A lot of people have been asking me how I actually lost the weight. I honestly had no secret cure! There was no secret magic pill, and no I was not zapped by aliens. (Even though that would be AWESOME.) I put the hard work in every single day by eating right and exercising- and that is where the results came from! So many people are looking for a quick fix. To succeed at weight loss you need to have a lifestyle change, and major changes like that do not happen quickly. I worked for 16 months to reach my goal of losing 75 pounds. That is an average of only 1.17 pounds a week! While it can be aggravating to work so hard and not see immediate results, I promise you that a year from now when you could of been at your goal weight you will have wished you had started! Slow and steady wins the race is definitely the motto in this situation.
The hardest thing I encountered with my weight loss was my sweets addiction! I found that I had no problem eating really healthy meals, but I could not stop myself from craving sweets. Chocolate, candy, cookies, brownies, chips, cake, ice cream-- you name it, I would crave it. Most women I know seem to have this problem as well! My roommate and I would drive to Wal-Mart in the middle of the night to buy chocolate. I am ashamed to think about the things I might do for chocolate in an unstable mental state! We've all been there ladies....
Photo: My roommate and I's normal chocolate craving behavior.
In December of 2011, after a year of weight loss, I hit a horrible plateau. I did not loss any weight for over 2 months. I decided to reexamine my eating and fitness habits to get over this hump. I realized that I was doing everything right, except for eating sweets! Through out my weight loss process I was a strong believer in portion control and moderation... but even if you only eat a kid's sized amount of ice cream every day (okay it was more than kid sized), it will still hinder your weight loss process! You're basically wasting calories on something that provides you with no nutritional benefit in return.
I decided that if I ever wanted to meet my goal, I would have to find a way to conquer my cravings once and for all! I decided to go on a " 21 day, No-Junk-Food Challenge". I went into the challenge knowing that I could never fully cut sweets out of my diet, but learning to control my cravings for them could greatly benefit me.
The rules for the challenge consisted of:
-No Chocolate
-No Candy
-No Biscuits or Gravy
-No Cakes, Muffins, or Donuts
-No Pastries
-No White bread
-No Chips
-No Fast Food
-No Nutella, Peanut Butter, or other "Naughty Spreads"
-No Ice Cream
I'm not gonna lie to you, the first half of the challenge was LIVING HELL. I may or may not have gotten weird looks from people in the cafeteria for smelling pizza an abnormal amount of time. I was also as grouchy as could be! But my reaction to not having junk food just made me realize all the more serious my addiction actually was. I started replacing the calories I had spent on sweets with vegetables, fruits, and low fat yogurts. Slowly but surely I stopped feeling like a CRAZY WOMAN. I didn't even crave sweets anymore. I had also broken my plateau! During the three weeks of the challenge I lost 10 pounds- just from not eating as many sugary, processed foods. The crazy thing was that I was actually eating more, but just really healthy things like fruits and cheeses!
Once it was over, I was scared that once I tasted sweets again I would immediately go back to my old ways. After I finished the challenge my roommate bought me a big bag of M&M's to celebrate. I took a handful and slowly cherished being reunited with an old frien-emy. But after 2 candies I stopped. I mean it tasted good, but I didn't have the same animal instinct to devour it anymore.While I still think that chocolate is God's gift to women, my crazy love/hate relationship with it is finally over. Hallelujah! Now I just don't feel the need for sweets anymore like I use to feel. I will get a small piece of chocolate, or some Fro-Yo while downtown with friends every few weeks- but it's not something I HAVE TO HAVE anymore. I'm no longer the girl that has 3 pieces of birthday cake at a party...... just because she can. And it's great!
Good luck to anyone who tries the challenge after reading this! It may be hard at first, but you will notice a huge difference and thank yourself when you are done!
