Final Weigh-In

Yes, this is late in being posted by a few days, but guess what? I made it! In fact, I forgot I was aiming for 146 and thought I'd been off by .2 of a pound from 145, so I super made it. With tenths of a pound to spare! Go me!

This picture was taken bright an early Tuesday morning, 9/20/11.

Okay, we'll call that sock weight, because unlike in the original weigh in picture back in January, I'm barefoot.

Remember this? Me, too! I totally did it. I lost forty (one point four) pounds in 8 months. I accomplished my goal. I'm not a superhero and I'm not particularly known for my willpower, but I did it. Here's how.

How I Ate:

Throughout my fitness journey, I tracked my calories online. Most people don't do this because it's a pain in the butt. I didn't want to do it because it's a pain in the butt. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their body composition, though, with the caveat that it is absolutely a pain in the butt. I measure almost every piece of food I put in my mouth. I look up nutritional info for restaurants I visit. I plug family recipes into a website and then figure out how much of the total calories I probably ate, and log that. The bad news is, wow, there's a lot of AWFUL food out there. It also couldn't be easier to eat it and get huge, because it's cheap, tasty, and everywhere. The good news is that if you track your eating for about two months, you'll start to know what you can and can't eat to support your weight loss goals, and you can probably wing it from there. I chose not to because I knew I had a problem with overeating and because I had a measurable goal I wanted to reach, and it paid off. There's something really powerful about knowing precisely what foods support your goal, and there's something eye opening about seeing just how much real food you can eat for the same number of fat and calories as junk food from a drive through.

Chris, some homeless guy, and me, June 2010

I wouldn't tell anyone that there is any food to never or always eat. It's a matter of making it work for you. I know to a lot of people, cheese, sour cream, and refried beans spell diet disaster, but I found that those foods are usually worth the caloric trade-off for me, because I'd be eating them instead of things with more carbs and sugar. If given the choice of two foods with the same number of calories, I'm almost always going to go for the one with more protein, fiber, or fat than one with more carbs. I just find that carbs don't fill me up, and a hungry Whitney is a miserable Whitney. I drink little to no juice, soda, or sweet tea and drink a whole ton of water, some skim milk, and some Coke Zero. On that note I don't drink alcohol very much. It's usually a once or twice a month thing with several drinks, then weeks of nothing. I find I gravitate toward sugary drinks that have tons of calories and once I've had a bit, I start eating everything in sight. It's just not worth it to do this on more than special occasions. What else? Hmm, granola is deceptively bad for you, don't dismiss things everyone tells you are bad for you without doing the research, take fish oil, and try to fill up on fruits and veggies. Don't eat white bread or rice, and try to keep ice cream to a minimum, 'cause the stuff is killer caloric. Drinking hot tea fills me up, and measure out and check the calories on all pasta you eat, even the whole wheat stuff. You'd be shocked about how many calories you're consuming with pasta. On the other hand, red spaghetti sauce, even with meat, is great, and you can drown your half cup of noodles in it an feel pretty okay with your choices.

Me and Chris, September 2011

Those are my eating tips. The little ones all come from my experience with the big one. I can't tell you how much I benefited from incorporating MyFitnessPal, a food scale, and measuring cups/spoons into my fitness plan. Or maybe I can. 40 pounds in eight months. Yep, about that much.

How I Moved:

Well, the first few months, I did EA Sports Active 2 with Chris. It was a combination cardio and strength program that focused on short exercises strung together with very little rest between them, and was challenging for me. To say the least. Sometimes I cried. ANYWAY, it was surprisingly effective. I also walked around the city a fair bit around three times a week. Then I moved back to Jax and got a job in a restaurant. I walk a lot in a shift, and I love that there's movement in my job. I don't, however, think this is sufficient for someone trying to lose weight, so I joined a gym and have visited it intermittently since then. I've focused on cardio because my goal has been quick weight loss, but while that has helped get the pounds off, I pretty much look like a smaller version of the fat me. Skinnyfat is the term. I don't have any muscle definition and I feel weaker than I should. I regret that I haven't been lifting, as I know it's a huge help to boosting one's metabolism, strengthening the bones, and making you look like a hottie, but I've been lazy. It's my goal in the coming months to throw my attention on that aspect of fitness. Muscles, ahoy!

How I Felt:

Overwhelmed. Proud. Pressured. Enlightened. Occasionally, deprived. Like I accomplished something amazing. Emotions have been all over the place, 'cause it's been EIGHT MONTHS of working at this goal. I've had great successes, some failure, and holding patterns, so it's been all over the map. Here at the finish line, though, I can tell you this: I'm not happy because I'm 40 pounds down. I'm happy because I set a goal and worked toward it. I'm happy because I got in shape for myself, not for the rest of the world, but honestly, I've gotten a lot of affirmation from the outside world, so that's great and helpful. I think you can be miserable, lose wight, and remain miserable. It's about figuring out why you want to do something, trying to be positive about where you're at and who you are now, and taking the, "I'm awesome and I'm just going to improve on a good thing," approach to health.

It's certainly not about starving yourself. It's never been about hating myself and feeling like I won't be happy until I improve. It's all about this, "I am great, and I can be greater!" approach. I wish I could communicate that to others, because I want to be a sign of cool people getting cooler, not miserable people becoming happy through weight loss. No way, man.



I hope this has been helpful to people with similar goals. I know tracking my weight and being accountable to this blog has been essential to me meeting my goal, and I know I really really want to share the things I think have been most essential to my success. My advice: Set a clear and measurable goal. Build in some room for error/real life, and then work like the dickens. If you see things aren't working, try new things. Learn a lot. Use your entertainment (like Biggest Loser or blogs you read) to keep your head in the game and give you more knowledge in a fun way. Don't give in to stupid, "diet of the month" plans you find at the top of the New York Times bestseller list or in a magazine. Drink more water, eat more vegetables, and find a physical activity you like, from walking to weight lifting to yoga. Be awesome. You were born for this.