I’ve always loved food. I came up in one of those households where you were told to finish your plate, even if you were full. The first time I remember being overweight was when I was just starting elementary school. My mom would take me to go school shopping after summer breaks, and I remember my clothing sizes going up each year – not as they should with a normal kid growing up, but REALLY going up. As a teenager, my average trip to McDonalds consisted of two Big Macs, 2 large fries, a large soda AND a caramel sundae!
Fast forward some years: During my adulthood, I’ve always wanted to lose weight. I’ve tried diet pills and numerous diets including fat and carb counting. When I got on Atkins years ago, I did lose a significant amount of weight. Since I saw Atkins as a diet rather than a LIFESTYLE change, as soon as I stopped counting my carbs (which I did not exceed 20 grams of carbs a day), I gained my weight back – AND SOME! Of course I have tried to get back on the Atkins diet, but I believe that since I lost the encouragement when I gained all of my weight back – I could never again fully dedicate myself to the idea of low carb counting.
Two weeks ago, a close friend of mine let me read her copy of an informative book about making wiser eating choices. The author said that losing weight is 80% diet and 20% exercise. He also made it clear that if you eat 500 to 750 calories under what your specific daily caloric intake should be, you will lose 1-2 lbs per week. That really caught my attention! I wanted to research this, so I went on a lot of different websites for confirmation of this statement. Sure enough, I kept reading it over and over – through nutritional websites, blogs and weight loss success stories. I was determined to find out for myself if all of this was in fact true, so I found out what my daily caloric intake should be based on my age, height, current weight and exercise level. I immediately purchased a scale so that I could track my progress. I started my new eating habits on April 8th and exactly one week afterwards, I had already dropped 8 pounds! Four days later I weighed myself again – another 6 pounds gone, just like that! Just the 14 pound drop within a week and a half gives me enough motivation to stick to what I’m doing! Although I dropped my 14 pounds without any form of exercise, I have started walking for 30 to 45 minutes AT LEAST 3 times a week, for now. I am eating 1,800 calories a day, I track EVERYTHING that goes into my mouth on livestrong.com and I spread my calories evenly through 5 meals around 300 calories each. I have a long way to go, but by taking it one day at a time and knowing that I’m the only one that can get my body to where I want it to be…I AM DETERMINED!!!
