I am so excited that I reached my weight loss goal. I thought I'd share how I did it. In Feb. or March I found out my 15th year high school reunion was going to be in Sept.. So I knew I had 6 months to lose weight. I decided in that amount of time I should be able to lose 25lbs. I wanted to start running and just eat what I wanted and hope that that would work.
Well after reading about exercising and dieting I discovered that I would have to diet. I decided I would eat 1200 calories a day and I ran 30 mins. 3 times a week. If I had exercised for an hour a day I would have lost the weight faster. Running was something my husband and I did together and 30 mins. was our limit. Running everyday is not recommended because you could get injured. It was hard to find other ways and time to exercise. So we did 30 mins. 3 times a week.
1200 calories was not very hard for me because I don't eat breakfast anyway so that gives me 600 calories a meal or 500 a meal and a 200 calorie snack. I read some things that said you should eat 6 meals a day so that would be 6 200 calories meals a day. That is really hard for me to do because 200 calories depending on what you eat is hardly anything. I just did what worked for me. It does say that lots of small meals is better for you metabolism. Anyway, 1200 calories a day with 2 main meals and a small snack worked for me. Now there were days when I was hungry and so I ate more. Probably one day a week I would eat a little more and not be super strict with my diet.
What I ate: I stopped drinking milk and drank more water and Lemonade after runs. Lunch was a lunch meat sandwhich no cheese and miracle whip rather that mayonaise. I would eat salad or grapes and strawberries with it or light yogurt. Dinner was the regular things I would cook for my family I would just eat smaller portions and a salad or vegetables or fresh fruit with it. I would pay more attention to how many calories were in my food and watch my portion sizes. If we went out to eat I would look it up on line and find out what I could eat for fewer calories. There are some places I would not eat, like Quiznos and Wendys. Everywhere else I could eat for under 600 calories but no French fries. Pizza I still ate but 1 slice with salad and fruit or/and light yogurt. Anyway this worked for me. I've decide to lose 5 more lbs. and then I am done. Dieting that is not running. The running I hope I can continue for many years to come.
My main keys: My best friend, my husband Jon, did this with me. We ran together and dieted together. We would weigh ourselves and share our excitement or our disappointment and we would encourage and help each other. My high school reunion was big motivation for me as well as just wanting to look good and be healthy. Reading and finding what you can do and what works for you is important.
Now I did have some weeks when my weight loss stalled. It happened when I had lost about 7 lbs. and then again after I had lost 15 lbs. Even though it was discouraging I kept to my diet and exercise and the wieght started to come off again.
I wanted to share this for anyone wanting to lose weight and just not quite sure how. This was my first experience with weight loss. I wish I had done it a long time ago. I thought dieting would be so hard. But I discovered you don't have to stop eating just eat more fruits and vegetables which are low in calories you can still fill your tummy just with better things.
You can still eat higher calorie things like meat and sugar just in moderation. You have to pay attention to what and how many calories are going into your body. After I started paying attention to calories and learned how many calories a lot of things had it was easy for me to see why I had gained the weight in the first place. I ate terrible and a lot of food. More than I needed. I ate candybars and full meals at fast food places. Anyway I was not surprised I needed to lose 25lbs. after more than 6 months eating that way and never losing all the weight from my 4th baby. Now I think I can keep it under control and keep it off. And if I start to gain it back I know what works for me and can do it again. I am not trying to brag. I just wanted to post this in case it can help someone struggling with weight loss.
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