How I did it... Tips for dieting success and weight maintenance.
Having went off about how the Weight Loss Cure book doesn’t work, I thought I would share my tips to success that worked for me on my weightloss journey. I haven’t blogged about them since I started this in August last year and a refresher never hurts…

My story in short:
I have been heavy since I can remember but did manage to maintain a 180-190 pound weight through high school and college. The weight started creeping on up until I was 27 years old and found myself weighing in at 237 pounds and pushing up to a size 20-22. I was considering lapband surgery when I was told of a friend that had lost 50 pounds using LA Weightloss. I thought if she could do it with diet and exercise, I could too. I joined Jazzercise on Sept. 1, 2005 and changed my life forever. Rather than spend my money on Weight Watchers for the 10th time in my life, I spent the money to exercise at something that I immediately loved. I followed the Weight Watcher’s flex plan with the tools I had from doing the program in the past and using a spiral notebook at home. I weighed myself weekly on the community center scales where I exercised. I lost 100 pounds as of March 1, 2007 and then things went haywire. Maintenance was definitely not my friend and I felt like I had no motivation to continue to restrict myself. There were no more pounds to lose…no more sizes to go down. Nothing but a life of restriction until I read the book “Now That You’ve Lost It.” Things were put into perspective for me and I pulled myself out of the pitty party of “oh, why me.” It really doesn’ matter oh why me…If I want to maintain a healthy lifestyle and look and feel great, I have to eat right. I have gained 20 pounds since March of last year but I am growing to love and accept myself the way I am more everyday.

Here were my steps to success:

Reduce your palette. Eat the same breakfast & lunch everyday. Log food religiously. Goal of 1500-2000 calories a day.
Keep 1 healthy snack in purse and car everyday. Must have fiber, protein, or vitamins. (No stupid 100 calorie packs; just empty calories wasted)
Make grocery list and stick to it. Do not buy additional “tempting” items for the house
Be prepared for dinner with quick, easy, healthy meals. Whether it be frozen pre-made or quick turkey stir fry w/ rice. Know the day before what your day entails, when you plan to be home, and what you plan to have for dinner. This will help on those late , stressful days not to get off track.
Limit eating out to once a week. Eliminating fast food & making the same lunch on days that you do not plan to eat out. (back to reducing palette)
Read the nutrition labels of everything you eat when possible. Limit or eliminate foods with high carbohydrates and less than 3 grams of fiber.
Turn negative eating experiences into positive ones. Ex: If you feel like you made a bad choice eating out., tell yourself how much you enjoyed the meal and what a treat it was. Then, get right back on track.
Try on an outfit that once fit that doesn’t anymore once a week to judge progress and success.
Eat slow. Put your fork down after every bite and take a drink (preferably water) during lunch and dinner.
Do not eat anything 2 hours before normal bedtime. No matter how hungry you feel.
Drink 64 ounces of water everyday.

These are not rules that I read anywhere but it was a strict regiment that led to great success. I don’t follow them now as strictly since I have learned a healthier way to live (hence the 20 pound weight gain over the past year) but this was like bootcamp for my weightloss. Be strict in the beginning and learn what things you can add back a little at a time. I eat out a little more often now but still never fast food and on average only 1-2 meals per week. Usually a nice weekend dinner with the hubby. I eat a variety of foods now for lunch and dinner but they are prepared at home and packed specifically for lunch to avoid the temptation of eating out.

I have struggled a lot in maintaining my weightloss. I have felt what it is like 20 pounds lighter and I liked it. At the moment, it is not worth restricting my lifestyle or diet anymore than what I am to lose those 20 pounds so I have to find a way to love myself the way I am. Perhaps in the future, the feeling of being thin will be worth a few less calories but for the time being…it doesn’t.

I must also admit that I am currently very frustrated with my weight on our new P 90X program. I have not seen results on the scale as I would’ve hoped by now; in fact I am exactly the same according to my doctor’s visit today. But I just keep telling myself that I am feeling stronger than ever and I know 100% that I am gaining muscle mass. Using my brain, I know that muscle weighs more which is the reasonable conclusion as to my non-weightloss but it still doesn’t help my feelings that I haven’t lost enough fat weight to offset the muscle gain. I hope that the next phase will show more results in this area. I can feel those strong abs…they are just buried under an inch of fat!

So here is my weight loss cure: eat right and exercise. I use the website www.calorie-count.com to keep my food journal and daily analysis of my eating habits for the day. I also have become a lifetime member of Weight Watchers to be able to attend a support group and be accountable to their scales as well.

So that’s how I’ve done it so far the past 2 1/2 years and I plan to continue a healthy lifestyle for the rest of my life.

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