Weight Loss Update #2

Source

Yay Diets!  So I made it through Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet last week.  It was mostly easy to eat nothing but lean meat, vegetables and low fat cheese for 2 weeks.  There were only two times during the whole two weeks that I would have given my right arm for anything with sugar in it.  But I trudged along and made it - and lost 11 pounds!  Yes, 11!

And to top it off, my Mom was doing the diet with me, but I also recruited my MOH Katrina to do it as well, and she has lost like 9 pounds already!  We are going to be so hot at the wedding.  So hot.  lol

Phase 2 is much more lenient on what you can eat.  We can have some fruits now, and whole wheat bread things in moderation.  The main point is just to watch your weight loss and if you get stuck, you might be having too much bread, so cut back and you should be good.  

I think I do better with stricter rules because while 90% of the time I am eating what I should, there are times when Aaron and I go over to our friends Jenn and Morgane's house and eat a boatload of pizza and cupcakes.  So thus far in phase 2, I am only down 2 pounds.

But 13 so far isn't bad!  And I have been doing my Windsor Pilates Abs DVD which is totally wonderful.  It is only 20 mins long, and it is all toning stuff so you don't even get sweaty.  It claims that if you do the video 10 times you'll be down a whole pants size.  I don't know if that is true because I have only done it 7 consecutive times in a row before I gave up, but I am determined this time!  I have only done it twice and I am already seeing some results, so that is fun and motivating.  

The biggest challenge of late is that I go to school three nights a week now, and since fast food is not diet or budget friendly I have to brown bag all of my foods for the whole day.  It isn't super terrible or inconvenient yet, but it is only the first week.  I know three weeks from now I will be making a jillion excuses of how I can just pick up a quick burger on the way to school or whatnot.  I just need to keep my eye on the prize!  

So that is pretty much all that is going on with the diet, I'll update again in a few weeks!

Weight Loss Update #1

Source

Hey everyone!  I just wanted to give a quick update about my dieting progress.  I am currently on day 3 of the South Beach Diet, and I am down 6 pounds already!  I like this diet because it is pretty straightforward, and has the right amount of structure that works for me, and you see results pretty quickly!  Plus my Mom has all the books already, and has joined me in the quest, though she doesn't need to lose any weight if you ask me.  Either way, a diet buddy is a welcome thing!  Collateral damage is that my poor little brother who has been our chef in the evenings while he hasn't been working doesn't get to make unhealthy-ish food for dinner or he gets us ganging up on him, lol.  We tried to get him on board too, but he was not interested. 

So I am in phase 1 of the diet right now, which is 11 days of pretty strict eating.  Pretty much you can eat green veggies, eggs, low-fat meat/protein (like chicken, fish, turkey), and low fat cheese.  Bonus though, you can eat certain sugar free things, like jello or sugar free hard candy, and diet soda.  So pretty much we have eggs for breakfast, protein on a salad for lunch, and protein with some veggies for dinner, and a jello for dessert.  I am so stoked that I am already down 6 pounds, that I don't even think about how I am not eating any pizza or fast food.  Another thing I do, is if I get a craving for some food that isn't allowed, I think about having it on January 29th.  And that doesn't seem too far away, so it appeases me, lol. 

Once phase 1 is over, you can start eating certain fruits and whole wheat carbs (in moderation of course).  So your weightloss slows, but really, it is unhealthy to be dropping 3 pounds a day non-stop.  And I couldn't eat like this forever!  And then when you are at your goal, you can eat anything, but when you have one of those days where you eat 5 breadsticks at the Olive Garden, or you accidentally eat half a bag of cheetos, you can just eat the phase 1 meal plan for a few days and get back on track.  Brilliant!  And most likely, this is probably how people who don't have weight problems operate in general...but my standard reply to eating all the cheetos is ::shrug:: I could go for something sweet now, lets have ice cream! 

Which is why I am here in the first place.  :\ 

And thankfully this diet doesn't require you to exercise, though I am sure mixing that in will give me even awesomer results.  I am just going to focus on the eating part, then mix that in.  My Mom and I did really well with walking in the evenings, but it has been like 800 days in a row of over 100 degree temperatures in Texas.  We'll get back into it once the outside stops feeling like the surface of the sun.  Excuses, excuses, I know!

But yes, everything is going well so far, and I'll be sure to post periodic updates on my progress!

Wedding Weight Loss

Source

Ok gang, we are getting near the six month mark and it is crunch time (literally!).  For those who do not know me in real life, I am not a small lady.  I had some glory days in the beginning of high school where I was really good at sticking to a diet and was more active, and even then I was just average sized.  As of now, I like to eat food that is bad for me, and I hate exercising.  So I can't say that I am surprised in any way that my body looks the way it does.  In any event, there is lots of room for improvement in the category of health and fitness.  A smart Natalie would have hit the gym like a Jersey shore girl back in November when I got engaged, because the thought of being my current level of fatness in a wedding dress makes me cringe.  But I put it off, and kept eating cake like it was going out of style, and here we are. 

I am happy to report that starting this week my mom/walking buddy have agreed to go walking around the neighborhood in the evenings after dinner.  We have gone twice already, yay us!  And my eating habits have just been okay.  I have stopped eating desserts at such a high level, and try to get the portion control in check, but I am still sometimes grabbing a fast food lunch that isn't a salad, and eating fried crap and pizza. 

Aaron and I are going to Dallas to visit some friends this weekend, so I think I will try to eat well when we go, but we are going to have a diet makeover extreme starting next week.  And I think I need to step up the workouts also, because I don't think 30 mins of walking is going to cut the mustard.  In an ideal world I would wake up 45 minutes earlier and do some working out in the AM and PM, but sleepy Natalie fights that idea 97% of the time.  Another thought I had was to just work out my arms and abs really well, because I can hide a big bum under a poufy dress.  I am pretty sure weightloss doesn't quite work like that, unfortunately.  And Aaron already said no to using our wedding monies to buy liposuction, lol.

So before I formulate my master fitness plan, does anyone have any good tips of how to drop some (or a lot of) pounds?  I am all ears!!