Down by 5!

You know how everyone finds a diet/workout/eating plan that works for them? I'd never found that.

The first year I was in business and working from home full time, I went to the Y every morning and worked out HARD. Hard for me at least. I'd run 2.5 miles twice a week, lift, do the elliptical, stair stepper, etc. Never lost a pound. It was so frustrating. The only reason I kept with it was because I kept thinking One of these days, it'll all just start falling off...it didn't. Then I found some workout classes I liked - step aerobics and kickboxing. So I started doing those. Still nothing. Then I stopped going to the Y because business had picked up and I didn't have time anymore. No change. Didn't get fatter, didn't lose anything.

Going to the gym was worthless for me.

I guess the reason I gained the weight in the first place was the simple fact that I got married. I don't think I changed anything else about my lifestyle. The extra 15 pounds must've happened simply because I was now co-habitating with a boy.

Adam and I keep trying and failing to lose weight. We'll eat healthier! Starting Monday... We never stuck with anything.

BUT ALAS! I've found it! We got iPod Touches on our trip to Washington state in April, and we found this app - Livestrong. The basic idea is the same as calorie counting, but it makes it so easy. (Sorry I couldn't find a more exciting graphic.)

Here's the basic idea. You start out by making a profile: your height, weight, how active you are, how much you want to lose per week. You gotta be truthful and realistic in your goal, otherwise it won't work. Every time you eat something, you search for that food, and the app has virtually every food in every brand that you can think of. So you plug in what you ate, and it keeps track of all your calories for everything you plug in. And it tells you how many calories you have left for the day.

Now, sometimes you can't resist, and you have to eat more than your allowance for the day. No problem, there's fitness aspect to it too. One day, I was over by 80 calories. There's a place to keep track of your exercise too. So I typed in some sample things I could do into the fitness part of it, and found out that I needed to do 8 minutes on the elliptical to burn off those 80 calories. We have an elliptical at home, I ended up doing a little more than 8 minutes, so I ended up being under my calories for that day!

Another day, I REALLY wanted ice cream in a waffle bowl. I did 20 minutes on the elliptical, lifted weights for 10 minutes, then I ate my ice cream and gained back all the calories I'd just worked off. It was worth it. I didn't have to feel guilty.

That's the best thing about this - I don't necessarily have to eat healthy. I still get my 32 oz Dr Pepper from QT in the afternoon, I just have to make sure to allow that into my calories for the day, and since I use that as my mid-afternoon snack, I'm good to go!

I've lost 5 pounds! 

And counting. Couple this with the fact that Adam and I have decided not to eat out this month, and I think that's why we're succeeding. He's lost like 7 pounds as well. In addition, we're keeping track of our weight each week by writing it on one of our bathroom mirrors so that we see it every day, which keeps us accountable.

You don't have to have an iPod, you can go online by clicking here and it's the same thing. 

DO IT. It works. :)