The Dreaded Word

• EXERCISE
• I got away without much of this for my first 40 lbs. However, this is not the best idea. Building muscle is great when you want to lose weight. While muscle does weigh more than fat, it also helps to speed up your metabolism, burning calories quicker. Since I have joined the gym, I find myself much more motivated to eat better. It also helps you to drink more water, if you're like me (I probably drank 8oz. a week before). 
• I highly suggest joining a gym and working with a personal trainer for at least two months to help familiarize you with the gym. However, trainers can be quite pricey and if you do not have the money for this, then research gym exercises online. Some of you may not be able to even afford the gym membership (and I will add in here that if you have health insurance, they may reimburse you at the end of the year if you go to the gym X amount of days in a year), and if this is the case, then I would suggest looking into exercises you can do at home (I may post some of these at a later date). There are a few things you may want to invest in to help make exercise easier, and again, I will get more into this later.
• Lastly, when I say gym, I don't mean treadmill. Please, do get some cardio in on the treadmill after your workout and use it to warm up before your workouts. But DO NOT let that be the only thing you use at the gym. Use the machines. Use the various things (dumbbells, bocu ball, etc.) and do crunches, push ups, anything! If you stay on the treadmill, you will not be seeing the results fast enough. Push yourself, break a sweat!

One Step At A Time

Let's face it, losing weight doesn't happen quickly (and if you would like to argue this point with me, then let me just say that A. if it's coming off fast, it will come back on fast, and B. the way in which you're losing weight is likely not healthy for you). 


I'm going to post a series of tips which have aided me in my weight loss. The information that I’m sharing has been gathered in my four years of my weight loss journey. It took me 1 year to lose nearly 40 lbs, which I lost by using Weight Watchers and going on a walk a few times a week. I went 2 full years without gaining anything back, but once I turned 21 and got married, I gained a little bit back. This was enough motivation for me to join a gym and get serious about losing the rest of the weight that I had wanted to before the said few pounds were gained. I am not a nutritionist! However I am constantly working on how to better my diet all around.


If I can lose this weight, than anyone can. You just need to believe in yourself and stay motivated! My first official tip is to start keeping track of what you eat. When I was on WW, I didn’t keep track as they suggested and I was still successful. However, you reach a certain point in your weight loss where it does not come this easy (what we call a plateau). Keep a log of everything you eat. I track not only the food/beverages, but the time at which they are ingested, and I keep a tally of the calories throughout the day. You must keep up with this, it is too easy to lose track; I even had this with me on Thanksgiving Day, and for the first time in my life, I did not develop a food baby on Thanksgiving!


I think it is important to start here because it will help you to see how many calories per day you are eating, how often and how much you are eating..and this is a good starting point. If we know these things, it makes it easier to make changes.