How Do You Lose All That Weight?

So a lot of people have asked what I’m doing to lose weight. It’s hard. It’s not easy. If it were easy, everyone would do it. But you are worth this. That’s what I keep saying to myself. It’s about daily choices, sometimes moment by moment. Wait, isn’t that life in general? This is a lifestyle change. The biggest things I have learned, is 1) DO NOT BEAT YOURSELF UP FOR YOUR MISTAKES OR BAD CHOICES. Thank you, Angela Lutz. 2) EMBRACE YOUR BODY. Yes, every ounce. Thank you, Taryn Brumfitt. #IHaveEmbraced Some days it’s easier said than done. 3) DO NOT LET THE SCALE DICTATE WHO YOU ARE.

First and foremost, I have to be realistic with myself and what works for me. So when I know I’m going to start a challenge at my gym, Kore 7 Fitness, I don’t binge. I start slowly. I stop drinking pop. (SLOWLY – start cutting one can a day.) I felt bad for my coworkers. I warned them, they laughed. Supportively. (No caffeine?) I’m not a coffee drinker (neither was my father), but I do love a good cup of tea. No, I’m not a tea connoisseur. I share tea bags with ladies at church regularly on Sunday mornings. Tea – a cup or two is a great alternative, especially green tea. I also stop eating past 7 pm at night. Now that I have a regular work schedule, this is so much more possible.

At my gym, the owner, Esteban Lutz, does a high protein, low carb, low dairy diet. From a second generation hillbilly from the deepest part of Appalachia, when Angela told me no white potatoes, bread, or pasta, you should have seen the shock on my face. (WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO EAT?!!?) And then dairy? NO CHEESE?!?! You’ve got to be kidding me. During my first challenge at the gym I was faithfully entering the Subway 6” Oven Roasted Chicken on Wheat (great alternatives, right?) and saw the fat content for those few slices of provolone and was SHOCKED. That did it right there.

Water. Need I say more? I drink more water now than I have ever drank in my entire life. I was drinking water instead of pop. Now, pop gives me headaches. Yup, I survived the no caffeine period of a couple weeks. Now pop is generally too sweet for me and tastes nasty. This coming from the girl who drank 4 cans or more a day. Plus, you save money. Someone told me once that her husband works for a major soda company and when he walked to the diet soda side, he had to wear hazmat gear. He was a consultant. And we put this in our bodies?!?!

Now I will agree with the experts. Organic is the best, by far. But to be honest, it’s not in my budget. After discussions, we agreed a regular apple is better than a poptart.

You can’t starve yourself and successfully lose weight. It will damage your body. I eat 4-5 small meals a day. Every 3-4 hours. One day I had to have late in the day fasting blood work done, and I had a headache for HOURS after eating (healthy). I DON’T do meal replacement shakes all day. I’m realistic about meal timing and my routine. So here’s a general example of my day.

6am: Protein shake (vanilla almond milk and chocolate pure protein powder – tastes like a FROSTY!)

9am: greek yogurt and a banana

11am: ½ pita pocket (the ONLY grain I allow myself), tuna packet (PLAIN), carrots, celery, raspberries, 2 hardboiled egg whites

1:30pm: apple and a low fat cheese stick (that’s my daily cheese allotment)

3:30pm: protein shake (vanilla almond milk with vanilla pure protein powder)

5/6pm: Tyson Grilled Ready-to-Go Chicken Strips and Green Giant Steamer Vegetables (Antioxidants Blend)

I have to eat so close together during the day because that is when my breaks happen at work. I feel like I’m eating all day long, but it’s small healthy meals versus filling up on carbs or processed foods that do not satisfy your cravings. I know people will say, wait, frozen food? At night I don’t have time. I watch sodium very carefully. We were always cautious and conservative with salt growing up. So if I go for the already grilled frozen chicken and frozen veggies versus stopping for fast food? Yup, fine with me.

Exercise. You need to burn more than you eat. If you use MyFitnessPal (feel free to add me, username is levarficart) enable negative calorie intake on under your settings immediately. This messed me up big time the first challenge. I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t losing more weight. My trainer David was frustrated and I was frustrated. He assumed it was food related and while I was eating all healthy options… in reality I was consuming what I had burned. You need to burn more than what you eat for the day in order to lose weight. I try to have a 1000 calorie deficit on good days. If you have low activity days, then lower your food intake a little bit. But don’t starve yourself. They say you need to do ½ hour of cardio every day and strength training. My cardio of choice is Zumba. Experts actually advise not to walk hours upon hours every day, but I do 20-30 minutes on the treadmill which is okay. Find what works for you. So example… my daily calorie intake is 1800 during a challenge. So I try to burn 2800 calories in one day. (Zumba generally=1000 calories for me, give or take.) A generous friend gifted me a fitness band in the beginning. If you can afford one, get one! BodyMedia is no longer producing the armbands, but I think they are still available for purchase via Amazon/EBay and they still support the product. I just purchased a fitbit (look me up – traci_fravel@yahoo.com) and I love it. The armband was leaving marks on my arms. For your calorie intake, MyFitnessPal will automatically generate it for you based on your weight, etc, but I can’t eat that much… They want me to consume 2200-2500 calories. But, 1200 calories, gave me headaches from being malnutrition.

I didn’t think I could do it in the beginning. I feel so much better. My body feels better. I feel thinner. If I eat carbs or processed foods now, I feel like crap. I am a firm believer that you are what you eat. Not self-worth, but what your body is made up of. I went to our local Mexican restaurant after the second challenge for my celebratory meal. Instead of putting away several plates of yummy Mexican food (be honest, a lot of people are capable of this!) I could barely eat a plate and a half. Crazy? On a cheat meal, I ate a burger and fries from Five Guys, and felt miserable the entire day. My body doesn’t respond like it used to, because it thrives on the nutritious food. And Almond Milk? Really? I am picky about my milk. I grew up on skim milk. I don't like even 1%. I can't drink Almond Milk in a glass, but it tastes really good (Vanilla Almond Milk) in a shake.

I do relax on weekends a little. I have to be realistic with myself. If I say I can’t have chocolate or a pop once in a while, I’m setting myself up for failure. I call it a cheat meal, cheat day. But don’t bring anything into your house you wouldn’t want to eat. How many of us have devoured an entire bag of chips?

More to come. In the upcoming days, I will post recipes, meal ideas, etc.

<3 Me