When I found out that I had gained 15 pounds in a year, I was pretty surprised and disappointed in myself. I had thought that I’d been eating healthily, but in reality, I had been steadily overeating and not exercising regularly enough to counteract my eating habits.
Starting the Process
I decided to do something about it. Yeah, I wallowed for about a day. But then I downloaded an app that would help me track what I was eating and how much I was exercising. MyFitnessPal has awesome features including a barcode scanner for food, ability to adjust portion sizes, step tracking through your phone or FitBit, and macronutrients. MyFitnessPal also lets you decide how quickly you want to lose weight, but the default is one pound a week, which is a healthy rate of weight loss.
Tracking food can be a bit annoying, but honestly, just being more mindful of what I was eating immediately helped me to eat less. I was keeping to the serving sizes – literally measuring a 3/4 cup of cereal or counting 14 crackers before eating them.
Making a Plan
I ended up telling a friend about wanting to lose some weight about a week and a half into using MyFitnessPal, and we bonded over our shared goals. She also wanted to lose some weight. Neither of us wanted to be marathon runners, but we did want to achieve a base level of fitness, like running two or three miles without being exhausted.
We made a schedule that worked with both of our classes and ended up meeting each other to run at 6:40 a.m. about five times a week. Did it suck? Yeah, at the beginning. I adjusted fairly quickly to waking up early, but it took about two months before running a mile was comfortable. I think having the accountability of a workout buddy prevented me from quitting when I wasn’t making progress as quickly as I had hoped. Knowing my friend was waiting for me forced me to get up and at least try to run every morning.
Starting at the beginning of the quarter was a great way for me to keep track of how things were going, since a quarter is 11 weeks. A pound a week for a quarter meant I would lose 11 pounds!
Was It Working?
Looking at the scale for the first time after starting my regimen was the hardest part for me. I was terrified that it was going to show me that I hadn’t lost any weight at all. I waited to weigh myself until about a month after I started my new eating and exercising routine. And it worked. I was right on schedule as far as the pound-a-week weight loss was going. It was reassuring and encouraging that I wasn’t counting crackers and waking up early for nothing.
Lessons Learned
Once I had my routine down, I learned a few things. Firstly, calorie counting isn’t for everyone. Personally, I’m fine with it, but a lot of people feel stressed and can engage in unhealthy behaviors when calorie counting.
Secondly, calorie counting gets extremely difficult when eating at restaurants. For one thing, portion sizes really are just enormous here in the U.S. For another thing, I thought that restaurants had to post calorie counts somewhere on their menus, but very few places actually do, so I often had to look at menus online ahead of time and try to figure out what would be healthiest. I ended up eating half of whatever I ordered at the restaurant and then taking the other half home to eat later.
Thirdly, exercising really does get easier. Even though it takes some extra time and effort out of my day, it’s worth it. I commented to my workout buddy that it was actually starting to get enjoyable around our three-month mark. I felt accomplished after working out so early in the morning and it made staying under my calories for the day a lot easier.
Fourthly, a huge part of this process was reframing my mindset. I just had to accept the fact that losing weight requires a certain amount of calories in and out each day, that exercise needs to be a regular part of my schedule, and that being healthy is worth the effort.
What’s next?
Now that I’ve hit my initial weight-loss goal, I’ll be incorporating strength training into my daily workouts. Cardio will be a priority, and I’ll continue calorie counting in an attempt to maintain my weight, but I’m looking forward to building my strength and endurance!