What's Your Secret?

Ohhhh how this is a loaded question! I kid, I kid. I do get asked this question a lot though. Sometimes, I find it funny. I mean, I might be more inclined to not have it surprise me if I lost say 100lbs. To me, that's a HUGE accomplishment (not that I think losing 60lbs is a small feat), but I digress again. So, back to the question: What's your secret?

The secret is, there is no secret. The diet industry is huge. Billions and billions of dollars a year on all kinds of things that, as far as I'm concerned, are garbage. There is no secret or science to loosing weight. Eat less, move more. That's it and if I'm to be 100% honest, 95% of "my secret" is changing my eating habits. I didn't really do a lot in the way of exercise. I certainly didn't do it daily, other than when I was doing Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. When I initially decided that it was time to make some big changes, I started walking daily. Every evening before supper, I would walk in my road and back out again. At a good pace, I could do it in 30 mins. It doesn't sound like much, but when you go from a sedentary lifestyle to a more active one, it counts. I did that for about a month, started out at a comfortable pace at first and then I increased it. After a month, I would go downstairs and do another half an hour on a walking machine. So in total, an hour a day. I did that until the weather got warmer and then I slacked off.

But in all honesty, changing the way I eat made the biggest difference. I also drank a lot of water and completely cut out pop and tea. I gave up snacking after supper. That's a big one for me, I love to snack on something, usually something bad, while watching tv. I was also eating a lot of takeout. That had to stop. I mean, not only is not good for you health-wise, it's also hard on the wallet. I cut back on breads, pastas and any type of white starch. I try to eat more green veggies and if I do have a snack, I stick to the recommended serving size.

I still eat what I ate before. I still have nachos and french fries and pizza and cookies and chocolate. I just have less of it and not as often as before. I have talked about it before, I still allow myself to indulge (sometimes a little more than I should). The only difference is that now, it is actually a treat and I find that I enjoy it a lot more because it's not something that I have every day or every other day.

So folks, once again, there is no secret. I have no secret ingredient for you to if you struggle with losing weight. It's all very simple: Eat better, move more.