Lose weight, get healthy, get fit. Whatever you want to call it, it’s consistently the most popular new year’s resolution. Although it’s never been my new year’s resolution, it is something that I struggled with for years. Like my blog on saving money, losing weight isn’t something that I achieved overnight. It took 5 years for me to go from an unhealthy lifestyle (and waistline) to a healthy one.

 

Packing on the Pounds

I never gained the freshman 15 and probably avoided it because I didn’t have the typical college experience. I didn’t party, drink, or change my diet much while I was in school. Yes, I’m a total nerd. After I graduated, so many things in my life changed, including my relationship with food.

I have always been quite petite and weighed only 98 lbs when I started working at Outback Steakhouse. A year into the job, I weighed in at 137 lbs. I more than made up for avoiding the freshman 15. I don’t think that eating at Outback was the cause of my weight gain; it was the social aspect of food that caused me to overeat. While working there, I made some of the closest friends I’ve had in my life. Since we worked in the service industry, our lives revolved around food and beverage. We got off work at 11pm, and the only places open that late were bars and late night restaurants. We were able to get food and drinks at a discount, if not free, because we worked in the industry. This made healthy eating even more difficult.

 

The Road to Weight Loss

Losing weight was hard! Anyone who’s tried knows how difficult this is. I wasn’t grossly overweight, but people would still comment on how big I’d gotten. I was also unhealthy. My blood pressure was borderline high, and my eyesight was 20/30, which REALLY bothered me because I thought pilots had to have perfect eyes. I tried many tactics to lose weight including P90X, Insanity, cardio, weight training, HIIT, high protein diets, low carb diets, intermittent fasting, juicing, vegan diets, and eating mini-meals throughout the day. 5 years and many failed attempts later, I finally dropped 30 lbs, gained muscle, and decreased my body fat 10%. And I’ve kept the weight off! My blood pressure returned to normal, and my eyesight returned to 20/15.

 

What I learned over 5 years of trial and error:

1. I had to figure out what worked for me.

If you don’t do it, it won’t work. Use a plan that fits your personality and lifestyle.

There are so many exercise and weight loss plans out there. The best one is one that you will stick to. Some people swear by eating 6 mini-meals per day, but I hated that technique. It was hard to find the time to eat frequently. Intermittent fasting worked for me because feeling full kept me satiated and worked with my schedule. When I ate multiple mini-meals, I would never get that feeling of fullness and would always have food on my mind.

P90X and Insanity are both great workout programs but didn’t work for me because I didn’t like working out at home. I would get too distracted and realized that being around other people motivates me. I was able to be consistent when I went to the gym because it’s what I enjoyed.

2. I could not out-train a bad diet.

Diet is the key to weight loss with exercise taking an important albeit smaller role. After cutting out high-calorie sugary drinks, I lost 10 lbs. I didn’t want to change the rest of my diet, so I tried to get back down to my normal weight with exercise alone. I started jogging regularly for 6 months but didn’t drop much weight. Why? Jogging 3 miles burned only 300 calories. If I had dessert or a cocktail, it would negate the time I spent exercising. It’s sooo much more time consuming to go to the gym than it is to say no to dessert. It takes 3 minutes to consume 300 calories but 30 minutes to burn it off.

3. I had to lift heavy to tone up.

The key to losing weight is diet, but the key to toning up is weight lifting…heavy weight lifting. I’ll start by choosing a weight that I can lift no more than 8 times in a row. When I build up to 10 reps, I know the weight is too light, and I’ll go heavier. I’ll do as many reps as I can (usually 6-8) once I go heavier, and that’s how muscle is gained.

I hate to say this, but all the “girl weights” that get placed in the women’s workout area didn’t work for me. Ladies: lift like the guys. Unlike the myths you hear, you won’t bulk up like they do. You don’t have the testosterone for it. I’ve been weight lifting for 4 years and have never come close to bulking up no matter how hard I train. It would be great to see more girls in the weight room instead of on the cardio machines!

4. I hate cardio but still need it.

I do cardio not for weight loss but for health. High blood pressure runs in my family, so it’s important to me to keep my vascular system healthy. I also learned that HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) helped me decrease my 1.5 mile run time way more than steady state cardio did. HIIT is SUPER tough if you do it right. It’s I can’t breathe, my heart is about to explode, and even my hair hurts type of tough. But, the gains make the pain worth it.

5. Maintaining weight loss required a lifestyle change (click here for my healthy living hacks).

It’s way too difficult to lose weight, only to gain it all back by returning to old habits. Many of us have not only a physical but an emotional attachment to food. If you can address your emotional attachment, dealing with the physical addiction to unhealthy food will be a lot easier.

I had to change the relationship I had with food to maintain my weight loss. I gained nearly 40 lbs after experiencing a big life change and food was part of the coping process. I had just moved back in with my parents after college and had just gotten out of a 5 year relationship. I didn’t take comfort in food itself, but I did take comfort in socializing, which revolved around food. I saw food, not as a way to nourish my body, but as part of making and maintaining friendships. After my life stabilized, I realized that my true friends would love me even if I gave up carbs and wine, and I would do the same for them!

Now, I see food as nourishment. If my body doesn’t benefit from its consumption, I don’t see it as food; I see it as a treat. Whenever I think of eating any treats, I think of it in terms of time spent on a treadmill. 100 calories = running 1 mile, and I hate running, so the treat better be worth the run!

6. Weight maintenance is a lot easier than weight loss

Weight loss is difficult because your body requires a deficit in calories to drop the weight, but once you’re at your goal weight, you can increase your calories during the maintenance phase (just don’t increase it to the point where you start gaining again). Muscle gains are the same way. It takes a lot of work to build muscle, but once you have it, the training gets easier.

It’s also hard to drop the weight initially because, your body develops a “set point,” which is a set weight that it tries to maintain regardless of calorie intake. It’s why you can overeat or under-eat every once in a while without gaining or losing weight. Your metabolism will speed up or slow down to maintain its set point. Think of your set point like your body temperature. Although you get a fever, your body always tries to bring your temperature back to 98.6 degrees. Now, an excess or deficit of calories over a long period of time can change the set point, so don’t give up too soon if you don’t see results. For more on set point, here’s an article by the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

 

The plan that worked for me

Jamie Eason’s LiveFit Trainer got me into weight lifting. It’s a 12 week program with 3 phases. Phase 1 focuses on weight lifting and building muscle. Phase 2 continues the weight training and adds cardio. Phase 3 focuses on HIIT while toning down the weight training. I liked it because:

1. I was able to do the workouts in a gym instead of at home.
2. She included instructional videos on how to use the machines and weights.
3. The meal plan was flexible. She recommends eating multiple meals throughout the day, but I was able to tailor the plan to work with my schedule.
4. I used what I learned from her plan for my maintenance gym schedule, which includes weights 4-5 days a week and cardio or HIIT once a week. I try to keep my gym sessions 30-45 minutes long.

LiveFit Trainer used to be free, but unfortunately, bodybuilding.com has become so popular, that they now charge for their plans. I’m not affiliated with them in any way but definitely recommend checking them out. They have plans for all fitness levels, goals, and lifestyles.

No one can explain the LiveFit Trainer better than Jamie: