Wieght loss update

I know I'm in the middle of a move and all, but I need to tell you all about something very exciting. . .  I've lost 24 lbs since I started this process back in November.  

I've lost the weight that I gained from my pregnancy with Derrick, my pregnancy with Veronica, and Brandon's deployment to Korea.  Now I weigh the same as I did when I was 36 weeks pregnant with Charlotte and Lydia.  YAY for progress!

As of today I weigh 212 lbs.

This is really a big deal because usually I eat terrible while Brandon is away.  In fact before he left I weighed 215 lbs and then two weeks later I weighed 220.  I was not happy with how my progress was slipping away.

I decided to participate in another health challenge through Take Shape for Life,  I liked the accountability that the program gave me.  Plus it's a relatively simple program that is about so much more than just losing weight.  It's about building healthy habits.

So I paid the $20 and signed up.  About half way through the month I had a revelation about what I've been doing wrong all these years.  I've always thought that I could just exercise myself into a healthier and smaller body.  But guess what?  I'd have to literally run for hours to even lose a pound.  The key to weight loss is in what you eat.

I've heard that before but it finally clicked - if I wanted to lose weight I needed to eat fewer calories.  But I also wanted to stay full.  You may think it's impossible to stay full while eating fewer calories, but it's not impossible if you eat the right foods.  I already was eating really healthy, but I realized I was missing a food group. I realized that I needed to eat more vegetables - a lot more.

Vegetables are amazing because they fill you up so well and yet have hardly any calories.  There are literally 20 calories in 3 CUPS of lettuce.  Plus they have tons of nutrients.  And they are low glycemic foods so they don't mess with your blood sugar.

I started buying lots of vegetables.  I bought things for salads, I bought frozen vegges to have at lunch, I bought veggies to add to my regular meals.  And the weight almost immediately started coming off.

What's even cooler is that I wasn't exercising during this time.  Before Brandon left I'd started doing some weight training,  but after he left I was just too drained at the end of every day.  So I decided to do a little experiment to see how much weight I could lose from just eating well.  Turns out I lost 8 pounds in 4 weeks.  That's pretty impressive if you ask me.

Here are my before and after pictures.  They aren't the greatest, but I think you get the idea. (Getting a haircut and not taking a picture after giving the kids a bath helped too.)

I plan to do another challenge in June.  Let me know if you want to participate too - it's easy and it will really change the way you approach becoming more healthy.

I'm excited to continue making progress.