Weight Loss Journey

When I started this blog, I wanted to be all about recipes I have tried and foods I have put together myself. I have found it is becoming so much more for me. I, like so many others out there are on a journey, a weight loss journey. So far I have lost 30 pounds, dropped 4 pants sizes and lost some inches, but this I have not measured in a while. My husband has lost twice as much as I have. There are so many people that ask me how we have done it. We did it by creating a deficit in our diet, eating healthy, and exercising. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, it’s not. It is hard work and it sucks! I have no one else to blame but myself. I did it to myself, no one else force me to eat all the crap I was eating and drink all the soda I was drinking. When it comes your body and your health you cannot blame anyone else for the shape its in and if you think you can, well you’re wrong.

To find my deficit I needed to figure out my BMR [Basal Metabolic Rate],which is a measure of the rate of metabolism. There are formulas you can use, but I found a BMR calculator that I really like. It tells me how many calories I need to maintain where I am at and how many I need if I want to lose weight per how much I exercise. Now I know how many calories I need per day, here comes the hard part, counting calories, weighing food, it sucks. I have tried the online sites such as Calorie Counter & Fat Secret, but I am horrible at getting online to log everything in and remembering it all. So, I do it the old fashioned way, I keep a food journal and carry it everywhere with me. It takes some time to figure out how many calories are in everything, but we are creatures of habit and many of us eat the same thing most of the time. A website I have found to be the most useful is CalorieKing. It is a site you can join, but to look food up is free.

Another hard part for me is getting motivated to exercise. I started out with a couple exercise buddies, but they quit on me. Damn them! So, I didn’t find any new ones, but I found comfort in some of the regular classes I started taking at my local YMCA. Some people in my classes & the instructors have become more than just a face, they have become friends that inspire me & push me to work harder. So, my advice for someone who is not a self motivator, find a class or two to take somewhere. Don’t try, do!