How I lost that last five pounds

Maybe you don't care how I lost that last five pounds. Maybe you do. Maybe you "hate" me because I only weigh 100lbs and you are thinking "Oh gawd, you already have an advantage, you aren't me I don't care, shut up!" Fine. Whatever, get over yourself. I've been there. I still feel that way sometimes. It reminds me of those boys in 5th grade during fitness testing who could only do one pull up and I did two (haven't been able to since, I was so buff!) and they tried to rationalize it away. "Well you only weigh sixty pounds!" It's all relative. I'm smaller so my muscles are smaller, everything is smaller (well, except my head maybe, lol). Let's put things in perspective before I continue. 120 lbs is chubby for me. Here's proof:



Omg barf! I really hate this picture but it GREAT motivation. I use it as a reminder for how far I've come on days I don't feel good enough. This was early 2006 about 6 months after I got married. I'd gained 8lbs since my wedding day. This was a pic I sent to my sister to show her my new jeans (yeah, I actually thought I looked good). I weighed 117 lbs.

Fast forward: I ended up losing 11lbs and a whole lot of body fat. My waist shrunk like 3 inches. Since then I've maintained. Then my life fell apart and I dropped like 8 pounds from stress. 98lbs people! Oops, not good. Scared the crap out of myself. Now that my life has a new normal things have evened out. I gained about 6lbs back and then started taking care of myself the right way. So here I am at 100lbs.

I can't say for sure how it happened or why. There is no science in these answers. These are just the things that are different in my life since I first lost that 11lbs and was at 106lbs. I am real, not a celeb, just your average 30 ish sorta single female with lazy days and cravings and a budget.

1. I'm "single": Okay this wasn't really a choice and probably isn't one for you but you might learn something from it. I eat a lot less cheese and butter and hot dogs. A lot less bad fat basically. What is it with guys and cheese and butter and hot dogs anyway? One hot dog is like 160 calories, a bun is 100 to 200 calories. A slice of cheese is 100 calories, a tablespoon of butter is 100 calories. That's a lot less calories too...just not eating those three things. Guys like to eat, a lot. You don't have to eat what they eat, when they eat, or as much as they eat. You can't. You shouldn't. Muscle is where our metabolism lives and they have a lot more of it.

2. I have taught myself to always look at the calorie count of foods: This is a huge one. HUGE. If I am going to have cheese, I have a slice. I know what I'm putting in my mouth. Know what you are putting in your mouth. If you are going out to eat, go online and look at the nutritional data first.

3. Record what you eat: I use Daily Burn. I love it. They have a free iPhone/iTouch app that syncs with their FREE website. FREE. No excuses. Pretty much anything and everything you eat is on there. You can add things into their database if it's not. You enter in your weight, age, activity level, and goal weight and Daily Burn will give you a daily calorie range to shoot for. I kid you not, just using this tool, without worrying about exercise, took off 2lbs.

I basically eat what I want. I am not a crazy fruit and veggie eater. I do eat potato chips, dessert, etc. I do drink alcohol. The difference is, I eat smaller portions, I record it, and I make sure I stay in my calorie range. It has become second nature. If I eat ice cream after dinner, I don't have a glass of wine too. Usually doing that will push me over my goal.

3b. Sorry, alcohol counts: Basically, an alcoholic beverage (shot, 5 oz. wine, a beer) is going to cost you 100-160 calories. Mixed drinks are way more. Sucks right? Oh well. Deal with it or get ready to love your beer belly.

4. Don't eat junky fast food: I don't have much reason to eat at places like Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, KFC, etc. these days. I do enjoy Subway or Chipotle on occasion. The first three I listed...I mean, who knows what kind of additives are in that stuff right? I think that might have something to do with why it's been so much easier. Fast doesn't have to be bad but in most cases it is.

5. Walk: I don't know how much this has made an impact but it's a big difference in my life the last few months. You don't have to power walk and you don't have to walk for hours. I walk my dog twice a day for a total of about 30 minutes a day. One day a week we walk about 2.5 miles for 30-40 minutes.

6. It only takes 20-30 minutes of sweat a day: Besides my walking I make to sure to do something for my body almost every day (5-6 days a week). Whether it's yoga, strength training, or some cardio, I do it. If you are going to do cardio, do it in intervals. What I mean is get your heart rate up high (for me 180 bpm) for a couple minutes and then let is slow down for a couple minutes. Repeat. It seems like everything I read these days says to do interval training. My sister runs miles and miles every week and can't seem to drop any pounds lately. I think it's all about keeping your body guessing so mix it up. Don't do the same thing every day.

So, I'd love to put a great (recent) after pic but apparently nobody is really taking my picture these days so here's the link to my Facebook page. There are photos as recent as April, good enough I think.

I hope this helps. I hope this takes some of the pressure off. Give yourself a break if you have a bad day. What matters is that you start again.