Texas Teacher, 45 lbs in 3 months

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the nice words! To answer the question "What am I doing?", I don't entirely know where to start, because I literally did a lifestyle overhaul. I ate tons of fast food before and did not exercise at all (not even 1x a week). When I started my diet on April 9th, these are the changes I made:

- No soda at all (diet or otherwise)
- 8-10 glasses of water a day
- No fast food (I did eat a Wendy's grilled chicken sandwich in a moment of desperation on a roadtrip and I didn't die so....)
- No fried foods
- VERY few restaurant trips (It is too difficult to eat healthy in a restaurant, and it's easier to just cook for myself!)
- Running, walking, or doing the Insanity DVD 3-4x a week
- No white bread, potatoes only once a month, no cereal or sugary carbs
- No baking (cookies, cakes, etc.) I was a huge baker before

It has not been easy. I hate when people say that!!! It has been SO SO hard! But my body has picked up on that this is my "new normal" and now I can't eat as much as I used to, and I do not crave the same food like I used to. So what do I eat? A typical day looks like this:
- Special K cereal bar for breakfast, plus skim milk with Low Sugar Choc. Milk Mix
- Turkey Sandwich on "light" wheat bread with 1 tbsp. mayo
- Dinner is usually a light version of something I used to cook (like Spaghetti with Turkey meatballs instead of ground beef, and Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta)

My intermittent goal is to get to 180 which is the lowest weight I can remember weighing as an adult. Long term I'd like to be sitting at about 170. I am 5'8" for reference, and at 192 lbs I wear a size 12 in jeans and dresses.

Whoops! Forgot to say that I consistently eat less than 1200 calories a day (1200 is what MFP "gave" me). My body has not gone into starvation mode, and I am not hungry. I am averaging probably 900 cals/day.

No I usually don't eat back exercise calories. I can't count on myself to exercise, because I kind of hate it, so I never count on them. If I work out, it's a bonus for my body, but I don't "give myself" any extra if I did. My body is used to the 900 a day now, so I've found its easier to just let it be, and if I burn 200 cals or so running, then I pat myself on the back. If not, no big deal.

I realize a lot of people will think this is way too few cals. and maybe it is. But I'm not hungry, I feel satisfied, and the results are showing. Every now and then I will have a day where I simply can't count cals. (there have been 3 of these days since I began). One was my birthday, one was my anniversary, and 2 more were out of town dinners. On those days I just eat whatever I want and hit it hard again the next day. I try to be reasonable and let myself have what I want. Like tonight! I ate 2 pieces of pizza because I was craving pizza (haven't had it in 3 months!) but I still came in at 900 cals. even with eating a turkey sandwich for lunch.

You're doing what works for you, that's what counts. I don't worry about the comments suggesting what I'm eating is not enough. I will not force myself to eat because others think I'm not eating enough. If you're not hungry, you're not hungry.

Thanks for the support! I think the results speak for themselves-- people wanna know what I'm doing to lose it and that's what I'm doing!