As of today, I am official down 10 pounds! It's been about three months since I started my weight loss journey. Some may say I'm moving slowly, but I heard that's the way to go if you want to keep it off. Honestly, if I kept to a strict diet and workout schedule I'd probably have lost more. But I'm not trying to be strict, I'm going for an overall lifestyle change. This way I'll not only lose the weight, but keep it off. I'm not going to be able to do that with some fad diet.
So how did I get here?
I downloaded the MyFitnessPal app. I put in my starting weight - 141 pounds at the time and my goal weight of 110 pounds and it calculated my calorie and nutrient goals for me. To calculate this goal it also asks your activity level, I chose lightly active as I have a desk job. It also asks how many pounds you'd like to lose a week, I selected 1.
This gave me a daily calorie goal of 1,260. Carbs 158g / Fat 42g / Protein 63g.
Do I track my calories every day? No. I do most days and I pretty much stick to my goal every day I do. Do I go over it? Of course but I'm eating far less calories than when I wasn't tracking them. By far the biggest benefit of tracking my calories is being able to gauge about how many calories I'm eating when I'm not tracking. This helps me to make sure that I'm not going overboard on calories. Yes I still eat things that aren't considered good for you like pizza, dessert, bagels, whatever. But the biggest point is that I'm eating these things in moderation now, not every single day - sometimes multiple times a day.
I love sweets, it's definitely one of the hardest parts of any diet for me. Whenever I would go on a diet in the past, I would completely cut them out which would lead to binge eating all the sweets in sight. This wasn't healthy and I never sustained my weight loss. Now I'm learning that I don't have to cut out sweets to lose weight. To satisfy my sweet tooth, I have my freezer stocked with Dole Banana Dippers - Frozen Dark Chocolate covered Bananas. They're delicious and only 100 calories. Knowing that I'll most likely want one of these at night, I make sure to save those 100 calories when eating throughout the rest of the day. If I wind up going over my calorie goal a little, no big deal. As long as I'm eating less calories than it takes me to maintain my current weight I'm happy (which is apparently about 2,000 calories).
Along with eating better, I've been hitting the gym. Not religiously, but I try to go at least two or three times a week. Have I done this every single week since I joined? No. There's been times when I've gone over three times in one week and others when I've skipped an entire week. I don't beat myself up over not being able to make it there, I just think next time I'll do better.
It's all about balance. I'm not trying to punish myself here. I'm going for a permanent change. If I'm going to successfully do that, then I need to like what I eat and enjoy to exercise. If I'm miserable with my lifestyle I'm never going to stick to it.
So how did I get here?
I downloaded the MyFitnessPal app. I put in my starting weight - 141 pounds at the time and my goal weight of 110 pounds and it calculated my calorie and nutrient goals for me. To calculate this goal it also asks your activity level, I chose lightly active as I have a desk job. It also asks how many pounds you'd like to lose a week, I selected 1.
This gave me a daily calorie goal of 1,260. Carbs 158g / Fat 42g / Protein 63g.
Do I track my calories every day? No. I do most days and I pretty much stick to my goal every day I do. Do I go over it? Of course but I'm eating far less calories than when I wasn't tracking them. By far the biggest benefit of tracking my calories is being able to gauge about how many calories I'm eating when I'm not tracking. This helps me to make sure that I'm not going overboard on calories. Yes I still eat things that aren't considered good for you like pizza, dessert, bagels, whatever. But the biggest point is that I'm eating these things in moderation now, not every single day - sometimes multiple times a day.
I love sweets, it's definitely one of the hardest parts of any diet for me. Whenever I would go on a diet in the past, I would completely cut them out which would lead to binge eating all the sweets in sight. This wasn't healthy and I never sustained my weight loss. Now I'm learning that I don't have to cut out sweets to lose weight. To satisfy my sweet tooth, I have my freezer stocked with Dole Banana Dippers - Frozen Dark Chocolate covered Bananas. They're delicious and only 100 calories. Knowing that I'll most likely want one of these at night, I make sure to save those 100 calories when eating throughout the rest of the day. If I wind up going over my calorie goal a little, no big deal. As long as I'm eating less calories than it takes me to maintain my current weight I'm happy (which is apparently about 2,000 calories).
Along with eating better, I've been hitting the gym. Not religiously, but I try to go at least two or three times a week. Have I done this every single week since I joined? No. There's been times when I've gone over three times in one week and others when I've skipped an entire week. I don't beat myself up over not being able to make it there, I just think next time I'll do better.
It's all about balance. I'm not trying to punish myself here. I'm going for a permanent change. If I'm going to successfully do that, then I need to like what I eat and enjoy to exercise. If I'm miserable with my lifestyle I'm never going to stick to it.
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