sharing this with you, but seriously it helped me soo much! Those moments when I wanted to be munching on something and had already had my 100 calorie pack Ice was my best friend!!!
3) CHEATING on the weekends. This was probably the NUMBER ONE thing that helped me get through my weight loss. Knowing throughout the week that I just had to make it a few more days and would be able to eat that thing I had been craving was absolutely vital for me. Because ME DIETING+ NO CHEATING = GIVING UP. When I was trying to diet with never splurging on the weekends and eating those Nachos (GASP), or eating those chocolate chip cookies (GASP), I gave up so quick. Why? Because it felt never ending. I felt like I was depriving myself of all of the yummy goodness in the world and it got so old so fast. SOOO the first thing encouragement I give to people who are trying to successfully diet is, cheat on the weekends. Don't go crazy and gorge yourself every meal for 2 days. But, seriously...eat what you want within reason. Get those nachos and share them with somebody, or eat them at lunch time and have a light dinner. My goal on the weekends was not to lose, but just to maintain.
So, before I got pregnant with my sweet girl I had lost 25 lbs! I looked and felt better than I had in a REALLY long time! I was so excited with my progress and how far I had come. I have since had another pregnancy and gained the weight back. I am a horrible pregnant person, I do not eat healthy or maintain my weigh well during pregnancy. I just don't. That being said, I am on the journey again. The exact same one, lol. I have pretty much the same amount of weight to lose. I am now down 16 lbs and have around 13 more to go. I am losing it SLOWLY but surely. OOHHH and here is a little rabbit trail for ya...
DONT BE AFRAID TO LOSE IT SLOW!!!! This is probably the number 2 encouragement I offer people who are trying to lose weight. Lose it slow! This makes for a journey that is doable, and one that won't end in gaining it all back. It has taken me about 3 months to lose those first 16 lbs, and will most likely take me another 2 or 3 to lose the rest. But, I will maintain it in the end and not kill myself, or my family, while doing it.
SO, if you haven't found something that works for you...my challenge to you would be do it the old fashioned way. You can do it! Because if this woman who absolutely LOVES to eat can do it, YOU CAN TOO!!
I will leave you with a little before and after pic of my first completed weight loss journey:
Yes, a shots of my face, because I always gain and lose most noticeably in my face. I don't know if you think so...but that's a BIG difference to me!!
