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Oh my gosh – this post is wayyy overdo. I am sorry it’s taking me so long, I sat down to write it out a hundred times and just wasn’t able to hit publish. FULL DISCLOSURE: This isn’t a lose weight fast post, it’s not sponsored and I paid for absolutely everything I am sharing with you in this post. So here goes! I am sharing I Lost 120 Pounds In Two Years (Here’s How I did It).
Just a little backstory, I was super tiny when I got married ten years ago. My weight gain was caused from lots of stress and over eating. I can say I was 100% addicted to food and didn’t know how to stop. Some people don’t eat from stress, I did. Fast forward to 2017, I was 240 pounds and was so disgusted with myself, I felt ashamed to even look at myself in the mirror. I tried just about every kind of diet out there and was never successful. There were certain ones that I lasted more than a few weeks, even a month but would go back to my normal binge eating when I felt like it was too hard.
I remember chatting with a really good friend around November 2016 who had been doing Weight Watchers that year. She was in love with the program and had been seeing amazing results. Now I knew about the program, but never really dug deeper to see what it’s really about. So I took some time to research about it online and one of the first things that stood out at me was that they don’t restrict any foods. Everything is there for you to enjoy but it’s all about balance and portions. (I had ZERO sense of portions and would eat and eat until I was super full.)
So January 2017 came along and I decided that this was going to be my year. This was the year I was taking my health and well being back into my own hands. I was 100% sold on starting WW, the only thing was that a few friends and I decided to do the Whole30 for the month of January to kick start our health. I decided that I would do the Whole30 for January and then start WW in February. I lasted just a little more than two weeks on Whole30 and I had to stop. I was noticing that my mood swings were out of control. I had headaches and I felt depressed. I wasn’t allowed to enjoy cream with my coffee in the morning (and if you know me at all, that’s something that I look forward to very much in the morning!) So I switched over to WW the next day. (I don’t have anything against Whole30, it just wasn’t for me!)
I was sooo excited to start WW and be able to have cream with my coffee again! But with anything new, it takes time to learn. I dug deep into the WW app and learned as much as possible about the program. I started out with 25 points. So if you are not familiar with WW, every single food as a points value. For example, a granola bar could have 7 points where a serving of healthy popcorn has 3 points. You may use your points however you like! But it really gets you thinking about what you put into your body. Want a McDonald’s meal? Go for it! But you will most likely not have any points remaining for the day.
Weight Watchers doesn’t only help you lose weight, it helps you achieve a healthy balanced lifestyle. It teaches you about serving sizes and offers thousands of recipes with how many points each serving has! It’s something that you can easily do even when you have a family because nothing is “diet food”. You can make your family what you eat and vice versa because nothing is off limits!
WW has hundreds of “zero points” food. For example, fruits, veggies, eggs, chicken breast are all included. If I knew I was going out for dinner one evening, I would eat foods from the zero points list so I could feel good about eating out!
Have family favorite recipes that aren’t on the app? No problem! You can create your own recipes in the app by adding all the ingredients and how many servings and it will calculate the amount of points each portion has.
There really is no “secret formula” on how to lose weight! It’s quite simple actually. Even though WW doesn’t count calories, the points add up to the amount of calories you need to consume in a day to lose or maintain weight. So it’s really all about calories in vs calories out.
About 6 months into my WW journey, I started to workout. I don’t recommend starting both at the same time as it can become overwhelming and easier to give up. I started by taking walks around the neighbourhood then that led to running and slowly I worked up to taking spin and kickboxing classes as well as HIIT workouts at home.
Here are some more before and after photos!
Before
After
I always had these snacks on hand for when I was craving something sweet or savory
Shop:
Tips and tricks I learned along the way:
Drink enough water. I struggle with this sometimes and I find adding a bit of lemon and lime or even some fruit to my water helps so much.
Drinks Teas! ( I used to hate teas) but I found a couple I enjoy. This helps for when I want to eat in the evening out of boredom.
MEAL PREP, MEAL PREP, MEAL PREP. I can’t emphasize this enough! I absolutely love skinnytaste.com for her amazing recipes and she even has the points for pretty much everything posted. It doesn’t matter if you work in an office or at home, meal prep is key because it will stop you from grabbing something that is quick and easy (which will most likely not be the healthiest). I meal prep every Sunday evening. I also make a huge bowl of salad that is kept in the fridge and so easy to grab and go!
Snacks. I found that when I had more snack laying around the house, I was way more tempted to nibble on them. So I got rid of all my unhealthy snacks and made my own! I love making my own granola bars (like these ones). They have healthy ingredients with no added crap and freeze so well! I do buy healthy snacks from Amazon that I can leave in my car like these DAILY FRESH HEALTHY MIX , SEAPOINT FARMS SEA SALT DRY ROASTED EDAMAME or these delish LOW CARB PROTEIN PUFFS. I can’t tell you how many times having a snack in the car during traffic or busy errands days saved me from the drive thru window! Check out this post for more Weight Watchers snacks I love.
Attending parties, weddings/showers: I used to try to avoid these types of events because I was always afraid they would throw me off. But I started to fill my plate with fruits, veggies and proteins and get full of off those and then indulge in a bit of carbs and sweets. By the time I got to the sweets table, I was totally fine just having a little treat instead of filling my plate!
Don’t think of this is a diet. It’s not! It’s a lifestyle change. It’s OK if you fail! And guess what, you probably will, I did! What’s important is not to dwell on it. Get up the next day and act like it didn’t even happen. Just move on.
Use up your daily points. I used to find it satisfying when I was left with a few points at the end of the day. But it’s very important that you use them all! Don’t think of it as a “good thing” for not using them. You body needs fuel and you were given your amount of daily points for a reason.
Don’t over do it on the fruits. So I know fruits are zero points, but they still have sugar in them. I stuck to 1-3 servings per day.
Don’t worry about the scale. With WW, you do have to weigh in, but because I did it all online I actually threw away my scale. I went by the way my clothes fit and how I felt. The scale can be deceiving! I weighed myself before I started and only a few times in the last couple years mostly at my Dr Office!
I recently came across SAFE & FAIR Granola and I am absolutely obsessed. (and if you know me, you know I do not say that word often!) It’s seriously the best granola out there. They have several different flavors and my fav right now is the Birthday Cake. OMG SO GOOD! I have a discount code for you to use if you want to give it a try! I love it in my yogurt or as a snack right out of the bag. This is not sponsored at all, just sharing my love for it! My code is: “GRACEFULLYGLAM10”
I share a ton of food stuff on my Instagram! You can check out my highlights for inspo.
Here’s just a few yummy samples of what I share!
