The Sweet Smell of Success

I am happy... no... thrilled to say that I have successfully lost 50 pounds.... FINALLY! Its taken me a little over a year to do, but its been so worth it. I'm feeling stronger all the time, a little more self confident, and I stand up for what I believe to be healthy living. My life style has gone from couch potato to moderately active to going to the gym every day and staying busy through out the entire day as much as I can possibly stand. Some days are better than others, we all have our days that we don't want to do anything, but I still at the very least go to the gym once a day, even if its for 20 minutes.

My weight loss has definitely been a journey. I've learned so much about myself and the human body during these last few months. It really is miraculous what the human body can do. I am not a star athlete by any means, but I know that I am much stronger and healthier than when I  first started losing weight. I've lowered my high cholesterol levels to healthy levels and I have lowered my blood pressure, which was already in normal healthy levels, but I did lower it further. My lung capacity is much greater now as well, which in turn means my heart rate while working out is getting lower. Because while I may only have 3/4 of my lungs that function that means that my heart rate goes up because my lungs cannot keep up with the demand for oxygen to my heart. I have lowered my heart rate during strenuous exercise by about 10 beats or so per minute.

My physical appearance has really noticeably changed these last 20 pounds or so. My collar bones are starting to become more apparent, my legs are much smaller in the thy area and I no longer look like I have the start of cankles. And I soon will have to buy more pants... again. My size 16 pants are starting to get lose fitting. 

To summaries what I have been doing to lose this weigh here is my simple plan:
Eat 3 meals a day & 3 snacks. I typically only consume whole foods, which means no processed foods and no excess sodium and fats. The only processed foods I eat regularly are Whole Grain or Whole Wheat Bread, Kashi Go Lean Cereal and Greek Yogurt. And the only "Fast Food" I ever eat is Chipoltle, which is made of mostly whole foods and you can tell them how much and how little of the menu items you want in your meal (I always get the burrito bowl). I consume between 1,200 -1,400 calories a day (the less active I am the less calories I eat, meaning on a less active day I only consume 1,200 calories.. but never less than that). And I only drink water, 1 cup of milk a day and sometimes fresh brewed green tea with wild flower honey (not sugar). Green tea has an antioxidant called ECGC in it, it helps control hunger. So if you feel like snacking but not really hungry drink a glass of green tea.
I exercise at least 20 minutes a day. Lately I've been shooting for 30 - 50 minutes of exercise in the morning and then staying busy the rest of the day around the house. After all, if you have time to sit on your butt & watch tv, you have time to work out!
This plan has helped me maintain an average weight loss of a quarter to a half a pound a day.

It really does feel awesome to be below 200 pounds again. I weighed in this morning at 199 lbs. And I'm going to keep working towards my goal of 160 pounds. But most of all I'm going to keep working to be a happy and healthy person, because thats what really counts not some number on a scale.

Thanks for reading!