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Beatrice lost 84 pounds

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Today’s featured weight loss story: Beatrice lost 84 pounds by working out and eating right.  She was inspired by her brother’s weight loss and decided to lose the weight after a wakeup call from her doctor.  Here is what she shared with us:

Beatrice weight loss story

“Hi, I would like to share my story. My name is Beatrice.  Exactly one year ago I started my weight loss journey. I went from 268 pounds to 184 pounds and from a size 24 to a size 10.  I did it by working out and eating right. I would love to be an inspiration to others.

My motivation was hearing the doctor tell me that I gained 40 pounds in five months. I couldn’t believe how that happened and was ashamed at myself. Also, my brother lost about 130 pounds and he motivated me.  I was also motived by being able to button a size 22 pants.

I stopped eating salt, fast food and processed sugar.  For exercise, I began walking around the park and playing tennis 4-5 times a week for the first 3 months. I lost 36 pounds.  Then, I joined a workout group at church where we do intense cardio classes 4 days a week.  The people there are so motivating.  Also, I lift weights at home and still play tennis during the day.

My advice to others is to have encouraging, motivating people around you. Keep a food journal so that you can monitor what you eat and how much you eat.  Also, drink lots of water and eat lots of protein. It’s hard work but at least you can say that you did it the right way and you will learn how to keep the weight off for good. It’s not just for the moment but it’s a lifestyle change.”

5 Reasons You Should Start a Food Journal for Weight Loss

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food journal benefitsMany experts and nutritionists encourage people to keep a food journal when they are trying to lose weight. There are so many tools out there like FitBit, My Fitness Pal and the Lose It app to use as mobile or online food journals.  Unfortunately, most people understand this to mean keeping obsessive count of calories and using the journal to prove how they lack any self-control in keeping to health eating habits. However, a food journal can be one of the most positive tools for change in your life in terms of your daily diet and other areas like stress eating. You will be surprised to learn how much of your actions and reactions in daily life are food centered or affect your eating. The more you begin to pay attention to the details of your eating habits, the better you will be able to understand your motivations and stressors that affect emotional eating.  You will also see the things you need to stop eating.  The following are 5 reasons you should start a food journal for weight loss.

Reason # 1 – Keeping Track

A common saying is that weight loss is 70% diet and 30% exercise. A better way at looking at it is wellness is 60% diet, 25% exercise and 15% self-care habits. A self-care habits include things like how much sleep you get and how regular it is, what you do for fun and social activities and things that affect your mental health. All of these things will influence your ability to keep to a healthy eating and exercise plan. In your food journal, track the foods you eat and their calories, but also keep track of your exercises, moods and self-care habits. The goal is to create a food journal for weight loss that also provides you with insight to your whole life.

Reason # 2 – Understanding Habits

Review your food journal every week and look for patterns. If you see that you easily keep to your healthy habits for most of the week, good for you.  Most people will find opportunities to change for the good. Chances are you will discover that you are becoming unbalanced in another area of your life or dealing with social or work stresses that cause you too seek relief from through food.  It can also be that social events make make it easy to abandon to your diet disciplines. A night out with friends can mean bar food or dinner at a buffet which never makes weight loss easy. Figure out what is surrounding the choice you make to not stick to your diet goals.  Habits = What you do daily = lifestyle.

Reason # 3 –Changing the Habit

To make a food journal effective for weight loss, you have to take your understanding about what influences your choices not to follow your diet and work to change your habits. The key to this is to start small. One of the best things to try is the 20 minute rule. Wherever you are, and whoever you are with, the rule is that you get to eat what is on your plate but then you have to wait 20 minutes before having anything else. It takes 20 minutes for the body to register that it is full, so give yourself time. Another good habit to get into is to check out the menu for where you are going to go eat online first. Pick some healthier choices so you have them in mind before you get there. It will be easier to stick to your diet when you are hungry if you have already made a decision about food choices when you are not.

Reason # 4 – Discover What You Don’t Eat

Another good reason to start a food journal for weight loss is it will reveal what you don’t eat. People can overemphasize calorie counting and miss the fact that they are nutritionally deprived. One of the leading culprits of this are the 100 calorie snack packages. They make for easy recording in your journal and can help you maintain your calorie goal, but look at what they contain to see if there is enough nutrition in it. Make it a goal for the next week to add in more calories from the foods that are missing to bring more balance into your diet. Focus on fiber, vitamins and nutrients like protein.

Reason # 5 – Creating Positive Power

The most powerful reason to start a food journal for weight loss is that losing weight is a long and difficult road. While you may see rapid and visible loss in the beginning, as you begin to get down to the fats that are harder to shed, keeping up your motivation can be hard. Use your food journal to create positive reinforcement by showing yourself all the times you make right choices, and how far you have come.

5 Simple Ways to Help Your Body Release the Weight

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5 simple ways to lose weightWith all the fad diets out there, weight loss seems like a complicated formula that requires multiple factors in order to be efficient. In reality, weight loss is simple since it occurs when less calories are consumed than taken in causing a calorie deficit.  Sure there are other factors like body mass, illness, overall health, lack of exercise, etc…but what you eat and how many of those calories your body uses is a key factor to weight loss.  Though this formula seems straightforward, many individuals still face a challenge when trying to try those pesky pounds. Here are 5 simple habits a person can adopt into their lifestyle in order to help in their journey to losing weight.

Drink More Water

A body is made up of mostly water; therefore it is essential to ensure a person stays hydrated. Dehydration can result in fatigue, nausea and a person mistaking their thirst for hunger. A wonderful habit to form is to start every morning with a glass of water, to restore hydration after a long sleep. A person should drink water throughout the day, and keep a bottle of water with them, especially when working out.  The body will use fluids to help flush out toxins and regular body functions.  You also will be less likely to make the mistake of eating when your body is telling you it wants food and giving what may feel like hunger pains or food cravings.

Consume Less Processed Food

Processed food is not exactly food, but more of a science experiment that resulted in something that is convenient and tasty. Looking at a processed food’s label, will have an individual scratching their head when trying to understand what all the ingredients are, and why they are in their food. Most of the ingredients have names that are unpronounceable and are purely chemicals. Since processed food is not quite real food, after consuming, an individual is left quickly feeling hungry again, so they end up consuming more.  Eating nutrient rich real food will help you stay away from this dilemma.A great habit is to swap out processed food for fruits, whole grains and vegetables, in order to consume the proper nutrients and feel satisfied. Instead of relying on convenient snacks from the vending machine, one should pack their own snacks. For example, almonds are a wonderful snack to pack since they are packed with protein and curb hunger.

Exercise Regularly

Exercise is vital in not only in helping a person achieve their weight loss goals, but also for their entire well-being. A person should try to get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day. This is an easy habit to form especially if the exercise is something fun and different. Though a gym is convenient, exercise does not need to always be performed on machines in order to be efficient. A person should do something they enjoy, such as a bike ride, a walk during your lunch break or going for a hike. Exercise is necessary for both the body and the mind, so it should be a fun experience, not something to dread daily.

Try New Healthy Recipes

There is a wide variety of recipes to try, so a person should not feel obligated to eat boiled chicken and spinach every night. Healthy food is delicious, and trying new recipes will also bring excitement to the preparation and cooking experience. There are plenty of resources for finding new recipes, from the Internet to a variety of cookbooks.  Do a google search for some of your favorites and find healthy versions of some of the high calorie foods you love.

Write It Down – Keep Track of Your Eating Habits

Weight loss is a uncomplicated formula, energy out must be more than energy in. A top reason this formula appears not to work is an individual will consume more calories than they thought. Most serving sizes are quite a bit smaller then people assume, leading them to eat more than thought they did. A key weight loss habit is for a person to write down everything they ate that day, and include serving sizes. A person should invest in a food scale, in order to properly measure the correct serving size of the food item.

Action Steps: What Can I Do to Stop Emotional Eating?

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Mindless munching when when tense, sad or nervous.  Finding comfort from a frosted brownie.  Bored and wandering through the kitchen over and over again. Does this sound familiar?  These are all examples of emotional eating. Emotional eating happens when we are bored, depressed, nervous, happy, tense or sad, instead of when we are physically hungry. Usually, the food chosen is carbohydrate and fat rich as those are the foods that activate the pleasure sensors of our brain and create dopamine. The release of dopamine makes us feel good, but only for a short while, then must be repeated. As one can imagine, this pattern can wreak havoc on a healthy eating plan.

Many people are prone to this type of behavior occasionally, but if it is a pattern, there are steps that must be practiced to break this cycle and get back on the road to healthy pattern.

It is helpful to keep a food journal for a week or more. The record should include feelings and situations that occurred before you had unplanned eating binges. Looking over these notes should bring some insight over what triggers emotional eating for you. Times of day can also trigger desire for food, so it is important to keep a detailed journal. Armed with this information, one can make a plan to battle the situations that trigger emotional eating by planning how your will react to the stimulus that is making you want to eat.

At first, one will have to be very aware and have a rigid plan in place. Food Planning: This could mean all food for the day is portioned out in the morning (or the night before) for the entire day.  We are talking meals and plenty of healthy snacks.  This will create a boundary of sorts. The rest of the kitchen is off limits. Later, as one adjusts, they can just have an eating plan on paper and check it off as they go through the day. If a certain time of day has been problematic, then the need to be doing something else which makes eating an impossibility. Arrange to be out of the house or on the go if necessary. Make it a rule to never have food in the car. In fact, all eating should be done only at the table. Put down a full place setting. If desired, make an occasion of it spread a pretty cloth and maybe a single flower in front of your place and put on some music. Make it enjoyable.  Concentrate on the food and how it is nourishing your body. After all, that is the real reason for eating. This will eliminate the unconscious overeating that multi-tasking while eating causes.

Despite having a plan, sometimes that uncomfortable, restless urge strikes and comfort food is crying out. Have a list of activities that don’t involve food. First, acknowledge the feelings that are behind the desire for food. Then pick from your go to list. Perhaps a hot luxurious bath is in order. Dance, draw, read or get out of the house. Mow the lawn or wash the car. Listen your favorite song or write in your journal.  Build new habits to distract yourself and over time, these new activities will become increasingly automatic.

Patricia lost 100 pounds

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Today’s weight loss success story: Patricia lost 100 pounds.  She says that she used to live to eat and now she eats to live by keeping a food and exercise journal, choosing to clean up her diet (she is now Vegan) and exercise.  Another Zumba lover!

“For so many years I’ve struggled with my weight. I tried almost every fad diet on the market, you name it I tried it! I did lose some weight but never could keep it off, gaining what I lost back and then some. At my heaviest I weighed 255 lbs., wearing a size 22. Today I am 100 lbs. lighter! I’m happy, healthy and fit. I used to live to eat, eating made me feel good! Now I eat to live and living makes me feel Fantastic!!!

How I did it: First, I changed how I thought about food and approached exercise. I kept a food and exercise journal charting what I ate and when I exercised. I was then able to see my mistakes, right there in black and white. I made a drastic change to my diet by eliminating meat, fish and dairy products. I’ve been a vegan for over 2 years now and making that change alone was very instrumental in my initial weight loss, along with sticking to a daily exercise routine that consists of weight training, cardio, and I like to mix things up by taking classes such as kickboxing, spin, tabata and now Zumba, my new love!!

I’m on a mission and dedicated to living and maintaining a healthy lifestyle and I love every bit of it!! It wasn’t or isn’t easy by any means, but the hard work and dedication is so worth it!! I’ll be 43 years old this November and my new goal is to find the perfect dress to wear in a size 6!!! If I can do it GOD knows anyone can!!! Choose to live is all I say, and I choose to live.”

Patricia weight loss

February Challenge – Clean Eating / Food Diary Challenge

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For the month of February the Black Women Losing Weight sisterhood will focus on and commit to 3 main GOALS:

  • We will commit to “Eating Clean”.
  • We will keep a food diary of EVERYTHING we eat for 3 WEEKS – Feb 4 – 24, 2013
  • We will commit to exercising 5 days per week for a minimum of 45 minutes per day.

february goalsThis month is all about really looking at the food we are putting in our mouths and being able to make food choices that work in favor of our weight loss and health goals, not against them.  People tell me all the time about how they are working out consistently and not losing weight.  They tell me about how they have added green smoothies and more fresh fruits/veggies to their diet but they have not dropped pounds.  Most of the time, the issue is that they have not stopped eating highly processed foods, sugary foods and food that is full of trans-fats.  This month we will work to clean up our eating habits and make sure that our exercise efforts are not hindered by our diet.

How do you join the challenge? – You are committing to actually DO what is outlined in the challenge goals above and to check-in on our online community (as a blog post or status message on your profile) or on our Facbook page EVERY WEEKEND.

  • WE do this to keep one another accountable to our collective commitment.  
  • We also do this to get support from others and give encouragement to those who are on this journey to health and wellness with us.

What is Eating Clean?

When you eat clean you will be eating unprocessed, whole foods that are prepared or cooked in ways that don’t add extra chemicals and toxins.  We are talking  about fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, lean meats, meat substitutes like tofu, soy, whole grains, lots of water, healthy dairy and fresh juice.  We will avoid fried food, fast food, junk food, bleached white flour, artificial ingredients, soda, commercial juice and sugary drinks, processed sugar (white sugar, corn syrup), and foods with preservatives, toxins, dyes, saturated fat, and trans fat.  You will likely be cooking at lot of food at home, making green smoothies, eating salads, looking for healthy snack, and really realizing just how healthy you’ve really been eating.

Here are some resources to guide you on the challenge:

Food Diary – Feb 4-24, 2013

For 3 weeks you will record everything you eat.  You can keep a journal for the whole month if you like.

Why?  Food is 70-80% of the weight loss equation.  You have to eat a healthy diet and commit to doing so as a lifestyle change to lose the weight for good.  Starving yourself or using quick fix solutions will work in the short term, but they can cause health issues in the long run and/or will lead to the pounds coming right back.

How do you keep a food diary?:  You can buy a 3-8 inch notebook and keep it in your bag to record your eating.  You could also create an online food diary instead.  How you want to record your food is your choice.  The key is to be consistent.

FREE TOOL TO USE FOR THIS CHALLENGE: I suggest that you use myfitnesspal.com (or as a mobile app) to easily track your eating DAILY.  We have a large group on MFP for Black Women Losing Weight members where you can connect with other Ladies who use the program.

  • You will keep track of what you eat and the amount of calories, fat, carbs, and sugar in what you are eating so that you understand what is really going into your diet.
  • You can find calorie counts on free sites like myfitnesspal.com and calorieking.com.

Exercise – 5 Days per week for 45 min per day

Be consistent with your exercise 5 days per week for a minimum of 45 min each day.  If you want to push yourself and do more, that is great, but let this goal be your baseline amount of exercise during February.  What you decide to do for exercise is your choice.  Walk, run, take a zumba class, dance around the house…you should do what you feel comfortable doing.   I will post videos and workout suggestions here on the blog during the month.

We can do this!  Please post your questions below.