How I Lost 15 Pounds Last Year

I wanted to share this with you because I know I'm not the only

middle aged lady out there that wanted to take off a few pounds!

I've carried around an extra 10 pounds for a few years now

and I'd gain and loose the same 3 pounds over and over.

I only needed to loose 10 and I tried all the tricks and tips

I read about but nothing really seemed to work.

And I really dislike exercise....the sweating or the time.

And I have a sweet tooth!  And very low willpower.

So last June I took all the tips that seemed to work for me

and combined them into a plan and that's all it took!

And after I reached my goal of 10, I just keep eating the way

 I had been because I felt really good....and another 5 came off!

I know everyone is different but I'm hoping this will help

someone else.  A few things to consider....

1. I'm an active person.  I manage a household, run a business and don't sit down during the day.  I even have my computer at counter height so I can stand while I work.  I don't sit and watch TV until the evenings. I am busy on my feet all day.  Because of this, I tried my food plan without additional exercise.  And, I think I have a high metabolism.  That might have helped, too.
2. I realized I was stress eating!  Years ago if I was stressed, I lost my appetite!  But I noticed that I'd reach for food a lot of times when I was worried, tense or stressed.  Once I realized this, it was easy to stop myself before I stuffed chocolate in my mouth!
3. I feel better if I don't eat too much gluten.  I can tolerate it in moderation alright, but if I have pancakes, a sandwich, pasta and cookies all in one day, I feel bloated and lethargic.  So I avoided things with gluten but wasn't super strict about it.
4. I focused on lean protein for every meal.  Protein keeps me satisfied longer and makes your body burn fat for energy.
5. I didn't cut out sugar.
6. I ate dessert every night.
7. I drank 8 glasses of water every day.

Here's what I ate every day.

• Breakfast ~ A Nature Valley Protein Bar.  Salted Caramel is my favorite.  This bar is gluten free.  The store brand alternative is not. Just be aware of that.  10 grams of protein and 190 calories.  It satisfies my sweet tooth.  And...it's easy to grab in the morning.  Of course I still had my various cups of coffee through out the morning!
• Lunch ~ Fat free cottage cheese with a few spoons of cherry pie filling.  I know this might sound crazy, but I experimented with adding fresh fruit, preserves,  etc. and the cherry pie filling was the best to me.  I needed something with intense fruit flavor.  Like I said, I didn't worry about sugar. Duncan Hines Comstock is the best, I think.  This lunch is about 28 grams of protein.  250 calories. Since I was the only one eating this, I just added my cherries right in the cottage cheese container and ate until I was satisfied.  It was about 1 cup in total.  Again, super easy to grab and eat.  Nothing to fix.  Not even a dirty bowl.
• Afternoon snack ~ usually it was Chobani Greek Yogurt Flips.  Key Lime and Almond Coco Loco are my favorites.  These are 200 calories and 12 grams of protein.  And if during the afternoon I was still hungry and it was a couple of hours before dinner, I would eat a cup of Honey Nut Chex cereal (gluten free) with a few peanuts mixed in.  Another favorite snack was Skinny Pop Popcorn.
• Dinner ~ I just ate a sensible dinner.  Almost always it was a good sized piece of protein (salmon, chicken, steak) and the other half of the plate was filled with veggies or a salad.  I didn't make the portions small.  I ate until I was full.  And, we still had pizza on Sunday nights.  
• Dessert ~ This was almost always a scoop of ice cream.  Not three scoops.  One. :)  And caramel or chocolate sauce.  The key to dessert is to eat it immediately after dinner, while you're sitting at the table.  Your body already has a rise in blood sugar.  If you wait until later in the evening, you will cause another rise, which means you will store more of the calories as fat.  I really tried not to eat anything else at night, but if I was starving, I would eat a piece of fruit.

So, there you have it!

If you try this, let me know!

I hope it works for you, too.  I had to buy new clothes which

was a lot of fun.  My jeans fell off without unzipping them. haha.

And I didn't think anyone would notice but I've had several

people who hadn't seen me in a year ask me what I had done

to myself because I looked totally different.  

I could have kissed them. haha.  :)  

♥