There’s an article going around the internet about things women aren’t told when they start their weight loss journey. I totally agree with this article and these are things I PREACH over and over again. Reading this made me think about my own journey. I’m at the place right where I want to lose 10 pounds so I will be embarking on my own mini journey for the next few months. The plan is to try to lose 2 pounds a week so it should take me 5 weeks if things go as planned.
The one thing to remember is what works for one person, doesn’t work for another. But I know why it worked for me but I know I went to some extreme limits that some people may not really want to go.
1. I wanted the weight loss more than anything else in my life. Willie and I started to journey and I had no idea what I was getting into and I definitely wasn’t feeling the lifestyle change thing in the beginning. After I lost a couple of pounds, losing the weight became the most important thing in our/my life. If you want to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk and that’s exactly what happened. This is going to sound ludicrous but every minute of our lives revolved around getting the weight off. So much, people had nothing to talk to us about except the weight loss.
2. I carried food with me everywhere. There were a few times that I was left hanging which was a very bad experience, but for the most part I came prepared. Packing up the cooler to go someone’s house wasn’t an unusual thing. There was food to cover every meal, including those snacks. Eliminating the eating out was key. Making our own food at home, made a big difference and stopped the fast food habit. Carrying the food with us made it easier for us not to fall into the convenience trap of rolling through the drive through. And if we needed to eat out (on the road), Subway was our only option. I encourage everyone to look at the nutritional information for the restaurants you frequent. There are just some places we don’t go anymore and we have a list of restaurants we’re comfortable with eating at when we make the decision to eat out.
3. I got very serious about no condiments. I feel like condiments make people fat and here in America we love all the extras. Salad dressing, mayonnaise, ketchup, dipping sauces of all kinds are the things that add that extra flavor to a meal but it also adds calories. I really did learn to love reduced sugar ketchup, mustard and salsa. And on salads, it was really nothing but vinegar with a splash of oil (sometimes).
4. I stopped being social. Social activities always seem to include food. The birthdays, holidays, promotions, engagement, weddings…all of these things are typically celebrated with food. It’s horrible to feel like you can’t hang out with your friends because it’s always about a meal. I’ve fallen back into this trap and now it’s time for me to escape it. I know that everyone doesn’t want to eat the same things I eat or interested in my dietary restrictions. It’s easier to just avoid these situations. Yes, it was a bit isolating but we did what we had to do to lose the weight. Now for us, social activities revolve around some type of physical activities.
5. Our diet was very clean and we worked out A LOT! There’s really no explanation for this one. But I will add I got in at the gym, made some friends and had a constant push of support from my gym family! It really made a difference and help me accountable to my workouts.
6. We logged every bit of food that went into our mouths and every calorie burned from exercise. Most importantly, we logged our food before it hit our lips. Seeing is believing and you can’t do that until you log it.
7. There was a plan and I stuck to it. I scheduled out meal times, snack times and workout times. I thrive on structure but even if you don’t, you still need a plan. I understood the basics to what I needed to do and the road I needed to take to accomplish it.
8. A positive attitude will takes a person a long way. Even when the road was hard, frustrating and stalled, I kept it positive and moved on to the next week. This is definitely something I need to work on right now.
These are just a few reasons why my weight loss journey was so successful. A lot of these things have gotten away from me in the past two years, but I’m really looking to get back into these habits. Weight loss is a slippery slope and the last thing I want to do is reintroduce bad habits back into my life. I hope you found this helpful. If you have any questions, please post in the comments or send me an e-mail.
