Spring Biggest Loser Challenge

Hello again :)

What can I say? I last left you in JANUARY with a great post about how I was getting back on track and was going to get serious about getting healthy before my 40th birthday. Well, the good news is that between then and now I had some good days and some bad days and have basically maintained my weight.

But, when you have 80+lbs to lose, maintaining is NOT what you want!

I definitely try to remind myself that maintaining is better than gaining any day!

I've been trying to find my motivation again. It comes and goes and I wish I could figure out the trick to having it STAY long enough so that these habits become second nature. At the beginning of March I decided that I would get back on track and get focused. That lasted a few days and I fell off the wagon again. Sigh.....

Last week I was talking to my friend and she was talking about how she was going to start the 21 Day Fix and had joined this Facebook biggest loser challenge group. I told her the reasons I don't want to do the 21 day fix and left it at that. I then got on pinterest and starting looking into that AGAIN.

I called my friend back and said that I was thinking of trying the 21 day fix. She asked if I wanted to be added to that group and I said sure! Our challenge started on Monday. I am not doing the 21 day fix because I really do prefer to count calories (crazy, right??!). The fact of the matter is that for me the thing I loathe about counting anything (calories, points, etc) is that I have to take the time to measure things out. 21 day fix you don't have to count anything necessarily, but you have to measure everything. To me that just makes the counting part easy!

I am following a lot of the guidelines of the 21 day fix, which is basically eating "clean". I'm trying to focus on real, whole foods for the majority of what I eat, but not the only things I eat. I truly want to figure out how to LIVE a healthy life and I don't believe that completely cutting things out will work for me. Learning how to actually eat in moderation (by counting my calories and knowing I'm within a reasonable calorie range so I can eat that ice cream or have that wine, etc) is more likely to help me learn how to live a healthy lifestyle.

So the good news is that once again I've found my drive. Today is day 3 and I'm going strong. I often have an easy time with days 1-3 and then things start to get a little dicey. I am hoping being a part of this challenge will help me stay on track or get right back on track if I fall off. For instance, I am not going to worry about tracking on Sunday for Easter. But Monday will be right back on track.

I have about 80lbs that I would like to lose and I would like to do that by my 40th birthday. Yes, that is a LOT in one year. However, if you break it down to 52 weeks it amounts to about 1.5 pounds per week. That is definitely doable;  but I have to STICK with it. I don't have the time to take 2, 3, 4 weeks off.

With that being said; if I lose 50lbs or 60lbs or 70lbs by my 40th birthday that is awesome as well. As long as I am still working at it and consistently losing - even if it's only .5lb or 1lb a week I'll take it. The key is I need to find a way to lose this weight, learn how to live healthy, and NOT drive myself crazy. I really think that what I decided on in September was working; focusing on big calorie deficits during the week and then not stressing about it over the weekends. I was still losing more than 1lb a week doing this and I was probably only counting for 4 days out of a week instead of 5. Between Sept and Nov when I was consistently doing that I lost 15lbs. It adds up. And yes, I'm aware that if I'm "only" losing 5lbs a month I'll "only" lose 60lbs in 12 months. But entering my 40th year having to lose just 20lbs will still put me in a better place than I've been in probably 15 years.

If I can consistently have big calorie deficits for 5-6 days a week and not go totally overboard the other days I am sure I can be successful...and without driving myself (and everyone around me) crazy.

So we'll see. I make these posts a lot and I realize that. But when I come here to blog about it it means that I'm feeling pretty good and I'm hoping it'll stick this time. Only time will tell, right?? Wouldn't it be GREAT if I were writing a post a year from now about how awesome I've been doing and how much weight I've lost!?!? :)