I’ve been overweight all my entire life and after having my knee replacement surgeries I had become a lot more sedentary and gained even more weight. January 1, 2013 I finally decided that I’ve been way over weight for way to long and it was time to do something about it so I began my “Journey.” I researched weight loss surgeries and was shocked at the amount of health complications many people encountered with all of them. I was also surprised at the amount of people that had surgery, lost weight and within a year weighed more than they did before the surgery. I figured it was because they had just applied “A Band-Aid” in an attempt to fix their problem instead of changing their ways, which in my opinion made them destined for failure.
I found the web site My Fitness Pal, which is basically a free version of weight watchers online only it has more data that is submitted and verified by its members. They also have an app to make it easy to record your calories when you go out to eat. The only down side is you have to put up with ads but other than that it’s a great way to hold yourself accountable for your daily caloric intake. It also tracks sugar, carbs, fat, sodium and other things as well as your exercise and measurements. I saw on TV where Consumer Reports rated it and they rated it higher than a lot of the paid online programs. Once you sign up for your account you just input your weight, measurements, how much weight you want to lose and by when. Then it customizes your plan by telling you how many calories you should limit yourself to in order to achieve your desired weight and thus it began.
When I signed up I told myself that I wanted to lose 100 pounds within a year and truthfully, it has been A LOT easier than I thought it would be to lose weight. I still had the occasional greasy cheeseburger, pizza and even apple fritters, anything in moderation, its all about portion control. Of course I would omit stuff like mayo on my burgers and extra cheese and meat on pizza to save calories here and there.
I have always done a lot of cooking and as it turned out almost my entire home cooked meals were very healthy. Another plus about My Fitness Pal is that you can input you’re all of your ingredients, the amount of servings it makes and it will tell you the amount of calories per serving. Anyhow, while my meals were healthy in the past I tended to eat more than I should have because they were tasty, not anymore. I also found that if I ate slower and waited 15-20 minutes before getting seconds I usually found that I was full and didn’t want seconds after all.
Next you need to be active, get up and move around. While I may never run a marathon I do go for daily walks which have helped boost my metabolism. I also found that from time to time you have to splurge to trick your metabolism into kicking back up, just don’t fall back into your old eating habits
Here it is October 1, 2013 only 9 months into my “Journey” and as of this morning I have lost 94 pounds, yes you read that right, 94 pounds so I’m well on my way to surpassing my original weight loss goal by the end of the year, at which time I will continue my lifestyle change and continue on my journey to a healthier me.
Read part 2 of My Weight Loss Journey …
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Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
