Growing up I was always very thin. Even as I sit here today at the heaviest I’ve ever been, most others consider me to be a little “thick” but overall still on the smaller end of the spectrum, average at best. During my adolescence I hoped and prayed for weight gain. My goal was to have thighs that touched and for men to look and me and proclaim “Damn girl you thick than a mofo.” Alas these days have arrived and there is nothing more that I’d rather do than drop 20 lbs and keep my thighs in their own respective spaces NOT touching one another LOL. It’s time to hit the gym.

I started back going to the gym in the fall and I’m not as consistent as I’d like to be, but I’ll get there. I struggle in the beginning to get going but once I start seeing results it pumps me up and makes me want to go harder. Probably my biggest challenge with losing weight is eating. I love to eat and I love to eat all the things that your aren’t supposed to.  I know how to eat well, cut out simple carbs, increase fruits and veggie intake, and portion control, but the lure of chocolate, pastries, and Harold’s 6 wings with mild sauce are almost too much to resist.  Darn you yummy morsels of delicious calorie filled foods…

One of my friends and I were discussing weight loss and she asked me what my game plan was for weight loss and my response was “Nothing.” Now for many of you that won’t work but if you’re like me the pressure of stringent rules and regulations on food will make you want to go on a binge eating fest of everything you’re not supposed to. SOOO, to help you out I’m going to share with you what has helped me over the years when I have lost weight.

1. Take your time!!! – Don’t put the pressure on yourself to lose weight immediately. You didn’t gain it all overnight you won’t lose it that way either.
2. Treat yourself don’t cheat yourself – Don’t starve yourself of the things you enjoy just limit the amount and frequency of it you have. For example, eat 3 wings with mild sauce twice a month rather that 6 wings every week.
3. Stay away from the scale- Yes you want to k now how much you way but weighting yourself too often can cause you to become obsessive and can become a negative thing. Besides muscle is more dense than fat so you can be gaining muscle and losing inches. I much rather focus on how my clothes fit. Shoot I don’t know about you but my main goal is to look great naked… and be healthy too I guess lol
4. Aim to learn– Over the years I have learned some things about food and eating properly is truly a science. Rather than obsessing over if what you eat will make you fat strive to learn what foods are good and bad for your body and why. Being told to eat complex carbs and not simple carbs means nothing if you can’t tell the difference between the two or understand that the complex carbs will burn slower and are more filling that simple carbs. Health is important and skinny and healthy are NOT synonymous.
5. Have fun – If working out and eating well is not an enjoyable experience you won’t keep it up. The aim should be to change your lifestyle and for the weight loss to be permanent not just a short term change that will merely become a memory
6. Lastly, give yourself grace – While on your weight loss journey there will be peaks and valleys, sometimes you’ll lose, sometimes plateau, and there will even be times you fall off the wagon and gain. It happens; you won’t be the first nor last to do it. Just dust yourself off and give it another go eventually you’ll get there.

Hope this helps some of you on your respective journeys whether you’re at the beginning or the middle. (((Huggies)))