Move It Or Lose It January

The Scoop

Remember my “Move It or Lose It” series? Well I decided to do a monthly update this year. At the beginning of each month I will share my health and wellness. This is the first edition for of the year and covers what and how I did in January.

If you read my blog you know I turned sixty last summer. I’ve been boohooing all over the place about how I was gaining weight and the things I did in the past to lose a few pounds wasn’t working and aging was to blame.

At the end of December 2020 I could barely button my pants anymore. I realized I had been making excuses rather than doing the work. It all boiled down to, did I love food more than myself. I decided to get off the pity pot and do what I knew worked and drop the weight.

What worked for me you ask? Well it has always been to focus on one thing at a time and to start by controlling calories in. I would not think about exercise because for me exercise doesn’t work for losing weight. I am already very active and adding more activity doesn’t do anything but make me more hungry. So, first I set a goal date and then I figured out how many calories I would eat in a day that would give me a deficit and I counted every thing I ate.

My goal was to lose two pounds a week. Since I only got a certain number of calories I did things a little differently. I ate food high in nutrients, measured and weighed my food and made sure to fit in things I craved now and then. I also would substitute lower calorie healthy alternatives for things that I loved. For example, I would use almond milk instead of regular milk.

Sticking with my plan I was able to drop the weight (eight pounds) by the end of January. Proving to myself that I could do it and that I shouldn’t let my age be an excuse to not do things I really want to do. It was hard though, I will not lie.

What did I eat?

I found a meal plan that satisfied me most of the time. Believe me there were times when I could have killed for a pizza but I found my inner strength and powered through. But most of all if I got off track, I immediately let it go and got right back on track. I pretty much ate the same thing every day, except for dinners.

Breakfast

Almost every single day I made a smoothie around 10 AM. It was my way to make sure I got my daily requirements of fruits and vegetables and within a week or so I actually looked forward to my daily smoothie. I kept the blender on my counter where I could get to it easily. I didn’t want anything to be a road block.

My smoothie contained almond milk, nonfat Greek yogurt, frozen blue berries or strawberries, fresh spinach and protein powder. It was such a treat you would never know it was good for you! Maybe once a week I would have scrambled eggs and egg whites or a poached egg on an English muffin. I would skip the butter, put my egg on my toasted muffin and drizzle with honey and siracha. That is one of my favorite breakfasts any time, dieting or not.

By the end of the month, I would take a day off and have one meal of the day that was totally free. But usually I was happy to get back to my normal routine. I even found that I felt much better when I ate so healthily.

Lunch

For lunches I would have a curry salmon salad with Triscuit crackers, or I would make a dip of cottage cheese mixed with salsa and organic taco chips for dipping. Sometimes I would have cheese and Triscuit crackers. Always weighing and counting to stay in my calorie range. I might have on some days just a banana and a few nuts. I was surprised after a while how much I had been over eating. I was satisfied by much less. I would eat slowly and enjoy and be mindful of what I was doing.

A diet coke once a day would be my guilty pleasure.

Snacks

I learned that snacking was probably my biggest enemy. I quit them except for late afternoons when I would eat an apple or an orange. They are filling and kept me from getting too ravenous before dinner which was a weak point for me. I could blow it all at dinner.

What’s For Dinner

My husband is mostly vegetarian although he will eat fish once a week. So most nights I make diner to meet his dietary needs. I make lots of soups like Mexican cabbage soup, white bean and rosemary soup, vegetarian chili and lentil soups. I use Ancient grains in place of meat to give recipes the texture of meat. It is especially good in the chili I make. I use tons of beans, lentils, spinach, onions, garlic, kale, tomatoes, corn, carrots and more in almost every meal. I make vegetarian roasted red peppers, stir fries and things like that. I measure my servings carefully. About once a week I make fish tacos using Cod, homemade mango salsa and fresh thinly sliced cabbage on a flour tortilla. Lots of fresh lime juice and cilantro makes the tacos heavenly. We don’t do too much pasta and bread but I probably make a pasta dish once a week. I love asparagus pasta. A cup of pasta or most soups is all I need to fill full.

I love desert but cut them out except for occasionally. I found that a few chocolate chips at night in bed while we watched TV satisfied my sweet tooth. I like nice high quality dark chocolate chips.

Drinks

I participated in Dry January so cut out the wine and all alcohol for the month except for January 6th. Instead I drank a glass of sparkling water in a pretty glass each evening. I slept better and it helped cut out a few more calories. For now I am still not drinking but I am sure I will have a glass of wine or a fabulous Martini once in a while. I do love a nice drink and a mild buzz. Just saying. ha ha.

Pitfalls

This was not easy. It was a feat of determination. But with each pound lost I felt more empowered. It felt good to succeed. There were days when I about gave up because the weight just didn’t consistently drop. I would go down then up and then level off a pound at a time. Some weeks I lost one pound and the next I lost three. But it averaged out to about two per week.

Benefits

There are so many benefits from losing my extra weight. I used to be so tired after a meal and would often have to take a nap. My body would be working so hard to digest. Now I am full of energy and feel light. I used to have gas and bloating to the point of being extremely uncomfortable all day long. I would wake up fine but by noon I would be bloated again. Now I don’t bloat up or have gas. I didn’t really have joint pain before but I was stiff and didn’t move around freely. In the mornings it would be hard to straighten up. Now when I wake up I feel limber. I would have sleep interruptions before and now I sleep like the dead. I was waking up a little for a while during the month but figured out it was because I wasn’t exercising as much as normal. I have added back exercise and am back to sleeping like a baby.

What’s next?

Now I learn to maintain my weight and I start back to adding exercise. I love to run, hike, walk and do yoga. I need to work on building muscle. I’ll update you next month on what I decided to add back in and how its working.

Thanks for stopping by!

Peace!