I was thin growing up and then I gained a little here and there and after 2 kids found myself on the decided NOT thin side of life. Classified as technically obese (verging on worse), not only did I feel gross and incompetent, but I had inched my way into a situation that was bad for my health. Seriously… it was NOT good for any part of me, or my self-esteem.
In the last 8 months I’ve changed – I’ve dropped 50lbs, the last of which came off with my struggle and triumph over the 30 Day Shred (and subsequent Ripped in 30) …and I love it when people ask me how I am doing it! I was not inspired to become a life coach or a fitness trainer or a nutritionist, so what makes me qualified to talk to you about losing weight? Absolutely nothing … except that I am a real woman with kids and a husband who continued to order cheese fries and ice cream when we went out and one with a business to run that didn’t allow me to hide under the covers as I went thru my struggles 
I am regular ol’ girl who likes to exercise for about 30 minutes (not 4 hours) and I’d much rather have cake than wheat germ, but I am doing it!
I am regular ol’ girl who likes to exercise for about 30 minutes (not 4 hours) and I’d much rather have cake than wheat germ, but I am doing it!I have done a lot of research before and during my journey, so I’ll start with my thoughts on the top of weight loss…
I am no nutritionist, nor exercise guru… but I have read a lot and done a lot of research as it pertains to my own experiences with weight and food and exercise. I am also a very mathematical person so this is how I understand things best.
For a long time it’s been ingrained in you that if you don’t want to be fat, exercise. I can tell you that in several periods of my life I exercised a LOT and it made ZERO difference – I would look more toned and would have more energy, and I know that it makes my heart and body healthier – but the honest damned truth is I was still just as fat.
I also know people who run marathons frequently and are still plain old FAT. On the contrary, I’ve known MANY people who have lost a ton of weight and did not exercise at all.
I am not saying exercise is not important – it is integral to making your body look and function better AND MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL heart health and general health is not just about being thinner, you do need exercise (and I have new thougths on this at the end of the article as well). In fact before I started losing weight I started going to the gym with the goal of getting toned and healthy – NOT losing weight – because if my goal was to lose weight and I failed (again) I knew I would stop going…
So one just has to think – what on earth is there that I can do that WILL work???
It’s food – plain and simple (and I wish was not the truth) but it’s the food. If you eat right – and trust me if you are overweight you are not eating right – you can lose weight and lots of it. I know many examples of living proof of that and here’s why:
a pound = 3500 calories
To lose one pound in 7 days you would have to do ONE HOUR of cardio every single day to burn 3500 calories OR eat 500 less calories a day (about a serving of french fries)
To lose two pounds in 7 days you would have to do TWO HOURS of cardio every single day to burn 7000 calories OR Eat 1000 less calories a day (about a serving of french fries plus the hamburger)
**there are a lot of other things in this formula like the calories that your body naturally burns every single day and metabolic rates, etc but you get the basic idea**
A “healthy” meal at a bar and grill is about 1500 calories – you would have to work out for 3 hours straight to burn that off and that’s just ONE meal…
Do you see how that works? It seems more realistic to me to put down the fries and hamburger than exercise for 3 hours, but that’s just me. Between 3 meals a day and snacks – you would NEVER be able to burn off the calories you’ve eaten no matter how much exercise you did… you HAVE HAVE HAVE TO lessen what you eat.
Shedding 1000 calories off your food sounds horrible but you should track what you eat in one day – you’ll be SHOCKED at how it adds up – even seemingly healthy meals can quickly add up to an outrageous number of calories – starting with the old friendly diet food, a salad at about 200 calories, add cheese, dressing, croutons, boiled eggs, crispy chicken and you are closer to 900 calories - without anything else – just your salad! and you thought you were doing good eating salad!!
**let me note – it is unsafe to go below 1200 calories and I have NOT done that – your body needs nutrition and I don’t want to damage my liver for the sake of faster weight loss**
I love food and frankly I am a pretty good cook so I like to eat what I make! hahahaha This is probably why it has taken me 12 years to lose weight, and I will probably struggle to maintain that loss because the stupid stupid truth is that you are never “done”. Will I never eat a fried food again? of course not! but maybe only one day a week and I really don’t like fries that much so why do I insist on eating them? I am not saying you should never have a cookie or a cake – but KNOW what you are eating and own up to it – I just ate 500 calories and I better make up for it … you can pretend you didn’t eat it but your butt won’t!
One of my big problems is that I am cheap – so when I eat fastfood and the burger is $1 and the grilled chicken is $5 it is very difficult for me to choose the chicken, and the price of lean meat at the grocery store appalls me. BUT getting into a situation where I had to lose weight cost me a LOT of money… between special foods and an untold amount of $$ in clothes that I had to buy cuz I got fat and now I have to buy again because I lost weight 
The Plan
So what am I doing specifically to lose weight?
So what am I doing specifically to lose weight?
In the beginning, I ordered 2 months worth of food on a plan called Wonderslim (similar to Medifast). 5 meals a day packaged and you cook dinner. It amounted to about 1200 calories with 120 grams of protein with one super large helping of green veggies during dinner. My most valuable lessons from these 2 months were portion size, eating 6 times a day, and how protein plays a large role in making a small amount of food fill me up.
After 2 months, I figured out how to eat this combination of food from the grocery store. (I’ll include some links at the end of the article.) I ate 1200 calories a day, 120 grams of protein – so most of my meals and snacks have at least 20 grams of protein
calories for my meals (approximate):
breakfast – 200
snack – 100
lunch – 250
snack – 150
dinner – 350
snack – 150
breakfast – 200
snack – 100
lunch – 250
snack – 150
dinner – 350
snack – 150
I eat chicken, turkey, super lean ham, green veggies (lettuce, kale, broccoli), 40 calorie bread (only 2 pieces a day). I eat protein bars or shakes for snacks (if you buy them and not make them you HAVE to look at the calories – many of these are “energy” bars so they have too many calories).
Protein and fiber keep you full so while you COULD have 100 cal cookie pack for snack that won’t keep you from being hungry by the next meal. Neither will an apple for that matter, so I pair my fruit with protein.
I did cardio for 15 minutes then moderate weight machines for about 25 – I just don’t prefer cardio exercise!! Plus 1200 calories is not enough to account for vigorous exercise.
Over the last couple of months I have made some changes to my regimen:
I started doing a lot more exercise (Jillian Michaels DVDs specifically) so I eat 1500 calories a day to account for the extra energy needs or risk my body thinking it is starving and conserving fat instead of burning it, still at 100-120 grams of protein.
calories for my meals (approximate):
breakfast – 200 (a protein shake)
snack – 150 (usually protein bar)
lunch – 300 (lean sandwich)
snack – 150 (prot bar)
dinner – 500 (lean meats, lots of veggies)
snack – 200 (whole grains, fruits, yogurts – I make sure to eat the rest of my 1500 whatever is left of it)
breakfast – 200 (a protein shake)
snack – 150 (usually protein bar)
lunch – 300 (lean sandwich)
snack – 150 (prot bar)
dinner – 500 (lean meats, lots of veggies)
snack – 200 (whole grains, fruits, yogurts – I make sure to eat the rest of my 1500 whatever is left of it)
I eat chicken, turkey, super lean ham, green veggies (lettuce, kale, broccoli), 40 calorie bread for my sandwich, I also eat fruits and yogurt and cheese now but choose only fat free ones and I count the calories in fruits so i don’t go overboard.
The magic of protein.
It’s been my experience that protein protects your muscles while your body is eating fat (so it doesn’t start eating muscle too) but protein is also fairly slow to digest so it keeps your tummy feeling full longer. A salad would fill me up for about an hour – a salad with a serving of chicken or tuna will keep me full for several hours. If I have fruit for snack it is mixed with some sort of protein like nuts or fat free cheese.
I use protein powder (milk based) 2 or 3 times a day, but natural protein sources besides meat – skim milk, fat free cheese, fat free cottage cheese, fat free yogurt, beans but these carry a lot of calories, nuts but these also carry lots of calories.
I’ve also learned that your body does not store protein so you have to constantly supply it throughout the day so each of my 6 meals has some sort of protein.
The Magic of Calories.
The plain and simple explanation of weight loss is that if you eat less calories than you burn you will lose weight. Whether those calories are protein, carbs, snickers or carrots doesn’t matter – if you stay within your calorie limits you are going to lose weight. The opposite is also true, if you eat more calories than you burn you will gain weight – whether those calories are snickers or carrots
Of course if you only have 1200 calories to spend you want to use them on healthy foods, not sugar! And believe it or not once I saw weight disappearing, I didn’t WANT to spend my calories on frivolous sugary foods
Of course if you only have 1200 calories to spend you want to use them on healthy foods, not sugar! And believe it or not once I saw weight disappearing, I didn’t WANT to spend my calories on frivolous sugary foods
In determing how many calories to eat at each stage I used a calculator such as the one here http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm . Your current weight and activity level will give you a different number so your plan needs to be updated every so often. This is why I added 300 calories when I started more vigorous exercise AND at 125 lbs my body needs different calories than when I was 175. This information is important when you’ve lost weight and want to maintain that loss because it will forever be true that if you only need 1800 calories to stay at your hard won new weight and you eat 2500, you will gain it back
Counting calories:
Let me start by saying it can be daunting until you get the hang of it but it gets easier so just trust me
It’s all about reading, measuring and logging. Look up the serving size and measure everything you put in your mouth, look up the calories (most are right on the foods, others can be looked up online), write it down, then enjoy!
At first it was easiest for me to make a list of foods that I already knew the numbers for and those were my default foods (protein shake, protein bar, ham sandwich with mustard, chicken with salad and fat free dressing) if I was not able to look up calories for something else I ate a default food – every single day! When I got bored of that I got inspired to look up some more foods. As you look them up you start to remember and don’t have to constantly reference them – I have memorized most of the foods I eat now.
Let me start by saying it can be daunting until you get the hang of it but it gets easier so just trust me
It’s all about reading, measuring and logging. Look up the serving size and measure everything you put in your mouth, look up the calories (most are right on the foods, others can be looked up online), write it down, then enjoy!
At first it was easiest for me to make a list of foods that I already knew the numbers for and those were my default foods (protein shake, protein bar, ham sandwich with mustard, chicken with salad and fat free dressing) if I was not able to look up calories for something else I ate a default food – every single day! When I got bored of that I got inspired to look up some more foods. As you look them up you start to remember and don’t have to constantly reference them – I have memorized most of the foods I eat now.
When eating out (cuz you can eat out!) get used to looking up your food options before you go! Many places have online nutrition facts – today I found the healthiest option at Panda Express before I placed my order. What sounds most healthy is not always (remember our salad from above). My default order if I am in an unfamilar place is grilled chicken, no mayo, no cheese and NO FRIES! Every fried food on the planet is the enemy of weight loss I promise so kiss those goodbye until you can incorporate them appropriately after you’ve hit your goals! It’s not so bad I promise – I haven’t had fried food in 8 months – a chicken sandwich is quite satiating.
It’s hard but it’s ALL YOU.
I am not saying losing weight is easy because it is not – most of your battle will be with your own mind but that doesn’t make it any easier.
Eating is ingrained in our society, in our culture, in our minds as a reward, as a socializing tool, as a comfort… so it is perfectly natural that you will grieve the loss of some foods, get insanely jealous that your husband just ordered cheese fries, get down right mad with tears streaming down your face that the party you are attending has NOTHING you can safely eat. Let yourself cry and then go get that protein bar from your purse because they can all kiss your skinny BUTT later on! When you’ve lost your first 5lbs it will be easier to draw on that success to keep you going, you’ll know how good it feels, but until then just trust in the process and have FAITH IN YOU!
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “but I can’t eat a chicken sandwich without mayo and I HAVE to have my cheese” Well I am here to tell you YES YOU CAN – do you really think that you CANNOT live without mayonaisse? How silly is that? But I understand – heck I’ve been saying that stuff for 10 years myself ! “I love food, I can’t eat lettuce for the rest of my life.” It is quite silly to think that you’ll only eat lettuce for the rest of your life. There are other choices but you are refusing to see them because you are putting limits on yourself. You CAN do it – the difficulty is making up your mind that you WANT to
And funny thing about WANT and WISH – they are ultimately helpful in defining where you want to go but you have to take action, YOU have to take the steps down the path. And if you REALLY want to, you will! Don’t give up your power by saying “I can’t!”
In fact YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE that CAN do it! It is up to YOU – no one, no thing, can do it for you. And that makes it a big responsibility because if you don’t do it – you have only yourself to blame… and that is a hard pill to swallow. It is available to each and every person, one of the few things in life that you have absolute power over. USE IT!
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Further notes if you aren’t tired of reading yet!
Just random new things I’ve learned or realized
since originally writing this article:
Just random new things I’ve learned or realized
since originally writing this article:
Go cold turkey - A behavior takes about 3-4 weeks of solid committment and repetition to become a HABIT. I recommend anyone trying a new eating regimine stick to it STRICTLY for at least a month. Everyone says “well I should be able to have ONE cookie” and that is true later on, but for now you need to teach your body that healthy food is good and that YOU are in control of what goes in your mouth, not your subconscious. I think it also a detox time for your body because when you rid your body of sugar and fat, it cries for sugar and fat – let it cry and when it’s appropriate you can incorporate those things in to your diet ON YOUR TERMS.
Weight training – (to come)
RESOURCES AND INSPIRATION:
Wonderslim (food that I used for 2 months – it was a good initiation for me but I’ve told you what I eat now so it isn’t necessary it’s a little spendy)
it’s a little spendy)Protein Powder that I use (milk based; there are soy based ones, but I read milk based is better) for shakes and making my own bars
Food ideas – fat free but you may have to sub some protein in there at some point!
Work out -
30 Day Shred (Amazon or Walmart) – actually I fell in love with Jillian Michaels and have several of her workouts
No More Trouble Zones
Ripped in 30
30 Day Shred (Amazon or Walmart) – actually I fell in love with Jillian Michaels and have several of her workouts
No More Trouble Zones
Ripped in 30
Just a fun exercise page - http://www.fitness-training-at-home.com/
Just for inspiration – books I am loving
UNLIMITED (Jillian)
UNLIMITED (Jillian)
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