What works for me

At work, I'm asked at least once a week how I did it. "How did you do it?" "What are you doing?" People seem disappointed by the answer: "Diet and exercise." It's a little more complicated than that, though.

Diet is a HUGE factor in successful weight loss, I think. I don't think WHAT you eat is important, but HOW MUCH you eat is. I eat what I want, to a point. If I want to have chicken and vegetables for dinner, I have it. If I want to have pizza for dinner, I have it. However, I measure my portions and count calories religiously. If I want to have a little bit of chocolate, I have it. However, what I eat has changed dramatically.

I used to eat out nearly every day. When I did cook at home, I cooked fatty meals. I ate a lot of Mexican food, barbecue, burgers and fries, pizza, etc. Some people can eat that way every day and never get fat. I am not one of them! I still eat those things, but very infrequently.

Exercise is also very important. One of the main reasons I started this journey was to improve my cardiovascular health which was poor. I was 32 years old and had extremely high blood pressure and was showing mild, early symptoms of congestive heart failure. I decided I was too young to die, too young to let obesity kill me. So I started exercising. I used to retain fluid in my feet and ankles and I was tired all the time. Not anymore. My heart is much healthier than it used to be! And since you need a heart to live, I decided I needed to take better care of it and one excellent way to do that was to start exercising.

Diets like South Beach, Atkins, etc. are silly. People who ask me how I did it assume I am eating a low-carb diet. Nope. I try to get a healthy balance of carbohydrates, protein, and fat, but if I don't hit a specific percentage every day it doesn't bother me. I think the more strict a diet is, the more likely it is to fail. I tried to approach this as a permanent lifestyle change and started eating healthy foods, but foods that I like to eat. I can't see anyone following the Atkins diet for life. I also refused to submit myself to Jenny Craig or Nutrisystem's food deliveries, and I refused to join Weight Watchers and spaz out about points for the rest of my life. No, no, no. I need to be able to cook my own meals and use my own knowledge and intuition to know what is good for me and what is not. I cannot rely on a plan to tell me forever what I can or cannot, or should or should not eat. I know these plans have worked for other people, but I personally think they are stupid and a waste of money. What do you do once you've lost the weight and stop eating their packaged meals? When do you learn to cook healthy meals for yourself? I did not want to use any crutches. Plus, I had a LOT of weight to lose...over 100 pounds. In their ads, they show so-and-so losing 30 or 40 pounds and in tiny print at the bottom of the screen, it says "results not typical." That's like them admitting that their program doesn't really work!

Basically I chalk up my success so far to discipline, willpower, motivation, education, and being more in tune with my own body. It has taken discipline to keep going to the gym even when I don't really feel like going. It has taken willpower to avoid foods that are bad for me and eat healthy food instead. It has taken motivation to keep going for my goal. It has taken education for me to learn what I should be eating, or what to do when the weight loss plateaus, or how to avoid injuring myself when exercising. And being more in tune with my body has helped immensely. I used to eat out of boredom. Now, I don't. I've learned to tell the difference between boredom and hunger. I eat when I'm hungry. I stop eating when I'm no longer hungry. If I'm not hungry, I don't eat. Simple. And if something hurts at the gym...stop doing it. Muscles can burn when you're lifting weights, but if you feel sharp pain...STOP before you hurt yourself! One of my biggest fears has been a catastrophic injury like a torn tendon or muscle, a screwed-up knee, a messed-up shoulder, etc. I know that a catastrophic injury like that would send me off the rails plan-wise, so I have tried to educate myself on proper form so I don't injure myself. So far, so good.

So yes..."diet and exercise".