On April 20, 2013, I posted the following statement on my blog:
So my thirtieth birthday is less than five months away. In anticipation
of this blessed event, I have commenced work on a project that I've
been wanting to complete for a very long time. It's something I've
started countless times but I have never been able to finish.
At the end of the post, I said I would reveal the finished product on my birthday. I decided to do it today instead, because I certainly won't make any more progress between now and then. I also want to do a different kind of reflection tomorrow because I've spent enough time focused on this goal and I don't want to spend one second worrying about it on my birthday.
My goal was to reach the weight on my driver's license (do any of you longtime friends remember that forsaken goal from a blog post years ago?). It morphed in to "thirty by thirty" because I started at 32 pounds above the weight on my license. I gave myself about 5 months to do it. I didn't quite make it to either goal, but I think that's a good thing. It means this is an ongoing process that will continue after my birthday as I work on the last few pounds and then seek to maintain the habits I have established and the weight I have lost. I ultimately lost 27 pounds and am currently about 5 pounds above the weight on my driver's license.
Throughout this process, I have learned so many things that I'd love to share today, in hopes that something could be of value to someone else. I have tried dieting several times and this process has been the healthiest by far because I backed off on the obsession and exercised more patience than I ever have before. So, in no particular order, here are...
30 things I have learned about losing weight.
1. If you put snacks in the snack size ziploc baggies right when you buy them, it is so much easier to grab a healthy snack in a reasonable portion size when you're hungry. I stocked my cupboard with tons of baggies of the snacks I liked best. Trail mix was one my my favorites, and it was also very filling. I found that the serving size on the label, a fourth a cup (which seemed like so little when I began) was the perfect amount for a snack. It was 160 calories and contained lots of protein (and just a touch of chocolate, which I found vital). Another snack I liked were gluten free baked cheese puffs or gluten free pirate's booty. Again, just a small amount was satisfying. Other things I ate in the snack bags were gluten free pretzels and gluten free wafers.
2. Never let yourself go hungry. This was one of the most important rules I established for myself when I began this process. The minute I get hungry when trying to lose weight, I get angry and resentful. Therefore, no matter what, if I was hungry I resolved the issue. The trick was finding healthy ways to satisfy the hunger (grabbing a prepared snack from my cupboard, for example).
3. One day isn't going to ruin your whole diet. It just isn't. You have to internalize that fact or else it is impossible to get back on the horse when you fall off.
4. Never give up. One of the hardest battles you face as you diet is the temptation to throw in the towel when you slip up. You are human and might binge on everything in sight one day (speaking from personal experience) but that is not grounds for giving up on the diet entirely. It doesn't mean you're incapable of making a change. It also doesn't mean you'll binge every single day. It just means you had an off day and you are going to try to avoid that kind of response in the future.
5. Once you've been consistently maintaining a healthier lifestyle for several months, your desire to binge decreases dramatically. I never would have believed this had I not experienced it. When I dieted before, I lived for the days when I would allow myself to eat whatever I wanted all day every day. Now, that idea doesn't appeal to me. I would prefer to look forward to one delicious meal or treat, and do that more often, than picking a rare day to binge.
6. Exercise is more successful when combined with reading, dancing, and/or music. When I began this process in April, I started going to Zumba (a workout program based on Latin American dancing) once a week, which was a blast. I couldn't make it through the class without stopping several times the first week. After a few weeks, however, I was hardly stopping at all. It took time, but eventually I could do it. Over the summer, I kicked the exercise into high gear. While at the gym, I would read books while on the treadmill or elliptical and the time would go by much more quickly. I would also listen to music that motivated me, which I know many people do. When the school year started, however, I decided to quit my gym membership so I could afford a trip to Brazil and tuition. I also knew I wasn't going to be able to maintain my rigorous gym schedule with work and grad school. Thus began the issue of how I was going to keep exercising and not go on an eight month hiatus like I did last year. My friend Celeste, who is a health and fitness coach, lent me a workout video called "turbo jam." They had a 45 minute workout called "cardio party" which was quite fun and very doable in my home. I thought it was so fun and easy and wondered if I was really getting a good workout until the next day when I could hardly walk. It was obviously designed to work every muscle!
7. Even if you only have twenty minutes to spare, exercise makes a difference. On the turbo jam DVD, they have a 20 minute workout designed for days when we just can't carve out an hour for working out. It was fabulous and really helped me keep my morale up. Knowing I was concentrating on taking care of myself for even those twenty minutes made a difference.
8. Buy lots of fruits and vegetables and cut them up immediately when you get home and store them in your refrigerator. I realized half the reason I didn't eat a lot of the fruits and vegetables is that I was too lazy to prepare them at the time I wanted to eat them. If I spent an hour after grocery shopping getting them all prepared for the week, I was much more likely to pull the tupperware out of the fridge throughout the week and eat my fruits and vegetables for a snack.
8. Keeping a food journal helps you remain accountable for what you eat. I used "My Fitness Pal" and it saw me through every pound of the weight loss. But this leads me to number 9...
9. Everyone's healthy lifestyle plan is unique to them. What really works for some people may not work for others. I really liked a calorie counting program where I could see exactly what I was consuming and what I was burning. It helped motivate me and kept me on track. I logged my food nearly every single day for probably about 4 months. I've weened myself off the journal a little bit now because I have a better grasp on how much I should eat and exercise each day.
10. Saying goodbye to treats or favorite high calorie foods forever is just not a good idea. Life is meant to be enjoyed. Food is an enjoyable part of life. The key is to find other things that make life joyful for you and make food only one of many things that fill up your time and happiness. Food needs to move from being the primary focus of your life to being a delightful addition.
11. A little of something can be just as satisfying as a lot of something. It may take a month or so to feel satisfied with a smaller portion, but it will happen.
12. Listen to your body. This is based off concepts taught in the book
Intuitive Eating, which I have never read but have heard awesome things about. It has become a little joke to me. When I am deciding whether or not to continue eating, I repeat to myself out loud, "I am listening to my body." I try to detect whether or not I really am full or if I want to eat just because it tastes good. More often than not, I'm satisfied with what I've already eaten.
13. Freeze it. Whenever I make a treat (cookies, scotcharoos, rice chex treats, etc.) I'll freeze the leftovers individually in bags instead of leaving them out on the counter. That way, I can avoid casually eating the treats every time I walk in to the kitchen and I can have a small treat on another day when I'm really needing something sweet. Eating six cookies over a period of a day is really easy psychologically when they are just sitting out. Pulling six cookies out of the freezer with the intention of eating them all in one day is a lot more difficult for me to justify.
14. Walking is a great way to exercise. I really struggle with running outside. I would much prefer to take a long walk than a short run. When I was taking Symphonic Literature over the summer and had to memorize portions of countless symphonies, I went to a local park that had a walking loop and put on my headphones. I listened over and over again to the songs and looked at the titles and dates that I had entered into my phone. I walked for over an hour around that loop and got in some serious studying for my exam. I love exercise that kills two birds with one stone!
15. Unfortunately, happiness is not directly correlated with weight loss. I remember being miserable at my heaviest weight in April and picturing how incredibly happy I would be once I reached my goal of 160 pounds. I figured all my problems would be solved. I realized when I was 20 pounds lighter and still completely miserable about the 15 more pounds I wanted to lose that I wasn't getting any happier. Happiness comes from loving ourselves where we are, as cliche as that may sounds. Now, with 5 pounds to go, I have to struggle to remind myself to rejoice in the 27 pounds gone and not dwell on the 5 pounds I haven't yet conquered. It's an ongoing battle.
16. Heavenly Father will help us meet our righteous goals. I spent a lot of time praying to Heavenly Father to help me have the willpower to follow-through with my weight goals. I knew in April that I was on a very unhealthy track. I was eating enormous shakes from down the street multiple times a week and going out for fast food several times a week as well. I wasn't exercising. I needed to make a change, but getting started is always so incredibly difficult. It feels like an insurmountable challenge. Heavenly Father helped give me the strength to persist in what I deeply wanted, especially because I wasn't going the quasi starvation route like I've tried in the past.
17. Watermelon is a precious gift to mankind. How could something so delicious be so healthy? I am in agony knowing that watermelon season is leaving us. What will I do until next summer?
18. I learned that Weight watchers 100 calories English toffee crunch ice-cream bars ROCK.
19 . Eating gluten-free makes the whole weight reduction process a lot easier, especially when at parties where there are lots of baked goods provided.
20. It's not called a diet, it's a "healthy lifestyle plan."
21. Chelsey, my little sister's best friend, gave me some really wise advice when I hit a plateau while going through this process. She said sometimes our body needs to spend some time at the new weight we've reach (for example, after losing 20 pounds) before we can lose more. She suggested trying to maintain for 6 months before working to lose the rest of the weight.
22. She also told me I should try to eat from three different food groups at every meal.
23. One thing I enjoyed was making 2 mini pizzas with spaghetti sauce, grated cheese, onions and ground beef on gluten free bread and sticking them in the oven for about ten minutes. They were filling and delicious.
24. I learned to cook a meal at the beginning of the week (gluten free lasagna or enchilada casserole, for example) and eat leftovers throughout the week. This kept me from eating out as often and therefore eating healthier.
25. If dieting is miserable, there is a better way. It shouldn't be something you're suffering through. It should be a gradual process that grows in to a way of life that feels natural and good.
26. Slow and steady, steady and slow. Time passes so quickly, anyway. Why kill yourself trying to lose all the weight in a month (which you will gain back because you haven't established new, long-term habits) when you can gradually change your lifestyle and habits over several months to something that will last?
27. Cutting soda from dinner when you go out to eat is a simple thing that will cut thousands of calories out of your diet over a period of months and will also save you lots of money.
28. Yogurtland is a great place to get a treat because it has fat free and sugar free options and you can get exactly how much yogurt you want because it's self-serve. You also control how many toppings and how much of each one you put on top. Be cautious, however, because your eyes are always bigger than your stomach in places like that! Get less than you think you'll want and you'll probably be spot on.
29. A great way to save calories at a restaurant is to order salad dressing on the side. Instead of pouring the dressing over your salad, dip your fork in the dressing before you pick up a lettuce leaf. You will probably use less than half of what you would have.
30. When you do take a break and eat something fun that is high in calories, just enjoy it and move on. Don't obsess over it. (Okay, so I'm still learning this one, but I know this principle is correct in theory. What's the point of delicious food it you can't enjoy it every once in awhile?)
BEFORE:
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| This may have been the single most motivating picture for me to make a change (which ended up in the yearbook, by the way, just not cropped quite this close). |
AFTER:
