I figured I'd let you guys know what I did to help lose the weight. The first and most important thing I did was get a blessing and I prayed and asked my Heavenly Father for a lot of help through the whole thing. I think this was important because I knew if I kept up my end of the work, so would He.
I did the slim to win program through Lehi city. We met with a personal trainer once a week. My trainer didn't really like me, but a good friend from my last ward helped me out (she is a personal trainer too) and gave me eating and exercise advice. She helped me more. The winner of the program would win $1,500, so having that carrot dangled in front of me was the extra incentive to keep going.
For a good month our trainer (who didn't love me) started us out on HIIT. this stands for High Intensity Interval Training. We did ours on the treadmill, but you can do it on an elliptical, or anywhere. Look up some HIIT routines online and you'll find some great ideas. We would start with no incline, and run as fast as we could (maybe around a 8 speed at that time) for 1 minute. You are giving it everything you can during the minute "on" periods. Then we would rest for 1 minute. The next on minute we would raise the incline to a 2, and be running about a 6 for 1 minute. Then off for a minute. Eventually we would keep going up in incline and down in speed, but that minute your "on" you are having a very hard time breathing. I bought a heart rate monitor and looked up information on line about where my heat rate should be to burn the most fat, but some treadmill have this feature, and if you can't breath or carry on a conversation during the "on" minute and take the full minute "off" to recover, your probably doing just fine. She has us so this 3-4 times a week. Most people can only do HIIT for 30 minutes or so. During the other days I would take a cycle or zumba class. I would go to the gym from 5-7 so I would get HIIT in and a class. HIIT is super effective at burning fat and worked well, but I got bored only doing that. My eating at this point was better than before, but I was replacing real brownies for fiber one brownies. I was obsessed with finding "replacements" for my snacks. I was eating kashi cereal in the mornings, and trying to experiment with more veggies at dinner and lunch.
After a month of being bored with just HIIT (I guess I thought it would be trickier than that to lose the weight, plus HIIT is hard so I hated it every time) I told me friend trainer that I was bored with only doing HIIT. She said she had started her team on weight lifting. I was jealous and she could probably tell because she showed me a whole body weight lifting routine the next week. I loved lifting weights. It was hard, but different than what I had been doing. Plus more muscles = more fat burning. You can look up whole body weight lifting routines online. just lift every other day if your doing full body to give the muscles time to repair themselves. I love/hated being sore the next days and couldn't wait to lift more. My routines get easier as I get stronger and I need to change my routine/ weight every 2-4 weeks. I like the variety. I started losing more weight when I added weights.
My trainer kept promising that my taste buds would change and that I wouldn't even want the bad stuff anymore. I was sure that was a bold faced lie. I once asked her what to do if I was craving a brownie or cookie and she said drink water, or eat an apple. I almost slapped her face. The honest truth is your taste buds do change, but you have to change the way you eat. I was obsessed with looking for substations for my bad food instead of just accepting that these foods truly aren't good for my body.
I watched a lot of documentaries (any on netflix that I could find). Although some scared me, I knew most of the information was true. The ingredients in processed foods were causing me to be overweight and will have damaging effects on me if I kept eating them. I decided I would go all in and give up sugar and processed foods like white bread, white tortillas, and everything like that. I also was determined to not eat out at all. This was hard because Brandon and the kids would still eat out. It wasn't their fault. Sometimes I was too frustrated to make myself bell peppers for dinner and cook them lasagna. I would get frustrated and ask Brandon if he and the kids could just eat something easy so I wouldn't have to deal with making them good food.
I was addicted to sugar. I didn't realize how much until I tried to cut it out. I would pace my kitchen, opening the pantry looking for the sugar that wasn't there. Every night when the kids went to bed I would NEED something sweet to eat. It wasn't a "I would like something sweet" it was a NEED. It took me weeks to get over that feeling. It was so bad when I would sit down to watch T.V. that was the worst. I kept telling myself "you'll survive, your not going to die because you can't have ice cream"....and guess what...I didn't die. I got over the cravings and fruit really helped me.
I began focusing on feeding my body on a nutrient dense level. I only had a couple chances a day to feed my body, so I might as well give it the vitamins and minerals it really needed. When you feed your body what it is really needing the cravings for bread, sweets greatly reduce. A lot of eating and cravings in a mental game, but eating cleaner helps get rid of those urges.
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1 month in.JPG)
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3 months.JPG)
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5 months
Before 
After
Near the end I was getting pretty crazy following a bodybuilders diet to cut weight and fat. I cut carbs out to very little (only wheat bread occasionally) and I was eating tons of protein. My diet consisted of oatmeal, little fruit, asparagus, broccoli, fish, and a gallon of water everyday. This is extreme and for me, not sustainable.
I am now still trying to get in as many fruits and veggies a day as possible. Those are the first things I go for when snacking and eating. I have a salad every day and I don't buy and processed junk food or breads. When I want to make a cookie, I do and give most 90% away. I still lift weights 2-3 times a week and do cardio for an hour every morning. I still do HIIT 1 time a week, and I don't hate it as bad because it is shorter than an hour class. There are so many other ways to lose weight and I know I didn't do everything right and didn't try everything I should have, but it has worked well for me and my goals. Hopefully this can help someone decide to change just one thing and try to get healthier.
