A tool to lose weight that really works!

I remember in college, taking a nutrition class, the professor started day 1 by saying, "Forget all the fad diets out there, the only way you will ever lose weight is if you burn more calories than you consume. It's not a fad, it's science in the way our bodies are created."

Yet, who wants to count calories? In my 20s, I must have tried every fad diet and healthy way of eating. I've done ones where you drink only a special "Hollywood" juice, I've done the Master Cleanse, I've tried eating all raw food, I've done vegetarian, I've worked out and worked out and worked out.... in all my attempts, the only thing that ever really worked was when I took some ephedra pills which I do NOT endorse. Yes, I dropped like 15 pounds, but after I ended up in the emergency room for my heart racing and swelling, needless to say I threw them in the trash and have never taken them since.

Then the year before last year, I trained for a marathon in honor of my dad who lost his battle to cancer... but even training for a marathon, I've always maintained my same normal weight. After years of trying the crazy fad diets and comparing myself to what I see in magazines, I finally reached a peace about, ok, this is how God made me, at this size, I'm not going to stress about it anymore. After losing my dad, the important thing is, I'm healthy, and that's all that matters. Not to mention, now with meeting Stephen, there is no more beautiful feeling than being a guy who loves me exactly as I am. So in the past few years, I simply stopped "trying" to watch my weight, as we women continuously struggle with.

My experiment began first with, after the marathon, I put up my running shoes. I was curious what would happen to my body if I stopped working out for a year. I gave myself permission to simply NOT run or feel guilty if I didn't go to the gym. I was simply sick of the gym, not to mention, I was fed up with how much time it would take from my week by the time you go workout, come home shower, etc. Some days I wouldn't get to my desk until at least afternoon.

So I didn't work out, and I ate pretty normal.... and I maintained my weight. No crazy gaining weight. I fluctuate a few pounds here and there, but nothing extreme in the year I didn't work out.

But then a couple of months ago, I hit the one year anniversary of having run the marathon, and ok, I admit, I missed running a little bit, mostly for stress relief. And with the wedding coming up, ok, what bride doesn't want to feel her best on the wedding day? I told myself, I just want to feel strong and good, so I'll slowly get back into running, and maybe stop by the gym a few times to lift some weights.

Then Stephen told me about this app he discovered on the iPhone called "Lose It!" It is a calorie counting app that helps you keep track of what you consume in a fun iPhone kind of way, as well as what you burn when you do exercise. In the beginning, you can set a target weight to work toward, and it will tell you how many calories you should consume each day, and how many you have left to eat.

I thought, what the heck, I'll give it a whirl, but I won't take it too seriously. I didn't want to deprive myself, but I was curious just how many calories I do eat on a normal day. So it just started more as a curiosity, and now has turned into SUCH a great tool I use. I've been using it for 5 weeks now and this morning on the scale I was excited to see I have lost 10 pounds! For me to lose 10 pounds, that's a big deal because I'm barely ever to get below a certain number on the scale. Even more exciting, last Saturday, I put on my shooting pants, and they were baggy on me, so a few days I went to buy some new pants and discovered I dropped 4 pants sizes. I've never been able to wear the size I bought the other day!

And what is so freeing is that, I don't really feel like I've been "trying" to lose weight. I've still been eating what I want, just within the calorie range the app has given me.

I just thought it was super cool to see this app actually works, so I wanted to share it with you and my story if you are looking for a good tool to help you shed some unwanted pounds.

And sorry, no I'm not brave enough to show you my before and after shots like all those cheesy diet advertisements do! I'm not THAT brave! ha

:-)