SOF (on Monday again)

OK I know I am late but I have a good excuse. The first is that I am a new aunt to a beautiful baby boy who was born a little before 2am on Friday morning and I was there for that so I was really tired all day Friday. Also Lil O and I have been sick all week which was not fun.  Then to top it all off I have had a very busy weekend, we ran around all day on Saturday and then Sunday was my mom’s birthday. So all of the excuses above are why I waited until today to do SOF. But I do have some Shout Outs!!! LaToya has really been on it she has lost 4 more pounds and for the first time she added some running to her walk, you go girl! Next is Ella, she has joined Brandon in his Nike Challenge and started running/ walking. On her first day she did almost 3 miles in less than an hour Congratulations Lady!  Randy has lost another 3lbs which gives him a total of 52.4lbs lost so far, keep up the fantastic work you are an inspiration. As usual I saved my best for last MH, he is down to 236lbs and might I say he looks GOOOOOD real Good! Way to go Ba! On to my part of SOF, my weigh in: I am kind of in maintenance mode but I really wanted to meet one last goal. When I set up the My Fitness Pal app it asked my goal weight and I put in 145lbs. I am happy to say that when I got on the scale Friday morning it read 145.6 which is 1.8lbs lost in the past week and 52.2lbs total. I am so happy that I met both the goal on Noom as well as the goal on My Fitness Pal before my birthday which was a really big deal to me. Speaking of my birthday it is this Thursday, November 10 and I am happy to say I will not be THICK and 30!

Maintenance

So I read this tweet the other day that was a link to an article. The article was about how more than 80 per cent of obese dieters don’t maintain their reduced weight after one year of initial weight loss. Apparently there are some types of hormonal changes that take place after you lose weight that slow down your metabolism but increase your hunger. This is like the perfect storm for weight regain. There was a study done and the participants in the study were given a maintenance diet to follow after they lost the initial desired amount of weight and most if not all of them regained at least half of their weight back within a year. The participants reported feeling hungrier after 1 year of maintenance than they did before they lost the weight. As I was reading this article I got a little discouraged because I am basically in maintenance mode right now and gaining the weight back is not an option for me. However I read another article that helped me refocus, the more recent article stated that the findings were true but that the weight regain can be prevented. I always said that this was going to be something that I did for the rest of my life. This meaning, counting calories, eating healthier, and exercising at least 4 to 5 times a week. I knew that after this weight loss I could not just go back to life as it was before. The recent article gave some tips on how to make sure you don’t regain. Some were like having a diet rich in proteins like lean meat, poultry, fish, and eggs. Plus a diet which contains low glycemic-index (GI) carbohydrates, which are foods like; beans, lentils, nuts, pasta, brown rice and sweet potatoes. Meals that contain low GI foods are believed to cause changes to hormones and metabolism that can decrease hunger and help you avoid overeating. The other tip it gave seems really simple, like a no brainer; weigh yourself regularly. The thought behind this is simply that if you weigh yourself at least once a week you can see and immediately correct any small increases in weight. You bought the scale so you might as well get your money’s worth even after you meet your goal. I am happy I came across both of these articles because I needed to have that seed planted that weight regain is possible and that I must prevent it at all cost. I know those articles helped me and I hope this post will help some of you.