How I Lost 100 lbs. Part 1

This is a follow up to my last post detailing my life transition you can read about it here.

I've received countless comments and e-mails almost on a daily basis the last 6 months asking me how I lost the weight so I thought doing a mini blog series detailing exactly how I lost all the weight will (hopefully) be beneficial to you if you want to lose 5 vanity pounds or 100 pounds (like I did :)!

Before I go into the practical application steps that I took to lose weight I wanted to do a little background information.  I'm by no means a health care professional (so you should DEFINITELY consult your practitioner about starting a weight loss program!) but once I decided to make a change I realized I needed to do research how food effected my body.  

I am however married to a health care professional who also happens to be certified in Geriatric diseases (with a focus on diabetes & cholesterol) and now with him doing his MPH program.  We often discuss how Obesity is a is an epidemic that seems to be spiraling out of control in the US and is now officially the leading cause of preventable disease in America that has actually overtaken smoking.  Heart Disease has become the #1 Killer in the US now.

One thirds of the US is characterized as being Overweight and another one third is characterized as being Obese.

To put it into perspective I am 5 foot 5. 

According to the BMI calulator

At 150lbs. I am considered Overweight

At 180lbs. I am considered Obese

At 230lbs. I am considered Morbidly Obese

I was Morbidly Obese.

We really have NO idea how many calories we are SUPPOSE to be eating.  I mean I had NO idea.  I use the Mayo Clinic calorie maintenance calculator.  Essentially you plug in your age, weight and tell it how "active" you are.  I'll use myself as an example I'm currently 130lbs. 30 years of age and "Somewhat Active" It tells me that my "daily intake" = 1800 cal.  However if I was completely "Inactive" it's as low as 1650 cal! 

Seriously when I first put in my figures I was stunned and here I was sitting at California Pizza Kitchen (I'll be using a lot of chain restaurants because the nutritional info is easy to find online) and a normal meal for me would be:

Lemonade - 200 cals
Bread & Butter -100 cals
Spinach Artichoke Dip -1000 cal
Garlic Cream Fettuccine -1300 cals
Butter Cake ala mode -1400 cals

A whooping 4000 cals. for just one meal and I haven't even gotten to the rest of the day yet.  Now granted I wouldn't eat ALL of it by myself (although for the sake of total disclosure I actually HAVE) usually I shared everything but divide everything by 2 people and you're still at 2000 cals. and that's STILL over my daily maintenance guidelines by 200 to 400 cals!

Ok so you say 200 extra calories a day doesn't seem like a big deal right?  I mean that's like one serving of Chips (ok everyone be honest who actually stops at 1 serving??)

200 cals. x 365 days = 73,000 cals

73,000 cals divided by 3,500 cals (1 pound) = 20.85lbs a year!!!!

And as I stated above I was consuming just 2000+ cals in ONE meal.. this doesn't even include the calories from the rest of the day.

Broccoli

I wholeheartedly attribute the bulk of my weight loss to Broccoli.

It's packed with so much fiber I promise you will feel SO stuffed when you eat it and at 30 calories a cup you can eat as much as you want!

I know Kale is the ever so popular super food right now but I just can't seem to get full off of it like I do with Broccoli. You can read about the benefits of both of these cruciferous veggies here.

I add it to everything I eat

I'm not a health blog I don't toot myself as being "healthy".  I'm not going to live my life eating boiled chicken breasts w/ a side of Quinoa every single meal for the rest of my life. (Believe me I tried it and after 3 days I wanted to kill myself.)  The reality is I just love (comfort) food too much so I just trying to make slight changes when I can to things that I love to eat.

I love Mac & Cheese and before I would eat an ENTIRE plate of Mac & Cheese but now I'll eat a cup of it paired w/ 2 cups of Broccoli and maybe add in a little lean protein like chicken to bulk up the meal. That way I get to enjoy ooey gooey melty cheese over carby goodness and not feel deprived or feel like I'm "always on a diet".  The bulk of my meal is veggies & lean protein as opposed to a giant plate of refined carbs & processed cheese.  The problem with eating noodles, pasta, rice, potatoes especially big portions of it is that you're going to feel very hungry about an hour or two after consuming it.  And it actually causes you to crave more refined white carby/sugary things. AND white refined carbs has been known to the the culprit behind stomach bloat!!!  So with swimsuit season coming up if your stomach is feeling a little less than steller cut out the white carbs for a week and your stomach is going to be majorly flat within a week.. but I promise you'll feel it after just 3 days!

Most meals that you eat have 3 components - your protein, your veggies and your carbs. Now I think as a culture we've gotten a bit away from that and somehow along the way it morphed into predominately protein + carbs and no veggies.

Now think about it this way traditionally in history protein and produce were expensive so carbs were used as a filler to stretch out a meal.  Rice, Pasta, Potatoes what have you were used to make the little bit of meat a family could procure last for the entire family.

Well based on obesity statistics I would say as a culture we PROBABLY don't need anything to stretch out meals anymore.

So now it doesn't matter what I eat at home I subtract the "traditional" filler ie. Rice/Pasta/Potatoes/Bread and substitute broccoli.  If it's a steak and potato night for the Hubs I'll substitute Broccoli for Potato.  If I make Asian foods instead of rice I'll eat it with broccoli as my "starch".

I LOVEEE RAMEN.. and I eat it from time to time at home especially in the cold weather.  Well ramen is bad for you we all know and it's very high in calories.. one brick of ramen can have anywhere between 300 to 700 calories.  That's A LOT!  So to get around my ramen cravings I'll only use HALF of a brick of ramen, throw in 2 shrimps (extremely low calories!), 2 cups of broccoli and a poached egg.  I promise you you won't even miss the other half of the ramen and the broccoli will make you SO STUFFED!

When I first started using broccoli as a filler I bought and used fresh broccoli but I realized I was going through too much so I switched to frozen.  It's just as nutritious, stays fresh longer but it's a lot more affordable.  But the MAIN point is that it's ALREADY washed & pre-cut for you so there's NO excuses. You can just grab a bag from the freezer and pop the entire thing into the microwave to let it steam and in under 5 mins you have a healthy side. I go through roughly 8 bags of broccoli a week!  So you can see how much broccoli I eat. lol.

And finally broccoli is CRAZY GOOD FOR YOU.

It's been shown to prevent cancer, lower blood pressure, be heart healthy, boosts your immune system, improve eyesight, and improves bone strength.  

And if the inward health benefits aren't enough.

Then let me appeal to the vanity in all of us. 

 Broccoli aids in collagen reproduction essentially that youthful & supple skin we're all chasing after.... well when you hit 30 like me lol! It also promotes skin regeneration and repair which help give your complexion that beautiful "lit from within" glow.  And beyond that has anti-aging benefits to literally try and stop the hands of time!  

I get to be thin & have nice skin = win win in my book lol! 

Fruit

I never really ate fruit growing up.  I thought it was weird when people chose to eat fruit.  REALLY I DID. If I wanted something sweet I would reach for cake, cookies, a brownie ect. When I first started eating it it was actually a chore.  I had to TELL myself to eat it.  I MADE myself eat a piece of fruit everyday.  And then something amazing happened along the way I actually found that I now CRAVED IT.  I never noticed it until I went on a trip and fruit wasn't readily accessible and I found myself looking for a grocery store to BUY FRUIT. WTF.  

But the best part was that whenever I was done eating dinner I'd always reach for something sweet and now 9 times out of 10 I can satisfy that sweet tooth with a piece of fruit.  Bonus is that fruit has a lot of fiber and water. And a lot of times our body is actually thirsty however our mind misreads it as hunger.  So if I'm hungry in the middle of the day I'll reach for a piece of fruit and find that I'm both quenched and full afterwards.  

And something really awesome happened once I started eating fruit regularly because I was already washing, cleaning, peeling, coring, pitting fruit for myself I also simultaneously did it for my husband.  Every night while he studied he would mindlessly reach for chips, cookies, candy ect.  I'd would put a plate of cut fruit on the table and I found that he would mindlessly eat it.  Someone who's never been into fruits & veggies either ALSO started craving it.  And I realized when I was making the weekly grocery shopping list I was going down the snack food aisles a heck of a lot less.  I realized at that moment I wasn't just impacting MY health but I was impacting his as well.

Part 2 Coming soon! :)

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