Yesterday was Day 13 of the 28 Day DietBet Blogger Challenge that is being sponsored by DietBet. I’m happy to say that I have dropped 7.6 pounds in the last 13 days. I have met and surpassed my goal for the challenge, so now all I have to do is maintain. (I’m not finished for my own “personal best” goal though, so I’m still planning on doing the 2 months play/2 months pay plan J!)
Anyway, I wanted to share what has helped me so far. Here’s the thing…we all know the basics of weight loss – eat fewer calories and burn more calories by exercising more. That’s basically what I did. Like I mentioned before, I’m not much of a calorie counter, so I didn’t count calories. Rather, I just stopped eating the things that caused the weight gain anyway. It’s different for everyone, but simply by minimizing the four things in the post image, the weight is coming off. (I’m not even talking 100% elimination – 90 – 95% is great. Personally, I don’t do well when things are “forbidden”. I had some cookies and a couple of Frapps in the last 13 days!)
If you’re trying to lose weight, I “bet” that if you thought about it, you could come up with a few things that would make a significant difference if you “stepped away” from them the majority of the time. Some people like to keep a food diary to see their food patterns and that might be helpful. However, if you just think through your last couple of weeks, I’m sure that you’ll pick up some of your personal food patterns. In addition to what you eat, don’t forget to think about what you drink. If you drink a lot of juice, soda (even diet soda), alcohol, sugary drinks, Starbucks blended drinks, etc., then you’re drinking up all of your calories! (For the record, I’m not trying to pick on Starbucks. I LOVE Starbucks and my local barista, but too much of a good thing is still too much!) Switching to water as your primary/only drink will make such a huge difference… and it’s FREE!
I’ll tackle the exercise portion of the fitness equation the next time. You already know the gist of what I’m going to write though. Get moving J! (All I have been doing is walking the kids to and from school. Granted, that takes 1 hour and 20 minutes to 1 hour and 40 minutes a day with the various drop-offs and pick-ups, but it’s still just walking.)
There you have it…the “secret”. Step away from (fill in the blank for yourself). Is there anything in your current diet that you think would make a significant difference if you minimized it?