12.6.12

weight loss update #2

so I found a picture from the end of last summer when I was about 150ish lbs, this was right before I realized it was time to lose some weight. the picture beside it is from this month, I'm now 113lbs which sounds extremely low for my size but its due to the fact that I don't have a lot of muscle on my body right now. just thought id share these pictures with my blog followers if any of you are in the same situation of trying to lose weight, hopefully this will serve as inspiration. here's some of my pointers on what I find helps best for weight loss.

1. I find losing weight is about 70% diet for myself. last year when I first started getting healthier I hit the gym hard. I realize building muscle wont make your weight go down, but being heavier at the time I found I was getting muscle under my fat especially in my arms and legs, and that the muscle didn't really start showing until I changed my diet and got rid of the fat first.

2. not eating enough food for the day will make me lose my muscle first before the fat. I still struggle with this now especially when I'm busy during the day at work and don't get a chance to eat. my weight still goes down every day but when I'm at the gym I find it harder to do the same amount of reps I always do and that my arms are getting very soft again :(

3.What I read on pinterest doesn't always work for my body. this is usually the first place I go to find new diet tips and exercises, and when I first started and didn't really know a lot about healthy diets, I went to pinterest to find information about healthy foods I should eat etc.. the first snacks I found were a lot to do with peanut butter, avocados, nuts and all those healthy good fats. I always found when actually going to the sites there was nothing about portion control or anything like that, and soon enough even though I was eating healthy I started gaining a lot of weight eating a lot of fatty foods. now I make sure to really do my research before trying any new diets tips I read on there.

4.I rarely ever have time to do that whole food journal thing everyone's always talking about where they write down all the stuff they eat in a day, but I have tried it before and it's crazy how much it shocks me what I'm oblivious to eating. I find when I'm thinking about what I've eaten during the day or discussing it with my mother or friend I instantly recall all the healthy choices I made or my main meals but it was only when I went back to the paper I realized I had snacked on a lot of little things that all add up.

5.other people don't notice changes in your shape as much as you'd like them too. when I first lost about 15 - 20lbs I felt great like people I hadn't seen in a while would notice a huge difference in my size. not..one..person. ever, said anything to me about it which was really discouraging to me. I know its kinda self centered to fish for compliments but I felt like it was what should be expected when you lose weight. I find the best way for me to keep motivated now is to measure myself and keep track of my body fat percentage, so even if other people don't notice my hard work, I always will.

6.Measuring is key for me. once I starting doing this is realized how much more than the suggested servings I was having, I had a bowl of cereal even 3 times the size of what I should have, which was dumb because always looked at the calories on everything thinking it was healthy, but its not when you eat 3 servings of it. now I mostly measure fatty stuff I still eat, like the 2 teaspoons of butter I have to put on my popcorn, a bad move I'm sure, but plain air popped popcorn to me tastes like cardboard

7.most of my weight loss from exercise came from the sort of life style changes i made instead of in the gym. the best thing I ever did was start walking to work, its a 40 minute walk everyday and it forces me to walk home as well which gives me exercise when id otherwise be too tired to push myself. my legs were the first thing that got in shape from this and it was a rather fast change. id say it was noticeable in about 2 or 3 weeks. the rest of my weight loss progress has taken about 10 months.

these are just some things I keep in mind when I'm trying to stay on track, it's different for every person of course but hopefully some of this stuff is useful. hopefully if I make more progress building muscle which is my goal for right now I can do another update in about a month or so. xoxo