My Weight Loss Journey

I was always the "big girl" out of my group of friends. Sure, some may have called me "pretty" and I was popular, but I just didn't fit. I stuck out like a sore thumb, surrounded by the beautiful, tiny sorority girls who were my best friends. And that's just the way it was, for a long time, at least--until one day, I decided that it was time to break out of the stereotype that I created for myself. It was time for a change--a HUGE change. 

My whole "weight loss" journey started almost 2 years ago. It was May of 2010, just weeks after I graduated with my Bachelor's degree in nursing--my biggest accomplishment thus far. I should've been happy, right? Well, I was far from it. Distraught over the lack of jobs falling in my lap, I became lazier and lazier as the days went by. Thankfully, my mom saw me slipping into this rut that I was in and pulled me out. She may have had to use some harsh words and I may have had to shed a few tears, but I looked in the mirror that day and realized how unhappy I was with who I had become. And just like that, something clicked in my head, and I realized what I had to do. 

I know what it's like to walk into a store, looking for cute outfit to wear out with your friends, but only leaving empty handed because they don't make clothes in your size. I know what it's like to so desperately want to fit into a bikini so you're not the only girl on Spring Break wearing a one piece. I know what it's like to look in the mirror and be ashamed at what you see, because those pounds just keep adding on. I know what it's like to eat because you're stressed, eat because your feelings are hurt, and to just eat for no reason at all. And I definitely know what it's like to look at a closet full of clothes, not knowing what you're going to wear that day because not a bit of them fit you anymore. I know. 

But I also know what it's like to lose 80 pounds. I know what it's like to drop 5 dress sizes. I know what it's like to go from a size 16 on a skinny day to a size 8. I know what it's like to wear a bikini at the beach (and still be a little self conscious, but rock it anyway.) I know what it's like to watch those numbers on the scale drop, and drop, and drop. I finally know what it's like to be able to share clothes with my sister and my friends. I know what it's like to have people not recognize you because you've essentially lost an entire elementary sized kid. I know what it's like to cry when you reach your goal weight, because you have worked so hard for that moment. 

More than anything else I write on this blog, I want people to be encouraged by my story. I don't post it for the glory of it all, I post it to reach out to that girl who was in my shoes...the one who needs that little push to start her own journey. It's possible. If I can do it without an extreme diet or surgery, you can do it. 

How I did it (and am still doing it) and what worked for me...counting calories. Download MyFitnessPal and use it religiously. Join a gym. Make a ballin' playlist that keeps you motivated while working out. Make friends to keep you accountable when working out. Make friends who want to run/train/etc with you. Set goals for yourself, but also set rewards for yourself. For each pound lost or each workout completed, put a dollar in a jar and treat yourself to a new pair of shoes or a massage at each milestone. Don't ever give up.

I'm going to share a few links of my favorite posts regarding my weight loss...from diet tips, to my story, to work out music. 

The first time I posted by whole story for the whole world to read: click here. 

My diet and workout tips, per request from my readers: click here.

The post where I got on my soap box about weight loss: click here. 

My every day struggles through weight loss: click here. 

I'm currently in the process of losing 15 more pounds, so join me on this journey! We can do this together. It all starts with a decision to change your life--are you willing to?

My before pictures:

My weight was around 235-245 lbs in these pictures. 

I fluctuated back and forth but stayed around that range. 

These pictures span from freshman year of college to senior year, 2006-2010. 

And a few of my "After" pictures...

maybe I should call these the "During" pictures:

These pictures are within the past year, from about May 2011 up until the present.

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well."

Psalm 139:14

This is My Weight Loss Journey

How to Lose Weight Quickly

One of the rising health concerns that is plaguing the affluent western nations in contemporary times is obesity. It leads to potentially life threatening ailments like heart diseases, strokes, cardiac arrests and osteoarthritis. Thanks to increased awareness levels, obese people finally realize the needs and positive benefits of losing weight which will ensure a fit body.
There are various artificial and natural methods of losing weight. It is up to you to choose which method you will feel more comfortable with. In this article I will list the pros and cons of the numerous quick weight loss procedures.

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How to Lose Weight Quickly - Listen to the Media?
Newspapers, magazines or the Internet will bombard you with tempting advertisements of quick weight loss programs, plans and wonder cures.

Most of these so called quick weight loss magic remedies are a waste of money, ineffective, and often cause strong side effects that pose grave health risks. The side effects can be fatal at times as they culminate strokes and cardiac arrests resulting from increased blood pressure.
Many of the quick weight loss magic herbs, wonder pills and dietary weight loss supplements that promise to reduce your weight for you, without having to move a finger, contain chemicals and drugs that are disapproved by FDA.

The herbal quick weight loss pills and supplements, which claim to be safer than their chemical counterparts in their colorful but misleading advertisements, are even more hazardous and can lead to potentially life threatening heart ailments. No wonder, doctors always discourage this practice of popping pills and supplements to cure obesity.

How to Lose Weight Quickly - Try Out Magic Diet Plans?
Gimmicky fad diets like ATKINS, RAW FOOD, THE ZONE, SOUTH BEACH, SUBWAY, MIAMI, DETOX, GENERAL MOTORS diet, 3 DAY DIETS, 7 DAY DIETS, CRASH DIETS etc which are endorsed by Hollywood celebrities are extremely productive in shedding flab dramatically However, they result in malnutrition and are slammed by doctors.

Doctors, nutritionists, fitness experts and medical journals unanimously voice that losing 1 to 2 pounds per week is deemed as normal and healthy weight loss according to medical standards. Anything more than this limit is risky.

So stay miles away from slimming centers which scream WE GUARANTEE 5 KG WEIGHT LOSS IN 5 DAYS in their misleading advertisements. They might be using vibrators to reduce weight dramatically that can perennially damage your visceral organs.

How to Lose Weight Quickly - Listen to Your Doctor?
Your doctor may advise FDA approved drugs, minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery, liposuction, tummy tuck and bariatric surgeries, but only if your case is serious and all other healthy weight loss programs have failed.

This is  How to Lose Weight Quickly

Make Permanent Weight Loss a Reality

Shouldn't all weight loss be permanent? Is there anybody who wants anything other than permanent weight loss? What is the point of losing weight and for the weight to come back again? These might seem obvious questions, but how many of us ask ourselves these questions before we go on a diet?

Do diets help you to lose weight? Yes, by and large they do, but what sort of weight loss do they deliver? Basically, diets deliver short-term weight loss. Is that what you want? If it is, then fine. If you want to lose weight and for the weight not to come back you have to do more than just go on a diet - in fact going on a diet is what you should avoid.

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The only sure fire way to lose weight permanently is to change your behavior. We all get into bad habits, and slowly, overtime weight accumulates. We hardly (or deliberately) don't notice our weight gain until it starts to have an adverse effect on the way we lead our life. Only then do we start to take action. Unfortunately, our first reaction is to go to the First Aid cabinet to get out a sticking plaster. We convince ourselves that there is a quick fix to the problem. Years of thoughtless indulgence can be magicked away in an instant. The reality is that it's not quite like that.

There are a huge number of diets that offer instant weight loss. What is not made clear is that the faster you take weight off, the faster it will return. When it does, it won't be long before you'll be looking at another diet. You will have joined the 'serial dieters club'.

To make permanent weight loss a reality, you need to start by identifying the habits that made you overweight in the first place and then learn new habits - slim habits that will enable you to make essential changes in your life. Successful weight loss comes from making permanent change. Without making permanent change you will continue in the same old way, and permanent weight loss will always be an unattainable dream.

This is  Make Permanent Weight Loss a Reality

3 Simple Steps To Weight Loss In 3 Weeks

We love to make dieting complicated but the reality is the 95% of the obesity epidemic can be blamed on one thing: we eat a lot of junk. You’d never figure this out looking at the diet section of your local bookstore, though, where it seems like everyone on the planet has a different opinion on why we’re fat and thinks you need to read 300 pages and redesign your beliefs and lifestyle in order to eat healthy. Truth is, eating ain’t that complicated. So today I present three steps that will lead to weight loss if you follow them with common sense.

First a little background. The three steps are presented in my latest article, Fit For Fall in 4 Weeks over at DPM Climbing, along with some training for climbing. The plan is a simplification to one of my early articles for Beachbody in 2001 that has been revamped many times and was also the basis for the nutrition plan for Yoga Booty Ballet. It’s essentially a less OCD version of all of Beachbody’s diet plans that leads you to the same outcome, eating natural foods and minimal junk.

This isn’t a knock on all those books or other nutrition plans. Most can be helpful. One might be exactly what you’re looking for, since there are as many ways to eat healthy as there are personalities. I’m all for reading about nutrition, especially since I write about it for a living. I’ve written thousands of pages about it. Reading them all will certainly help you learn (in the mood, start here). But since many of you have other interests in life my goal is always to keep things as simple. For those of you disinterred in become nutrition experts here are three simple steps to weight loss.

Step 1 – Drink water

Drink a gallon of water a day for a week. Plain water only. We spend most of our lives chronically dehydrated, which does two big things leading to us getting fat. First, it makes you hungry when you’re actually thirsty. Second, it causes your body to retain water, making you heavier. There are a lot of other unhealthy things associated with this condition but today we’re sticking to the basics so this is all you need to know. The best way to stop retaining water is to drink water. Lots of it. The obesity trend began with the rise of soda as our de facto beverage. Soda is the worst food in the world. Drink water, not soda, and you will be smaller.

Step 2 – Cut out junk food

Cut out junk for a week. Okay, here’s the rub. We eat junk—a lot of junk. Most restaurants are junk. Fast food is junk. Most of the aisles at your supermarket are filled with junk. “How do I even know what junk is?” is a common excuse. But you do know, don’t you? When you chose fries over a salad you chose junk. The cookies your friend brought to the office, junk. KFC on the way home because you were in a hurry, junk. Big Gulp to take the edge of the heat, et al. You know.

I wrote this dismissal of the USDA’s food pyramid because the pyramid-now-plate ignores what’s wrong with how we eat. We don’t really need to nitpick carbs and fats and proteins. We certainly don’t need to bicker over what kinds of fruits are healthy. We’re fat because the stuff we live on isn’t on the USDA’s pyramid, or plate, at all. Eat meat from animals and plants from the ground. Avoid foods with words you can’t pronounce, drive through restaurants, and shopping at the gas station.

Overeating real food is actually pretty hard because you’re getting fiber and nutrients and your body sends signals to your brain that it’s full. Junk, devoid of nutrients and stuffed with calories, does the opposite. You’re always hungry because you’re lacking nutrients even though you’re eating way more calories than your body can burn. Simply cutting out junk will fix your issues most of the time.

Step 3 – Have liquid breakfast and lunches

Finally we address habits. Not only do we eat junk but we eat too much. In the land of “all-you-can-eat” we’ve lost touch with reality. For one week have a juice or smoothie for breakfast and lunch and then eat a normal dinner. The catch is that the above rules are still in play. You’re drinking loads of water and you can’t have junk.

This is a version of something we do at Beachbody called the Shakeology Cleanse, though I’m making it less strict. You can put anything you want into your smoothies (or juices if you have a juicer) as long as it isn’t junk. This means that you’ll likely start with a protein or meal replacement base and then add fruits, veggies, and maybe seeds. You can’t add sugar, or ice cream, or Skippy (read labels). Dinner isn’t regulated, so you can fill yourself up, but with the no junk rule in effect you’ll likely stop eating when you’re no longer hungry.

The trick in all of this-—if you want to call it that—-is to learn a lesson about your body’s relationship with food. Food is fuel. It’s there to help our bodies work better. Eating well improves your performance, which is something society has forgotten. Instead, we tend to eat because we’re bored, or depressed, or happy. We’ve turned it into a crutch instead of a tool. Yes, eating is fun. It can, and should be, rewarding. But the reward should be for a life well lived. And we live a lot better when our bodies function like they’re supposed to.

This is  3 Simple Steps To Weight Loss In 3 Weeks

How to Diet: The Gluten-Free Diet Cheat-Sheet

Foods to avoid:

Gluten is the elastic protein found in wheat, rye, barley, durum, einkorn, graham, semolina, bulgur wheat, spelt, farro, kamut, and triticale. Commercial oats also contain gluten due to cross contamination in processing.

Recipes that use flour (bleached white flour, whole wheat, cracked wheat, barley, semolina, spelt, farro, kamut, triticale) or vital wheat gluten are not gluten-free.

Semolina, spelt and whole wheat pasta, including cous cous and ramen noodles, are not gluten-free.

Beer, ale and lager are not gluten-free. Brats, meats and sausage cooked in beer are not gluten-free.

Malt vinegar, malt flavorings and barley malt are not gluten-free.

Recipes calling for breadcrumbs, breaded coatings, fried onion rings, flour dredging, bread and flat bread, croutons, bagels, croissants, flour tortillas, pizza crust, graham crackers, granola, cereal, wheat germ, wheat berries, cookie crumbs, pie crust pastry, crackers, pretzels, toast, flour tortillas, sandwich wraps and lavash, or pita bread are not gluten-free.

The vegan protein sub called seitan is not gluten-free; and some tempeh is not gluten-free (you must check). Flavored tofu may or may not be gluten-free. Injera bread (traditionally made from teff flour) and Asian rice wraps may be gluten-free, but are not necessarily gluten-free (check labels).

Barley enzymes used in malt, natural flavors, and to process some non-dairy beverages, chocolate chips, coffee and dessert syrups (and even some brown rice syrups) are not gluten-free. Always check.

Gluten is sneaky.

Hidden gluten can be found in soy sauce, tamari, marinades, gravy, gravy mixes and gravy packets, broth and bouillon, sauces and instant soups, salad dressings, cured meats, sausage, hot dogs, vegan hot dogs and "fake" meat, sausages and burgers, self-basting poultry, flavored and herb cheeses. Watch for spice blends including curry powder, dry mustard. Be aware that delis and resteraunts often add flour to omelettes, and tuna salad. Read labels on canned and prepared soups, tomato paste, sweeteners, some confectioner's and brown sugar, beverages, flavored coffees, herbal teas (watch for barley), roasted, flavored or spiced nuts, jerky, flavored yogurts and puddings, some chocolate and chocolate chips, cocoa and instant coffee mixes, flavored vinegars (avoid malt vinegar), cooking wines, flavored liqueur and liquor, wine coolers, some ice creams and frozen desserts.
Always read labels. Call the manufacturer.

What is gluten-free?

GLUTEN-FREE FOOD LIST:
Alternative grains, flours, starches and thickeners that are safe* for celiac and wheat allergies include:

Corn, grits, polenta and cornmeal

Buckwheat, buckwheat cereal, kasha and buckwheat flour

Rice- white, brown, risotto, basmati, jasmine, sticky rice, rice cereal

Rice flour- white rice, sweet (glutinous) rice and brown rice flour

Quinoa, quinoa cereal flakes, and quinoa flour

Millet and millet flour 

Sorghum flour

Amaranth and amaranth flour

Certified gluten-free oats and oatmeal (milled from a dedicated GF source)

Coconut flour

Teff flour

Nut meals and flours- almond, chestnut, pecan, cashew

Chick pea, garbanzo, soy (soya) and bean flour

Tapioca (whole) and tapioca starch (manioc)

Potato starch (used in baking)

Potato flour (used sparingly as a thickener)

Sweet potato and yam flour

Arrowroot starch

Cornstarch

*Safe if milled in a dedicated GF facility/source.

Pre-made ingredients that are usually safe for celiac include:

100% corn tortillas and taco shells with a gluten-free label

Pre-made polenta rolls with a gluten-free label

Unflavored mochi

100% Corn pasta

Quinoa and corn pasta

Soy pasta (if it states gluten-free)

Brown and white rice pasta, rice noodles, rice glass noodles

100% buckwheat soba noodles (check label)

Rice paper, rice and tapioca rice paper wraps (check label)

100% nut butters- almond, peanut, cashew, pecan

100% seed butters- sesame tahini, sunflower and hemp seed butter

Gluten-free beer and lager made from rice, sorghum or a non-gluten grain.

As always, call the manufacturer to determine cross contamination probability. Certain companies are not, indeed, 100% gluten-free, despite a GF label (frustrating, I know).

 

About baking GF recipes:

When it comes to converting your favorite baking recipes to gluten-free, a simple one-to-one flour substitution will not yield the same results as your recipe based on wheat flour.

Gluten is a giving, stretchy ingredient that supports rise, structure, texture and kneadablity. It takes more than a single gluten-free flour replacement to make a cake, bread, muffin or cookie recipe work. A combination of gluten-free flours and starches with some extra egg whites or leavening, and xanthan gum added to improve viscosity is necessary for optimum results.

This is How to Diet: The Gluten-Free Diet Cheat-Sheet