This time is different! (Thanks MFP!)

fouchou09

Seriously. All the other times I have lost weight or tried to lose weight, I REFUSED to keep a food journal. Just one of those mental road blocks I put up for myself. I figure, hey, I'm eating healthy, what's the difference? Well, the difference has been monumental.

Backstory: After having my son in October 2010, I was faced with the prospect of losing more than 50 pounds (I literally stopped getting on the scale toward the end of my pregnancy because I was so embarrassed). Anyway, I dropped the first 25 pounds easily, just from giving birth and breastfeeding, but I knew I was going to have to really work to get those other 25 pounds back off. I also decided to take another 10 pounds off since I was already a little overweight before pregnancy.

After trying to lose weight on my own for a few weeks and being completely unsuccessful, I turned to my favorite toy for help! My iPhone! I decided I should finally track what I'm eating, since I have to maintain a certain number of calories per day since I'm breastfeeding. I found MFP and I haven't looked back since!

At first, I was in shock over actual serving sizes, something I had never given much thought. I thought, ok, here is where I have been going wrong! Then, I also realized that most of the time I was "eating healthy" but I was eating really low cal meals, then going to the gym and doing 1 hr+ of cardio. I was probably going on almost NO calories. I would do that for a few weeks then get so frustrated because I wasn't losing any weight and go right back to my old habits. My other problem was (and is) "potluck" dinners. I would eat great all week, then go a potluck (pretty popular in my group of friends) and have no restraint. Looking back, I would EASILY eat well over 2000 cals at any given potluck, that's after eating regular meals all day. Wow. Now that I have MFP and am finally over my fear of keeping track of my eating, I have lost 11 pounds and feel so much better about what I'm eating. So, three major issues solved (ok, still working on the potluck issue, but getting there!), just by keeping track and actually taking the time to really think about what and how much I'm eating!