A little about me!

The thing that people ask me about most usually pertains to weight loss recipes, tips, suggestions etc. For now that's what my blog is going to concentrate on.



First, a little about me and how I got to where I am today 117 lbs. I am 5 feet tall. In 2004 I went through a divorce, and after about a year I weighed 120-125. Within 6 of re-marital bliss I weighed 140! Then I got pregnant.........and gained another 30, weighing 170+ (didn't weigh much at the end of that). I knew that breastfeeding would burn calories and that weight would be gone in "no time". Within 6 weeks I weighed 150. 3 loooong years later, I weighed 150. I NEVER lost that last 10 pounds, much less the 20 I had found before!

Then came September 24,2009......152 pounds.......miserable.......depressed.......looking for daylight in my life.........I discovered walking. I started walking 3 days a week for 30 minutes. Back then I didn't have any idea how fast I was walking. I would estimate 2.5 mph, but I REALLY have no idea. As I started dropping weight, I was motivated to walk 5 days a week, then 7, then I increased my time to 1 hour but dropped the days back to 5, then I was up to 5 days a week for 1 hour walking 4 miles in 1 hour at 4 mph! So this was my exercise regimen. When the winter months came and walking was more difficult (unless I walked at lunch which wasn't always possible), I started looking into Pilates. I had been told by a personal trainer that if I wanted to get that tummy (front butt as I have always called it) toned, Pilates was the way to go. I tried a couple different ones, before settling on my favorite! I tried the resistance bands (ouch for my uncoordinated self), and promptly returned them to get my money back! I learned from Pilates how to strengthen my "core". I learned balance. I learned how to "feel the burn" so you are doing it right! The funny and my favorite thing about Pilates.......I feel like it's cheating! You don't really work up a sweat, but you burn sooooo many calories, it feels like you must have cheated! During the peak of my weight loss, I was also lifting weights to tone my arms, which looked fabulous by the way! They weren't "body builder" ugly, they were "hey look at my triceps" toned! I also had a nice nice hour glass figure going on which I had never had before. I was always pretty boxy. I gained weight from my face to my calves pretty evenly. I was VERY happy to see that pretty waistline! Ok so with all that said, I didn't need a gym membership or any money to exercise. I lifted arm weights while watching tv, instead of laying on the couch. I learned sitting burns more calories than laying down, standing burns more than sitting, walking burns more than standing, and walking really fast burns more and then of course, there is obviously jogging and running. The point here is, whatever you are doing, see if there is a way you could do more. While at work, I would sit while assisting, so I started standing instead. While dropping xrays, I would do calf raises! Now let's move onto the inner body.

I will have to get more info from my fatsecret account. I highly recommend using www.fatsecret.com to track your foods and calories. It DOES take effort to put your foods in the computer the first time, but eventually you will realize you are eating the same foods and you can just click to add them to your meals. THIS is where you begin to see where your calories are coming from. You will learn if you are a fat lover, carb lover, sweets lover, or are you sabotaging yourself with add-ons like mayo, butter, oil, crutons, dressing, jelly, syrup, sodas, etc. these are those "little" things that may not seem so bad, but after you see it totaled up at the end of the day and realize you could save many calories by cutting out the sodas! There is an Android app that links with facebook, but I didn't like it. It didn't do as much as the full site and I was committed to my weight loss and wanted full benefit and use of the site. LOG EVERYTHING THAT GOES IN YOUR MOUTH! I once ate 5 little snickers minis, once I ate a cup of mixed nuts, and each time I entered these things into my diet, I almost passed out! Nuts are healthy fats........but remember a portion is 1/4 cup, that's not much! Tracking your food also teaches you about portions and measuring. When you start watching your foods, makes sure you use an ACTUAL measuring cup and measuring spoon to learn proper portions. Load up with veggies, avoid starches and white carbs and fatty meats (corn, potatoes, white pasta, white bread, white rice, fatty ground beef, oils etc). Choose nice lean proteins like chicken breasts, pork loin, tuna fish, salmon, tilapia, ground turkey (I use instead of ground beef in EVERY meal), or extra lean ground beef.

Drinks......soda, diet soda, tea, sweet tea, juice, gatorade, water..........THERE IS NOTHING HEALTHY IN SODAS. Diet sodas, while they don't have the sugar, they still have the acid which can and will eat the enamel off your teeth. If your teeth are hard enough and aren't affected by the acid, your gums will probably bleed due to the high acid content! Tea just makes you thirsty, but if you are going to drink tea, drink unsweet tea or add a sugar substitute. Some people don't like artificial sweeteners, I like them. I prefer Splenda personally. I am not going to advise anyone to use any particular kind. I know there are studies out about aspartame being bad for you, so I would never advise that. What I DO advise is for everyone to drink what we are designed to drink which is water water water. I learned 5 years ago that lemon juice added to water acts as a natural diuretic! No need for fluid pills with this little trick! It can be bottle juice or fresh squeezed. At restaurants, I get water with lemon, get used to saying that! It also saves you about 2.00 off your bill! If a table of 4 does that, you just saved 8 bucks! Make sure when they refill your water that they give you more lemon. Most waiters/waitresses don't realize WHY you are drinking it with the lemon, therefore they neglect to refill the lemon as well. This usually lands you a nice bowl or plate of lemons lol.

Ah goodness, since it is so very late, I am going to sign off for now and continue more another day!