Welcome to my weight loss journey. This is my first post in the series. I am just starting my fitness journey and want to share my plan with you. Every month, I will write a new post about what has and hasn’t worked.
Are you a mom who struggles to find the time to take care of yourself? Me too. I have struggled for years to get in shape. But I have done a lot of research, and I now have a plan! I want to share that plan with you. And each week I will update you on what is and isn’t working for me in my weight loss plan.
First I would like to tell you a little bit about me. I am 34 years old. I have 2 kids that were both born by c-section. For those who don’t know, it is harder to lose belly fat after a C-section. Even years later (my youngest is 13 now) I still struggle to lose weight. I am now the heaviest I have ever been in my life. I didn’t even weigh this much when I had my first son. I did with my 2nd child though. But not until I was 7 months pregnant.
I know that I have been slowly putting on weight but I didn’t realize just how much until I got on the scale at work and saw my weight. Then I started realizing that I can’t even walk up the stairs without losing my breath anymore. It didn’t use to be that way. I know that I need to do something about my weight now before I end up like my mom and my uncle who are both over 300 pounds. I do not want to end up like them. So I started researching what I could do as a busy mom with no energy, no time, no experience working out, and I’m a picky eater. Well, I now have a plan!!
I actually started my weight loss journey about 3 weeks ago. I didn’t change anything in the first week. And guess what? I have actually lost 10 pounds already!!
Ready for my weight loss plan? Here it is…
- Week 1: Wrote everything down that I was eating. Started counting my calories. Researched meals and came up with a Diet plan.
- Week 2: Started my Diet Plan. Started researching exercises to do and came up with an exercise plan.
- Week 3: Started my Exercise Plan
Step 1. Manage Stress Levels
The first thing that I will mention, is Motivation!! To lose weight, you have to be ready. If you are not motivated, you will not be able to lose a pound. I could not lose anything until I was finally ready to do it.
A lot of gaining weight is related to cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone that causes your body to store extra fat. Do you know what causes excess cortisol levels? Stress!! There is some truth behind the saying “Stress kills”. Learning how to manage my stress has been the first step in my weight loss plan. Have you heard the saying “Whether you think you can or can’t, you are right”? Well, it is true. I started telling myself that I can do this. I can lose weight and I will. Since then, my mood has improved a little and I do feel more motivated!
I started to get excited and told my kids that their mom is going to be a MILF by summertime. They laughed. Then my mood improved and for the first time, I felt hopeful. Then I started to come up with a plan, but I did not change anything yet. 2 days later, I weighed myself and I lost 2 pounds!! That is when I realized that it is true, that stress causes weight gain. I realized that I can do this, and I will.
Step 2. Diet Plan
The first part of my weight loss plan is all about my diet. I took the first week and started writing down everything that I ate. I did not change anything yet, because I wanted to see what my norm is. I downloaded a calorie counter app and started counting my calories. (My Fitness Pal is the best calorie counter app that I have found. It is a paid app but has a free version. I have been using the free version.)
I discovered that some days I was eating over 3,000 calories a day. That is not good. I started realizing how many calories were in the things that I normally eat. It is no wonder I kept gaining weight. Some weight loss apps will have a meal plan for you, but I never like those meals. So I came up with my own plan. I took days to look up low-calorie meals for picky eaters. But I did find some on Pinterest.
I know that as a mom, I have to make dinner for my kids, and they expect me to eat with them. So I have planned for dinner to be my biggest meal of the day. I know this is backward from every weight loss advice ever given, but let’s be realistic. As a mom who works full-time, I do not have time to cook breakfast in the mornings. I eat lunch at work, and my kids eat lunch at school. So dinner is the big meal for us. Whatever we have for dinner, I just eat less of it. Especially if it is high in calories.
My calorie counter app said that to reach my goal, I need to eat 1,500 calories a day. Here is how I split that up…
- Breakfast: 300 calories
- Lunch: 400 calories
- Dinner: 500 calories
- Snacks: 300 calories. There are so many 100-calorie snacks out there. so this is doable.
I looked on Pinterest and found quick breakfast meals under 300 calories, packed lunches under 400 calories, and snacks under 100 calories. Then I made a meal plan using the meals that I liked. I have now been sticking to that plan, and I am starting to lose weight! I lost 4 pounds in my first week, just by changing my diet!! How awesome is that?
Step 3. Exercise Plan
The next part of my weight loss plan is exercising. I am someone who has never exercised. So I have no experience. And my exercise plan doesn’t include some crazy intense workout plan. In fact, most of my exercises are anywhere from 5-20 minutes long. As a mom, time is something that I don’t have much of. So finding effective workouts that aren’t an hour long, was my main priority. I spent a whole week looking for exercises and coming up with a plan.
I came across a few articles that said exercising in the morning will boost your metabolism and give you more energy. I also read that exercising on an empty stomach will cause your body to burn stored fat! That is why exercising in the morning is better. But wait, I have to be at work at 6am. Honestly, I am not a morning person. I am late to work at least once a week. So how am I supposed to work out in the morning? My solution: 5 minute exercises in bed.
My morning routine involves small exercises like sit-ups, crunches, leg lifts, side leg raises, and plank. Now remember, I am a beginner. I can not do 30 sit-ups in one sitting. But I can do 10 sit-ups, 3x a day. So I started with doing 10 sit-ups, 10 leg lifts, 10 side leg raises. Every day, I add one more to it. So the first day I did 10, the next day 11, and 12 the next day. I do this little routine every morning, and now every night before I go to bed. This may not seem like much, but it only takes a few minutes to kick-start your metabolism. It is more movement than I did before, so it will be an improvement.
I will admit, sometimes I wake up late and don’t get to do my 5-minutee morning exercises. So I have added additional exercises to my routine. I found an app called Better Me. This is a paid app, but I feel it is worth it. I downloaded the app, but quickly deleted it when I realized I had to pay for it. But I have been unable to find another app that does everything in one. So i re-downloaded it, and did spend the money on it. In this app, I can keep track of my calories, my water intake, and it has workout routines for all levels. Every day it gives me a 20 minute workout for beginners. So every day when I get home from work, I do this 20 minute routine. Even if I don’t feel like doing it, I just tell myself “It’s just 20 minutes”. If I don’t like the workout they give me for the day, I can pick a different one to do. They have hundreds of different workout routines.
Another part of my exercise plan is my daily step count. Almost everyone has a smartwatch nowadays. If you don’t, you really should get one. And you don’t have to buy an expensive one. My watch was only $30 on Amazon and does everything an Apple watch does. My goal is to get 10,000 steps a day. Somedays this is easy, other days it is a struggle. I do have an active job. I work in an assisted Living facility. It is pretty big. So on the days that I work, it is easy to get 10,000 steps. If for some reason I don’t, I make myself walk a couple of laps around the building.
Conclusion
Now you all know my weight loss plan. Even if it doesn’t seem like much, remember that “slow progress is better than no progress”. As I become more experienced, I may start to add more things to my weight loss plan. But for now, I am just doing these things. Every weekend, I will weigh in and let you all know how I am doing. If something isn’t working, I will revise my plan. I hope that my journey helps some people with their own weight loss journey. Make sure to check every Month for an update on how I’m doing.
