A month into our Lifestyle Change—

The results are in: Duste has lost 14lbs and I have lost 16! I have also lost 1” around my boobs, 1.5” around my butt and 4”around my waist!

After announcing my results on Facebook several have asked that I explain my plain of attack, so here it is:

  

We have stuck to a 1,200 calorie a day diet and have only been drinking water and 3 classes of diet green tea a day! I am averaging 88oz of water a day. This from a non-water drinker, I have amazed myself!

So with a 1,200 calorie diet this allows you three 300calorie meals and two 100 calorie snacks. If you do nothing all day this is what it will look like. However, with exercising and just walking you get a few more back to play with.

 

My day:

 In the morning, after I take my thyroid pill but before I eat breakfast, I drink 2 glasses of water. I do this while I am doing my hair and makeup. A trick I have learned is every time I switch from one task to the other I take one or two big gulps. By the time I am done I have drank my two glasses!

 For breakfast I eat around 240 calories during the week, I try to get closer to 300 on the weekends. During the week I have instant oatmeal with cut up banana and I drink my first class of Lipton Diet Green Tea.

                        Two days a week I go see a personal trainer for 30 minutes of core, strength and cardo fun! 
                        I do this before I go to work.

 

Once at work I typically only eat one 100 calorie snack on my late day and maybe two (one in the morning before lunch and one a few hrs before I leave work) on my early days. My snacks consist of Quaker Cheddar crisp or Multi grain Fiber Crisp, nuts and raisins, whole grain Pringles, Kellogg’s Popcorn Chips or Cracker chips, Triskets with string cheese or some grapes.  

 

At lunch I have a homemade meal of around 300 calories and two glasses of Diet Green Tea.

                               A few hrs on the weekend we make our lunches for the next week. Our favorites are:

 Blackened Chicken Salad—1 cup of Spring Salad Mix with less than 1/3 cup of 2% shredded cheese, a little cucumber, mushrooms, maybe onions and 3oz of boneless skinless chicken breast cooked with blackened seasoning. I top it with less than a tablespoon of reg. ranch dressing. Yum and only 200 calories
 

Black Beans and Rice—1/2 cup Uncle Bens Brown Rice cooked, ¼ cup black beans drained and rinsed, mexi corn, onion, bell pepper and turkey bacon—around 1.5 pieces. Mix it together and enjoy for only 220 calories!

Smothered Chicken—3ozs boneless skinless chicken breast with sautéed onions and mushrooms. Cover the chicken with a slice of cheese and tablespoon rinsed black beans. Only 300 calories!

 (sorry no picture)

Once 5:00 comes I head home and make dinner! With this meal we either have water or Soda Stream Grape Coolaid—8oz for 35 calories. One of our favorite dinner meals is:

Turkey Meatloaf—1lb ground turkey, oatmeal and egg, 1/4can meatloaf fixings tomato mix, onions, and bell peppers. Cook in oven, when done top with another ¼ cup of meat loaf fixings! Each 3oz slice is 206 calories. We had this with roasted Veggies!

 

Roasted Veggies—broccoli tops, sliced carrot sticks put in freezer bag with a tablespoon or so of Olive oil and a clove of garlic—shake. Place in a single layer on baking sheet and bake on 450 for 20 minutes—stirring once.  1 cup is 100 calories!


 

On the days I do not have personal training I work out with the Wii Active for 30mins (4xs a week) after dinner. One these days I eat some low calorie protean an hr or so after I work out. Like, string cheese, spoon of Peanut Butter or Fiber One Cereal—one cup of cereal and ½ cup of milk. (always read on packaging what a portion size is)

We typically have one hr of TV time and book reading in bed on the week days.

 Friday is my free day—no work out and get to eat out! I prepare for this by eating a lower calorie lunch and might skip any snacks when I don’t feel hungry. You can eat out almost anywhere with some planning. First choices should be the places with low calorie meal options—Chili’s and Applebee’s in my town. That takes the planning and figuring out of it for you. Duste and I share one of these meals and we can have a dessert shooter if we want. We can also choose to have a pop but most of the time we have a 4^th glass of green tea. (Bringing a packet of green tea mix and getting a class of water) All the other restaurants will take some research. You can get online and look up their nutritional information or you could use you’re My Fitness Pal app on your phone—sometimes it takes both. Once you know what meal you want based on how many calories you have, then head out! Typically Duste and I share a meal, it’s cheaper and because of our shrinking stomachs the portion size is about right. The hardest thing is to learn to eat until you are full not until the plate is empty.

 We also make sure we get lots of sleep—because this helps with weight loss, maintaining a healthy body and because of the “virus” I have. Duste averages 7hrs of sleep and I get anywhere from 9-10hrs.

I would like to also touch more on the importance of drinking water, remember this is coming from a girl who NEVER drank water before. It has the power to do so much good for your body, it is amazing. My skin is now clear—something I have been battling since I was a teenager and have been going to the Dr for as long, using every pill under the sun. My teeth are in the best shape ever! Typically I get my teeth clean and have multiple cavities, for years now. Not this time and they are whiter without using strips! Plus, there is the added benefit of having my body cleaned out from the insides out. Water flushes out all the toxins! Drinking Water—it’s an amazingly beautiful but simple thing!

 

 The tools I use to help me are just two things—My Fitness Pal on my phone and FitBit that I wear. I have these two synced so I just have to put information into one—on my phone. My Fitness Pal helps calculate how many calories I am eating and my FitBit helps calculate how many I am burning—it is a great partnership!

I hope this helped make the task of counting calories and eating healthier seem more do-able! You only get one body; you have to take care of it! Once you start counting calories and watching portion sizes you will see how much we are over eating as a nation—it is scary. Oh and as a side note—both pop and fast food are the devil! Ha!