Q&A's of how I met my goals. Enjoy=)

Hi guys so I am here to answer all the questions that came to me through emails and the thread.
First question is what am I eating? Am I on any special gluten free diet, Paleo, or Atkins or do I do any cleansing? The answer to all of that is, no. I eat what I cook to serve my family for example, chicken casseroles, soup, enchilada’s, hotdogs, French dip sandwiches, hamburger casseroles etc. I just limited my portions. I don’t knock any of those as a matter of fact I wish I could eat cleaner but I have not read up on any of them yet and don’t want to harm my body by doing them wrong. *Tip: An easy way to do this is to have a glass of water 10 min before eating then eat only half of your plate, then drink another full glass of water, wait 20 minutes if you are still hungry then eat. Almost always I would be full and wrap up the food and put it away. It’s a hard habit to get use to, sometimes I’ll be half way through and I’ll remember the water. Then I go chug two glasses of water with my eyes bulging out lol. But over time it becomes second nature.


Second Question: What is my work out routine? I work out about 5 days a week (unless I am sick or on vacation), I usually spend about an hour on the stationary bike (I burn around 500 to 600 calories in one hour), sometimes I will change it up and do elliptical or running but running gives me ankle problems due to surgery so that is why I like the bike. I do not weight lift (yet) I tried Yoga once and almost passed out at the beginning of class just doing the breathing exercises alone, I think I am the only one that got stressed out by Yoga. LOL!!! I usually eat about half of my exercise calories.

Question 3: How do you make yourself want to go to the gym? At first I went because I was mad and I was tired of crying but that lasted about a week, after that I was realizing that I was feeling great after work outs and my endorphins kicked in. At first I would spend half my time in the bathroom stalls crying, but after a month or so I got stronger. Also, my kids love going to the gym, and even though I get called out from diaper blow outs I still go. It is such a routine that my oldest gets ready b4 I do and tells me she’s ready for the gym. Going to the gym is the biggest outlet for me.

Question 4: Do I have saggy skin, anywhere or in my belly area? I do not have saggy skin anywhere and yes I did have saggy skin in my stomach area but it is looking tighter each day, and I am not even doing any core work.
Question 5: Can you make your food diary public: I sure can but I am currently not logging right now. I use to log in the first 2 months or so, but then I got use to the portions and I don’t have to measure so much now. However sometimes if I am plateauing I will go back to measuring most of the time that works sometimes it doesn’t. But it does keep me from going overboard.
Question 6: How do you deal with Vacations, or eating out? I seriously enjoy myself and will splurge but I notice that my stomach has shrunk so much that splurging really isn’t splurging. The very important way to deal with Vacations or a night of splurging and having that time away from the gym or eating more than usual is to start logging your food again and going to the gym or doing something physical.
Question 7: How do I know the right things to eat: I don’t really, I am not a nutritionist and I will be embarrassed when you guys see how I do not eat clean, sometimes I will go to Albertson’s and get fried chicken and Jojo’s and treat myself once a week. But the difference is I don’t eat 6 pieces of chicken and a whole lb of potato wedges. I eat 1 piece of chicken with a couple wedges (I drink my water b4 and after) I then put the rest away so I am not tempted. The only thing that helped me here was portions.

Question 8: What is my daily Goal? Right now it’s at 1200 ( This was changed by MFP not by me) but when I started it was 2100 then down to 1800 the more pounds I lost the less the goal got. MFP did this on it’s own I just followed it, I would stay around 200 calories above or below. I usually work out though so on a daily basis I eat about 1500 cal. Sometimes all of it and sometimes more.
Now for some tips:
-Prepare ahead. I don’t do cleansing but if I feel icky I will scramble up 10 eggs, with feta cheese and spinach on a Sunday and eat it for breakfasts and lunches for the week and only portion out the right amounts. Then have a small dinner.
-Eat dinner early. I found that I woke up feeling better when I ate my dinner around 5 or 6 rather than 7 or 8.
-Spoil your meals. Eat a snack before each meal make sure you’re not starving b4 you eat, I use to be good all day then eat like 3 men at dinner. I found snacking helped.
-No eating after 8. I started not eating after 10 o’clock first, then in a month I went down to 9 then down to 8. This has been the biggest help as I realized that was when I was eating most of my calories. I use to go and make another plate of dinner or eat Nutella and bananas, b4 you know it I left the banana out and had just the Nutella.
-If I eat anything fried, fatty or sugary I try to do it early in the day before 4pm. I am trying to make it easy on my digestion system.
-I eat usually don’t eat after 8 but if I do I try (though I do not always succeed) to eat healthy, like peanuts, yogurt or if I must eat some cookies I will only eat 1 or 2 that’s it.
-Eat seafood. I found if I ate a lot of seafood during the week that I lost some lbs. I measured out each one to about 6oz. Then I would make a big batch of it and store it in the fridge and have that for my lunches.
-Plate your own meals. When I plate my own meals I control the amount on it.
-Do not go to the gym if you are sick!! Every time I push myself to go early I make myself worse and end up losing more gym days because I made myself sicker. So stay home get well then go back slowly.
Let me say that before I even set foot in the gym I had lost about 20lbs laid up on the couch after my surgery and root canals. I used the deficit of my daily goal and was able to lose some weight doing literally nothing. Plus I couldn’t get up to get food. Lol! And now for some tips that have helped me.
I hope that covers it, below is a breakdown of my weight loss, I went through my report and broke it down. If I missed something just email me. Oh and I have not been to the gym in over a week due to the flu followed by chest congestion, I am waiting to get better to hit the gym. Our whole family has it so that is why you are not seeing any calories burned.

Have a great journey guys, enjoy every moment don’t look at the finish line, it took me forever to lose the 6lb to get to my goal because I thought I had to get there fast. Just enjoy your ride and do whatever work out works for you. A lot of you may not like the bike and love the elliptical. Do what works for you. Take care of yourselves guys. Thank you for all your wonderful comments and support I appreciate each and every one of you that took the time to say something=)

Please consult with your doctor before you do anything, I did with mine and he saw me on a regular basis because of my hypertension, I had extremely high blood pressure. He said my weight loss was helping I had blood work done and he said everything looked great which made me happy since for a number of years I was obese, in no way did I look gaunt or like a skeleton or gave him a reason to worry or he would have suggested a nutritionist for me. The questions I answered is from my journey. I hope it helps some of you, it might not be for everyone but that’s ok take what works for you.




Weight loss Breakdown

6/4/12---210lb.
12/28/12—187lb.
1/31/13---182lb.
2/5/13---178lb.
2/25/13—176lb.
3/16/13—171lb.
4/16/13—167lb.
5/8/13---164lb.
6/11/13---161lb.
7/15/13---160lb.
8/21/13---154lb.
9/19/13—151lb.
10/22/13—146lb.
12/14/13---141lb.
2/o6/14—139lb.
My weight plummeted down to 125lb. here I was sick to my stomach and had no appetite for Feb 2nd we lost our uncle and Feb 16th our brother, it was their one year anniversary in heaven. I did not log it, by the end of the month I had gotten back to 138. I knew it was coming back.
3/06/12---137lb.
3/11/---136lb.
3/27/14---135lb. GOAL MET!!=)
4/8/14---134lb.