Goodbye 50lbs!

I have something fun to share with you today...

I've hit my first major healthy milestone....

I lost 50lbs!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't felt this good in years and I'm so proud of myself.

Let me give you a little backstory.  After I had Fletcher I was heavier than I'd ever been.  I just didn't feel great and I knew I wanted to make some changes to a healthier me.  I didn't do anything drastic because I had two little kids to care for, had plans to move and life was busy.  So I just put in LOTS and LOTS of hard work, good choices and effort on my part.

I was guilty of drinking my calories, mindlessly eating, barely exercising and never turning down a treat.  That's what got me to an unhealthy point that left me feeling bad. 

Here's my strategy.

Spoiler alert... I didn't go on a diet, I didn't join any programs and I didn't measure out my food.  I didn't track what I was eating and I didn't pay someone money to help me.  I'm not knocking any of those things.  I just want to encourage you that it's possible to lose weight all on your own when you're motivated to do it.

1. Drink water and lots of it.
I keep a giant tumbler full of ice water with me wherever I go.  My husband has lovingly dubbed it my BIG GULP.  It sits in my passenger seat when I leave the house and I drink water all day long.  I drink and refill it as much as I can each day.

2. Exercise regularly and consistently.
I've mentioned before that I love to walk with my kids.  They are happy to be pushed around in our double stroller so off we go anytime the weather is nice.  I tell my kids that my plan is to walk every day that we can and they help remind me to get outside when I'm lacking motivating.  I even added in some RUNNING to our walks.  I have never been a runner.  For years I told myself that I wasn't athletic and running wasn't my thing.  It's still not my favorite thing, but I really enjoyed adding into my walks.

My main focus was still going on hour long walks, but I tried to add some interval running into my hour.  Here's how I did it.  I'd challenge myself to run to stop signs.  We live in a huge neighborhood with lots of stop signs. I'd tell Olive to help me spot the stop signs.  When she did she said, Mama, READY, SET, GO!!  And I'd run pushing roughly 90lbs of children/stroller until I reached the stop sign.  The kids would yell and cheer and couldn't have cared less about how fast I was, how I looked running or who saw us.  I used to care about all of those things and then I realized NO ONE CARES or is even really paying that much attention to us.  

3. Eat more veggies.
I chop veggies for us to snack on all week and eat with meals.  I do big grocery store runs and then come up and chop.  It usually takes 30 minutes to get all of them washed, cut and prepped for the week.  It's amazing how much better we all eat when I take the time to prepare healthy foods for us.

4. Snack less.
I love all the snacks - gummies, pretzels, chocolates, cookies, desserts, chips, etc.  So I quit buying a lot of this stuff.  I know if I have twizzlers in the pantry, I'll have a twizzler craving late at night.  Or I know I'll polish off cookies if I bake a whole batch.  So I bake cookies in batches of 9-12 and freeze the rest of the dough for later.  I drop off cookies to our neighbors instead of eating a whole plate of them.  I still buy snacks, but I try to only buy a little at a time or save them for special occasions.

I started stocking up on things in the produce section, shopping the perimeter of the grocery store and I QUIT BUYING SO MANY OF THE UNHEALTHY SNACKS I LOVE.  If my pantry or freezer was full of all the unhealthy things then I'd end up eating it all.  I don't have great self control around junk food so I figured out that it was in my best interest to just quit buying it.  I started fixing more salads and made sure to eat salads most days.

5. Pay more attention to what I'm eating.
I can't stand the idea of tracking my food and I'm not sure why.  I LOVE making lists.  I love tracking apps for other things, but I just can't stand the idea of tracking my food.  So I made healthy swaps for things, focused more on eliminating mindless snacking from my routine, portion size and it's going just fine for me.

6. Weigh in at home.
We have a bathroom scale and I tried to weigh in once a week.  It was VERY motivating for me to see the numbers go down.  I DID NOT weigh myself daily.  I much preferred to check in weekly.  I'd share my results with my husband and he'd cheer me on.  I also gave myself incentives... when I hit this number on the scale I'd reward myself with something like new workout shoes, new workout gear, a fun road trip or plans with friends.

Lots of little changes added up to big results in 2017 :) 

I'm excited to keep on going in the new year.

I'd love to answer any questions or encourage you in your journey to get healthy so just leave me a comment or send me an email (( polkadottyplace@hotmail.com ))