<\/p>\n
Well, it has been a year of challenges. A back injury to begin the year, and then two surgeries, followed by a job loss.<\/p>\n
However, I have managed to do well with my weight loss regardless of the challenges. All total I have lost 45 lbs<\/strong>. Now, that has been since I began my weight loss journey. This year I only managed to lose 18 lbs with all of the challenges.<\/p>\n What is important to me is that the weight is coming off and staying off. I am progressively losing weight, each month my weight is lower than the next.<\/p>\n I have discovered many things in the course of my challenges about diet and exercise.<\/p>\n First, sodium content is extremely important to monitor when trying to lose weight. The less the better.<\/p>\n Second, that exercise everyday, not just two to three times a week, is crucial to weight loss. Walking is best everyday, then cardio two to three times a week.<\/p>\n Three, weights are necessary for maintaining muscle strength, and tone while dieting.<\/p>\n Four, fruits and vegetables, especially green vegetables can make a huge difference in your diet routine.<\/p>\n Five, lean protein is a necessity when dieting. It not only helps curb your appetite, but give you energy to exercise.<\/p>\n Six, the importance of whole grain cannot be understated. I start my day everyday with some kind of helping of whole grain. Oatmeal is usually what I prefer.<\/p>\n Seven, and I think the most important is portion control<\/strong>! This, I believe, was the hardest lesson for me. Learning that I could have my favorite foods in smaller portions, and not go hungry was a hard lesson. Also, learning what the proper amount of food the body requires to run, was an eye-opener for me too.<\/p>\n Even though my total weight loss was only 45 lbs, it was the inches lost that made the biggest difference for me. I have lost a total of 25 inches<\/strong>! All of my clothes had to be replaced! Let me tell you, I hate shopping, but losing weight is making that not so much of a chore anymore.<\/p>\n My goal for 2013 is very simple. I want to lose the rest of my weight. I have a 30 year class reunion in 2014, and I want to go. Now, if you have read my previous weight loss stories you know I have avoided them due to my weight gain. I want to go to my 30 year, and walk in there with my head held high, and not feel like I have in the past. That is my goal.<\/p>\n If you are on a weight loss journey, take it one day, one pound at a time. The weight will not come off overnight as it did not go on overnight. A hard but true statement. Keep working at it, you will succeed eventually, if you want it bad enough.<\/p>\n Good Luck!<\/p>\n thegeekwife<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, it has been a year of challenges. A back injury to begin the year, and then two surgeries, followed by a job loss. However, I have managed to do well with my weight loss regardless of the challenges….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,119],"tags":[41,40,158,38],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-weight-loss-2","tag-diet","tag-exercise","tag-shopping","tag-weight-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thegeekwife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thegeekwife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thegeekwife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thegeekwife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thegeekwife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.thegeekwife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thegeekwife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thegeekwife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thegeekwife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}