HAVING PROBLEMS STARTING TO ADOPT A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE?

I can fully understand how difficult it is when you begin to change so many things about your life at once.  At first eating healthy, tracking my food intake, and exercising was a lot to deal with especially since I had never did this in my life successfully before.  I began to walk several minutes a day at first which was not too bad since it was very short distances and I did not track or eat all that healthy.  This does take time and will not automatically happen overnight so patience definitely plays a huge roll in adopting a healthy lifestyle.  So as I mentioned earlier I began to walk daily for a few minutes which was a great start since I was not doing anything before.  I would then eat like I always did which was not too healthy at all.  Eventually what happened was that I felt like the exercising was not doing much good since I was not eating healthy.  I finally started to get tired of exercising daily without losing a single pound.  As time went by I slowly began to eat healthier foods and that was when I noticed that I was starting to lose weight which was a great feeling.  So if eating healthy, tracking your food intake, and exercising on a daily basis is just too much to change all at once then I would highly suggest that you start out by walking for a few minutes each day!!  

THE FIRST STEP IN ADOPTING A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

A great way to begin the process of adopting a healthy lifestyle is to write down everything that you eat during the day.  This may take some time to get used to doing but it's a great way to track exactly what you are eating every day.  The reason that I do this is so at the end of the day I can look back to see what I ate and if it was really necessary.  You can also look back on what I call my food journal to see what you ate on successful days when you are struggling which can help to get you back on track.  A lot of times we will eat when were not really hungry at all and writing down what we eat will stop us for a moment and let us think to ourselves if were eating because were hungry or for other reasons.  4 years later since I began my weight loss journey I still write down everything that I eat every day which has helped to keep me on track.

DROP THE WORD "DIET" FROM YOUR VOCABULARY!!!!

For most of my life I have been overweight and have tried just about every diet that there is unsuccessfully.  Yes I have lost hundreds of pounds over the years on different diets but have gained the weight back that I lost plus more.  This has been very discouraging for me and I've realized that diets do not work because they deprive me of eating foods that I enjoy which made me want to eat those foods even more.  Also in the past I have been an exercising fanatic and was doing an incredible amount of exercise that was impossible to maintain on a daily basis for the rest of my life.  4 years ago I learned to drop the word DIET from my vocabulary and understood that I needed to adopt a permanent healthy lifestyle change.  This involves both eating healthy and exercising on a daily basis without depriving myself of eating foods that I enjoy!!    

A FEW TIPS ON EATING HEALTHY AT BUFFETS

Eating at buffets had always been very difficult for me in the past because I felt like I could not choose what I could eat.  I would just grab a plate and go down the line of food and whatever looked good I would slap on my plate not thinking if the food was healthy or not.  Over the past four years I have learned how to eat healthy even at buffets which I thought was next to impossible in the past.  What I now do before grabbing a plate is to walk through the buffet and scan over everything to see what healthy foods they have available.  I then grab a plate and usually start at the salad section and make a nice healthy salad with lots of vegetables and low calorie dressing.  After I eat my salad which usually fills me up quite a bit I go back with a clean plate and get some healthy foods like fish, chicken, steamed vegetables, and lean cuts of meat.  If I'm still a bit hungry I then go up for my dessert and get some fruit like honeydew melon, cantaloupe, strawberries, grapes, watermelon, etc.  After eating the fruit I am very satisfied and know that even though I went to a buffet I made smart choices and had a very healthy meal.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BOTH EATING HEALTHY AND EXERCISING TO DROP WEIGHT PERMANENTLY!!

As I began my weight loss journey over 4 years ago I tried to just eat healthy and thought that's all it would take for me to drop weight.  I would lose a pound then gain a pound and became very discouraged until I began exercising on a daily basis.  As I have mentioned in past blogs I started by walking for 5 minutes a day and then gradually increased the time I would walk everyday.  I increased the amount of time I would walk about once every week or two depending on how comfortable I was with increasing the time.  Once I began doing this I noticed a big difference in how much I would lose on a weekly basis.  I also realized that every week as I weighed in I was either losing weight or maintaining my weight loss which let me know the importance of both eating healthy and exercising on a daily basis.

ACTIVITIES THAT I NOW ENJOY DUE TO MY WEIGHT LOSS

Since my weight loss I have been able to engage in physical activities that I have not been able to do since I was much younger.  When I was younger I used to golf 18 holes, lift weights, play basketball, baseball, football, soccer, snow ski, and stand for long periods of time at concerts just to name a few.  About 8 years ago when I began to gain weight I was unable to enjoy these activities that I have done since I was very young.  As the weight started to come off I slowly started to enjoy these activities once again.  About one year ago when I reached my goal weight of 210 pounds after dropping 230 pounds I have been able to enjoy all of the activities that I did when I was much younger which is a great feeling that I'm very proud of.

THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF LOSING WEIGHT I NOW HAVE

Before I began on my weight loss journey I was having medical problems and wanted to lose the weight so that I would become healthy and put many many extra years back on my life.  I was having bad back pain, knee problems, achy feet, shortness of breath, and sore legs when walking or standing for short periods of time. I also was a borderline diabetic, had high cholesterol, high blood pressure, a fatty liver (due to being obese), and had elevated triglycerides from eating unhealthy and being inactive.  About 3 years later after I had lost 230 pounds I no longer had body aches and pains and all of my blood tests came back to the normal range which made me incredibly happy.  I have now kept the weight off for over a year and still do not have any body pains or aches and all of my blood tests are still coming back in the normal range.