Lazy girl diet and work out. How I lost over 50 lbs

        I am going to start by saying that I am in NO way an expert on anything let alone diets or fitness. This is simply what I eat and what I do for my work outs. I have tried a lot of different diets over my life, but I am honestly and truly too lazy to stick to most of them! I have 4 very little kids and I don't like cooking. I usually make one big meal a day that I eat when my husband is home (he is really cute, so I don't mind cooking for him) the other two meals a day I do something easy.

I hated the way I looked in all pictures before, but

 now I even take a few selfies every now and again!

 

      I know everyone is always talking about how we should all be eating 6 meals a day, but I only get to eat warm food twice a day once at naptime and the other at bedtime. Plus like I said I'm lazy and don't want to cook 6 meals a day! I try for 3 meals a day. I calorie count on www.myfitnesspal.com I like that I can still eat my favorite foods and lose weight! Without fail every time I tried other diets, cookies or my favorite coffee drink (aka coffee flavored ice cream in a cup) would always be something I couldn't have at all. The problem with that was that then all I could think about was cookies until I threw in the towel on the entire diet and binge ate 5 giant cookies and a large caribou cooler! Now I eat 1 m&m cookie from the Holiday gas stations and a small cooler no whip for breakfast at least once a week. As long as I make sure my other two meals of the day are healthy and low calorie then my whole day isn't ruined by me giving into my cravings. 

      Some of my favorite low calorie foods that are perfect for this lazy girl are lean cuisine meals from the frozen food section. They just came out with a whole bunch of new ones that seriously taste SO good! They are usually around 300 calories and I don't feel deprived. I can put the kids to bed and just pop it in the microwave. I'm also a big fan of soups, smoothies, egg whites with salsa and a little bit cheese, oatmeal, sun flower seeds and good old chicken with veggies. I try to stay away from grains and sugar as a whole too. It took a long time for me to not drink tons of pop, but now I only drink water or crystal light during the week. You look at high calorie drinks like mountain dew differently when it's sucking up all your calories for the day!
       Watching what you eat is the BIGGEST factor in losing weight! Working out is great, but you HAVE to watch what you are putting in your mouth if you want to see that scale go down. I try to stick around 1200 calories a day. I mess up on my diet a lot, but I have been successful because I don't let myself just give up. I get back at it right away. I  never let myself wait until Monday or even wait until the next day. When the guilt sets in after I have downed a gallon of mountain dew and hoovered a pizza. I make sure that the next time I am faced with food I will make better choices. I will not let myself go back to where I was, I will keep pushing on.

My workout clothes in the spring verses now. I loved those camo workout pants

 though, because I always told myself I'm going to war against my fat!

      My work outs have changed a lot in this last year. When I first started at the YMCA last year I didn't really know what to do. I started doing the elliptical and the stationary bike which would burn 100-200 calories in an hour. I got bored of that quickly and started doing research for what machines would help me lose weight. I typically stayed clear of the treadmill, because running is clearly from the devil and I want no part of that. But I read online that if you put the treadmill at an incline and just WALKED as fast as you could you would actually burn more calories than the evil running would. It took me a while to build up to the full incline, but now I burn 500 calories in 45 minutes just walking. The other machine I use for cardio days is the stair climber (not a stair master, very different) my friend told me to try it, because when she worked at a gym the Vikings football players always used the stair climbers. I tried it out, because if it's good enough for the Vikings it's good enough for me. The stair climber is always hard for me, but I feel so proud of myself when I hit a new goal. Losing weight makes you burn less calories doing the same exercises so I try not to set my goals to a calorie count, but a speed or a step count in a set time.
       Last spring I started going to the gym less and less, so my husband offered to help motivate me by going with me to the YMCA. He had a friend that went with us too and he introduced us to weight lifting. Weight lifting is definitely something everyone should be doing, it seriously makes so much more of a difference than just running endlessly on the treadmill. At first I had a hard time giving up my high calorie burning cardio days to have a fraction of the calorie burn days lifting weights. It is worth it in the long run though, because after you build that muscle it is just sitting in your body burning calories for you all day long! Also your body just looks better! I personally prefer a fitness models body verses a runway models body. I don't just want to be thin, I want to be strong and fit too! I like to follow female weight lifters on www.youtube.com to see how they get their bodies and www.bodybuilders.com is great for learning how and what to lift.
        The last couple things I would say to help you be successful are TAKE before photos! I didn't do this when I started out, I just couldn't stand the way I looked and would never let anyone take my picture. Now I'd love to have a photo so I could see how far I've come. I started taking photos every 5 lbs since the fall and it really pushes me to keep going. I love seeing how much my body has changed. Also record your measurements. I find that its helpful when I've been doing the work, but the scale isn't showing a change I can check my measurements and see that it has really made a difference. I measure my waist, hips, thigh, arm, and neck. The other thing you have to do is trust the process. This is science if you are making sure more calories are being burned than you are eating you will lose weight. I am one of those crazy people that likes to weigh myself every single day. Which as a female my weight on the scale has a mind of its own. Did you know that you can put on water weight not only when you get your period, but also when you ovulate? I gain 3 lbs when I ovulate and 5 lbs when I get my period. That can be super disappointing if I'm not aware that the number on the scale is not the real goal. The real goal is how my body looks and feels.

 

Same swim suit everytime.

        Make a goal and a deadline for you to achieve it by. Make sure you are making a realistic goal or you will only be discouraged. My first goal was just to feel comfortable in a bikini during my trip to Mexico. Now I have set up a mud run to do in September 2016 with my siblings to keep me motivated at the gym. 55 lbs is not the end for me. I am going to keep going and pushing myself to do better and be better. If you have any ideas of other goals to help keep me motivated I'd love to hear some! I hope this was helpful for someone. If anyone has any questions regarding anything just leave me a comment!
       

 

I am thankful for this man who looks at me the same no matter my size.

I am more than just my size, but I feel better in my own skin now.

How this Lazy girl lost 50 lbs

                 I am going to start by telling you my weight gain story. I gained my first 30 lbs after I had a miscarriage and dealt with depression. I gained the rest by 4 pregnancies in 5 years and debilitating postpartum depression in between pregnancies. Also a deep love for Mountain dew, pizza, and king sized candy bars played a roll in an almost 90 lb weight gain. I got to a place where I was uncomfortable in my own body. Not just uncomfortable in front of people or in front of my husband, but uncomfortable alone in my bedroom, with the lights off, in bed, and covered. I felt like I was wearing a fat suit. I avoided mirrors, wore baggy clothes, and I have zero pictures of myself at my full weight. I hated the way I looked and I didn't feel like myself. As a child I loved the way I looked so much that I routinely got in trouble for not looking at people when they were talking to me, because I was too busy looking at my own reflection on whatever surface I could. Embarrassing as that is, I miss feeling that good about myself. 

One of the only pictures of me when I was heavier. Again still not at my heaviest.

Pregnant with my 4th and not even my heaviest

 
            Anyways I was 90 lbs over weight and very unmotivated. After many years of depression I believed that I was too lazy to lose weight and that I didn't have the mental strength to not give in to temptation. I had tried to diet or tried to exercise too many times. I only lasted a couple days on anything I tried. So what finally gave me the motivation I was lacking for so long? Fear did, fear of the bikini.
             My husband and I had never been away from our 4 young children for more than a night. I wanted to go on a vacation some where warm. I set up a trip to Mexico for 1 week, one year away. My husband agreed to this with one stipulation that I had to wear a BIKINI while on vacation. He said he did not care if I had lost any weight or not. My husband has always been very thin and can eat whatever he wants. I weighed more than him as soon as I got pregnant the first time. I tried to explain to him how horrible a bikini would look on my current body. My stomach would hang out over my bottoms, all of my body would jiggle, and people would probably yell at me to cover up! He did NOT care. I am thankful that I married a man who called me sexy at every size I was at and even seemed to believe it!
            I quickly decided that I could not let people even strangers see my body in a bikini. I also didn't want my husband who was clearly blinded from love see my flabby body in direct sunlight and have his vision go clear. I got a YMCA membership in February and slowly started my journey. I have never been athletic in my life. In the 8th grade I dropped out of volley ball, because they made us run around the gym. My first day I couldn't even do level 1 on the elliptical. When I started out at the gym I was ecstatic to burn 300 calories in an hour. I went to the gym probably around 3 days a week. I also tried to cut down on how much pop I drank and stop eating king sized candy bars. By summer I had lost my first 20 lbs.
            During the summer I started lifting weights, but didn't watch what I was eating. I was eating a lot less sugar though, because I just didn't crave it like I use to. When fall came all the swimsuits went on sale, so I bought a few of the dreaded bikinis I'd be expected to wear in Mexico.
          I tried on a bikini and it scared me into action. I started using my fitness pal to track my calories and continued to go to the YMCA. I got serious about my weight loss in a way I didn't/couldn't before. I stopped drinking pop completely during the week which was such an addiction for me in the past. I stopped eating any candy and was able to avoid temptation on a daily basis. It took a long time and me trying again and again after failing again and again to be successful. It didn't happen over night and didn't happen all at once. I made small changes slowly over a year. No secret weight loss trick, just the same boring story. I watched what I ate and worked out. It really does get easier though! I still mess up, but I try to make sure more calories out then in. I've been known to go on the treadmill just long enough to be able to eat a cookie, but I am happy with my progress.
          When I started I had 3 goals. 1. Loose 50 lbs 2. Weigh less than my husband again after 7 years 3. Fit into the goal jeans I'd had in my closet with the tags still on for 5 years. Now I can say I have lost over 50 lbs. I weigh less than my husband. My goal jeans fit and I have finally removed the tags! I've lost over a FOOT in my waist. I feel pretty good about myself in those bikinis I was so scared of. Of course there is more I'd like to lose and I'm a far way from perfect, but I am much happier and healthier now!

 My goal jeans FINALLY fit!

These pants I wore at my heaviest and they were snug!

50 lbs down!

The before picture was taken in the fall. Hard to share, but I'm proud of how far I've come!