I’ve had alot of folks ask me the ‘How’d You Do It?’ question with alot of little specifics in it, like sodium intake, what are white starches, how do you cut out sugar, etc.  So I thought I’d just address the questions here:

First, let me make it clear, I lost my first 35 pounds in 4 months in 2002.  I re-started Weight Watchers in January 2002 after a very harsh end to 2001 for me.  I made a New-Years resolution to take care of myself and bought myself a book of 10 meetings.  Back then I was doing the Flex plan, but cutting out soda easily led to 10 pounds of weightloss.  I had never exercised, but I had seen many infomercials for Tae-Bo, so I ordered the tapes and got started.  When I first started out, I couldn’t even do the /instructional/ video without throwing up.  I was that out of shape.  I had a very hard time getting all of my vegetables in, I hated eating them, and I hated chicken breasts.  Water was the easy part.  I got my 35 pound star in April(?) of 2002.

Then I stopped.  I didn’t give up, I just stopped.  I half-assed my way through the next five and a half years.  I didn’t eat the things I knew were really bad, I kept going to my meetings, but I just didn’t really pay that close of attention to what I was eating.  I didn’t eat anything deep fried, for example, but I still ate things cooked in copious amounts of margarine.  I would have a daily Starbucks, usually a frappucino or, if it was chilly enough outside, a Chai Latte with extra syrup.  I never went back to my original weight of 235.5 pounds, but I did yo-yo between 194 and 210 for over five years.  I could never quite get that 40 pound star, but then again, I wasn’t working out and I just wasn’t into focusing on my weight loss, even though Weight Watchers was always in the back of my head, no matter what I ate.  Remember, I was still going to meeting every Saturday.

What kicked me in the head to get me going is the health screening at my job where I found out I had Hypertension.  I’ve always been a healthy person, even though I was overweight.   Even the year before when I’d had a checkup at the university, I wasn’t told anything about high blood pressure.  So when they told me ‘Stage 2 Hypertension’, and suddenly I was on 5 different medications and had to change my entire way of thinking about food… that was what did it.

Now, I know everyone reading this is likely thinking, “Well, she had a health issue.  That’s why she lost weight.  That isn’t happening to me, so I don’t have to do what she did.”

Maybe it’s not happening to you, but it WILL if you do not eat the right things.  It’s not a question of IF.  It’s a question of WHEN.  I’m 39 years old.  I’ve never had a serious illness or condition in my life.  I was positive I’d just live overweight and that was fine.  But the truth is, it’s all bullshit.  I should have gotten off of my ass and taken the right steps years ago.  Instead, I was greedy and selfish and wanted the tasty stuff more than I cared what it did to me.  It’s entirely bullshit.  No food is worth that.  NO FOOD IS WORTH GETTING SICK OVER!!

Now I have to be even more selfish.  And yes, I’ve lost another 23 pounds since January because I entirely changed my diet.  It’s convenient enough, but the diet my doctor put me on is the Core program at Weight Watchers.  The only thing is that I do not eat the extra 35 points a week.  There’s nothing in my diet that makes it so I need to eat those points.

Here’s what I cut out:

- White Starches.  I do not eat white rice, regular potatoes (baking kind), white pasta, white bread, etc.  What I do is look at labels and see what kind of wheat is used in a starch product.  So, let’s say I’m looking at bread.  If the bread contains any wheat other than Whole Wheat, I don’t buy it.  I don’t eat it.  It also cannot contain any sugar or salt.  Nature’s Own whole wheat is a good choice for this, they also offer a sugar-free variety.  I eat red potatos, yams, etc.  Instead of white rice, I eat brown rice.  I also eat Whole Wheat pasta.  NOTE:  This is NOT Whole “grain” pasta or bread, it’s Whole Wheat.  There is a difference.  I’ve discovered that if you will cook the whole wheat pasta or brown rice about twice as long as required by the package, it is more likely to have the consistency of traditional rice or pasta.  This also includes cereal.  Cereal just isn’t a good option for this way of eating.  The only cereal I have in my menu is shredded wheat, and that’s for a snack, not a meal.  Also, tortillas.  We are under the misconception that tortillas aren’t ‘that bad’.  Ahem.  Flour tortillas are a white starch.  Corn tortillas are made of corn, which is another bad starch.  Tortillas are a no-no, kids, sorry.  There is a whole wheat variety that is pretty tasty, especially if you can get them freshly made.

- Sugar:  This is VERY hard to cut out.  I’m a tea drinker with sweet, flavored creamer and sugar from way back.  I had to entirely change how I drink tea.  I don’t eat sweets at all, no cookies or cake, nothing.  The only thing I can really drink at Starbucks is a Green Tea Latte (nonfat, I like it iced!) since I don’t drink coffee.  That’s okay, though, I love green tea.  I don’t eat any sugary cereals at all.  Fruit is hard for me, but I eat the Lite Canned peaches or pears from Del Monte pretty regularly.  They have minimal sugar in them.  I also was told by my trainer that we should not eat more than one serving of fruit per day.  Did you know that fruit is a carbohydrate?  Nice.  I read the labels on everything and you’d be suprised what has added sugar in it.  Bread, chips, vegetables, etc.  It’s rather shocking, really. 

- Salt:  Firstly, there is no salt shaker in my life.  There is no season salt.  There is no cooking with salt.  No salt.  Secondly, I DO NOT eat any frozen food other than meat.  I do not eat Lean Cuisines or other frozen meals, they are packed with sodium.  The reason I eat frozen meat is because it’s the best way to buy fish.  Fresh fish is frickin expensive.  I get it in bulk at Sam’s.  I eat no canned food save for my peaches and pears.  If something has over 400mg of sodium per serving on the label, it doesn’t come into my house.  Very rarely does anything with over 300mg of sodium get used, but I will admit that we have the Prego Heart Healthy in our house for spaghetti sauce.  It’s over 300mg, but I only eat it on the rare occasions.  It keeps my boys happy. 

-High Fructose Corn Syrup:  This is probably the hardest thing to cut out.  It is in EVERYTHING.  HFCS is in soda, it’s in bread, it’s in cereal, it’s in canned food, it’s in barbeque sauce, it’s in mayonaisse, it’s in ketchup, it’s in EVERYTHING.   I looked through my cabinet and threw out all the sauces except for the A1.  Seriously, this stuff is everywhere.  My trainer says it’s the reason Americans are so overweight, because this crap is added as a thickener or a sweetner to 95% of our processed foods.  It’s disgusting.  I don’t eat anything that has this in it.

So, what do I eat?  Fresh, fresh, fresh.  I buy fresh spinach, salad greens, mushrooms, and other veggies in bulk at Sam’s.  Every meal I eat has some sort of vegetable in it.  I buy meat in bulk and divide it up into meal-sized portions.  I only buy the 97% fat free ground meat and I only eat that once a week.  Also, because of cholesterol concerns, I only eat shrimp once a week.  The rest of the time it’s fish or chicken breasts.  I only eat fruit once a day and try to keep carbs to a minimum.   I try new recipes from the Core list all the time.  I try to never let it get stale.  The cookbooks are great and most recipes can be altered to fit into the Core lifestyle.  I cook everything in Pam or in olive oil.  It helps get those healthy oil in and it’s pretty tasty, too. 

Oh, and about Core.  I know we get an extra 35 points to ‘play’ with.  This would be a time when most folks would have something sugary or salty, whatever.  I don’t do it.  Why?   Sugar is a /weightloss inhibitor/.  That means that eating that cookie can stop your body from metabolizing the fat as quickly.  Having that soda will force your body to focus on breaking down the sugars instead of breaking down the fat.   Also, never, ever do I put something salty in my mouth.  Salt makes you retain water.  It turns your fat into a sponge.  Imagine a plain sponge, fresh from the package, light and smelling good.  Then soak it in dishwater.  It gets bogged down, heavy, and smells greasy.  That’s what fat does when you add salt to your body.  It soaks up the water and makes you heavier.  This is why I don’t eat the extra 35 points.  It’s not an excuse to eat what you want, it can be a blocker to reaching your goals. 

Exercise, exercise, exercise!  I cannot emphasize enough the importance of exercise.  I’m very, very lucky to have a place to exercise under the supervision of a trainer at my job.  Extremely lucky!  I know that.  However, I have come to understand how important exercise is to weightloss and good health.  It gets your blood moving in your veins.  It makes your heart pump harder.  It gives you this awesome rush you can’t get from food or drugs.  It’s just amazing.  I’m not doing anything that I couldn’t do at my local 24 Hour Fitness or even in my home to some extent.  I can run around my neighborhood.  I can power-walk around my neighborhood.  Weights are cheap these days as are walking shoes.  And there are a kabillion different videos that we can use to exercise indoors on those cold, hot, rainy, snowy days. 

The biggest question I have gotten is this one:

“Is it hard?”

Do you want me to lie?  Okay, then no.  It’s easy.  It’s simple.  Just do it.  No problem.  I love eating greens at every meal and never having my Cap’n Crunch Berries for breakfast anymore.  It’s perfect!

Okay, so that’s bullshit.  It’s the hardest thing I’ve had to do in my entire life.  At this point, it was easier to do this when I first started than it is now.  Now I’m tired of the food, I’m tired of exercising all the time, and the last thing I want to do is have to cook my lunch for work every day.  It SUCKS.  I have alot of bad food days where I feel like I’m gagging down my breakfast.  I would KILL for a pizza right about now and ye gods, I miss Coke so bad I might assault a small child on his way out of the local Sonic to steal his soda.  It comes in waves.   However, I also craved my healthy omlette on the way home from my meeting on Saturday. 

However… that doesn’t matter.   You know what would suck worse?  Heart disease.  Hypertension.  Cancer.  Struggling to breathe going up a set of stairs.  Looking like a sausage stuffed into my bodice during festival.  Always having something in my clothing poking or pinching.  Sore feet.  Back pain.  It all sucks more than this.

There are things I believe I will never eat again.  Tortilla chips, for example.  Jelly.  Fish sticks.  French fries.  I honestly think I will never have these and other foods in my body ever again.  However, I know that one day I’ll be able to eat tortillas with my fajitas again.  I know I’ll be able to have one roll when we go out for Italian food.  

And this… this change of lifestyle.  This new menu and way of eating.  This exercise thing.  This makes me /feel/ good.  I can’t explain it.  I have energy.  I just enjoy MYSELF even more.  I love hanging out with me.  I am always in a better mood.  I laugh more.  I like how I look in the mirror.  I like to be in pictures.  I like to go out and play.  I love to do things for other people and don’t even think twice about doing them anymore.

I had dinner with an old friend who I hadn’t seen in about five years.  He looked great, he had lost weight as well, and it was the first time he’d ever met my significant other.  As we were finishing up and giving farewell hugs, he said to me, “It’s good to see you happy.  I know you weren’t happy for a long time and now, look at you!  It’s been a long time coming.”  Made me feel about a million times prouder of myself than I’ve ever been.  Strangely, it took me a minute to realize that yes, I am happy!  I mean, sure my brain still goes a million miles a minute picking problems out in minute details because, hey, I’m a Sagittarian.  We do that.  However… wow.  Yes, I’m happy.  I’m proud of how I look, of who I’ve become, and who I am with.  I asked my sweetie, “So, am I looking good?”  His response was, “You look better and better every day.”

The ‘how’ isn’t as important, I think, as the ‘Why?’  So why did I finally do this?

I did it because, dammit, I deserve it.