How I lost 94 Pounds in 1 year and kept it off!

This is a series of blogs about how I lost 94 pounds in 1 year , and have kept the weight off for 9 years now. I don’t call it dieting, I call it a lifestyle. I am sharing my secrets to my transformation from 224 pounds to 130 pounds.

The first secret to weight loss is all mental. You literally have to train your brain to eat healthier, and smaller portions. Let’s not fool ourselves, I was eating meals like a man. I was not picky, unless it came to eating veggies (LOL). I had no portion control, I wasn’t counting calories, or fat, I was just eating. I had to recognize that and begin training my mind to tell my body I was not hungry eating smaller portions.

Every time I ate a big meal, I felt bloated and uncomfortable. I did a lot of reading on what typically causes this feeling and the two causes were overeating, and having a high carb diet. To begin with, you have to choose a nutrition lifestyle change you can live with. I had tried to live my life by eating fewer calories and watching my fat intake to no avail. I chose the low-to-no carb route, specifically I cut out all bread, pasta, starch, and non-essential sugar-filled foods.

Cut Every Meal in Half:

Change your nutrition habits and train your mind to be ok with it. That is literally the first step. It all started with portion control. I didn’t focus so much on what I was eating, instead I started off by controlling how much I ate.

Even with this lifestyle change, I had to train my mind to eat smaller portions. This was before I introduced my body to the no-to-low carb lifestyle. It is crucial to train your mind and body to crave less. You will want to continue snacking and eating because you will “feel” hungry, but fight those urges and drink more water. Trust me, it helps. If you have eaten a half portion, but you still feel hungry, just drink a glass of water. Dehydration can mask itself through hunger.

I started this journey by cutting every meal in half. I ate half of a fully cooked meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner…and then had some left over for a meal later in the day and the next day!

Intermittent Fasting:

Intermittent fasting is a weight loss technique where you only eat during a specific time period every day. Common methods of intermittent fasting include daily fasts lasting 10, 12, 16, 24, or even 36 hours.

During the fasting period, you eat nothing at all. You can drink water and black coffee, but no food. I do a 12:12 aka 12 hour fast from 9pm-9am every day. Once your body runs out of stored glucose, around hours 8–12 of a fast, our bodies shift to using stored fat for fuel.

If you are able to surpass 12 hours, your body goes into ketosis. At this point blood glucose is very scarce. Your body is now buring stored fat instead. This leads to the production of ketones, an energy source that comes from stored fat. The process of using ketones for energy is called ketosis. Now, your liver is burning fat instead of carbohydrates.

There are various fasting methodologies and practices. Here is an article that explains it all, and helps you determine the best intermittent fasting practice to follow.

Eat with Nutrition in Mind:

I also had to train my mind to be strong when it came to the content of what I was eating.

Learn to love veggies!! (I had to introduce the word vegetable into my food vocabulary too, so don’t feel bad). I will let you in on a little secret to my success with eating raw veggies. It started with these AMAZING salad mixes called “Taylor Farms” (pictured below). You can get so many raw veggie combos. I shared some pics with you below. They are delicious and very nutritious/filling. My hubby and I split a bag with lunch and dinner now daily. I prefer eating these over going out to eat, and the dressings they come with are delicious as well. They really helped break me into the world of the veggie. Now I eat it all, well, I still don’t eat raw tomatoes, but other than that, I chow down on my veggies daily!

Cheese crisps, almonds, and walnuts are your best friend! Baked Cheese Crisps should be on your shelves for this lifestyle. Parmesan Cheese Crisps are a delicious, low-to-no carb snack, but every grocery store chain has a brand of cheese crisps…some (like the ones pictured) are no carb! They have become my go-to when we are traveling. You can also easily make your own cheese crisps. I will share that recipe later.

Nuts like almonds and walnuts are lower carb, and can be eaten in moderation for a little snack. Keep in mind that nuts like cashews are not only higher in carbs, but they are also so tasty they are hard to stop eating. Also be mindful of buying nuts with no salt. Salt will make you retain water along this journey and make you feel bloated. You will get used to the bland taste of unsalted nuts. Throw in some cheese crisps, low-salt beef jerkey, and you have yourself a fantastic little snack combo.

Learn to LOVE soda water! It took me a few cases, but eventually soda water (carbonated water) replaced my need for soda/pop, and helped me fulfill my 64+ ounces of water intake daily. You need to hydrate, and hydrate without sugar content. Stay away from zero sugar products for the first few months.

NUTRITIOUS CHEAT!!! You don’t understand, I was a CHOCOHOLIC! That was the hardest thing for me to stay away from. These CHOCXO dark chocolate, coconut, almond, sea salt snaps are the most amazing thing that has happened to my new lifestyle (pictured below). You can have 2 snaps a day for 6 carbs…not bad!