The Weight

Around the end of August, beginning of September I started cutting my calories. I did a little research on how to calculate what I needed and decided since this is the only "diet" that I hadn't really tried I would give it a shot. In my research I found that a rough estimate is to take your goal weight and multiply it by 13. So I want to weigh 155 but overshot and said 150. So I took 150 x 13 and got 1950. That's how many calories I could eat each day.

It was really hard at first because you get so hungry throughout the day. After the first two weeks it was a breeze though. My hunger subsided in-between meals and I got on a pretty regular schedule. How I began was cutting out unnecessary calories. I already drank diet soda so that wasn't something I could change. Things like big snacks in-between meals got the axe though. I also cut out big sides to the main parts of my meals. I am now on a pretty regular "diet" of a small breakfast, a decent lunch, and a big dinner. I put diet in quotations because I really just consider this how I eat now, not a temporary way of cutting weight. And that's really how it has to be in order for this to work.

My breakfast usually consists of Eggo Cinnamon Toast waffles. I have 2 each day with nothing on them. Trust me, they're that good. Lunch I have a sandwich with little or no side. If you have been following my Facebook posts you know that I frequent Subway. That's not because of the advertising of losing weight from Jared, but more that it provides low calorie food and is also my favorite fast food restaurant to begin with. Dinner is most of the time at home. Jenna and I have found recipes online that are not only delicious, but low in calories. As long as you keep breakfast and lunch low though, you can have a hearty dinner and not feel bad about it.

Watching every single calorie is very important the first two or three weeks. It lets you know how many calories you have left for the day and gives you a feel for what is acceptable food to eat. Trust me, we've found some food that is just jaw-dropping in calories that we used to eat all the time. It's not to say that you can never have high calorie foods or go out to eat any more. You just cut calories in certain meals if you know you want to have a bunch during a certain one.

The two tools we use most to help us are iGoogle which has a free app called "Food and Calorie Finder" and "Lose It" for the iPod Touch and iPhone. Food and Calorie Finder let's you search pretty much any ingredient or restaurant for calorie information. It's a bit quirky but it gets the job done. My suggestion is when you're searching for stuff, leave out the apostrophes. They screw up the results and make them unclickable. Lose It is basically the same thing, but more convenient when you're out and about.

Jenna started probably 3 weeks after I did and is up to 17 pounds lost. I started back in early September-ish and just hit 30 pounds lost. It's an amazing feeling to have old clothes fit you and have people notice that you're losing weight by asking you.