The Nifty Foodie's Life

After the holidays, I was definitely pumped to get back on track. I feel like if I go over my calories on a regular basis, it’s just so much harder to get back on track. When I heard about a DietBet a fellow blogger was hosting, I was all in.

This isn’t the average bet to see who will lose the most weight. It’s really a bet against yourself. All you need to do is join the DietBet (paying the bet amount into the pot), weigh in/take pictures of your weigh in (DietBet has instructions on this) and then you’re good to go! Then, you have to lose 4% of your starting weight in 28 days, and if you do, you win! Then, all of the winners in that DietBet get an equal share of the pot (after DietBet takes out a small percentage for their admin fees)! Easy enough, right?

I’m a competitive person, so to me, the thought of losing my $20 was a huge push to win. I think I did pretty well in my first bet. I even went 3 lbs. beyond the 4% goal!!

I was amongst the winners in my first DietBet, and won $43! Not too shabby since I bet $20 of my own money. I’m currently in the last week of another one, but I’ve been so thrilled with doing DietBet, I decided to start one on my own!

So, here we go, y’all! Here’s the DietBet that I set up!

First of all…I’m sure you want to know when this all starts. This DietBet starts on March 16 (weights need to be submitted 24-48 hours before the bet starts), and ends on April 12 (final weights are submitted 24-48 hours after the end date). The bet is $20. Not a crazy amount, but hey, I think it’s enough to motivate!

To understand how DietBet works, here’s a link. It’s very simple, and just a note: I have nothing to do with the handling of the money. It’s all regulated by the admins of the website.

I decided to make this a public DietBet, so it’s easy for anyone to join. Tell your friends and family! You can make this a mini-competition, if you want. You can also make your weight private, if you don’t want other members to see your weight.

I hope a few (or heck, several) of y’all join! I want this DietBet to be a fun, supportive little community. If you have any other questions about this, check out their FAQs.

A while back, I made this list of goals. If you’ve been reading a while, you’re probably familiar with my 101 goals in 1001 days list. I was recently checking off some items, and noticed my 30 Day Shred goal. I’ve had this DVD since the wedding days, but I never actually did the full 30 days. I actually never moved on from level 1. Whoops!

So, no better time than the present, right? Yesterday was day 1.

I took my measurements and my body fat percentage yesterday as well, so hopefully I’ll see some great results from this.

Has anyone looked at her face on this DVD, and thought that she’s saying “BRING IT!” with that expression?? Maybe that’s just me….

In case you’re wondering, I will be doing this in addition to my regular work-out routine. My strength training is going really well right now, and I also don’t want to slack off when it comes to running since my next 5K is a couple of months away. Hopefully this isn’t overkill, but I figured since this is a quick 20 minute work-out, it really couldn’t hurt, right?

Has anyone done the full 30 Day Shred? How were the results for you?

One of the most popular questions that I get asked lately is about how I’ve been losing the weight so far.

***I’m absolutely NO expert in weight loss whatsoever, but I figured I’d share with y’all what has been working for me.***

Here’s some before pictures from late 2011. Facebook doesn’t hide the ugly truth. I was quite obese then (still am now, actually), and I tried REALLY hard not to post pictures on Facebook, but these little gems somehow slipped through the cracks.   

I cannot do restrictive diets. Diets that tell me exactly what I can and cannot eat just aren’t for me. I will fail at those diets, and I have come to peace with that. I knew the best way to do this would be a gradual way, so I started calorie counting on MyFitnessPal. The great thing about MyFitnessPal is that you can tell it your weekly weight loss goals (0.5 lbs-2 lbs/week), and it will give you your calorie goal based on that. In the beginning, I told it 1 lb/week, which put me at about 1800-1900 calories/day (this sounds high, but I weighed almost 300 lbs. in the beginning). It wasn’t too bad to reach that goal, and somehow (seriously, not sure how this happened) in the first month, I dropped 10 lbs. It was motivating, for sure!

The next month, I decided to drop down to losing 1.5 lbs/week, which made my calorie count around 1700/day. The 100 calorie drop to me just wasn’t a big deal…this seemed very gradual and doable to me. I still have MyFitnessPal set to losing 1.5 lbs/week presently, but now I’m about 1600 calories. The reason for this is every time you drop 10 lbs., MyFitnessPal prompts you to adjust the calories based on your new weight (it calculates this for you, but you have to OK it).

I love calorie counting. It may not work for everyone, but for me, it’s wonderful. I make mostly healthy choices on my own, but I know if I want pizza or chinese take-out for a meal, it’s totally fine. As long as I have the calories for it. I won’t lose control this way, and I don’t feel deprived at all.  Now, sometimes there are meals where I just don’t feel like entering everything. I used to have a splurge meal once/week, but now I’m at about every two weeks. I know some people will diet more strictly than I am, but for me, I’m trying to teach myself how to make this into a lifestyle change. I’m not going to say no to a dinner out with a friend at the tex-mex place with my favorite queso, because I only have 500 calories left for the day. I won’t go on an all-out binge either, but I will eat what I want in smaller portions. Small changes…even if I eat a little over my calories, I’ll accept the small gain and move on.

In the summer of last year, things started to slow down weight loss wise for me, so I decided to start running with the C25K program. I was exercising 3x/week with C25K, and the weight started dropping fairly consistently once I incorporated some form of an exercise program. Then, in January (of this year), my husband and I joined a gym near our house, which has allowed me to add strength training to my exercise program. I try to work out 4-5x/week, where I either do 30 minutes of cardio (usually running) or almost an hour of strength training. I will say that since adding strength training to the routine, my weight is dropping a lot faster than before. I’m seeing 2-3 lb drops/week when I was so used to 1-2 lbs/week.

About 13 months later, I’m feeling like a whole different person. I’m just about halfway done with my weight loss journey, though, so there’s still quite a bit of work ahead for me.

I would like to reiterate that I’m no weight loss expert. I just wanted to share with y’all what has been working for me, since quite a few of you are curious.

Last week, I got some coupons from JCPenney. $10 off $10 or more. (I thought they didn’t do coupons anymore, but I guess I haven’t clothes shopped in a while…) Anyway, I decided that this would be a good opportunity to get some clothes on the cheap. I’m having an itch to get some bright, spring-y clothes, so I was pretty excited to see what they had.

I wasn’t sure what to expect though. This was my first time looking through the misses section in years. I’m talking since the 1990s, y’all.

Here’s a small vent I have about plus size sections in stores. The misses section of a store could have a whole darn floor in a department store, but the plus size section is usually 20ish racks within that floor. Oh, and within that plus size section, about half of it is for a more mature customer. So, the choices were very limited. Also, being a larger size in the plus sizes meant just automatically go to the back of the rack, hoping they had a 3X available. This is why I always hated shopping. It was seriously boring and depressing.

This past weekend, my husband and I went to the mall, and I was really excited to shop. This really never happens, y’all. I get excited to shop for gifts, but for me? HA! After we went to a couple of stores, it was time to face the misses section. My husband grabbed the first XL tee off the shelf, and recommended that I just try it on to even see if it fit. Not only did it fit, but the blue color looked awesome on me. It was a simple V neck fitted tee, which was only $6. Um…seriously? Simple tees in plus sizes are almost twice as much!

So, not only am I dealing with more choices…I’m also getting cheaper clothes? Awesome.

On the way to the fitting room, I also grabbed this bright, spring-y casual blouse. I’m a big fan of aqua/teals, so this one just called to me. This one fit as well. Gosh, I love the colors in this blouse SO much!

I wanted to grab one more top, and my husband saw this fitted polo type of shirt. I just grabbed the XL, and we were off to the register before I could cause more damage to my bank account LOL! We found these three tops in one small section of the misses department. As we were walking out of the store, I was just overwhelmed by all of the clothing choices and possibilities (as well as the prices….you mean a work top doesn’t have to cost $40??!). This is just crazy to me!

Here’s the new tops that I purchased. Don’t they just scream Spring?

Another purchase I made this weekend were these (my before size jeans are below these for a size comparison)…

Lane Bryant was having an additional 70% off clearance sale for one day (Friday). Since my work pants were getting droopy, I figured I’d try my luck. Not only did I find a pair of work pants (for just $12, too!), I also got some guts and purchased my first pair of skinny jeans. Not just any skinny jeans either….teal colored skinny jeans! I felt pretty gutsy with that purchase haha! And can I mention how awesome it is to shop in the 14/16 side of the rack vs. the 24/26? Just AWESOME!

Another great bonus right now is that I’m now fitting my little sister’s (before) clothes. My younger sister, Rachel, has lost 40 lbs. WHILE ATTENDING COLLEGE…yeah…she’s awesome. I asked my sister if she ever gave away any of her clothes, and luckily, her closet at home was still pretty full. So, I told her if there were any clothes she no longer fits in that she doesn’t want, I’d definitely appreciate them. While my sister is 8 years younger than me, she has a ton of professional type clothes, since she’s a music major and has recitals/auditions/etc. I seriously hit the jackpot with what her & Mom brought me this past week.

It seriously doubled my wardrobe, and made me realize I probably need to do another clean-out of clothes that are too big on me.

Oh, and this is what I wore to the mall on Saturday. The cardigan is one of those hand me ups. I love it…a simple grey cardigan with white polka dots! Thanks sis (and Mom, of course, since she probably purchased most of it.)!  Some of the clothes are a smidge too small (and some are really small, since they included some size L tops), but I’m sure once this DietBet is over in March, most of these pieces will be part of my daily wardrobe. So awesome…my wallet totally appreciates it!

I’m so motivated right now! By the way, if you follow my Instagram, I’m sorry that I post a lot of weight loss related pictures. I’m worrying that it may be coming across as braggy. It’s more out of disbelief, I swear. I still can’t believe that this is all happening.

It’s been three months since I posted about a weight loss milestone. I have to admit, these past 10 lbs. were hard to lose. I was chugging along with my calorie counting, and then Thanksgiving hit. Then, my husband and I went on a cruise (with unlimited fabulous food). And THEN, there was Christmas. While the fudge, cookies & comfort food were worth it, I had to get right back on track! I’m so thrilled to see results again!

The weird thing about losing weight is I always feel like I look like my “before”. I can still stand in front of a mirror, and I still have those fat feelings. I feel like eh, 60 lbs. isn’t THAT much. I still look fat. And really, I’m just about halfway done with my weight loss journey. I know I still have a long way to go.

I know I shouldn’t feel that way, but you are your worst critic, right?

So, on Saturday, I decided to try a regular clothing store for the first time since…um…high school. My measurements were getting close to a size 20 on the chart at Old Navy, so I thought…why not try? I pulled up the jeans, buttoned them, said a little prayer as I pulled the zipper and….THEY FIT! Holy cow! My first regular size jeans in a LONG time!

My progress pictures are a little bit different this time around since I was SO stoked in these pictures (taken in the fitting room at Old Navy), and really felt I should share them. When I made the progress collage this morning, I totally freaked out a little bit. Like I said, I usually still feel like my “before” self, but after looking at these pictures, I truly see progress!

Some NSVs (non-scale victories):

• I’m able to grab my feet when I stretch after a workout. I totally Instagrammed that picture too…my belly always got in the way during my stretches…until now.
• I fit in size 18 pants (womens) and size 20 pants (misses).
• Ok, this is a scale victory. I weigh less than I did on my wedding day!
• My coworkers are constantly pointing out my droopy pants. I don’t mind at all (It actually makes my day!), but I did buy some new work pants and jeans this weekend (I purchase new pants every other size, and only if they’re on clearance…like less than $20/pair).

I still can’t believe how far I’ve come. I mean….my next mini-goal is 75 lbs. I’m 15 lbs. away from that. CRAZY!