Top 10 Tricks Based on What Worked for Me ( -40lbs 5'7 31)

Hi all,

I have benefitted so much from this community over the last 9 months that I wanted to write a post to give back. I'm not an expert, but just wanted to share what worked for me. I went from 203lbs to 158lbs in 6 months, and have maintained around that 158lb mark for the last 3 months. I dropped from a size 16 to a size 12 in the first 6 months, and I just bought my first pair of size 10 jeans. I have recently decided to try for another 10-15lbs on top of that, so I'm back in losing mode :-)

I have a lot of friends and co-workers who have asked "what are you doing" to lose the weight, so I thought I would post my learnings on here. It's some jumbled key learnings from experts (Dr. Oz, Jillian Michaels), friends, and just trial-and-error with my body. If it can help even 1 other person to achieve their goals, then it is worth typing up!

1) LOGGING
When people congratulate me on losing weight and ask “what have you been doing,” my response is “you know what, it turns out this whole time it was just math!” It really is about creating a weekly calorie deficit – it’s MATH. That said, I have some methods (shared during the rest of this post) that helped make creating that deficit a lot easier. Knowledge is power, and so to understand the calories going in and out, I absolutely needed the 2 tools below:
1. MyFitnessPal: amazing….it just works. Enough said. I don’t stress about being in the green every day – I focus on the weekly average summary (easily viewed on the app version, not the web site ) that I can see how my workouts balance out wine and eating out.
2. Heart Rate Monitor: Beautiful. It’s so empowering to be able to make the connection between physical movement and calorie burn! The most motivating invention I have ever found to power my workouts. It ensures that you make the most of every minute you’re on that cardio machine, even if your body is subconsciously slowing down you can see it and get right back in that target heart rate zone. I like the Polar brand with chest strap - make sure to get the ones that provide a calorie read out.

2) LOW-GLYCEMIC EATING
I read about low-glycemic foods, and made sure to eat low glycemic to avoid blood sugar swings. This, in turn, made it attainable to hit my daily calorie goals from MFP. I printed the low-glycemic fruit and vegetable lists, and used those to go grocery shopping for the first couple of months until I had learned the list by-heart. Avoiding simple carbs/sugars for the most part helped my cravings immensely. I tried to avoid any food with more than 6g of sugar per serving (my main exception was my Fage 0% greek yogurt, which had 8g but was satisfying and so high-protein that I think the pros outweighed the cons).

3) VOLUMETRICS
I cannot do hungry. Period. I cannot handle feeling hungry. I am also the type of person who wants hearty portions. Volumetrics means pumping your meals full of low-calorie “filler” foods, most often vegetables. So a salad can be huge, with 2-4 cups of spinach. Or I’ll scramble some eggs, but it’s more like tons of veggies with some egg instead of eggs with veggies. I’ll chop up an extra bell pepper or cucumbers to throw into any kind of egg/lentil salad. The more volume, the more satisfying for me.

4) FIBER
I really believe in fiber for 2 reasons. First of all, it helps you feel and stay full. Secondly, I believe for me that it literally helped the fat leave my body. Maybe that’s placebo effect, but I did better on the weeks I was loading up on fiber. Tons of veggies, lentils, you name it!

5) SNACKING
See above – I cannot handle feeling hungry, ever. I consistently eat 3 meals a day + 2 snacks (mid-morning and mid-afternoon). I always do some fiber + protein for snacks. My standbys are: 1 apple + 14 almonds, 1 sliced red pepper + 1 lowfat string cheese, 1 protein shake (the ones you buy in cartons, my favorite was EAS Lite but I also tried Muscle Milk Light and Pure Protein).

6) PROTEIN
Keeps you satisfied!!! Can’t get enough.

7) ROUTINE
I have a crazy job and for me to start going to the grocery store 1-2 times/week and working out was quite a lifestyle change. I did the best when I automated as much as I could. I am a foodie, so I used to always see food for pleasure. I started getting more massages and buying more clothes, and instead enjoyed food but tried to see its primary purpose as fuel, not pleasure. I automated breakfast (blueberries and lowcarb vanilla yogurt EVERY morning) every weekday morning. I would go for months working within 2-3 options for snacks, and I would pack a week’s worth on Sunday nights. I would make double recipes for soups or make extra portions of meat, and eat leftovers for dinner for 2-4 nights in a row (and sometimes bring those leftovers for lunch). When you have great healthy options in your fridge, there’s a lot less temptation out to stray from the plan.

8) GREEN TEA
I don’t know how much of a part of my weight loss this is, but around the same time that I started logging and working within weekly calorie goals, I also started drinking green tea during the day at work. I’d use one tea bag in the AM and one in the afternoon, but would refill with hot water 1-3 times during each half of the day. I think it helps with cravings, water consumption, and just general satisfaction.

9) PINTEREST/MOTIVATING QUOTES
There are TONS of amazing quotes on Pinterest that I started pinning and saving. When I was losing motivation, or when I had gone off-track (binge weekend) and was tempted to quit the whole thing, I would go back to this pin board and re-center myself. One of my favorites that I keep as a mantra is “If you eat what you’ve always ate, you’ll weigh what you’ve always weighed.” Keeps you from going back to old habits!

10) LONGER CARDIO SESSIONS
Once you start tracking the calories you eat, you’ll quickly understand the power of a good workout. For me, hitting the elliptical meant that I could preserve a somewhat normal life (going to restaurants with my friends, drinking wine) and not lose my weight loss momentum. If I didn’t have those bonus “workout calories,” I could not have kept this as a sustainable program because I would have had to be a hermit in a utopian low-calorie world! I was shocked when a trainer told me that I really needed to do 60-minute cardio sessions 4X/week in order to achieve my goals. I seriously almost fell out of my chair, it seemed impossible! What I found the first time I tried a 60-minute workout though was that the easiest part of the whole workout was the part from 40-60 minutes. Call it runner’s high or whatever, but it really wasn’t that much worse than 30 minutes – and the calorie burn was SO high, that even if I only made it to the gym 3-4 times/week, it was like going every day.

SPECIFIC FOODS THAT I RELY ON - HELPED SO MUCH!
• Pink lady apples (who knew how delicious these were??)
• Cold steamed broccoli with salt – great for snacking
• Bulk almonds from Costco, put into 14-almond snack bags myself (saved a ton of $$ and 14 is the # that triggers your body to fill full – I’d have one of these bags + an apple, and in 20 minutes quit being hungry)
• Trader Joe’s egg white salads (cold, in deli section) – 100 cals for the whole thing and tons of protein! I just started adding chopped red pepper or celery to these to volume load
• EAS Lite Protein shakes in chocolate fudge. YUMMMMMM
• Cartons of liquid egg whites – so filling and low cal! I’d scramble them with whatever veggies I had on hands, and play with seasonings (Lawry’s, Cajun spices, garlic powder, etc.) for variety
• Greek yogurt (Fage 0%). OBSESSED. Can take it savory (add some sirracha and salt for a spicy dip, or mix with salsa to create a dressing for taco salads) or sweet (mix in with some stevia, or add a little peanut butter to create a peanut-flavored dip).
• Roasted brussel sprouts, roasted asparagus
• South Beach Chocolate Peanut Butter meal bars – freaking yummy. Hard to find though, either buy at WalMart or Amazon (by the case).
• Whole Foods makes "No Oil" dressings that are super low cal (25-40cals for 2T) and delicous! I love the Carrot Ginger as well as the Avocado Vinaigrette..


All the best to everyone out there....I never thought this would be possible for me. At 31, I weigh less than I did in high school and less than the weight on my driver's license!I feel like I have finally figured out my body....it just took a few decades :-)