I Lost 80 Pounds

Women's Health

My topic today is Eating Right to Stay Healthy and Fit

Several years ago I was a size 16. Today I'm a size 8 and 80 pounds lighter.

I had been heavy since about the age of 8 and desperately wanted
what every girl wants, to be pretty.  Over several years I had tried, and usually failed,
 every diet I could find. I drank enough diet soda that they should've given me
 stock in the company. I tried diet pills, starvation, the well-known cabbage diet
(I like cabbage but let's face it, you can only eat so much cabbage liquid)
and a ton of others.  Cottage cheese was my best friend many times
throughout out those years but unfortunately it didn't get rid of the 

cottage cheese dimples in my thighs, lol.  

Eventually I had a revelation and that was "you can't/won't live on
cabbage soup or cottage cheese forever.  All the diets I was trying were not
eating habits that I could maintain for the rest of my life.   I'm not saying that any
 particular diet will not work for you,

 I'm saying they didn't work for me.  I just could not eat that way forever,
 I really like chocolate.  I liked everything, that was the problem, or at least
I thought that was my problem.  

  

I eventually realized that my love of food was not my problem.
My weight stemmed from inability to eat healthy and exercise.
Yep I said exercise, we'll get to that topic in just a minute.  

What I had to do was not to give up everything I liked but was to retrain myself in
eating properly.  By this statement I mean cutting down on my portions
 as well as eating foods that were actually good for my body.  I started eating more
 fruits and fresh vegetables.  There are so many wonderful

 recipes out there that it wasn't as hard to do as you might think.
I didn't give up chocolate, I just learned to eat less and enjoy a normal size portion,
 occasionally, not with every meal.   

Once I learned how to change my eating habits,
I changed my thinking and my body which truly changed my life.
My body image changed and so did my self esteem. 

I felt so much better about me, not just that I was smaller but also that I did it!  

I succeeded in getting smaller and healthier and I COULD eat this 

way for the rest of my life and enjoy it.  

Now, let's discuss Exercise.

Yep, I know I'm the only new mommy in the world that thinks,
"I run after the kids all day.  I get all the exercise I can handle.
I shouldn't need to do anything further.  I just don't understand 

why I'm not loosing any weight".  Again, I'm sure you don't feel this way,
 I'm the only woman in the world that has ever thought this way. Right?
 I got into regular exercising for years and felt great.  

But after we had Jacob, #4, I felt to tired to move much less exercise.  

We've got all kinds of exercise equipment in the basement.  We have a treadmill,
exercise bike,free weights, a huge machine that you can stretch and strengthen any
body part you want,and a bunch of other pieces of equipment.
Oh, did I mention that there is a 60 inch flat screen TV there also so
 you can watch whatever you heart desires 

while you exercise your little heart out.  Yeah, right. 

I quickly realized that the exercise bike made the greatest cloths line for
anything that the dryer didn't get dry enough.
Come on now, are you saying you've never done that?
 Be honest now, that sucker is awesome for hanging cloths on isn't it.  

Then there's the treadmill.  It's got this huge top that has all the electronic in it to
 tell you your speed, heart rate, pulse, etc.  Well I realized that it was perfect for
hanging my quilts over aftertaking them out of the dryer to make sure they
were dry before using them or just to have a 

convenient place to put them until we needed them.  

Ah, and then there is that big old everything machine.
Well it has these great big side bars for doing bicep and pectoral presses and
 these make the perfect holders for cloths after 

you put them on hangers. Shoot, you don't ever have to carry them
up to the closets if you don't want to, you can just let'em hang there forever. 

 Forever!

Well I think you see my predicament.  I needed to start exercising again and
 hang my laundry in the laundry room or I could just take it
upstairs where it belonged.  Bummer.

So once again I started exercising.
 I'm now in a daily routine of walking my neighborhood 

twice a day while pulling a wagon with Jacob and his little neighbor friend inside.
 I don't have much free time to spend using all the equipment we have at this time.
I had to come up with ways to exercise 

and entertain the kids at the same time.  Sometimes if I'm feeling really strong
I just stick another kid in the wagon,
after all I've certainly got enough of them, lol.

Honestly there are a lot of days that I don't want to walk the neighborhood
let alone pull a wagon full of kids.
 But what I tell myself and what I'm telling you today is,

 " Get up off your butt and move"  

All the diets in the world will not help you if you just sit there and stagnate".

I encourage you to take an honest look at your diet and your
exercise level, not to be skinny but to be healthy and Be the Best You there is.  

I could ramble on about food and exercise forever but I'd probably
run out of blog space.  So I want to share my idea of a salad with you.

Spinach salad

I always like fresh everything.

I put everything I can think of in a salad.  Tomato, Cheeses, Cranberries,
Grapes, Oranges, Peaches,Mandarin Slices, Croutons, Peppers,
Cucumbers, Red Lettuce, Nuts, Berries, Eggs, Lean Meats

You like it put it in your salad.  It doesn't have to be a plate of lettuce to be healthy.

I use homemade light Ranch dressing but this tastes great with any dressing

Give it a try, you might just like it.

Now on to our Recipe Swap Hop Friday

Angel

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