My Weight Loss Revolution

Whether your working out, counting calories, livin’ la vida low carbing it, or just eating healthier for weight loss sake; a stall in scale is not something you want to see on a weekly/bi-weekly/or however often you check it basis.

On January 1st I started watching what I ate.  Not counting calories or anything extreme, just making better choices, smaller portions, drinking more water and moving more. 

After weeks of not seeing the scale drop a pound or even an ounce, I decided to track my calories on a normal day to see how many calories I was actually consuming.  On Monday, February 6th, I jotted down every single bite I took and every sip I drank.  At the end of the day before bedtime I hopped online, Googled up my eats and drinks and was shocked to see that I was consuming 1951 calories on average a day.  Mind you, I eat pretty much the same foods daily.  No wonder the scale wasn’t moving.  I was eating far more than I should have been to lose weight.  I highly suggest that if you haven’t tried the tracking your calories, you would probably be blown away {if your trying to lose weight and not seeing the numbers drop} by how many calories your really eating compared to how many you think your eating.

I decided that this was the day, this was the time, this was the moment that I was going to change my habits.  I was going to lose the weight, keep it off and get healthy.

I started tracking calories from that day forward.  The first move I made was to switch to drinking at least 64 or more oz of water a day.  This meant no more sweet tea.  This also meant no more sugar or heaps of creamer in my coffee.  I went down to 1 T creamer and Splenda.  It was rough the first week for the coffee but after that week, I didn’t taste any difference at all.

Next up was figuring out how many calories I should be eating.  I did a lot of research online and figured out how many calories my goal weight needed to maintain.  My goal weight is 130 pounds and the calories I need to eat in order to maintain 130 pounds is 1787. {this was with slightly active selected}  I decided to set myself up for 1500 calories a day.  Very doable.  I thought about 1200, but I know that I can’t live on that few.  I get cranky, sluggish, and depressed.  If I go over 1500, I don’t get upset as long as I stay below the 1787 mark.  I did hit almost 2000 on Valentine’s Day, but that was a special day. :-)

I also started working out on my elliptical 5 days a week.   With the advice of one of the teachers at the school, I started adding in some weight lifting a couple of times a week as well.  I finally weighed myself again on February 20th and had lost 6 pounds.  This made me feel great and helped me keep up my diet and workout plan. 

That following week I decided to switch up my workouts because I didn’t want anything to stall.  I have read mixed reviews about switching up your workout routines to keep from hitting a plateau.  Zumba was my go to workout way before I ever got my elliptical so I jumped right on board.  Weight loss has been slow since but I’m losing inches and that counts for something.  I haven’t officially measured and wrote anything down.  I usually measure every few days {hey, that’s better than weighing daily, like I am guilty of doing, although I don’t write anything down except on Mondays} and kinda keep them in my memory.  I also know that I’ve went from a size 12 to a size 10 and from a large shirt to medium. 

I still have 23 pounds to go.  But, I’m not looking at the big picture, but small goals.  My first goal was to hit 159, and I did.  My second goal is 150.  I’m almost there!  Just a couple of pounds to go.  I don’t expect to see it in the next couple of weeks though simply because Mother Nature will be knocking down my door any day now and I retain lot’s of water and swell up like a Good Year Blimp!

Also, I’m on Pinterest and I have been pinning lot’s of healthy {and not so healthy recipes}.  When I make something that isn’t healthy to begin with I always substitute for lighter or fat free versions of the ingredients.  I then head over to a recipe calculator, get the calories and write them down. 

Here’s to my {and whoever else’s} weight loss revolution!