Secrets of Success

I watch Dr. Oz occasionally and today it was all about herbal diet supplements that promise quick weight loss for anyone willing to shell out the money! It makes me laugh when they claim that you need not change anything about the way you eat or workout! I also watched an infomercial for Sensa, you sprinkle it in your pizza, burger or fries and you lose weight!

Please!!!!! I get so aggravated at these claims so I am going to tell you the secrets of my success! I am even going to divulge my starting and current weight!

First, I am 43 years old (44 in May) so don't let people tell you that women over 40 cannot lose weight because it simply is not true! At my November 2010 annual physical, I weighed in at 217 pounds! Hello, I was over weight! On June 5, 2011 I made a choice to get healthy and be a good example for my 4 year old Diva and I took the first of many baby steps. I say baby steps because if you try to change everything all at once you will, most likely, fail.

Step one was to change my diet. I opted for a plan that I call the 90/10 plan. Be good 90% of the time and eat what I want the other 10%. For me this translates to eating good during the week and allowing myself to eat my favorite pizza on Friday night! No deprivation going on here!

Step 2 was to start tracking everything that I put in my mouth! I have an app on my iPhone called My Fitness Pal that I love! It is always with me and has a scan feature that allows me to scan barcodes from my favorite products.

So for the first month it was all about what I ate and keeping track of it. Doing this I lost about 10 pounds! Then on July 5, 2011 I took another baby step and began running! I ran for less than 10 days before a torn ACL took me out of commission! During my forced break, I continued to eat right and lost another 10 pounds (20 total). Then came physical therapy and finally on November 10, 2011 I was released to run again and I was off! I have not stopped since!

Now, I don't have scales at home because the Diva broke them so I go to a local car dealership, who held a weight loss challenge that I participated in! I go in every couple of weeks just to make sure I am still on track to meet my goal by June 2012. I am currently 175 pounds!! This makes a total of 42 pounds gone! Only 20 pounds more and I will hit my goal!!

I continue to eat well and run but have recently joined our local YMCA and started taking some classes. I take a class called 30-30-30 which is 30 minutes each if step aerobics, strength training and Yoga. It challenges me twice a week. In February I will add a second class, most likely a spinning class. I have signed up for another challenge to keep me pushing myself forward in this process. I love a good challenge! Prizes help the motivation too!

So, as you can see, no gimmicks here! Just plenty of healthy food and lots of hard, sweat inducing work! New year, new me! This is a lifestyle change for the better. What are you doing for yourself in 2012?