No more yo-yo dieting!

smarina79

I've been fairly healthy my entire life. Even if my diet wasn't "perfect" fitness was a priority for me. Throughout my teen years and my twenties exercise was not only a way to stay lean and fit, but also to alleviate stress. I'm a lawyer and a political organizer so I have plenty of that in my life! Other than some minor fluctuations in weight, all was good until a couple of years ago when I fell in love with a certain French diet which was super effective for me to lose weight quickly. I lost about 20 lbs in 3 months and looked and felt great- didn't even need to exercise! So I fell out of the habit of exercising (big mistake). Life happened and I wasn't able to keep up with the diet restrictions and the pounds started to pile on. After gaining about 15 lbs I did a second round of the diet- again effective and I took off 20 lbs. At the beginning of 2012, though, I started to work full time for a presidential campaign. We put in 70-90 hour weeks and there was absolutely no time for being fussy about food. I ate what was available to me, which often was whatever volunteers brought into the campaign office to feed us with. Rich heavy foods and sweet treats abounded. Exercise was nonexistent. Stress was crazy high, sleep was minimal. Still, I was happy, loved my job, loved my candidate, and fell in love with a fellow staffer who showed his affection for me by bringing me delicious (heavy) Indian and Thai take out whenever he could. I knew I was gaining weight and made a choice to just not worry about it. My priority was to do my job well. Fast forward to November 2012. Good news was that our guy won, bad news is that I was up 30 lbs.

So, here I am trying to take off that weight.

I made a choice to not diet anymore. The past 4 months for me have been an eye opening lesson in eating clean. Through trial and error I think I have found something that works for me. I've been eating mostly whole foods and fresh, raw foods whenever I can. I try to get my carbs in during the earlier part of the day. I have cut back on dairy and replaced it with almond or coconut milk. I eat loads of fresh vegetables and salads and try to get most of my protein from quinoa, salmon, or chicken breast. I try to consume packaged foods minimally. I juice raw veggies at home and make smoothies as well. I say trial and error because I have realized that there is such thing as too much of a good thing (duh). In an effort to eat clean, unprocessed foods I was making my own super healthy salad dressing and realized that with eating two salads a day my salad dressing, thanks to olive oil, was a whopping 500 cals a day! No wonder that after I lost 8 lbs my wieght was stuck! That was my catalyst to get on MFP. I've been teaching myself what to eat the past few months but am now learning HOW to eat ie how much. Finally, exercise. I had to ease into this one after a couple of years of not being on top of my game physically but am now back into doing power yoga, jogging, stairs, and am working my way through JIllian Michaels Ripped in 30. I struggled with this through the cold Chicago winter but I'm on a schedule now and loving it.

I get frustrated from time to time because my progress is slow, but I am resisting the urge to try to cut corners this time. Slow and steady wins the race is my mantra. I am cleaning my body by eating nourishing foods, drinking tons of water, and doing both cardio and strength training. I am trying to treat my body with respect after the abuse/neglect I put it through the last couple of years! I'm 33 now and I want to keep myself healthy and fit for years to come!

Thanks for your support and wishing all of you good luck on your personal wellness journeys!