amy in the cities: My Weight-Loss Journey

For the most part I've kept my posts pretty much confined to issues of school and work, and nothing much from my personal life. Plus, it makes me a little uncomfortable to talk about losing weight. Mira and I were discussing this issue and how it feels weird when people talk about how good you look now, sort of indirectly saying that before you looked like a fat cow. I know that's not what most people mean, but it still feels a little uncomfortable. However, tonight I just ran 4 miles for the first time, and really feel like sharing my little story of the past several months. Although 4 miles may not seem like a whole lot, believe me, it's about 5x more than I could do when I was first starting!

My weight has really fluctuated a lot over the years. Between 8th and 9th grade I went from about 110 pounds to close to 130, something which I attributed to going on the pill. When I started college I was down to about 120 and feeling pretty good about my body. Over the next 5 years I really put on the weight. Due in part to poor eating habits and not being particularly active, among other things. At my lowest point (or I guess, highest) I hit 150. Then I moved to Minnesota and in a few months time I dropped about 10 pounds without even trying, just from having a more regular schedule, eating better and getting out more. I remember when I went to have my annual exam and the nurse read my weight -- 137 -- and I was shocked. I felt good, but I knew that I wasn't yet where I wanted to be.

For me it was never really about losing the weight, although being thinner is of course nice. It was more about feeling good and being healthy. I just didn't feel so good, my energy was low, I didn't have a good control over my diet, and I knew that I was terribly out of shape. I was eager to make a change, and Mira and I decided to join a fitness center last summer. The best part of this was that the gym is just around the corner from our house, which made it much easier to motivate myself to go. I started going a couple days a week. I was feeling good and enjoying that endorphin rush that I would get after a workout. Working for a week at Camp Sunrise and doing that canoe trip really inspired me to keep it up. For some reason the girls in my crew really saw me as this strong woman, and I thought, "Yes. That's what I want to be." It was slow going, but by Christmas I was down to 130 and felt amazing. I had more energy than I had ever had before, which is partly attributable to some other things, but I know a lot has to do with the exercise.

There was still something else though... I still knew that I needed to make some serious changes in my diet. It wasn't a problem of eating too much, it was more an issue of not eating the right things. Mira, who has slimmed down significantly over the past several months, had been using a website called SparkPeople.com and really liked it. So I decided to give it a try. SparkPeople is a free website that creates personalized fitness and "diet" programs and allows you to track goals and other things. Apparently it's super popular, although I had never heard of it until Mira started. I put "diet" in quotes because really the focus is on creating healthy eating patterns and a healthy lifestyle -- something that is sustainable. So when you first join you have to enter in information about yourself, height, weight, etc. including goal weight and when you want to reach it. It then generates you a nutrition and fitness plan. It does require you to restrict and count calories. You have to enter in all of the food that you eat each day, although their database has nearly everything in it already. So if I have a 1/2 cup of Preferida refried beans I just type that into the search and it pops up with all the nutritional info and I can add it to my meal plan. They also give you meal plans that you can follow.

Although it requires calorie restriction, I actually feel like I'm eating more than I ever have before. I eat five or six times a day to meet my goals. The goals that they automatically give you are for calories, carbohydrates, fat and protein and then you can add other nutrients to track as well. So for me, I am supposed to consume 1200-1550 calories, 163-236g carbs, 32-56g fat, and 60-127g protein. I also have slowly added other nutrients to track so that now my goals are also to consume 25-35g fiber, 0-250g cholesterol and 500-2300g sodium. You also track how many cups of water you drink each day with a goal of drinking 8. In terms of my fitness routine, I am supposed to do 160 minutes of cardio, burning 1000 calories. I'm also supposed to be doing strength training, but I haven't added that on yet. I'm a little intimidated by all of the weight machines to be honest!

I've been doing this for about two months now, and it has honestly changed the way that I eat and think about food. First of all, I have to pay attention the serving sizes and measure out what I eat. It's very interesting when you realize what the actual serving sizes of things are, and really helps with portion control. Tracking my nutrients was also a big wake up call for me as to what exactly it was that I was consuming each day. Restricting the calories wasn't that hard, but I realized that I was getting nowhere near enough protein or fiber in my diet. I've really had to work to up my protein intake, but now I'm typically consuming close to 90g of protein a day and meeting my goals for fiber almost every day as well. I pay attention to what's in things now, and am actually consuming milk again! I've never been a huge milk fan, but I make sure to have at least 8oz each day in my morning cereal. Archer Farms (Target Brand) Cinnamon Start with Protein is currently my breakfast of choice -- one serving (3/4C) has 15g of protein in it. So along with the milk, I get 24g at the start of the day. Finally, this really forces me to plan out my meals in advance. I've made a few batch items, including delicious Vegan Lentil Burgers (taste really yummy with cheese and avocado) and Spicy Chicken Peanut Soup. Typically I plan out my days meals at the beginning of the day.

The other thing that I really like about SparkPeople is that it has tons of really informative and helpful articles on health, nutrition, fitness and even motivation. As an example, some of the articles that I've saved are "How to Meet My Protein Needs Without Meat", "Easy Ways to Boost Fiber Intake", "Daily Stretching Routine", and "De-Stress in 3 Minutes or Less." The other thing is that you can create your own goals to track besides just the fitness and nutrition. So I've added in getting 8 hours of sleep, journal 5 minutes per day and 10 minutes of deep breathing before bed.

It's not just a healthy lifestyle that I've been developing here, there have also been results! It's been slow going, with just about a pound lost each week but as of this past Tuesday I was down to 122! I've also lost inches everywhere. They have you weigh yourself just once a week (my day is Tuesday) and measure yourself once a month. The goal weight that I made was 115, but honestly I would be happy right here as well. I feel fantastic, I'm eating great, and those chocolate and junk food cravings have miraculously gone away! I still get them now and again, but there's always a little room for "splurging." I really enjoy the Sugar-free Jell-o pudding packs because they have only 60 calories and 2g of fat while still allowing the occasional chocolate indulgence! Also good are the Skinny Cow ice cream products. The ice cream sandwiches are delicious and have 140 calories, 2g of fat and 4g of protein.

So all in all I'm very satisfied with how things have been going. Obviously it's not something that I plan to do forever -- tracking my calories and nutrients. The goal is to eventually be able to develop eating habits that are naturally going to keep me in good ranges. I will also definitely be maintaining the work-out routine because I really enjoy it, and hopefully I will add strength training eventually :) It's amazing to me how much I've progressed since I started last summer. When I first started I would use the elliptical trainer and go for about 25-30 minutes at about 4.5 mph with no incline and would be exhausted by the end. Now I do it in the hill mode for 35 minutes and am going 8+ mph. I've also added on the treadmill, which at first I was intimidated by. I could only do about 10 minutes at 5mph and I would be ready to collapse. Tonight I did it for 45 min (with 5 min cool down), ran 4 miles and probably could have kept right on running! Mira's really gotten into the running since the summer and ran a 5K over Thanksgiving and is now planning to do a half marathon this summer. I'm definitely not ready for something like that, but I just might consider doing a 5K sometime! I can tell that my legs have gotten so much stronger and I actually can see muscles when I flex! The only downside to all of this has been that most of my clothes are too big, even stuff that I bought in the late fall/early winter is loose. I can't really afford to get a new wardrobe, and I'm not looking forward to when summer comes, when pretty much nothing that I own will fit. I'm going to have to hit up the thrift stores big time! Oh and this might be oversharing, but I also had to get all new bras because I've gone down an entire cup size :(

Well, I realize that this was incredibly long. So thanks for reading if you made it all the way through. I promise that I haven't become some kind of crazed nutrition or exercise nut. I'm just really happy and proud of myself and wanted to share, especially since I've gotten so many questions and comments regarding my weight loss. Love to you all XOXOXO