30lbs in 365 days

bmsparklin

The equation: 365 days.
52 weeks.
1,405 meals.
5,376 foods logged.
1,590 calorie expenditure
8.25 Inches GONE (since March).
Down 2 sizes in clothes.
The weight of three 10 pin-bowling balls.
The weight of a car tire.

All equal to……. 30.6 POUNDS OF WEIGHT LOSS!

Most may have known of this journey whereas others may have not. For the whole spectrum, I want to share my journey. With MANY people asking about my “secret”, or weight loss program, or exercise regime, or product I was using to lose the weight, I wanted to be able to compile my ideas to share on my one year anniversary of my first login. The intention of this post is not for applause or congratulations but merely to help AT LEAST one person who wants a change. I can’t emphasize enough about my surprise at my success since I started. You’ll be amazed at what you can do WHEN you are consistently dedicated.


Step one: Find YOUR why. Know YOUR reasons.

Let’s start WAYYYY back 365 days: the desire for change. Although the size of your clothes or the number on the scale shouldn’t dictate your degree of happiness, I was experiencing a strong negative connection between the two. I also couldn’t believe I was 15 pounds away from 200! I’m thinking, how did I even get here?!? Like EVERYONE who considers a change, we don’t know where to start. Do we change our “diet”? Eat nothing but vegetables and cut ALL bad things completely? Do we ramp up our exercise, potentially hurt ourselves in the process just trying to burn a few calories? Or do we go to the extreme and fall under the spell of a fad diet or product with hopes we have the same success that they show on the commercials? I don’t know about you, but I know I don’t want to fork over half of a paycheck for The Total Gym to get arms like Chuck Norris and lean thighs like Susan Somers! So what is the answer? You need to find the reason WHY. WHY do you want to change? What is going to drive you every day? Set your goals (realistic yet challenging) and START!

Step two: START NOW. One year from now you’ll wish you started today!

Don’t wait until after the weekend, don’t wait until after a big event, or wait until after the holidays. START NOW. After one year, I wished I had started sooner. Over these past 12 months, I never felt I was missing out on my favorite foods, drinks, or activities. In all honesty, I thought it was relatively painless, now looking back. Sure there were times I wanted another beer or a second serving of ice cream but the point is those were temporary desires. These material items were temporary desires that didn’t outweigh my overall desire for change.

One year ago before I started this LIFESTYLE CHANGE, I thought I was already doing ALL the right things. I exercised regularly, remained active, and ate “healthy” (or so I thought). I primarily ate salads, vegetables, fruits, chicken, and varied the foods I made/ate. I RARELY ate fried foods, HARDLY EVER ate fast food, and almost NEVER drank sodas. I experimented with juicing, smoothies, and protein drinks. I used Pinterest as a guide for workouts and exercise tips. Yes, I still enjoyed indulgences like pizza, alcohol, ice cream and cheese. So don’t read this thinking I was a serious health nut, because I was the farthest you could be from that label. For living this lifestyle I couldn’t figure out why my weight was staying the same. I really put a lot of thought into it all. I thought to myself: I have such a crazy schedule where I can’t seriously commit to an extreme exercise plan, I can’t really afford any more time to long hours of exercise (not like I wanted to either), I couldn’t control If I was hurt, sick, or injured, and I knew I wasn’t willing to live off of steamed veggies and chicken. On top of that, my family/genetic pre-disposition to obesity didn’t help matters. So what could I control? I could control EVERYTHING I did. Good, bad, healthy or not: it was up to me. Control and accountability: the leading factor in personal success. No one else is going to do this for you! You need to do this for you and your own reasons!

I am in no way a sponsor for MyFitnessPal or any of it’s products but I do endorse my own achievements as a result of my dedication to using the MyFitnessPal app. The MyFitnessPal app is incredibly user friendly and helpful in tracking daily calories. The app also has great functions for tracking water intake, exercise, steps, measuring nutrients, and macros: none of which I ever really used in order to reach 30.6 pounds of weight loss. Best of all, it’s free to download! The major components of the app which led to my success was “Diary” and “Meals, Recipes, Foods”

The “Diary” is divided into meals which is super helpful in tracking regularly ate foods and dividing up calorie consumption into sections. There are easy tools to quickly and accurately add foods. Frequently logged foods are saved in “frequent” or “recent” which makes logging EVEN EASIER. Additionally, the barcode scanner was helpful for logging packaged foods. There is ONE MAJOR POINT I NEED to emphasize: WEIGH and/or MEASURE EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!! Yes, this sounds tedious, or annoying, or time consuming but ITS WORTH IT! After all, if losing weight was “easy”, everyone would do it. I’ve come to realize that my old lifestyle of eating and drinking was wrong due to portion sizes. Sure I was eating salads, fruits, vegetables, and pizza but I was eating TOO MUCH! Now, I still get to enjoy ALL of my favorites. From double IPA beer to pizza, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GIVE UP WHAT YOU LOVE. You just have to give up habitual gluttony! Believe it or not, there were days I splurged and was negative 900 calories. You just need to make the right food choices more than 90% of the time. Bonus: I didn’t feel as though I was hungry because I constantly ate throughout the day! Food prep is huge! Don’t forget to buy a food scale! This invaluable tool makes portioning super easy without worrying about buying annoying color coated containers or needing to continuously wash measuring cups/spoons. I also believe there is increased accuracy in using a food scale.

“Meals, Recipes, and Foods” is a great function for saving recipes while also being able to calculate calories per serving. Saving your favorite recipes and foods is a great way of varying your meals to prevent boredom and being able to experiment with new healthy recipes. For restaurants like Chipotle and CAVA (where you build your own meals), this is also a great tool so you always know what your order.. Not to mention, I love to cook so a place where I could try new recipes but also calculating calories was a huge benefit for me.

Step three: Take pictures. Take measurements. Take notes.

Take progress pictures! This is a must! You can find plenty of examples on the internet as to the angles but I suggest at least 4 angles (front facing, back facing, front flexing, and back flexing). You may not like what you see in those pictures (I know I didn’t like my pictures (and I waited until six months after my start date to take my first set!)). But when you go through each month and you start to see changes, it becomes even more motivation to keep up the great work. And if it’s not using those pictures to compare progress, use them as your motivation. Use pictures and measurements as your reasons to keep going, trying, and succeeding. I’m telling you, you will not regret this! Take the pictures, store them in a folder somewhere no one else (but you) can see them and use them as a tool along the way. As for measurements, these are just as useful. Again, find an example from a Google search and print/save it so you can always use the same measuring tips each month. Be sure to wear the same outfit/clothes/bathing suit in each set for continuity.

Keep a log of your weight and measurements. It’s important to weigh yourself once a week (at max) but don’t obsess over the numbers. As for measurements and pictures, I updated those once a month. Many things affect numbers so do not be discouraged if your loss isn’t as fast as you’d like. You’ll get there, I know it!

Step Four: Get Up. Get Moving. Get what YOU WANT.

There’s no surprise that exercise also plays a major function in weight loss. Great news, I’m not a star athlete! I average about 30 minutes in the gym two-three times a week. Sometimes it’s more time, sometimes it’s less. But the point is, you need to find some form of exercise that you enjoy. You don’t have to love it, but you probably will once it becomes easier. Breaking it into its simplest form YOU NEED TO DO SOMETHING and be sure to mix it up with cardio and strength training. My favorite form of cardio is HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). To me, I get the most with my time spent. HIIT is known to ramp up your metabolism and burn more calories well after you’re done exercising.

Step Five: Be Patient. Be PROUD.

365 days later I can proudly say I accomplished a pretty significant mountain while in the process actually passing my initial goal of 20 pounds. I truly hope you have found one thing in this that can help you or someone you know struggling to start or to reach their goals. After all, I didn’t make significant changes and had incredible results. I am blessed and lucky enough to have an amazing fiancé Robert Tharpe who was an invaluable support system through this past year (and always). For being patient with my endless uses of the app, my food scale, and measuring utensils: he encouraged me every step of the way! Even on days I was feeling discouraged, he was there to motivate me! I’m so thankful for my rock, my gym buddy, and my number one fan!

The common theme between the five steps: Stick with your plan and you will see changes! I’m fully open to giving advice on any of the topics. Understand I am only an expert in my own plan but I can give tips or tricks that you can try for yourself. From recipes to grocery shopping lists or exercise options, I want to provide you as much information as you’re willing to ask for. Keep up the great work and I hope to hear of your success story a year from today. Today, I celebrated with duck fat fries and two flights of IPA’s at Fair Winds Brewery with great friends: certainly a milestone worth celebrating.

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Great work - I have the same start and goal weight and hopefully, I will be joining you soon.

debtay123

You did marvelous and I love the information- thanks