Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Part 1: Losing Weight (The Tools)

On Monday I hit a pretty big milestone. After four and half months I hit my goal of losing 45 pounds. (Now on to the next goal!) :)


I've had a lot of friends ask me what I've been doing (and how I've lost it) so I thought I'd try to write it out. Turns out I like to talk. I'm dividing it up into a few parts.

Part 1: The Tools

Back in the middle of September I started two things.

  1. Keeping track of the calories I put into my body. Everything! Every single bit.
  2. Tracking my workouts. 

Only this time I didn't just start, I've been able to stick with it. 


Logging in my food:

I signed up for a free calorie counter called myfitnesspal. So did my husband (more out of support and encouragement for me). I also downloaded the app on my phone. (I LOVE this app.) And I use it diligently. Because sure if I decide not to log in my food it doesn't show up on the counter but it still shows up on my thighs.

Logging in my workouts:

Secondly I went searching for a website I could use to figure out how far I went jogging. (Which literally my first day I went a whopping .62 miles, and I was so proud of myself. We all gotta start somewhere.) I came across MapMyRUN which I fell in love with. I liked it because at the beginning I knew I'd be doing a lot of running but this site also let me log and keep track of other workouts too and to me it was a big motivator to see my workouts, done, on a calendar. 

I'll go into more depth about both of these in my other posts, if you're interested, but plain and simple I am losing weight because I am burning more calories than I'm consuming. Bottom line.

Read Part 2 here.
Read Part 3 here.

13 comments:

The Damsel In Dis Dress said...

You look amazing!

Olivia Carter said...

And you look FABULOUS!

Amber said...

Good for you and it's awesome that you are doing it the old fashioned way (no shortcuts!).

Jenni Elyse said...

You look fantastic! You should definitely feel proud because it's not an easy thing to do! Way to go!

Barbaloot said...

Good for you!!

Rochelle Brunson said...

You look great! Congratulations!

Suey said...

I seriously hate logging the food I eat.. and I even tried myfitnesspal. But, I'm thinking that truly is the secret... one of them anyway. I will try harder! I will!

Congrats on the losing.

Unknown said...

You look fabulous!

Shanda said...

You've always looked GORGEOUS, but now you are healthier, too. Congratulations on achieving your weight loss goal!

Victoria said...

Totally AWESOME. GO YOU. What is the next goal?

Why Not? Because I Said So! said...

You look great Debbie! Nice job! Keep it up.

Heidi said...

I'm glad you're blogging on this. I like your last comment about BOTTOM LINE: burn more calories than you consume. Like Amber said, "no shortcuts". It frustrates me when people try over and over to loose weight but refuse to do something as simple and obvious as tracking their calories. I'm very very curious to know what you think of Weight Watchers vs what you're doing now and why this is working and that didn't. I'm also curious to know what place you feel exercise has in the whole equation. I think some people feel like adding a few workouts without any diet changes will do the trick. Also what motivates you to exercise when calorie counting is such a big factor.

Amber Lynae said...

You are so AWESOME!! Thanks for sharing... it truly helps motivate me. I have been losing too. I discovered Myfitnesspal through another friend and when I do keep track I lose. When I am bad and I don't track it shows too. You make me want to be strict by seeing how great you have done.