My Weightloss Journey...One Year Down

Life has turned me upside down the past few weeks. Our home was opened as a provisional foster home and we have two new little ones. My daughter had an appendectomy, my husband has a hiatal hernia, my husband's car broke down, the two new little have both been sick separate times, we had hiccups in getting my stepson here for Christmas break and I have been swamped with paperwork to get certified for fostering. I've definitely been humbled this month.

I've managed to stay on top of tracking my food and getting my workouts completed. I didn't lose any weight last week but I also had an unwelcomed visitor. I did splurge on Christmas Eve and Christmas more than I wanted to.

I have one more week left of this year and I want to lose ONE more pound. This would put me at 60 lbs lost for the year. Even with PCOS, that's an average of 1.15 lbs per week. Although there were plenty of weeks that I lost nothing...

I keep getting compliments and questions about my weight loss. People ask if I am at my goal weight and a lot of them seem to think I have lost enough. The reality is I still weigh 178 lbs. I am still a size 13/14. I am super happy about that but I know there is still progress to be made.

Rather than focusing on the scale, like I have my entire life, I am going concentrate on strength training. I know that to change the shape of my body I have to train with weights. This will be a learning process for me.  

This is the first year that I have not given up midway through and gained all of my weight back. What exactly did I do to lose weight? I tracked all of my food intake. I use Weight Watchers' previous points system. I made sure to keep up my intake of supplements. I love AdvoCare. I workout. True story. lol I love FitnessBlender videos on youtube.com. I drink plenty of water and get plenty of sleep. Easy enough, right?

I would say the two things that made the difference was giving it to God because I know I can't do it on my own and I committed to the process through affirmation statements. Have a support system if at all possible. If you don't have one at home or work you find one online. I love Instagram because you can follow real people on their fitness journey and find inspiration and motivation.

I gladly welcome others to join me on this journey to get healthy! :)  

Balancing Life and Weight Loss

The last four days have been a huge blessing to me. My Granny and Aunt from Washington State came to visit! I have enjoyed my time with them fully. This is only the third time since 1995 that I have got to see them.  We celebrated my son turning 13; had a family dinner with my two sisters, their spouses and children and my mother. Lots of celebrations with lots of food! Not to mention we just had Fourth of July get-togethers the weekend before.

I knew going into these two weeks that I was going to focus on maintaining my weight. This would be a victory in its own.  Last Friday for my weigh in I was at 198.2…so I had a 2 oz. gain. So this I can live with! Now this week will be a different story! I didn’t want to obsess over what I ate and take away from spending time with Granny and Auntie. Tried to balance as much as possible. This is still a learning process for me...

The problem was all of the leftovers from the birthday party! I have cookie cake, birthday cake and ice cream setting around. Then we had lunch at my sister’s house Sunday and she sent the leftover cookies and chips home with us. Snicker doodle cookies are the devil I tell you! I ate 3 of them! This is why I just can’t keep stuff like this in the house. Plus it’s not healthy for my kiddos to be loaded up on sugar either. I have a headache from the sugar. I had been keeping my sugar intake below 24 grams a day, which is the recommended daily serving.

I’ve got to stay on track for the rest of this. I will do my daily workouts. I will get to sleep on time. I will not eat added sugar! This is a promise I am making to myself. I did well yesterday and today. The children and I walked to the park and played some basketball. The fireflies were out and it was so peaceful.  I enjoyed time with my kiddos and nature. Bonus, I hit my daily goal of 10,000 steps!

I am going to do a detox in the next week or so. About 6 six years ago my husband and I were in a car wreck and we had to go to physical therapy. The therapist there gave us a detox recipe that worked wonderfully. For some reason I am thinking it was from the Mayo Clinic…but I could be wrong. It involves Epsom salt, grapefruit and olive oil. So stay tuned for that post! lol

The Basics of Weight Loss In Plain English

Although the five things below may seem super simple, they can be challenging to complete everyday; day in and day out. They all work together to make a healthier you. Of course there are going to be days that you stumble and even fall flat on your face. But remember…fall down seven times, stand up eight. This is my new mantra. I have embraced it wholeheartedly. I have also been reciting the Serenity Prayer like crazy! 

1.     Drink water! This one is super easy for me. I LOVE water! When I wake up in the morning the first thing I do…okay the second thing I do is drink water. I will drink 8-16 oz. Some may think that sounds hideous but I really feel like it helps get me going in the morning.

2.       Track everything you eat. EVERYTHING. This one is so important but I sometimes I will avoid my journal when I make bad choices. Like not writing it down will cancel out the calories. Let me tell you, it most definitely does not. I do keep a food journal with me at all times. It’s really just a small notebook J I use an old version of Weight Watchers. I had joined meetings back in 2007. It’s what I know and it’s what I am comfortable with. As crazy as it sounds, it’s easier for me to track my points than to track calories. Since it’s an older version I follow it fo’ freeee. (I will do a separate post on that later).

3.       Get moving! It doesn’t matter what you enjoy doing, JUST MOVE! I really enjoy walking, Zumba, Tae BO, HIIT workouts and more recently racquetball with my kiddos. I actually talked the kiddos into doing a Tae Bo workout with me when I got off work the other day. Of course it was more of them just randomly kicking and punching around but it wasn’t horrible. It kept them distracted long enough for me to get in an effective 30 minute workout without feeling like I was taking time away from them.

4.       Get enough sleep. This is so crucial to everything. If I am tired I make really poor food choices and I am super grumpy. I function best on 7-8 hours of sleep. Preferably 8 if I have a say in it. Of course with the demands of children and life it doesn’t always happen that way. I literally have a bedtime and try to adhere to it regularly.  

5.       Positive self-talk. We become the voices in our head. It isn’t something you do once or twice. You have to do it consistently. I went through Lou Tice’s course, “Thought Patterns for Success”. I loved how much it helped me. Over time I fell back into old habits of negative self-talk. I would never say these things to others so why do I say them to myself? Currently working on getting back on track with this. Saying daily affirmations will play a big role in your success. Keep them positive and don’t use words that can be heard as negative like can’t, won’t and don’t. The "Thought Patterns" course teaches you to do them right before you fall to sleep. Just repeat them over and over again. I have also done them looking at myself in mirror. It was super uncomfortable at first and I didn't even want to make eye contact with myself. Over time it did become easier and I became more confident. Here are a few things you can tell yourself:

a.       I make healthy food choices.

b.      I enjoy exercising.

c.       I am strong in mind and body and spirit.

d.      I am losing weight.

e.      I am beautiful and loved.

Small steps to get you started on the right track. They may take some practice to make them a habit but your efforts will pay off.