how I did it - 75lb lost and 24lb to go (with pics)

I posted earlier today and the feedback was awsome and so motivating in itself, thank you so much everyone. I lost weight by making lifestyle changes and people have been asking me how so I replied to someone and thought I would share that reply. I have not taken any pils, used any groups, fad diets . . . nothing just healthy changes and more exercise and this way I hope to keep the weight off for good.

Im 5ft 6in and I weighed 17st 2lb (240lb). My goal weight is 10st (140lb) and my current weight is 11st 10lb (164lb). Its taken me since May 2011 to loose this weight and I hope to reach the 100lb mark in may 2012.

When I first started it was like 'I need to loose 100lb'! and it seemed impossible! I dont know where your from but Im from england and we use stones and lb. So I kept concentrating on the little goals. As I statrted at 17st and 2lb my first goal was to get under 17st then my next goal was to loose a stone and then the next goal was to get under 16st so on and so forth and I now only have 1st and 10lb to go (24lb). Im so excited to get there.

I looked at my whole diet and didn't completely change it but tweeked it to make it healthier. You dont get to 17st 2lb with good eating habbits!

we thought we had a really good diet and generally we did but we were doing really stupid things by eating loads of cheese and our ratio of food on our plates were wrong i.e. the amounts of carbs protein and veg. Our portion sizes were also massively big! But we were eating the right types of food as we've always cooked from scratch and eaten healthy meals. So we upped the portion of veggies, down sized the portion of carbs and kept the protein about the same. I'm a firm believer of anything goes in a balanced diet (in moderation) but whilst i'm loosing weight I'm happy to temporarily say goodbye to cheese and bacon. Although on the very odd occasion have still eaten them. We swapped in healthier options into our meals so when we have sausages we have turkey sausages - half the calories and half the fat. When we have burger and chips we have pork and apple burgers, absolutley gorgeous and again half the calories and fat of normal burgers and instead of having it with beans we have a large salad and a small portion of oven chips. We swapped mayonaise for lighter then light mayo and yes it tastes rubbish compared to normal mayonaise but normal mayonaise is 700 CALORIES per 100g!!!!! thats nearly twice as much as some chocolates. Lighter then light is like 70 calories per 100g so for me this swap was a no brainer.

The smaller portions were hard to deal with at first but just reduce gradually its a long term goal. You do adjust and now I cant eat half the amount I used to which is super annoying when I go the the chinese all you can eat on special occasions.

You need to have really healthy snacks available 24/7 for when you get the munchies so your not tempted to reach for those crisps or chocolates. Mine is cherry tomatoes and mushrooms and glasses of sugar free jelly mmmmmmmmmm nice and sweet if you have a sweet tooth and feels like a real treat.

For me aswell night time bordem snacking was a huge problem. I would come home and eat this huge dinner and then an hour later I would eat 1 . . . 2 . . . . . 3 or more bags of crisps and then maybe a chocolate bar! How stupid is that? So now I drink low calorie drinks instead, I have mint tea, assorted flovour coffees which I add sweetners to and sugar free fizzy pop. That way I can have nice things on the night but not take in any calories for it and it boosts how much you drink which is great.

At lunch time I would have at work a baked potatoe with cheese and tuna mayo - I now have a ham salad sandwhich or wrap with cherry tomatoea and fruit. So much healthier.

I swapped walker crisps for things like quavers and watsits and instead of eating 3 bags I would share one with my husband or have a bag to myself.

Exercising for me really boosted my weight loss but I hate the gym. Why start something your not going to continue? So instead when I take the kids on a monday to the indoor play area I get up and run around with them, its an increadibly hard work out. On a thursday I take the kids swimming and play with them. I sometimes try to go swimming by myself also but dont always manage it. I also do 20 minute stitnts on the wii doing zumba on the nights when I wernt busy with the kids, but I never did more then 40 minutes in two seperate 20 minute blocks.

I also weighed myself on the wii which keeps a graph and you can see your progress its great and I love it. Having that visual on how your weight is declining is a great motivator.

So my advise is use this site and know what is in your food and design healthy meals which you like and can stick to - theres no point changing your eating habbits if you dont like what you eat - your not going to stick to it if you dont like it. Swapping foods like for like but to healthier alternatives is a great way to save calories.

Find exercises which you enjoy, I would never start the gym because I know I would never stick to it, I play with my kids most the time - just be more active. And the more you loose trust me the easier moving yourself becomes!

Always have healthy snacks available and when you do treat yourself to a high calorie snack keep it to a low portion. I find fun size chocolates or those in boxes of celebrations or roses really helpful.

Also I dont stick to my healthy diet 24/7. I generally try to but when theres a family gathering or a birthday or a trip my healthy diet goes out the window and I enjoy the special occasion, whether its for a few hours, a day or an entire weekend but then (and I cant stress this enough) you GO BACK to your healthy eating.

There were some days where I just wanted to eat and eat and eat and so I did. Before I made changes in my diet these splurges would be on chrisps, chocolates and sweets but now when I really cant help myself and I have to eat I try and make a healthy filling snack such as grilled tomatoes on toast - just find what it is that you like.

Also remeber it takes 3,500 calories of not eating and/or burning off to loose just 1lb and so celebrate each and every lb because it takes so many calories for each 1.

I hope all of this helps and if I think of any more tips I'll let you know.

At my biggest - I hated having photos taken so avoided them like the plague. So sorry but its not great quality.



Heres anothe picture - I think I was pretty but also really big. I was probably about 2st (28lb) from my biggest at this point.



and another pic of me looking pretty bad!



after I lost 2st (28lb) on our 10year anniversary in september 2011



then on the 4th of feb 2012 I managed to wear this sexy number for my hen do



and on the 14th of feb 2012 at my wedding



and on my honeymoon.



I just cant wait to hit my target of 10st (140lb) but my next milestone is having a bmi of 24.9 i.e. 'NORMAL'

Hope you have found this useful and wish me luck for the future.