Sleep is the best weight loss secret!

Hi everyone!

I am a relatively inactive member on this website, since I do my calorie counting on Caloriecounter.com. I had gained about 30 lbs in the past 5 months and became approximately 145 lbs. I started my journey to drop them back on June 6 this year. Now after 7 weeks, I have dropped about 20 lbs and happily stand at 125 lbs. My ultimate weight goal is 115 lbs, but I would be completely happy to be around 120 and keep it there.

I did not do anything extraordinary. Instead of taking the bus, I started biking to school which adds 30 minutes of light workout to my day. Instead of stuffing my face with pizza and fries, which I love, I switched to using organic vegetables (raw and cooked), grass-fed beef, fish, organic chicken, organic low-fat diary, nuts and natural oils, fiber rich cereals. I had coffee and tea every day to get full energy and almost completely rejected artificial sweets like brownies, cakes and icecream. I also almost gave up on carbs, except potatoes, occasional crackers and flaxseed tortilla chips. Of course, I slipped a few times with hot dogs, cupcakes and whiskey when out with friends, which would immediately reflect on the scale, but I dusted myself off the next day and got back on track right away. On the next days, I would try to meet my calorie goal, but with mostly vegetables and fruits, instead of nuts and other things that takes longer to digest.

You might be wondering why I am taking the time to write this. Given that weight loss is a challenging journey, I thought I would share what worked the best for me. It is sleeping a lot! I weigh myself everyday while I am losing and noticed usually during the weekdays, I do not drop a single pound!!! Which of course would completely discourage me. But during the weekend, when I usually sleep 10-12 hours, the pounds would just melt off. Almost all my weight was dropped during the weekends. I occasionally played boxing with my friend and sweat my *kitten* off, but boxing, which is a rather intensive workout, did not even accomplish half of what sleeping did for me. It was a telling revelation, because obviously part of the reason for my weight gain to begin with was too much work and sleep deprivation.

I know most of us are mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters and cannot afford the luxury of sleeping a lot, but while on this journey try to do your best even if it is not every day! Supportive family members and friends can help you out a lot in this respect.

Just thought I would share my experience! Cheers to all the wonderful members out there who are on this journey! YOU CAN DO IT!