The Nifty Foodie's Life

Another DietBet = done! I’m so thrilled to reach my 4% goal once again…I know everyone is motivated in different ways, but the competitive side of me loves DietBet! I can’t believe I’m showing these (since I took them first thing in the morning and I look a mess), but I wanted to share the before DietBet #1/after DietBet #2 pictures.

There’s nothing like fresh local strawberries. Oh man…I easily put away 3 pints already since getting them yesterday. Better than a candy bar, right?

My husband and I went bowling for the first time in a while. Just a little background…my husband actually learned how to bowl from being on leagues. I, on the other hand, learned the fine art of throw it as hard and as fast as you can/hope it doesn’t end up in the gutter. My husband usually had triple or quadruple my score every game. Ah well…it was fun.

You know it’s your birthday week when your inbox looks like this…

I purchased this candle as a gift for someone. It smells SO clean and just awesome…I don’t know how to put it in words, but it smelled so good! I think I’m going back to Williams Sonoma to get us one…

A while back, I begged for you guys to vote/like a picture of my running journey on Instagram. It was for a contest with Claim Your Journey. You guys are SO awesome…I actually won one of the weeks (THANK YOU!!), which meant that a rep from Mizuno would send me a pair of free running shoes! Check ’em out! I’ve been fighting a cold for the past two weeks on/off, but once that’s gone, I can’t wait to run in these!

I’ve been on this weight loss journey for quite some time. I figured it’s about time I did a weekly weigh-in, so I’m starting now. In week 62.

Week 61′s Weight:             234.4
Today’s Weight:                 230.4

Weight Lost:                         4.0 lbs.
Total Weight Lost:              68.1 lbs.

Some thoughts about this past week:

• Today marks Day 19 of doing Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred. Crazy that I’ve kept up with it! 11 more workouts to go!

• The jeans I bought at Old Navy last month are ridiculously loose. Bummer (wallet wise) but YAY! weight loss wise. I’m gonna lay off the clothes purchasing for a while, if I can help it. It’s exciting to fit in regular sizes, but I don’t want to blow money on something that fits well for maybe a month.

• I painted my toenails this weekend without feeling out of breath. Feels good to have a shrinking belly for simple tasks like that.

• I purchased bras for the first time since college in a store that wasn’t Lane Bryant. OMG….bras that fit are the way to go, people (duh, Amy). I’ve been wearing the same bras (washed regularly, of course) since I weighed almost 300 lbs. I didn’t realize how loose they were in the ladies and band size until last night. I’m in love.

• My second DietBet ended today….just in time for my birthday week. I’m not gonna go crazy, but it will be nice to enjoy a splurge meal or two before DietBet #3 begins on Saturday.  If you’d like to check out the DietBet that I set up, here’s the link! The more, the merrier!

How was your week? Any victories or vents to share? By the way, if you’re on MyFitnessPal, my username is niftyfoodie! Feel free to friend me!

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.