A reader named Erin emailed me last week to say she noticed I had lost weight and wondered how I did it. I was going to wait until after I reached my goal weight, or at least got closer to it, to write a post like this but I see no reason that I can’t write it all out right now!*

I’ve written about my weight loss previously. How I got fat, a book that changed my outlook, my weight loss philosophy, and a fairly detailed account of how I lost it. That’s how I went from what you see on the left (taken August 2005) to the photo on the right (taken July 2008). Then I got pregnant and gained it all back again.

I started off this round of weight loss at around 185 pounds, which you can read more about in my Healthy Train kick-off post. The picture on the left was me on the 20th of January of this year, and the picture on the right was taken on the 30th of May. I am happy to be back in the ranks of the slightly overweight average American once again, but I’m going to continue working toward a healthier (and thinner!) body.

This round of weight loss I took a slightly different approach than I did last time, as my philosophies about food have changed. Previously I wasn’t an advocate for real foods, and so I focused on the typical low-fat, processed, high-protein American weight loss routine. This time around I’m extremely passionate about real food and avoiding highly processed items, and so I had to figure out a way to keep drinking whole milk and high fat dairy while maintaining a high weight loss percentage each week. The answer was, of course, exercise!

Diet

First, I started focusing on local, seasonal foods. The winter was hard because this meant a lot of potatoes and root vegetables, but now it’s summer and our fridge is bursting with vegetables! I used to think I didn’t really like vegetables, but I realize now that I just didn’t like the type of vegetables I was getting. Now I buy from the farmer’s market and I get excited about trying new things. Lately I’m loving stinging nettle, kale, and enormous salads with a mix of lettuce varieties.

I make 99% of what we eat from scratch, and I never buy chips, cookies, crackers, or bars, of any type. If you don’t want to eat it, don’t keep it in the house! I’m lucky to have a spouse who eats whatever I do, but if yours is resisting I’d recommend sitting down and having a serious conversation about nutrition and whether you both have the same goals regarding your weight and health. I’m a SAHM, so cooking is something I can make time for. If your schedule isn’t quite as flexible I’d recommend looking into freezer meals? I keep a constant supply of these bean burritos in our freezer.

We moved toward vegetarianism. I cooked with meat at least once a week during the winter, but now that fresh produce is available I plan to cut that down to around once a month. If you cut out the meat and replace it with vegetables you’ll double or triple your veggie intake. That’s what happened for us!

I eat clean/whole foods/real foods. I eat whole grains (we make our own bread in a bread machine), whole dairy, lots of vegetables, and a little bit of fruit. I use liberal amounts of olive oil and actually have a relatively high fat diet, averaging around 40-45% total calories coming from fat each day.

I avoid refined (aka white) flour**, corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and high amounts of corn/soy products. The only time I “drink my calories” is when I have milk. I do not buy packaged/processed foods with more than 5 ingredients. I very rarely have sugar, and when I do I make it myself (baking burns calories!) I did the Inherent Health Weight Management Test and because of it try really hard to limit my carbohydrates. I also try to limit my saturated fats, though I’m not as good at that one.

I tried to eat an average of 1200 calories/day. I calorie counted using this site. My goal was to be more aware of what I put in my body, and there is no better way than calorie counting to make this happen.

I never, ever eat when I’m not hungry. This is sometimes controversial for two reasons. Sometimes I only eat 600-900 calories in a given day, something I don’t worry about because it all averages out over time. I think any adult should, by this point in their life, be able to understand when their body is asking for fuel. If you’re like I was and you’re not sure how to do that, I highly recommend the book Intuitive Eating. Only eating when I’m hungry means I often don’t eat breakfast. I agree with the arguments regarding fasting/metabolism/breakfast presented by Martin of Leangains.

I realized that it’s okay to be a little bit hungry. If you want to lose weight at an accelerated pace you’re going to feel deprived at times. You’ll want dessert and you won’t be able to have it, and sometimes you might even go to bed a little bit hungry. Any diet that promises you long lasting results in a short period of time with an absence of deprivation is a deception attempting to make a quick buck.

Exercise

I’ve never been a runner, but I knew a girl from my hometown who blogged about how she took up running, and she said she never felt like she could ever be a runner, but it happened with time and dedication (and she looked really amazing because of it!). So I picked up the C25K program and ran a lot of my weight off. If you feel like you could never be a runner, read my post, and I hope you’ll give it a try.

I set a goal to run 3 days/week, and that’s what I did for January, February, and March. In April I had a weight loss challenge coming to an end, and there was a possibility I could win a cash prize, so I kicked that up to 6 days/week for a two week period. This was not smart and I don’t recommend it! I’m not injured and frustrated that I can’t run like I want to.

I also did a few other things, though none as religiously as the running. I ran/walked up the 30 flights of stairs between the ground floor and my apartment, played some DDR, did a few rounds of Zumba, and spent a little bit of time at the gym on the ground floor of our apartment building. In March my friend Megan also put together a custom resistance training plan for me! Running was definitely my main focus though.

I wore my BodyBugg, which helps me better understand my calorie output. Weight loss is all about burning more calories than you bring in, specifically a deficit of at least 600 calories/day to lose one pound per week. I found that I was able to lose just under two pounds each week with a deficit of between 7000-8000 calories per week. You can join this Facebook group to learn more about using your BodyBugg without paying for a subscription, which is the only way I could afford to use it over a long period of time.

Accountability

Accountability is SO important. All good nutritionists ask their clients to keep a food journal, and that’s because writing something down helps keep you aware of what you’re doing. Mindless snacking, deceiving yourself into thinking you’ve been exercising a lot, ignorance regarding your portion sizes… all of those things can prevent you from succeeding.

I used a few different accountability measures over time. I logged my calories in MyFitnessPal. I kept an online food diary where I published photos of what I ate that day. I joined a few weight loss challenges with great prizes for the winner that kept me motivated. I started reporting on the things I regretted eating each day to my husband.

The Plan

If I were to sum all of this up, my advice for losing weight the “That Wife” way would be:

  1. Get back in the kitchen! The best way to control exactly what goes in your mouth is to cook it yourself.
  2. Eat clean/whole/real.
  3. Avoid processed foods.
  4. Go into your kitchen right this very moment and throw out every single thing you no longer want to be eating. Don’t tell yourself it’s wasteful to throw it out and you’ll just finish it off instead. If you wanted to quit smoking would it be a good idea to say that you’ll just finish off what you have left in the house and then stop?
  5. Calorie counting. It’s hard and time-consuming, but extremely effective. Options for recording include DailyBurn, FitDay, LoseIt, or MyFitnessPal.
  6. Only eat when you’re hungry. Stop listening to everyone else telling you how much you should eat, and when you should do it. Your body knows what it needs, but you’ve got to listen to it.
  7. Workout at least 3 days/week. Preferably 5. Work really hard, as every drip of sweat is another calorie burned. Make your time count!
  8. You can wear a BodyBugg like I did, or you can use a calorie counting program like DailyBurn, FitDay, LoseIt, or MyFitnessPal online or on your phone to track your physical activity.
  9. Find someone to be accountable to! Your spouse, online friend, best friend, mother.
  10. Know that it’s going to be hard. And that maybe it will be the focus of your life for a period of time. Once you meet your goals, you get to move on with your life! You won’t regret the hard work for a moment.

*I am of course not a doctor. Insert typical disclaimer about checking with a medical professional here. I would only like to be held responsible if you use my plan to lose weight and find your happy place!

**One exceptin to the white flour, the bread we make in our bread machine is half-white and half-whole wheat. I would like to do whole wheat but I can’t get the kind of rise that TH wants out of his bread and it’s not worth making if he won’t eat it as I try to limit my bread intake overall.

https://thatwifeblog.com/2011/03/hungry/
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