My husband and I are trying to get into shape over here. After gaining tons of weight with my last pregnancy I am more than ready to feel skinny again! Now that my baby is 5 months old it's definitely time. Well guess what? After making changes about 2 months ago we have met with lots of success so far and I would love to share! I am already 25 lbs lighter than I was when I got pregnant. We won't even talk about how many lbs I've lost since having my baby, but let's just say it's a lot! Now I have to start by saying many of these pounds melted away with the simple act of breastfeeding. What a great weight loss program! I love to see my fat rolls turn in to baby fat rolls! But while breastfeeding burns a good 300-500 calories a day, it won't help you lose weight if you eat everything in sight (which sometimes you feel like doing when you are breastfeeding a very hungry baby).
Here in this house we do not believe in magic diets. Yes you may see results by eating only meat or only broccoli or only hot dogs etc, but that's just not how Heavenly Father planned it to be. And not very satisfying either! In our church we believe in the Word of Wisdom. Check out the link if you are interested in what that entails.
My husband and I are more about "lifestyle changes" than quick diets and miracle 5 day work out plans. If it is something that is too hard it will simply not last and any weight that was lost will be regained. Every time.
So what are we doing?
1. Counting Calories. Simply making sure that we don't eat more calories than we expend in a day. What has really really helped us is the My Fitness Pal app on our smartphones. We love it! It calculates how many calories you need based on your weight, height, gender, how physically active you are, and how many pounds a week you want to lose. It even has a barcode scanner so you can scan each new food in without having to search for it or enter it in yourself. Even if you don't want to lose weight it's a good idea to simply record what food you put in your mouth for a day. You may be surprised by either how much you eat, how unhealthy you eat, or how snacky you are all day. *If you are breastfeeding you will need to give yourself at least and extra 300 calories a day, email me if you have questions about how I do this. You do not want to starve your body and stop producing milk for your baby!*
Does counting calories mean we don't go out to eat? NO! Does it mean I can't enjoy my favorite snack of chocolate everyday? NO! We can still eat out, we can still eat sweets. We just have to plan for them. So if we know we are going out to eat that night we just have to eat less calories at breakfast and lunch, as well as exercise to earn more calories for ourselves. We also allow ourselves to go over on our calories periodically to make it easier to keep up our "lifestyle change".
2. Getting more physically active. We are both trying to incorporate more exercise into our daily routine. My husband runs and lifts weights. I can't force myself to do either, nor do I like to drive to the gym. At all! So what do I do? I end up doing exercise videos (I love Lindsay Brin!) and going on long walks with the stroller. I also can't wait for it to warm up a bit so that I can go on bike rides again.
Other than putting planned workouts into our day we are also trying to be more active throughout the day. We both got Fitbits from my parents for Christmas and we love them! I can look at any point in the day and see if I have been too much of a couch potato that day or not. We also love that it gives you goals to reach. Many evenings you can find us climbing up and down our stairs a few extra times to reach our goal of flights climbed in a day. It's also fun to compare and compete a little to see who gets the most steps in a day or who did the most flight of stairs. My husband is smoking me this week by the way.
We both have a few more pounds to lose before reaching our goals, but I am confident that we will get there! If you have any questions please ask me! Also if you have anything that has helped you to make lifestyle changes that last please share, I would love to hear your suggestions and success stories!!
