Ultimate Blog Swap: 3 Simple Steps to Weight Loss
Raise your hand if you made New Year’s resolutions back in January. {holding my hand up} Now wave your hand around if one of those resolutions was to lose weight. {waving my hand in the air}
If you’re like me, by summer those resolutions are just a vague memory. But they don’t have to be this year. Summer is actually the best time to lose weight - an active lifestyle is easy, eating fresh fruits and veggies is natural, and swimsuits provide an extra incentive to stick with the diet/exercise program!
I learned the trick of summer weight loss last year when I lost 15 pounds. 15 pounds may not sound like much, but when you are barely 5 feet tall, 15 pounds really show up on your body!
Weight Gain Causes
My 30 pound weight gain started nearly 9 years ago when I became pregnant with my first child. An addiction to junk food, no concept of serving sizes, an allergy to exercise and a pregnancy license to eat what and when I wanted all added up to a little extra “baby weight.” It was a lifestyle I continued as I carried 3 more pregnancies in a little over 5 years.Weight Loss Motivation
By the beginning of summer 2010 my “fat” clothes had become so tight I needed to buy larger clothes. I felt embarrassed by my appearance. Sluggish and exhausted all the time I seldom wanted to play with my children. The joke that chasing 4 children around all day was exercise just wasn’t funny any more.
One day my family and I headed to a local playground. My husband and older children walked ahead of me and our toddler. At one point my hubby turned around and took a picture of us. At the time I thought we looked pretty cute strolling along hand-in-hand. Then I downloaded the picture when we returned home. Defeated and ashamed of how I looked, I swore the picture would never see the light of day!
I also swore that I would weigh 15 pounds less by Christmas.
Changes for Weight Loss
That month I began making changes to my lifestyle. First, I stopped drinking soft drinks, juice and sweet tea. That last one was especially hard! As a southerner summer is synonymous with iced sweet tea. Unfortunately it also contains lots of nutrition-less calories. Thankfully drinking only water became easier as the summer progressed.Next I started exercising. Please understand, I am not athletic. My sports career began and ended is a traumatic season of T ball in 1st grade. After that I avoided anything that required running, jumping or eye-hand coordination. But I put the memory of T ball aside and began using a workout DVD 3 to 4 times a week.
Finally, I changed what and how much I ate. I used a diet plan that restricted the number of servings in each food group. I also weighed and measured food so that I ate an accurate serving. Measuring cereal really opened my eyes to how little I understood servings sizes. I usually just filled my bowl full with cereal, measuring showed me that I was eating at least 3 servings for breakfast. That is a whole lot of extra calories!
Weight Loss Success
By drinking water, exercising, and dieting I lost 15 pounds and 3 pants sizes. Fitting into my “skinny” clothes felt great! I also felt energetic, strong and attractive. I love that feeling! So this summer I am again dieting, exercising and losing weight.
I have set a goal to lose 10 pounds by mid-June. So far, I’m on target with 4 pounds gone and inching my way into a smaller pants size. I’m looking forward to once again reaching December 31 and knowing that I kept my New Year’s resolution - that I lost weight in 2011.
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Stephanie is a home school mom of 4 (ages 2-8). She spends her days teaching her two oldest sons the 3Rs, reading Princess books to her daughter, and rescuing inchworms from her 2 year old son. While her household sleeps, Stephanie blogs about the ups and downs of motherhood at Stephanie’s Mommy Brain.
