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.