My Secrets Revealed!

When people first started to notice that I was dropping pounds, they all wanted to know what I was doing to lose the weight.  They wanted to know my secret. 

It’s not much of a secret. I count calories on sparkpeople.com. The basics come down to:   if you burn more calories than you eat, you should lose weight.*  But if you’re used to eating out multiple times a week and eating junk or packaged foods (hello, I’m talking to you, Kraft macaroni and cheese) when you’re eating at home, like I was, it will be really hard to eat within your calorie range.  Pretty quickly when I started last August, I figured out some guidelines that helped me a lot. They are:

1)      I go to the grocery store every weekend. This is important This allows me to keep fresh fruit and veggies in the house all the time, but also keeps me from being able to use my favorite excuse: there’s nothing to eat at home, so I might as well grab some fast food for dinner.

2)      Working out 6 days a week for about 45 minutes each.  I realize everyone is busy, but you need to make time for your health. I work out on my lunch hour most days, which keeps me from being too busy to put on my sneakers when I get home from work.  What used to be a chore, is now something to which I look forward. (Expect to see more of my philosophy on working out in the future.)

3)      When I first started, I strictly outlawed eating out Monday-Thursday.  It was really hard, especially when friends would call with last minute requests to join them for dinner.  I’m not as strict about this now, but it really helped when I was starting out.  When you are counting calories, it is really hard to stay on track and eat out.  There are a few restaurants that make it easier by posting calorie counts and having tasty and nutritious options (thank you McAlister’s!), but eating out will always be higher in calories than eating at home.

4)      My main reason for eating out so much was because I was too tired or too hungry to cook after I got home from work each day.  To that end, I started making two meals each weekend.  I divide and package them into Tupperware as soon as they’ve cooled.  These two meals provide my lunch and dinner for the week (most recipes are 4-5 servings each), and I know exactly how many calories are in them because I calculate them myself based on the ingredients I put in. It eliminates the excuses that I was really great at creating.

Now these were my solutions to my issues. What are your issues? What’s keeping you from losing? What solutions have you found work for you? Post them below or email them to me and I will try to help you brainstorm solutions.

*I say should because there are always special circumstances and especially with women, there can be other factors at play. Also, there is actually a formula that factors in the calories you are burning at rest (just doing everyday things) and the calories you are burning when you exercise to determine how many calories you should eat each day. Maybe I’ll post that someday soon.