I do get asked this quite frequently in real life and this whole digital life... How did I lose all that weight? Well, I worked really hard. I wrote all about my fitness routine here, but that my friends wasn't even half the battle. The biggest battle was surprise surprise, watching what I ate.
\\Easter 2015 vs. Easter 2016\\
I've always worked out. And I've always generally watched what I ate. I say generally because I wasn't an awful eater but I wasn't a good eater either. I really love to eat. Lots of the foods. All of the foods. Once I knew I was done having kids though I really decided to lay down the gauntlet. I was losing this baby weight and I was keeping it off. For good.
And that's when I heard about the No "S" Diet. No snacks, sweets or seconds except sometimes on days that start with "S". Clever right? This is something I can get behind! Moderation but also with cheat times accepted! I knew I didn't want a "diet" because I wouldn't stick to it. I wanted a lifestyle change. Something I could keep up with forever and ever.
It took me awhile to get to a place where I wasn't starving in between meals. At first I had these massive lunches, tacking what would have been my snacks on to the actual meal. But over time I started to take away a little bit at each meal, until I was just eating my lunch. No snacky foods included. And then over time I made my portions a bit smaller. Because eating a mountain of pasta is ridiculous and everyone knows it to be true.
My sister also alerted me to something called intermittent fasting. Which sounds terrible but actually is not so bad. Apparently it's a thing. I found the article to be extremely interesting. Basically this is tricking your body into burning off the fat because well, it sort of thinks your body is starving. In a very small nutshell. This article suggests a women's schedule have 14 hours of fasting and 10 hours during which you eat. I already wasn't eating snacks after dinner so that means my last food intake is around 6:30... Carry the wine (because fasting means next to no calories other than say a black cup of coffee) and that's 10 pm. Approximately. So 14 hours later puts me right on the dot for my noon ish lunch time. Annnnnd this is when I stopped eating breakfast.
Did I cheat at all during my weight loss time? Rarely. I always felt so bad after it because I wanted to make progress and fast. Once I hit my goal weight in the fall I allowed myself more cheats but again, is it worth it? Meh. Do I miss dessert? Nah, not really. But if my sister makes her apple crispy deliciousness for dessert you better believe I'm having some. Or if I have Chinese am I stopping at one helping? Nope. I black out and go straight to seconds. But I don't let it become a thing. The key is sometimes. My life now is two meals a day, one helping a meal. Even if that meal happens to be the occasional Big Mac.
And I'm not hungry. I don't miss anything. And it's all good in the hood.
