The Ugly Truth of Weight Loss

I know everyone struggles at one time or another with their weight. I would even go as far to say that the majority struggle with losing weight. That's where I'm at right now. Last week I started a health challenge and I was weighed and measured. Based on the measurements I have 33% body fat and my starting weight is 180lbs. Talk about depressing. Working out is a hobby of mine and something I love doing but this challenge isn't about working out...for me that's the easy part. The challenge is about changing my eating habits. With this challenge I am counting my macro nutrients by grams, I'm counting my carb intake, protein intake, and fat intake. If you're not sure what that's about check out the website http://www.iifym.com/iifym-calculator/ . This will help you learn more and to see how many macros you need each day. It sounds confusing at first but it's supposed to be a flexible way of dieting. And thankfully the lady who did the calculations for me broke down how many grams of each I'm supposed to have by each meal. That really helped me more then by day.

It's been 1 week since I started all of this. And I must say I'm enjoying this type of tracking. I was able to eat gluten free cake yesterday guilt free because it fit into my macros that day. And it also helped that the slice was the size of my finger but I still enjoyed it guilt free. And I know I shouldn't weigh myself often but I need to see results if I'm going to make it another 9 weeks. You heard that right, that means 9 more weeks of no drinking. So I get on the scale and surprise surprise I'm down 3lbs already. And I hate to admit this but the ugly truth to weight loss is, it really is all in the food we eat. I heard my coach say today, "You can't out lift the fork." Which is so true. I have been on this yo-yo weightloss journey for 2 years now and I don't just walk around the block 6 times as a workout. I'm working my ass off each day I'm there at the gym, which is usually 4-5 days a week. And the only time I see results is when I am doing these nutrition challenges and I stop all my bad eating habits. I cut out drinking, eating late at night, snacking, no candy or chips. And what do you know it works. It sucks that it works because I really miss wine and chips and salsa.

I'm hoping that by learning this new way to track my food will help me in the long run and not just in the next 9 weeks. I have been searching for a diet plan that will leave room for the good stuff in moderation. So far it's been good. Definitely better then sticking to paleo or whole 30.

And like any good challenge I took before pictures because that's where I usually see the best results. I hate posting them but at this point I don't care. Maybe all my up and downs will help inspire someone some day.