Want to lose 15 pounds in 3 months

Missycvt wrote: »

I know I have to..... cut out my alcohol intake and limit bread and diet drinks.

• I was taking Zyrtec for an unknown food allergy. I'd break out in hives almost half the time I ate food. It took a long time, but I found out that I had a few allergies/sensitivities, one being grains, so I eliminated them from my diet. This helped a lot because I used to be very carb heavy in my eating. I'd eat a serving of crackers, then I'd want chocolate, then more crackers, then I'd have cheese, then more sugar. I was eating foods that weren't filling me up and because I didn't know I had these specific allergies, I'd bloat up tremendously and feel lethargic all day long. I'm not telling you to give up bread, especially if you don't have any grain allergies, but limiting it so that you can fit in more filling foods may help you.
  
  
• I am on a 1200 calorie diet. I'm full on that and others find it hard to be. However, when I say 1200 calories, I mean 1200 NET calories. If I went running on a certain day and earned extra calories from that activity, I would eat some of my exercise calories back. I have a Fitbit Charge HR which calculates my burn for me and reports it to MFP. Most people eat back 50-100% of their exercise calories, I only eat back 25% on average. if I feel hungry, I will eat more exercise calories back.
  
  
• I weigh everything I possibly can before eating it. That's the best way to make sure your diary is accurate. I don't really go out to eat much, so I didn't have to worry there, but I went to Applebee's twice in the past two months I've been doing this and it was really easy to find an entree on the menu that fit my calories/macro goals.
  
  
• I eat vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, yogurt, sweet potatoes, beans, nuts, cheese, etc. My sweet treats are usually Kind bars or protein bars/shakes. Other people may need actual sweets, but I didn't. As long as it fits your calories, any treat you choose will be fine.
  
  
• I only drink water. Before I started my diet I didn't drink soda or alcohol anyway, so this wasn't hard to do. Again, you could still fit your drinks that you enjoy into your diet, as long as you make the room for the calories.
  
  
• I made sure I walked 5 miles almost every day. This was a big change because I used to just come home from work and veg out on the couch all night. I started at first by walking 2 miles, then I pushed myself to do more. Eventually I started walking the whole trail at my local park. I chose 5 miles because that's roughly equivalent to the recommended 10,000 steps we should get per day. After doing this for a month or so, I finally got my Fitbit and it was a real motivator for me to get in steps. The whole point is to get your body moving, even if it starts off at 10 minutes per day.
  
  
• Keep in mind that while you can do weight training to try to maintain some of your muscle, you will not gain muscle in a calorie deficit. Muscle "toning" really isn't a thing and if your arms seem like jelly to you, the way to reduce that effect is to lose weight so you can lower your bodyfat percentage.
  
  
• In addition to the walking, I started the C25K running program. I never thought that I'd be able to say that I could run, let alone for 30 minutes without stopping, but I just completed my last run in the program yesterday. It's an amazing feeling to accomplish that. C25K kept me motivated.
  
  
• I like to follow exercise routines, so I started doing 21 Day Fix because I liked how it has different types of workouts (Pilates, Yoga, Weights, Cardio). I am not a Beachbody coach and I didn't even purchase the program, as I found it online for free. MFP dislikes Beachbody overall due to the aggressive "coaches" and the pathetic selling of Shakeology. I agree with that, but that doesn't mean the actual workouts are not useful. I like the workouts and I feel like they work for me, so I do them.
  
  At first I was following the eating plan using my own containers at home while still weighing all my food. What I liked about it was that it kept me making sure I was eating more vegetables, which I used to have a hard time with. I'm on Round 2 of that program and I still follow the basic notions of the eating plan, but if I want a sweet snack I'm going to eat it as long as it fits my calories. No, I did not drink stupid Shakeology either. This is just what I did, but you don't have to do this. Find any program or routine that works for you and just do it! I only mentioned this because it's specifically what I've been doing and I do feel like it plays somewhat of a role in my success thus far.

Weekends are hard because we go out to eat Thursday, Friday and Saturday.