How I Lost the Weight

First, today's workout. 1.5 mile warmup on the treadmill.

Strength:
Bosu squats (10 lb db) 4 x 15 SS Stairs 4 sets

Plies (lateral squats) on Bosu 4x 20 SS Jumpsquats 4 x 20

Uni deadlift/rev lunge (8 bl db) 4 x 10 SS Pushups (bosu) 4x15

Rebounder (7lb ball) 2x15 SS Victories 2x10

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I have lost 15 pounds since November. I'm in the best shape of my life and alot of people have asked how I did it. It's really no big secret. I can tell you the one thing I didn't do and that is "DIET." No "Zone." No "South Beach." No "Atkins." No Grapefruit Diet, Slimfast, NutriSystem, or WeightWatchers. Nope. Sorry to all of those in the diet industry, but your diets are not how I lost the weight.

The first thing I did was purchase this book. ------------->>>

Sports Nutrition Guidebook by Nancy Clark, MS, RD. Reading the book, I was able to determine the healthy dietary requirements for my own body. Based on the fact that I was an endurance runner, I was able to guage my body's preferred ratio of Fats, Carbs, and Protein. (25%, 55%, and 20%) and yes, I am aware that it doesn't equal 100%, but I rarely meet my exact percentages anyway. These are just the goal guidelines. After reading the book, I discovered that I performed best when I ate at least 5 or 6 "meals" a day. I use the term "meal" loosely because it includes snacks as well. One of the first things I learned from the book, is that I could exercise till the cows come home but still not lose any weight. Which, of course, is why I was able to run thirty miles a week and GAIN weight.

I was running to eat.

I needed to change my philosophy.

I needed to eat to run.

Once I had the Guidebook, I purchased a program called FitDay. You can use the free online version, but for $29.95, I liked the extra motivation of having invested a little money. Using Fitday, I set up my own personal food journal. A typical day might look something like this:

At the end of a day, I could anaylize how I fared with the fat, carbs, protein ratio:

Fitday also has functions for tracking your weight loss, calorie restriction, activities, metabolism, and other fun stuff including the ability to easily add custom foods to the program.

So, really, for the cost of a book on sports nutrition and a $30 food log, I lost the weight by paying attention to what I eat. Nothing faddish here. Just good, solid, basic nutrition. An extra bonus is that my family is also aware of the things they eat too.

Of course, I have to give credit to my incredible personal trainer, Aaron, who is always on my case about my nutrition. Do I eat enough protein? Do I get enough fat? How much carbohydrates am I getting in my diet? And, it was Aaron's idea for me to log my food intake.

I just took it to the level of ANAL.