For the past two weeks, I've been participating with a large group of police wives in a weight loss/get healthy program. Because I've been seeing results with it pretty quickly, I thought it best to share it in hopes that it helps someone else in my shoes (about 30 pounds overweight, unexplained infertility, and generally not really healthy).
Here are the rules:
1. No sugar. This is a big one. No desserts. No sugary drinks. No candy. Nothing of the sort. If you like, you can have one sugar day per week for which you won't be penalized, but other than that, no sugar. This is the hardest for me because I love ice cream, but whatever. I can still get my ice cream fix once a week, so I guess it isn't so bad.
2. No eating after 9:00 or within three hours of bedtime. This has ended all of my late-night snacking. It was so hard at first, but since I've been working it's gotten much easier since I'm not home alone as often. This limits my calories dramatically, since I was often eating dinner late and/or requesting mint chocolate chip milkshakes from our local fast food restaurants at all hours. No more of that!
3. Drink, drink drink! The goal is to consume 64 oz of water every day. Some days this seems like a lot, and other days it's not enough. If I'm not drinking anything else, it's not as big of a deal, but when I fill up on milk, juice, or diet sodas (which I hardly EVER do!), I have a hard time making this goal. In fact, here I am at 10:00 PM, and I still have about 32 oz to go. I'm definitely going to be getting up frequently tonight. Oh well. Serves me right for not drinking water all day!
4. Three vegetables and two fruits every day. Or substitute vegetables for fruit and eat all five servings of vegetables for faster weight loss. This can be hard if you're filling up on junk food or too many carbs, but it's definitely achievable. I won't lie and say I was able to do this every day, but I try!
5. Sweat! Work out for 45 minutes at least 5 times per week. This one is a struggle for me because my work schedule varies, and I don't have a lot of time some days. When I do work in the mornings, I'm able to hit the gym with my clients and get my sweat on before I'd normally even be awake. Working out in the morning helps with water consumption too, FYI.
6. Journal. I think this is just about being more aware of what we're putting into our bodies. It's been an eye-opener for me, and it definitely holds me more accountable when I'm keeping track of the food I'm eating. It makes it harder for me to "forget" that I didn't eat enough vegetables or whatever. It's also how I keep track of my water intake and exercise.
7. Contact. We get points for keeping in touch with the other ladies who are trying to lose weight with us! We need to get in touch with each other every day so we can hold each other accountable and help cheer each other on! I really like this part of the competition because we definitely help each other and have fun suggestions for workouts, healthy foods, and ways to get in shape.
8. Weekly weigh-in. I know, I know, nobody likes to look at the scale. At least nobody who's trying to lose weight. The only person who sees your number is the girl coordinating everything, and she doesn't post weights anywhere--just body fat percentages lost.
The way these rules work is that whoever loses the most weight wins $500, and the perfect points winners split the remaining $500 equally amongst themselves. Obviously we're trying to do this in a healthy way since we encourage all of these healthy habits. Someone who starves herself would win $500, but she wouldn't be able to sustain it, and what would be the point of that? We all just want to be healthier, and I think it's really cool that there are other ladies suffering from infertility who are participating too. We're all hoping that getting healthier will help our bodies work better and help us get closer to pregnancy. Even though I'm a month into my break from trying to get pregnant, we probably won't be going back for a bit. I've really been enjoying this break too much. We'll just see where things go, I guess! That's life, right? And whether I end up with twelve babies or none, life is so so good to me. Here's hoping I get back my body in six weeks!
Here are the rules:
1. No sugar. This is a big one. No desserts. No sugary drinks. No candy. Nothing of the sort. If you like, you can have one sugar day per week for which you won't be penalized, but other than that, no sugar. This is the hardest for me because I love ice cream, but whatever. I can still get my ice cream fix once a week, so I guess it isn't so bad.
2. No eating after 9:00 or within three hours of bedtime. This has ended all of my late-night snacking. It was so hard at first, but since I've been working it's gotten much easier since I'm not home alone as often. This limits my calories dramatically, since I was often eating dinner late and/or requesting mint chocolate chip milkshakes from our local fast food restaurants at all hours. No more of that!
3. Drink, drink drink! The goal is to consume 64 oz of water every day. Some days this seems like a lot, and other days it's not enough. If I'm not drinking anything else, it's not as big of a deal, but when I fill up on milk, juice, or diet sodas (which I hardly EVER do!), I have a hard time making this goal. In fact, here I am at 10:00 PM, and I still have about 32 oz to go. I'm definitely going to be getting up frequently tonight. Oh well. Serves me right for not drinking water all day!
4. Three vegetables and two fruits every day. Or substitute vegetables for fruit and eat all five servings of vegetables for faster weight loss. This can be hard if you're filling up on junk food or too many carbs, but it's definitely achievable. I won't lie and say I was able to do this every day, but I try!
5. Sweat! Work out for 45 minutes at least 5 times per week. This one is a struggle for me because my work schedule varies, and I don't have a lot of time some days. When I do work in the mornings, I'm able to hit the gym with my clients and get my sweat on before I'd normally even be awake. Working out in the morning helps with water consumption too, FYI.
6. Journal. I think this is just about being more aware of what we're putting into our bodies. It's been an eye-opener for me, and it definitely holds me more accountable when I'm keeping track of the food I'm eating. It makes it harder for me to "forget" that I didn't eat enough vegetables or whatever. It's also how I keep track of my water intake and exercise.
7. Contact. We get points for keeping in touch with the other ladies who are trying to lose weight with us! We need to get in touch with each other every day so we can hold each other accountable and help cheer each other on! I really like this part of the competition because we definitely help each other and have fun suggestions for workouts, healthy foods, and ways to get in shape.
8. Weekly weigh-in. I know, I know, nobody likes to look at the scale. At least nobody who's trying to lose weight. The only person who sees your number is the girl coordinating everything, and she doesn't post weights anywhere--just body fat percentages lost.
The way these rules work is that whoever loses the most weight wins $500, and the perfect points winners split the remaining $500 equally amongst themselves. Obviously we're trying to do this in a healthy way since we encourage all of these healthy habits. Someone who starves herself would win $500, but she wouldn't be able to sustain it, and what would be the point of that? We all just want to be healthier, and I think it's really cool that there are other ladies suffering from infertility who are participating too. We're all hoping that getting healthier will help our bodies work better and help us get closer to pregnancy. Even though I'm a month into my break from trying to get pregnant, we probably won't be going back for a bit. I've really been enjoying this break too much. We'll just see where things go, I guess! That's life, right? And whether I end up with twelve babies or none, life is so so good to me. Here's hoping I get back my body in six weeks!
