it's official.... I'M UNDER 200!!!!!!

 

Okay, so I told you I would cry once I got under 200... that didn't happen..

 

... but I literally couldn't stop staring at the scale! It said 199.8. Just seeing the 1 got me excited, but (and I'm mad at myself for this), I did quickly find the negative- "Oh it's only .2 under 200... ugh!" Well today I was 199.0 so at least I know it is still going down!

I need to cut myself some slack and realize that less than a year ago I was 236 (not 233 like I said before.. I went to the doctor recently and she said back in December I was 236). Now I am 199, that is pretty cool! That's almost 40 pounds in about 9 months.. There were times when I was all about the diet and working out, but that would fade and I'd be back to eating and drinking how I always had.. But then I would hop back on the wagon and lose! For not giving losing weight 100% the entire time and still being 37 pounds down is pretty amazing, so I need to remind myself of this when I start in with the negative self chatter.

In the last week and a half I have lost 5.8 pounds and I will tell you my secret....


A few months ago when I last wrote on my blog I mentioned PROTEIN! Well that is what helped me lost all that weight so fast.. but after weeks in and weeks out of drinking a protein shake for bfast and lunch, I started to feel nutritionally deprived and a little depressed, so I started eating regularly again and then just fell off the protein shake wagon altogether. (Weight stayed the same since I was still counting calories with myfitnesspal app on Iphone)

So about a month ago I got that itch again to drop the pounds quickly so I decided to start drinking my shakes again, but not always for bfast and lunch... not a huge change in my weight yet..

Then I read this book called The Fast Diet and that really pushed me into high gear! It is the 5:2 diet method, or lifestyle method it should be called. Basically for 2 days out of the week, any two you choose, preferably not consecutive.. you eat only 500 calories a day if you are a woman, and 600 if you are a man. This makes it so you really have to be conscious of when you eat and what you eat as those calories add up very quickly. The other 5 days of the week you can eat normally- NOT excessively otherwise you won't lose weight.

You get so many benefits to fasting as it gives your body a break from metabolizing food. It's funny, for decades people have been saying to eat 5 or 6 small meals a day and we believed it, but now we are hearing that fasting is the best thing to do for your body. I believe it though- think about it.. our ancient ancestors didn't always have food and look how toned and in shape they were. Their metabolism didn't slow to the point that when they finally got to eat they gained a bunch of weight!  That really sunk in and I decided to give it a shot..Now, less than 2 weeks later I am 5.8 pounds later and officially under 200! Usually in the mornings I won't eat anything, I'll just have green tea when I wake up and not have anything until lunch. That gives me about 17 or so hours of not eating and really turns your body on to fat-burning mode! (I read that 16 hours of not eating is when your body starts burning fat). I find it easy to not eat breakfast and just have tea. Even though I do that on my non-fast days, I figure it can't hurt to fast whenever I can and eat when I really need to on non-fast days. Just because it's a non-fast day doesn't mean you HAVE to eat, it just gives you that option. Although I do eat on non-fast days, don't get me wrong- I just try to not eat in the morning so my body can start burning fat before I put unnecessary calories in :)

I know this blog was a big mess of words and my experiences, but I had to throw all this good news in with a short amount of time to spare. Hope you find it insightful! If you have any questions or comments, just holler and I will respond :)