10 Things I've Learned About Losing Weight

Since dropping a few pounds since starting my health kick back in July, I've found a few tricks that work for me.  I'm still a work in progress and definitely no expert, but these are things that have been working for me.  So when I saw a wight loss tips link up on Crafty Healthy Mommy and caught myself going from blog to blog reading everyone else's tips, I couldn't resist sharing a few of my own, too.  

1. Don’t skip meals or let yourself get super, super hungry.  If I get too hungry, I will want to inhale everything I see regardless of how many calories are in it.  I will also struggle to stop eating after a normal portion size because I'll be so busy inhaling everything I see that my body won't realize it's full right away and I'll just keep inhaling food until it does.  I find that this is less likely to happen if I keep the crazy hunger at bay.  So if I feel hungry, I have some sort of snack.  Doesn't have to be anything big and exciting.  My smallest go to snack is a handful of almonds.  I buy them raw so there’s no salt added because I’m not into lots of salt.  If one handful doesn’t do the trick, I get another.  I also keep tons of fruit around.

2. The super hungry inhale everything I see issue used to be something I struggled with coming home from work in the afternoon when I'd try to hold out for dinner.  But by the time I get out of work, fight traffic, pick up the kids and make dinner, I'm Starvin' Marvin.  I started eating an apple during my drive to take the edge off.  Honeycrisps are my current favorite.   If it were one of my kids, I'd tell them not to ruin their appetite for dinner.  Since my appetite is pretty indestructible, I don't care.  

3. Having said all that, when you first start out, you will feel hungry.  If you were like me and ate anything and everything and that included eating way past the point of feeling full, your stomach will feel a little empty when you eat a normal sized portion.  But you won't feel that way forever.  Your stomach will adjust.  Give it a chance to get used to it.  I think of the first week or two as an adjustment period like I had been a crack addict and I was going through withdrawal.  Don’t give up.  We’ve all been there.  Remember it’s like a tunnel you just have to get through and that once you come out on the other side it’ll be better. But if you fall off the wagon and eat like a crazy person (It happens!  To all of us! Doesn't make you a bad person!), realize you may need to go through the tunnel again and get back to the other side. 

4.       8 hours of sleep.  I make an effort to get a decent night’s rest.  It's not full proof.  The fact that I have 2 children pretty much guarantees that.  But I make an effort.  I even mentioned to my doctor that I’d had trouble sleeping and they gave me some sleep medication to help me fall asleep.   And I take it.  Because when I'm tired, making good choices feels harder.  I find the Wendy's drive thru a lot more tempting.  I find late night snacks harder to resist.  But when I'm well rested, I feel stronger and more capable.  And making good choices comes more easily.     

5. I never, ever limit the amount of fruit and vegetables I’m allowed to eat.  Eating grapes did not make me 204 pounds.  Eating the hell out of deep fried crap did.  Grapes are not off limits and I never beat myself up for single-handedly inhaling a bag of grapes in 2 days.  I can also eat the hell out of watermelon.  Last summer I ate it like popcorn.  Oh, well.  

Packing snacks for the day.  I like to pack 4 snacks.  I usually eat 2 but some days my inner fat girl is extra hungry and needs 3.  The fourth one one is so I have choices.

6. Drink a full glass of water before you eat a meal.  Especially in the beginning when your stomach is still adjusting to normal portion sizes.  The water can help you feel more full.  My lunch takes a minute to heat up in the microwave most days.  I like to use that minute of time to suck down a glass of water and refill my cup.  I've even been known to stand next to the water fountain sucking the last little bit down.  I'm sure some people in my office think that's weird.  I don't care. 

My current favorite cup from my old friend Target.  I like the extra wide straw that helps me suck down more water.

7. Straws.  I love me a straw in my drink.  Which mostly means, I love me a straw in my water since I don’t really drink anything else. I’m convinced I drink more water when there’s a straw in it.  I’m also convinced it’s easier to multitask while drinking which also increases my chances or drinking more.  At work, I suck down a lot of water while reading emails.  Then I put the water down, and type the hell out of my replies to the emails I just read.  But I’m hydrated while I do it.

8. Special K chips.  Those things are tasty and you get 30 for 110 calories and to me they taste enough like an actual chip that I’m a happy camper.  Every flavor I’ve tried has been yummy too.  I am capable of eating an entire box in one sitting.  I love knowing that if I accidentally do that, it’s only 500 calories.  The devil is probably producing these things down in Hell and cramming them full of all kinds of toxic crap.  But holy crap I feel like I’m having a greasy treat when I eat them and I really, really like being able to feel that way now and then.  

9. If I’m headed to a meeting at work, I take a snack with me if there's even a slight chance it will run into my normal snack time.  I also try to plan ahead so I can eat lunch before heading to a meeting that may throw off my lunch schedule.  One day last week, I had back to back to back meetings and had to decide whether I’d eat before or after the meetings.  I chose to wait until after and it was the wrong choice.  My 1:00 meeting didn’t end until 3:30 and I died a slow death until we got out. Epic fail.

10.  Avoid fast food drive thrus until you feel stronger and more capable of resisting the allure of fried food.  I love me some french fries.  I knew I wasn’t going to make it through a drive thru line without shoving large amounts in my face.  So I avoided them for a long time. Now, 9 months down the road, it’s not a big deal.  My kids periodically enjoy some nuggets.  Their mother periodically runs late and serves nuggets when she doesn't have time to cook dinner before soccer practice.  We all successfully live through it.   

Linking up with Crafty Healthy Mommy!