How I did it.

I recently posted a picture of myself via instagram on Facebook.
Elle took the picture of me with my phone.
It's this picture

I feel good about myself here.
I feel good about myself right now.

I don't know if I've ever felt this good about myself to be honest.  When I was thinner as a dancer it was just normal but I still had issues about my weight.
So going from being extremely heavy to finally being able to tuck in my shirts has been so great.

Okay so when I posted this picture I got a lot of "wow's" and "how did you do it?"
I got some private messages asking if I had gastric bypass.  No I did not have gastric bypass.  I lost most of the weight myself.  Then as I have said here, I had a tummy tuck to remove the extra skin and a little liposuction to help with those areas that wouldn't budge.  BUT ANYWAY I lost A LOT of weight on my own and I am going to tell you how I did it.

Ready?!
My 3 Step Plan.

When I decided to start to loose weight I started secretly last spring.
I was doing pretty good.  I lost 10 pounds.  Nobody noticed (I had a lot of weight to loose) but I then got discouraged because I didn't have any positive feedback because nobody knew of my new challenge for myself.  So I quickly fell out of the weight loss mode.  I kept that 10 pounds off.

Come Summer time...JULY.
I decided this time to get serious. SO I posted on my Facebook Fan page a Photographers Fit Challenge and I took it serious.  You see I had many people I was now accountable.  Although 99% of those who joined the challenge didn't finish it, I knew that I couldn't give up because I started this thing. And it felt good.

So the first step I did was I told people...and I just didn't tell a few close friends and family who would love me, I told EVERYONE.

STEP ONE... Tell people, tell a lot of people.

Now that I had told people I needed a plan, how was I going to do it.

You see with my history of bulimia I knew how hard this would be without getting triggered.  So I said out loud what I couldn't do.  I knew I had a problem with eliminating whole food groups and putting foods into a "naughty" or "bad" category.  So I decided that no foods would be bad or eliminated.
I also knew that excessive exercising was not good for me either.  When I was in the midst of my eating disorder I would exercise 5-6 times a day.  I would purge my food not only through vomiting but through excessive exercise.  This was going to be a no-no.
The other thing I said was "do not deprive yourself of anything"

This was the start to my plan.
These were the rules.

Because to me this wasn't a diet, this was a lifestyle change.

Now the plan started to happen.
I decided I needed to drink A LOT of water.  I got some really cheap cups from costco.  Clear plastic Solo-type cups.  I bought plastic lids and straws.  This made me feel like I was stopping in at a cafe for a cup of ice-water (I know weird right).  Then I got me some DoTerra oils.  I got the lemon and the grapefruit.  I would add a little drop of each to my icewater and I would drink my water as I cleaned, or watched T.V or edited.  When the cup was empty I would fill it up again.  Yes I felt like I was peeing every 10 minutes but soon I got used to it.  My skin looked better and I was feeling a difference.  Plus I was feeling full and didn't feel the need to snack all the time.

I also found this company called ItWorks (yes the wrap place) and found that they have these pills called Thermofit and Fat Fighters. They are not diet pills but suppliments.  And I see differences in my energy when I use them.

Snacks.  I love food it's no lie. Obviously I didn't get to 233 pounds by myself.
So I filled my house with foods I liked that weren't going to make me feel bad.  I bought a lot of fresh fruits.  Grapes, oranges, apples, berries.  I had them easily accessible to snack on.
I love me salty snacks too.  Like chips.  Oh do I love a good chip.  Well I found Special K. makes a cracker chip that is so good.  for 27 chips it's around 100-110 calories.  27 chips! That's a lot.  So I picked up those and would snack on those if I needed something salty.
I stopped snacking when I edited late at night.
That was my hardest one.  I used to pop some butter popcorn or have a bowl of ice-cream.  I stopped this all together.  Why? Well first it was late at night, second it was late at night, third I was just sitting editing so I wasn't being active and fourth, it was late at night.  No more late night snacks.
I don't miss it anymore.

We are red-meat eaters around here. I'm a cattle ranchers daughter.  We eat a lot of red meat.  We have a big freezer full of it.  When I didn't have anything else we would eat a steak.  I used ground beef in a lot of my cooking.  SO I decided to cut this back.  I started replacing ground beef for ground chicken and ground turkey.  And actually my family likes it better.
I would make my entree portion smaller and my salad bigger.  I fill up more on veg, rather than something meaty.

If I wanted a piece of cake I would have it, but I would make sure it was a smaller size.  I don't need the mammoth size cake anymore.  And let's be honest this is why to me diets fail.  Because you can't have anything splurge worthy.  Then you go crazy and you eat the whole pan. So if I wanted a cookie I would have the cookie but then I would remind myself that was all I needed.  Plus I drink a lot of water now so I didn't feel like I needed 10 cookies.  One fixed my craving and I was good.

So don't deprive yourself of something because that is called the beginnings of sabotage.

I cut out ALL (and I mean ALL) fast food.  I used to love me some fries from somewhere greasy, no more.  The only fastfood I will eat is Subway and that is their veggie delight on flatbread.
I just don't do it.  It's easy to pick something up on the go and that is where I contribute most of my weight gain from...fast food eating.

Then came the getting active part.  This was the hardest for me because I am a all or nothing girl.  So I did things that wouldn't make me feel like I was going to be stuck in the gym.   I started walking the block, then I would set goals as I was walking like "I am going to jog to that light pole" then the next day was "I am going to jog to the second light pole" and so on.
I would park farther away when I went to the store so I had to walk further.  I would skip isles at the store on purpose so I had to go back ( I would skip every other isle for more walking).
I started with the little things.


This was my plan.

STEP TWO have a plan.

And the last thing I decided to stick with it.
That this was not a diet that this was a lifestyle.
The thing that has saved me the most is that if I want to eat something I can.  Why? Because I am being healthy with everything else.  I don't eat fast food anymore so if we want to go out to dinner I know I can make healthy chooses.  I don't even crave fast food now.  I know I am not snacking on junk all the time so if I want popcorn at the movies I can have it.
I made a healthy life change.

Step THREE stick with the plan.


As the weight came off the more my skin was hanging even more than it did before.  I always knew one day I would need a tummy tuck I just didn't think it would happen so soon.  But I was ready.
So I made an appointment to have a consultation.
The doctor was so friendly and so positive and I was really excited about the possibilties of feeling good.
(Need a good surgeon?  He is fabulous)

So I scheduled my surgery.

From July to November I lost 50 pounds.
After my surgery I have lost another 15 pounds.

So since July 2012 I have lost a total of 65 pounds.  That is a young child.

What my surgeon did was really sculpt what my body was to be.  It's now up to me to do the rest. I am the one that needs to keep it up.  Just because I had surgery doesn't mean that the weight won't come back, but I am now accountable for my weight.  {and my wallet says it too}

I guess when I was in surgery my surgeon said "this is going to change her life" It really has!
Although before surgery I lost a lot of weight it was hard to tell.  Having the surgery has allowed me to show off the weight I lost.

Before loosing the weight I would always avoid being in front of the camera even for pictures with my children, now I don't mind.  I am now becoming comfortable in my skin.

It is hard to loose weight but I think it's even harder to admit you need to loose weight.
The reason I was able to stick with it was because I told people...I became accountable, I had people that was watching me.  Try it...you'll find it works.