Weightless in Wenatchee

Ok, I don't live there but I used to when I was very young, for a very short time.

Last May/June I finally got motivated to lose weight. There were various reasons leading up to it, but mainly the death of my MIL. A very unexpected death that put my life into a bit of perspective. I didn't start gaining weight until about a year after the birth of my 2nd daughter, I'll call her Bella. It was also the year I found my calling in red wine, and we moved from our condo into the house we currently live in. I stopped running after the move and settled in with the wine. Fast forward about 7 years and we are up to last year and about 50 pounds.

While to some a 50 pound weight gain is not a lot. I hit 200 and others are pushing 300 to 400 hundred pounds so big deal. Well, go read their blog then. For me it was too much and diet number 4346 wasn't going to work. The wife was also looking to lose weight and her 40th was approaching, but we weren't really in sync yet.

I had been watching what I was eating for a few weeks, was researching how I was going to lose the weight and thought about finding a website to track my food. I had been running off and on, but I had broken my left foot over the last 6 or 7 years twice. I knew running had to start slowly and work up from there. The wife was looking over my shoulder one day and asked what I was doing, and I told her about the diet etc. Turns out she was doing something very similar and had been testing out a trial of an application called Calorie King. I downloaded it and started trying it myself and really liked not having to have internet and reload pages when searching for foods. I bought a license for both of us the next day and started tracking my food and exercise. That was June 6th.

I figured I could lose the weight by the end of August, however it took a bit longer than that. I planned on losing 43 lbs, I wanted to be in the normal BMI range, and did so by late November. My second goal was to lose another 3 lbs so I had some wiggle room during maintenance and that happend about 3 weeks afterwards. The loss happened quickly at first and then slowed to a more healthy loss of a pound, sometimes two, sometimes nothing, a week. While looking at calories and portions during the first month, I came to realize that a diet simply would not work. The changes I was making to lose weight needed to be made permanent or else I would simply start gaining again once done. That was the hardest thing about the diet, but after a few weeks of feeling better about myself and enjoying foods I lost a taste for due to a high fat diet I soon accepted this realization.

Limit your portions for two weeks, then start limiting your calories. Doing both at the same time will cause you to get too weak. Eat your vegetables and fruit, limit fat and white flour, eat whole grains, eat fish, be creative with food and try new things. Indulge now and then in moderation, after a good workout.

Running really helped me. You can't just eat better, you need to make changes to all facets of your life. Becoming less of a slug and building off of that is key. I went from running a couple of miles a week to 20 and 30 miles by December. It not only helped with the weight loss, but with maintenance and stress relief. Any cardio/aerobic excercise will do for weight loss though. Working out with weights is best for long term and should definitely be incorporated, but cardio/aerobic exercise can help burn a ton of calories on a daily basis and during the weight loss process that is the goal. Walk, ride a bike, do something you will enjoy. Most importantly though, increase your excercise time and push yourself every few weeks. You want to get to 60-90 minutes of excercise a day. It sounds like a lot, but if you enjoy it then it's not so bad.

The things I learned over the last year. Health is important. Exercise is important. Fast food, high fat foods are not. The amount of food we eat is too much, we can live on smaller portions. You have to really want something to make it work. Just because you think something would be nice does not mean it will happen. Change is scary, but change is good.

Weight loss is a process, it takes time to lose the weight and even more time to wait for your body to change. Be realistic about your goals and understand that it will get easier, but it's a lifetime commitment. Enjoy yourself.