Alright, let's see where this journey takes us.
Let me start at the beginning.
Before marriage I was thicker-a flat stomach, but thicker.
I exercised, ate what I wanted and in general did not care because I was happy with how I looked.
After I had Moshe, 10 pesky pounds stuck around and although with the 10 pounds I was at my wedding weight, I was experiencing the dreaded everything has changed. My friend convinced me to join Weight Watchers, and it was a raging success and I ended up skinnier than I had ever been. You can read about that here.
I want to include pictures but my computer is being temperamental right now. Sorry to direct you to another page.
After two months on WW, I had lost not only the 10 pounds I was aiming for, but another 10 which put me at -20!!!
And then I got pregnant with Dovy, and gained 45 pounds. I started WW about 6 weeks after he was born, and by the 6 month park, I was back to my skinniest.
At this point I had started experimenting with more "clean eating" as oppose to a diet. I had started gaining weight because I had lost sight of portion control but, I found myself pregnant and I therefore had the eat anything you want card.
And eat I did! I gained 55 pounds with Hannah. However, I did not exercise more than two times.
At 6 weeks post partum I began following weight watchers and eventually talked myself into finally adding some exercise.
I was losing weight, I was exercising and things were looking good.
But then in February I hit a major plateau. I didn't lose weight for months.
One of my friends shared a thought with me: if WW has "free" fruits and vegetables, maybe it was possible I was going over my calorie amount that would still leave me in a deficit for losing weight.
So I put pen to paper.
And I was shocked.
Weight Watchers recommends (not for everyone, but many) that a daily point amount is 26-29 and everyone should play around with what works for them.
Hitting between those numbers was my daily goal.
However, sometimes my calorie count was as low as 768 some days, but my average caloric intake for the amount of time I tracked was 1,273. I was also running a couple times a week.
I know right off the bat one of my problems was that I wasn't eating enough fruit and vegetables. My caloric intake would have been higher if I would have been eating more of the "free" food items, yet still maintaining my points.
Honestly, I just wasn't hungry.
But the scale did not move-for over two months.
At this point, my goal of losing all the baby weight by 6 months was out the window, and then so was by the end of the school year.
I downloaded the Livestrong app and set it at losing one pound per week.
The first week I lost 1.5 lbs, but after that the progress was minimal.
The Livestrong app has you eat back your exercise calories because their belief is the baseline, chosen by you, is supposed to allow you to lose the amount of weight you chose per week.
Because your body needs a certain amount of "fuel" to perform and you are take even more from it when you exercise, they tell you to maintain your baseline. There are other benefits to exercise than just to speed up weight loss.
It is still a concept I'm trying to understand. But I can tell you that I was already pretty deficient in my caloric intake, and we all know the only way to lose weight is to continue decreasing your calories in. However, if weight loss is achieved a certain (unhealthy) way, you eventually can no longer reduce your caloric intake.
One day I was reading Skinny Meg and she also mentioned her weight loss struggles after having recently had a baby.
I could relate to the cycle of trying so hard and not seeing results.
And it was this post that changed my life.
If If Fits Your Macros, IIFYM is a new movement in the health industry.
In my opinion, it emphasizes a healthy lifestyle.
What's a healthy lifestyle? A healthy lifestyle includes exercise and everything in moderation.
What I love about this movement, is that it follows the basic science of calories in calories out.
There's really no such thing as needing to "diet" from certain food items, because at the end of the day, your body doesn't know a doughnut from an apple. You're body responds to calories in vs. calories out, but more specifically, the ratios to carbs/protein/fat.
On WW, your caloric intake could vary so much depending on the fruits and vegetables.
I also did not like that WW emphasizes low/no fat and sugar free products as staples to allow you to eat as much as you can and stay within your daily points.
I felt like I had to be on a completely different diet than my family because I had to stay clear of so many foods because they were high in points.
Rice, potatoes, avocados, bread, pasta just to name a few.
I have a specific breakdown of fat, protein and carbs I'm supposed to hit daily.
If I know my dinner will be carb heavy, I'll make sure to reduce my carb intake during lunch.
IIFYM also takes into account your goals: lose weight, maintain, bulk (gain muscle)
There is also the idea that your metabolism is like a muscle and it can slowly be increased to work more efficiently allowing you to eat more.
I started this journey almost 3 weeks ago and although I have maintained my weight, I'm fitting into skirts that I haven't been able to fit into since having Hannah.
Sure, I still have a slight muffin top, but it won't be gone overnight.
And I'm finally enjoying foods I haven't allowed myself to have in years.
And I finally feel like my family and I are on a healthy path together.
I'm back to lifting weights three times a week and it's my fave part of my week so far.
I'll be adding recipes to my IIFYM Pinterest board, you can follow along too!
Next week I'll explain the basic principals and give you some tips to get started!
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