On January 1st of 2014 my husband and I made the commitment to eat healthy and to lose some weight. While many of you may think we did this as a New Year’s resolution, that is only partly true.
The real reason we made this commitment is because we are older now & health problems are creeping in. On top of that, Jenelle is getting married on September 6th and we wanted to slim down & look good for the wedding.
Today I wanted to share some tips with all of you on how we are successfully losing the weight. Perhaps some of these tips will help those who are looking to do the same.
1. We now drink water or flavored water (we flavor it ourselves) as most of our beverages. We dumped the high calorie soft drinks, diet soft drinks, high calorie juices, etc. If we drink juice, we make it ourselves with our juicer.
2. Snack Food Weekends! We keep all of our junk food (snack foods) locked up until the weekend. When we do get it out on the weekend, we only have small portions in moderation.
3. Five days during the week we enjoy healthy snack foods such as granola, low-fat yogurt, low-fat polish ice, sunflower seeds, nuts, veggie sticks, 30 calorie whole fruit popsicles and fresh fruit. It took us awhile to get used to this…but now when we snack, we are going for the healthier choices.
4. Desserts! Oh my…we had dessert every day after our dinner for years. Just the way I used to cook & feed my man. For the past 6 months…we still enjoy desserts but ONLY twice a week and ONLY low-cal dessert options. One of hubby’s favorites is low-cal, sugar-free gelatin molds with fresh fruit and 5 calorie whipped cream topping.
5. Increased physical activity! This doesn’t have to mean working out & hitting a gym! We burn calories by staying busy with cleaning the house, working on home remodeling projects, gardening, yard work, taking walks through the neighborhood and so forth. If you are on the couch…you are not burning calories but storing fat. You would be amazed at how many calories you can burn by just walking around your home running the vacuum, dusting, doing the laundry, loading the dishwasher, cleaning the bathrooms, etc. Plus, our house has never been cleaner!!!
6. This next tip mostly applies to me since I work at home and on the computer. Every hour that I work online…I have to take a 15-20 minute break & get up and move around. During these break sessions I get up and do some cleaning, go outside & water the garden, whatever. Just as long as I am moving around. If you don’t take frequent breaks from the computer you are doing your body damage plus you are NOT burning calories. You are messing up your metabolism, so take frequent breaks!
7. When hungry and it is NOT meal time yet…we will chew on ice or drink ice cold water. A lot of time that is enough to hold us over until meal time. Hubby will also from time to time enjoy bubble gum…just so he is chewing something which curbs his hunger pangs until mealtime.
8. Just don’t buy it at the grocery store! If you don’t buy bags of potato chips, cookies, cakes, pies, doughnuts, boxes of ice cream, etc. It won’t be in your home to eat! When hungry, you will be forced to eat what is there!
9. Limit buying food out! In other words, we really cut down buying takeout and eating out in restaurants. When we do it now, we look for low-cal healthier options. The ONLY time we deviated from this was during our 2-week vacation.
10. Limit buying convenience foods! Frozen pizzas, lasagna dinners and other prepared frozen foods like Swanson’s Hungry Man dinners are loaded with calories & preservatives that your body doesn’t need! Heck, we saw a frozen burrito in the frozen section a few months ago that was 545 calories for one burrito! Are you kidding me?
Since adopting these tips and using them for the past 6 months, I have lost 17.4 lbs. and my husband has lost 38.6 lbs. Not too shabby for making the easy changes above!
AWESOME list! Going through your points you would think that they are obvious, but so many times I have found myself breaking them without even thinking. I have printed them out and posted them in my kitchen. And I don’t even need to lose weight – these are also fantastic tips for eating healthily. I woudl also add to your #10: don’t buy anything in a box, bag or can (ie processed) if it has more than three ingredients in it, or any that you couldn’t easily buy on your own.
Congratulations to the 2 winners.
These are great tips and I think the most important thing about the changes one makes is that you need to stick to them.. Sometimes that means make one change at a time and gradually add the rest.
Really great tips and advice. I really need to follow your rule about being on the computer and taking a walk around break every hour. I love water and iced tea with lots of lemon and I love salad. I have not been eating fast food this year and that has made a difference.
Thanks Heather! One of our downfalls was eating out way too much. Part of my job requires me to visit & try out the fare at new eateries around the city. I have been accepting LESS foodie reviews around town b/c most of the time I can’t find low-cal or healthy options on their menus. We have also limited our pizza eating to once every 4-6 weeks. Hubbs is Italian so we had to make pasta and bread changes which he has adjusted to over time. We eat a lot of salads but I watch what I put into our salads which can make salads fattening.
Our biggest tip is to JUST NOT BUY IT! If it isn’t in your house, it is NOT there for you to eat. Also, if you have multiple family members living together, YOU ALL have to make the change to eat healthier and to eat low-cal. It never works LONG TERM if only one member is doing it and the others eat whatever they want.
Congratulations to the winners and to you and your husband. Making these life changes are important but take time and commitment. Sounds like you have a solid foundation in each other and in your common goal. I am glad you are working together and achieving. Making changes like drinking more water (I flavor mine with lemon), limiting snacks and processed foods, and making sure to move are all important for your health and self-esteem. I’m sure you will look amazing at Jenelle’s wedding and feel great, too! Keep up the good work.
Losing weight is so hard, and worse as you get older. Our metabolisms seem to slow down and the hunger does not! Slow and permanent lifetime changes work best. But sometimes I think I just can’t eat much less, find time to exercise more, or keep my sweet tooth at bay!