Six Months on MFP – The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

It’s amazing what hard work and six months can do. On February 22, 2011, I joined My Fitness Pal to lose weight, but I’ve achieved so much more that just that! I have a new outlook on life :-) I’m happier, healthier, and more fit. After having two children plus several years of a sedentary lifestyle and eating “whatever” I wanted, I gained a lot of weight. This was tough to accept because I was thin all my life leading up to that point. Being tall (5’11”) didn’t help me either because lots of people kept telling me that I didn’t need to lose weight. They told me that I carried my weight well. After a while, I started believing it and thought that I could get away with not being active yet still eat like I used to when I was active. Not true! I learned this the hard way. I also fooled myself into thinking that because I carried all this extra weight around for 13 years that I wouldn’t be able to work it off. Again, not true! All you need to do is keep track of what you eat by counting calories and exercise too! There’s no magic pill, potion, formula or secret. I’ve never consumed one diet pill or drink, nor have I starved myself or restricted myself from certain foods. I am a true southern cook and I enjoy cooking and baking and eating. Food is a part of who I am. It always will be. On a couple of different occasions before MFP, I tried to lose weight just by exercising for about 5-6 weeks. This frustrated me because I was working so hard without losing much weight BUT I was missing part of the equation…I wasn’t tracking what I ate! I was working against myself!

To quote the My Fitness Pal site: In one of the longest running and largest weight loss studies ever conducted, Dr. Jack Hollis found that simply writing down the foods you eat encourages you to consume fewer calories, and that's the key to losing weight. You don't need expensive gym equipment or memberships to lose weight - you just need to keep track of what you eat. “The more food records people kept, the more weight they lost. Those who kept daily food records lose twice as much weight as those who kept no records. It seems that the simple act of writing down what you eat encourages people to consume fewer calories.” Dr. Jack Hollis - Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research

So you see...weight loss is simple. Notice I didn’t say “easy.” It’s hard work. It takes commitment, dedication, and perseverance. "There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permits. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results." I exercise. Period. I do it in manageable chunks. I encourage you to set small goals at first that aren’t overwhelming for you to achieve. If you exercised one day for 20 minutes, exercise the next for a couple minutes longer. Don’t overdo it. That was another mistake of my past! I’d overdo it! Baby steps are important because if you’re overwhelmed or you overwork yourself and are sore to the point of not being able to move, you’ve gone too far. Often times this is such a discouragement that people quit. Little by little, day by day, commit to exercising…REALLY TRULY exercising where your heart rate is increased for a period of 20 minutes or greater. If you’re not sweating and breathing heavily for 20+ minutes, you’re fooling yourself and you’re likely to get discouraged when your weight isn’t coming off! Get serious about it. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can wait until 2-3 months before a special occasion like a vacation, reunion, summer bikini, wedding or the holidays to lose your weight. There’s no reason to wait…get started now because it takes a while. The hard work is worth every second…you’ll be glad you made the commitment! YOU are worth it!

I have now lost 37 pounds in six months and I’ve done all of that with a bad foot (plantar fasciitis & a bone spur), and yes, the doctor said it was okay to keep exercising. Now, not only do I feel better, I’m sleeping better, I’m healthier, and I’m enjoying the things I used to. Things like clothes shopping, wearing shorts, wearing a bathing suit and swimming in public (not just at home), and I no longer hide from a camera lens just to name a few. Six months ago if you would have told me that I was exercising an hour + daily or power walking nearly sixty miles so far this month I would have laughed at you. But, rather than sitting on my rear end I decided to commit to a healthy new me and not just be “interested” in a new me. Good intentions won’t get you anywhere, but hard work will! I’m now over half way to my goal weight. Here are my weight loss numbers and measurements so far. Hopefully my pictures will inspire you to get up and get moving. You CAN do it!!!!




So what are you waiting for???? YOU CAN DO IT TOO!!!!

Here's what I've lost so far in my first six months...
37 pounds
Neck 1.5 inches
Waist 8.0 inches
Hips 7.0 inches
Arm 2.7 inch
Thighs 9 inches (combined)
Bust 6.8 inches
Calves 1.2 inches
BMI lost: 5.1
Body Fat Lost: 8%
Grand Total of inches lost in five months: 36.20"
Before I started this journey, I was about to have to buy size 18 pants but that freaked me out to me point of getting serious about weight loss. I never did buy a size 18…I am now in a size 10 and a few 12’s. Oh happy day!