My Weight Loss Story

    I thought I would bring to light and write about my experience on my health journey. It seemed to work best with this time of year with many people having resolutions to eat healthier or to go to the gym more. My weight loss story started back in spring of 2016. I was at the highest weight I had ever been at, 170 lbs. I was considered over weight for the height that I am which is 5 feet and 9 Inches. I was very self-conscious of my body. I knew though that I had a problem with how I ate food though. I would eat out a lot every week and would gorge on sweets. I over ate. I could even eat a whole foot long Subway sandwich in about 10 minutes. I felt awful and sometimes sick from eating the way I ate. At that time, I even really liked a guy who was pretty skinny and small which made me even more self conscious. I would obviously not recommend that you should try to loose weight because of a guy.I'm not perfect though and I have to admit that this was part of the reason I did it. After my 20th birthday was when it was all decided. However, I started off the wrong way. I tried those fad diets that was supposed to make you loose 20 lbs in 30 days. Ha! Yeah, bad idea. But I did learn right away that this was not the answer. First, I recommend finding inspiration. I started watching Youtube videos on loosing weight and found that dieting is not good enough. It was about making a forever healthy life decision. It was about 80% diet and 20% working out. Youtube and Pinterest helped in seeing people do it the right way, getting recipes, encouragement, and work out ideas.  I knew I could do it, I just needed to realize that it was going to take a while to get to the weight that I wanted. 
    Okay first, lets talk about a healthy diet. Looking back, I would recommend taking one thing out of your diet at a time. Anything that would basically be the easiest first. I started with gluten for a while, then dairy, and then non natural sugars which is the hardest one in my opinion. I still struggle with that one. If you do it all at once though, its going to make it harder. I also gave up soda completely and started going out to eat a lot less. Thats another thing, you should be drinking a lot of water and remove sugary drinks. With water, it depends on how much you weigh but I will drink two of my water bottles. (I can't remember how much it held...) Just be careful to not drink to much. It causes your body to not obtain the nutrience from your food like it should. Another thing was shopping and getting rid of certain foods. I took everything that was outside of the healthy life style I wanted to pursue in my pantry. I didn't buy anything junk food related. It would just cause me to be tempted to just eat the whole thing. It will be expensive when you first get started though. You're basically replacing most of the food you already have. Well, it was that way for me at least. When it comes to food ideas, you will find that there are so many options. You just have to make, try, and find what you like. Also, you do not need to eat salads everyday. I hated salads getting into this and found many other things to eat. Though, I later loved salads and found healthier and taster ways of making them. Lastly, go to your local library or search Pinterest. Some Youtubers even have videos dedicated to sharing recipes. Honestly, your meals can be simply just some kind of meat and veggie with some seasoning. 
     Another thing is working out. I know, most of us don't enjoy it. I absolutely hated it at the time. But start small. Start just walking. Then fast walking and then do a little bit of running once you feel like the fast pace walking becomes easy. Once it gets easy, you need to be pushing yourself to go further. You don't have to be a runner though. I didn't do straight running for a really long time. I mostly did fast pace walking/running and workouts at home. Its really up to you! Do workouts that you know you would most enjoy. Now, I love running, biking, and hiking. I mostly stick with those. Another suggestion, is maybe getting a workout buddy! It could help you feel more motivated doing it with someone else. You guys can talk and compare what you are currently doing/eating. I had a friend at work that I was able to talk to about my journey and we would workout once a week. Just to also be clear though, I don't work out everyday since loosing weight is mostly about what you eat. I usually work out 2-3 times a week. One last thing that could help, would be maybe making goals for yourself in this area! I did this in the past when I first started and it helped keep me going. Even now, since I love running, my goal last year was to do a 5k. Which I did!  I loved it and want to do it again hopefully this year! 
    Please don't feel discouraged if you do not see results for the first few months! This is normal. So keep going! Don't give up! You should hopefully see some changes eventually. The other thing to discuss is weighing yourself. This was the most discouraging thing. Another thing I learned was not to do this either. See when you gain muscle from working out and loose fat, your muscle actually weighs more than your fat. So you may weigh yourself and just feel like you never accomplished something.  This is where measuring yourself comes in. Keep track of measuring certain parts of your body each month. You will see more results. I should say that weighing your self isn't necessarily bad. I would do it once and a while to just see out of curiousity of where I was at. 
     Before I talk further into my journey, I need to warn you to be careful in pursing to loose weight. I wish I could go back and change some of my ways in thinking because I started having not a good heart about it all. I made my weight loss journey the main focus in my life in summer of 2016. It was a idol. All I could think about is what I ate and how I looked. I felt guilty if I hadn't worked out or if I ate something outside of my diet. I pushed my self more and more. What I saw in the mirror was never good enough. I then kind of had a wake up call that summer when I was running in some woods. I had tripped at some point and sprained my ankle severely. I was not able to work out the way that I had did for a while. It could take up to a year for it to fully heal which it did. This was so hard for me. Everything I had worked for. I realized after though that I had made my thoughts so wrapped around what I looked like instead of keeping my focus on God. Its good that you want to take care of your body and feel good but when it comes to the part of taking over your life, there is a heart issue. A good verse to look back to when you catch yourself doing this, is 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, "Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body." Looking back I see that the sprained ankle was a good thing even when it didn't feel like it in the moment. As we know, God brings hard things in our lives to bring us closer to him and sometimes just to wake us up. 
    Moving on after all of this, I basically just kept going on in eating well and working out. It took about a year to get to my goal. I believe I lost at least 30 Lbs. I also didn't let food control me. I cheat. I let myself get that burger and fries and ice cream. I am not going to feel trapped in healthy eating my whole life. Because that just sounds miserably. I found healthy recipes that I love but I also have freedom in not restricting myself. Once you keep going in eating better, it becomes easier. The longer you stay away from certain foods, you will no longer crave them. It will also be easier to say no. If you need any help getting started, please let me know! I would love to talk! I want to finish saying, again at the end of the day it is not about the dieting, looking your thinnest, or being able to wear a size small, its about feeling your best and taking care of your body. You don't have to keep making resolutions at the beginning of the year and then it only last for two months. You can just start whenever. Don't put it off and make a plan. 


-Simply Liz Rose