My tricks on how I lost 60 pounds of baby weight!!

As you might have guessed, this is a post on WEIGHT LOSS!

fun, fun FUN!

NOT!!!!

I say not, because its NOT fun losing weight. Yeah, maybe when you actually lose a significant amount and its fun to look in the mirror and like what you see. 

But lets get real. 

Its NOT fun to watch everyone else eat whatever they chose. Its NOT fun to, have to get sweaty and stinky, working your ass off in the gym. Its NOT fun to always weigh yourself. Its NOT fun to worry about if you lost a pound or gained it because you ate one bad thing.

Before I got pregnant, I was a bulimic, gym rat, who was never happy with the size I wore. 

You can read my post here.

 Here are some pics of myself prepreggo:

TOO ORANGE!!!

I worked out EVERYDAY, ate broccoli, 100 calorie popcorn, and crackers, threw up everything bad I ate, lost tons of hair, went tanning everyday and was generally not healthy in the least bit. I was terribly anemic. Like my scores on my blood test, were WAY lower than standard. I was literally surviving off of crackers. That's what I mainly ate.

I decided when I got pregnant, This is exactly what I wouldn't be doing again. Now that I am on the weightloss road again, I can say I haven't done ANY of these things besides, working out every day and I still love 100 calorie popcorn snack bags. 

I now work out mainly 5 days a week and right now its mainly cardio. I love to be toned, but I don't have the flexibility to give it my all, so Im waiting alittle while longer. I have lost 60 pounds so far, so maybe another 10. To be honest, if I stayed at this exact weight, I wouldn't be sad. I actually like how my butt fills out my pants, but my legs are thick. Not thick as in rolls of fat. But you can see my quads and calves pretty well and my back fat where my bra goes is not as prominent (or maybe its just loose?)
 Anywho, here are some tricks and tips I learned/am learning along the way:

1. Don't expect to workout everyday and STILL eat badly to lose weight.
Sorry, but if you are eating fast food every day and exercising for 1 hour. IT DOES NOT DO ANYTHING!!! You have to be dedicated to a new lifestyle and stick with it. I don't know how many people have asked me what's my secret, and I tell them that losing weight is 95% your diet, and 5% is your exercise.  This is what I call HALF-ASSED. You have control of your exercise time, but not your eating habits. Yeah, you are doing good exercising, but you if you are still eating big mac's every day and super sized fries, you are not helping your heart.

2. Know your calories!!

You will be surprised at how much calories every thing has. Almost everything that is edible has calories. Think about it. Would you rather have 3 cups (9 oz) of broccoli florets at 90 calories or 9 oz of Cheetos at 1,440 calories. The 3 cups of broccoli are not only lower in calories, but has no fat, no saturated fat, no cholesterol, and way lower carbs then the cheetos do. PLUS, in your stomach, it fills you up better, than the Cheetos do. Think of it as empty space. You are probably still hungry after 9 oz of just Cheetos. That's why its important to know how many servings per calories you are eating.
You don't need to be a math wiz. Just know how to add and subtract your calories, or if your like me and want to know the EXACT calorie consumption, go here! Its calorieking.com and it gives the exact calories eaten. You can look by name or restaurant. It also shows how much exercise you have to accomplish in order to burn it off, and what the calories are made of, ie: fat,carbs etc.

3. Write it down.

If you take the time to write down every thing you eat in one day, you would be surprised in how much you actually eat. We had a project in one of my college classes, where we had to make a 7 day chart consisting of 2,400 calories each day. Sooo many people were surprised in how little calories 2,400,  actually was. It was super easy for me, because I know my calories. I think of calories as money in the bank. You don't want to go over your daily allowance, and saving your calories is awesome.

4. Don't eat it all.

You don't have to eat everything in front of you. I used to feel so guilty throwing away food that I didn't eat because I thought of it as a waste. If you always serve smaller portions and leave a bite or two on your plates, then you have nothing to feel guilty about. When you are not hungry anymore (not full, but satisfied) STOP eating!! You will eat again, so don't worry about when you will eat again.

5. Don't let a treat, turn into a habit

When I say this, I mean, YES, you can have a cookie or two after your dinner if you have done a great job working out or eating great. That does NOT mean have a cookie or two EVERY night after dinner. You can allow your self a treat, but when it becomes a habit, then its not a treat anymore.

6. Substitute where it counts

Instead of take-out grease pizza, make your own, if your craving sour cream, try Greek yogurt instead, want flavor? add spices or hot sauce. Basically anything you are craving, you can substitute. Alot of calories eaten come from sides and toppings. Just substitute, and you'll be fine. Or try a diet type and, you get what you want with half the calories.

7. Drink more water

I know you have probably heard this a million times, but try drinking more water. It fills you up, and overall, is wayyy better for your skin, insides and appetite. I am bad at this, so its something I am working on. I'd rather have a Diet coke. 

jussayin..:)

8. Strength train

Lots of women that I know don't strength train simply for the fact that they think it adds bulk and "man's them up". This is far from the truth. It gives the appearance of a leaner body. Muscle and fat weigh the same but they look so much different. A woman weighing 150 pounds with 19% fat will look much smaller (and be much healthier) than a woman at 150 pounds with 35% fat. They weigh the same, yet the composition is different. Because muscle is more dense than fat the person with less fat and more muscle will look smaller.-taken from http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com/muscle-to-fat.html.

This is an awesome visual, because as you can see, muscle is much more visually appealing.

That's about it. I have the link to calorieking if you are interested. It really helps and I love it. I hope I have helped you if you are losing weight or have already lost weight, and are looking to maintain it. I will be updating this list with more tips as I remember them.

Hope all is well.

link:  http://www.calorieking.com/