50 lb's lost. How did I do it?

Well the day is here, I've reached my final goal of 10 stone 7 lb.

Its six months to the day of my first weigh in at 14 stone and I've lost 50 lb's.
First thing I did was start walking then I installed a calorie counter on my phone, PC and Kindle.

The first 3 days I was brutally honest on the calorie counter and put in every thing I would  normally eat and was shocked t osee that I could easily put away 3500 calories a day through food and drink. I was kidding myself that I was eating healthily or not enough to be so fat.
I got on to you tube and watched Secret Eaters and recognised myself in those people, I was mindlessly eating and always 'starting again on Monday'.

I put my weight and goals in to My Fit Pal app and it gave me a goal to loose 2 lb a week and 1200 cals a day, not a great amount but it has worked for me and I also allow for treats.

Exercise

I started walking with a group of girls 3 times a week for an hour at a time, I then added in my own high intensity work outs on the playing field behind my house. I'd do little runs around  to warm up
or jumping jacks, skipping, I did squats and lunges, used the benches for step ups, push ups and dips.
I started using a 16 lb kettle bell and weights and I've now added zumba. I don't need a gym or any expensive stuff.

Food

First of all I bought a digital food scales and measured everything, everything that went in my mouth went into my calorie counter and a magic bullet blender.

This is what I generally eat:

  For breakfast I eat either eggs, fruit, smoothie or my own concoction of yogurt porridge (recipe to follow).
Lunch is usually a big salad and dinner is usually a big chicken salad wrap with home made tzatziki or fish/meat with veg. I snack on fruit, rice cakes, laughing cow light, yogurts, low cal crisps and bars (but not too often) skinny lattes and a few squares of chocolates. Olive oil, Hemp oil, Coconut oil, butter, seeds,

What I occasionally  eat: Cheese (love it far too much), nuts, potato, rice. I cannot eat much starchy food as it makes my IBS flare up so most of the time I will just eat 1 whole grain wrap.

On the calorie app I suggests that you eat your calories back that you burn through exercise, I didn't do this and saved the cals burned for when I wanted treats such as puddings, roasts, fish and chips, burgers, cakes and general stuff that made me fat in the first place, but the important thin is that I burn calories and eat in a calorie deficit.

next post. Willpower and determination :)

Had to start somewhere

Welcome to my blog, I've had a few before but never got very far, this one is for me and if you want to read it then you are welcome.

It all began last May when I went to New Zealand for 2 months and realized what a complete couch potato I was. I'd go to work, come home and that was it. Always loosing a few pounds and sticking to it for a few weeks and then back to my old ways

Early June 2013                                          Late July 2013

Whilst in NZ I had a lot of time to myself and started exploring, we had an apartment on the beach so a daily walk along the beach became the norm, at weekends we'd climb waterfalls, volcanoes and pretty much not stop,  I lost about 20 lbs, still ate and drank what I wanted ,I loved it and my anxiety and depression really lifted. 

Back in the UK went back to my old ways of eating too much and not doing enough slowly but surely all the weight I'd lost came back and soon enough I was back to 14 stones (195 lb)  and straining in size 20 ( I am quite short 5'3").  Autumn came and went  and I could feel my depression (SADS and anxiety) creeping back in, I bought myself a Lifemax Light Pod from Amazon and some 5-htp capsules and tried them out and they worked a treat.

I found out was going to become a grand mother in the following May, a bit of a shock by a lovely one. Then in January I caught a recurring chest infection and gave up smoking.

 February is a pretty bad month for me SADS wise so we had booked a few days in Barcelona where it was warm and sunny and when we got back I saw the photo's and was yet again dismayed at my size. Over 14 stone and a size 20

  Something finally clicked and first of all I decided to give up the booze for 6 months to support a friend who was doing it for charity, then found out about My Fitness Pal, a calorie counting  app for your phone and joined a small walking group, all within a couple of weeks of each other.  I got the wii out and weighed myself  on the 19th of March 2014 and was 195 lbs.

  My goal was to lose 2 stone (28 lb's) but I've actually gone on to lose 3 stones 5 lbs (47 lbs) and from a size 20 to a 12.  I've gone from a size 7 shoe to a size 6 .

 I've gone from 49-42-47 to 39-31-39. (vital stats)

I'm now 10 stone 9 and want to lose and few more pounds to get to 10st 7 a nice round

 50 lb loss.

September 2014 145 lbs with my main reason for getting healthy

So how did I do it? That's the next installment  

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