2017 has definitely been a great year for me.  I’ve lost and maintained a 65 pound loss, putting me in a healthy weight range for the first time in a long time.  Here’s how I did it.

I wish I could tell you it was easy.  I wish I could tell you that I found this pill, this diet, this wrap that made it all go away and let me eat as much as I want.

That’s not real life.  It actually wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, especially as I got close to my goal, but believe me there were challenging things along the way.

There are still challenging things. There always will be, and I’ve come to terms with that.

So for the official first day of 2018 I’ve decided to do a round up of my blog and answer the most asked questions I get about my weight loss.

Now I know some of you may be doing a great big eye roll and thinking “she does Weight Watchers”.  Yes I do, but that is just my method of controlling my portion sizes.  I think I have a lot of valuable information for anyone trying to lose weight, you diet snob. 🙂

What is your number one piece of advice to someone who is trying to lose weight?

Clean your kitchen.  Seriously.  If you dirty a dish, wash the dish. Dry the dish.  Put the dish away.

How many times have you come home, set to cook dinner, but the kitchen is a wreck and you say screw it?  I know it used to happen to me all the time. I’m not a hoarder or anything, but I’m busy.  And tired.  I used to slack, for sure.

Not anymore.  It is so much easier to cook when I get off work when I don’t have to pick up clutter or empty the dish washer.  It is amazing how fast 15 minutes of extra work can derail all your plans and send you to calling for pizza.

How much water do you drink?

I’m really lucky on this one.  I do not like pop, or soda, or coke,or whatever you call it where you live.  I pretty much drink two things – water and coffee.  Do I drink like half my body weight in water?  No.  I simply drink when I’m thirsty.

One thing I do try to always do is drink a glass before I eat.  Every. Time.

Are you low carb/gluten free/only eat red food on Mondays?

I do follow the Weight Watcher plan.  It works for me, and you need to find what works for you.  I’m not so arrogant that I think WW is THE diet plan.  Not all people will like it.

It is the plan that my Doctor recommends, and that’s good enough for me.

One thing I do know:  You best pick one that you can do forever, that you can live with.  It doesn’t just “end”.  You don’t get to be done and go back to what you did before.

I mean I went low carb once.  It was the worst 7 hours of my life.

I need choices.  I need a cookie once in awhile.  Ice cream, for the love of GOD I need to have ice cream.

I’ve downloaded meal plans.  I’ve taken pills that made me feel like I was going to have a heart attack.  I’ve Pinned 9 million healthy meals that someone else ate to lose weight.

If you aren’t going to do it, it’s not going to work.  Find what works for you, and will work for you in the long haul.

How much do you exercise?

I. Hate.Exercise.

HATE IT.

To be honest I didn’t do anything different with about the first 30 pounds I lost.

Am I lazy?  Sometimes.  I am active though, much more now that I’m not carrying around 65 pounds of excess weight.  In my tools section on my blog I talk a lot about Activity Trackers.  It has been my saving grace.

There are two things I do – I do yoga (love it) every day.  I also try to always get 10,000 steps.  If I don’t get them naturally, to the treadmill I go.  I hate hate hate it so usually three times a week I’ll run on the damn thing to get it over with quickly.

Since I’m running I try to do 30 minutes, because it’s good for me.

I do plan on incorporating more exercise in my life in 2018.  Not to lose weight, but because it’s good for my health.  It sucks, but we all do stuff that sucks everyday so I’m just going to have to get over it.

Stay tuned for whining in 2018 around My 30 Point Life 🙂

Aren’t you worried about extra skin?

To be honest I was more worried about my blood panels.  I’m a 47 year old white woman.  Unless they come out with see-thru yoga pants I’m golden.

Seriously though this one always gets me.  I mean would people rather have fat filled skin?  I do have some, but no where near what I thought I would have.

Maybe it’s because I’m a water drinker, or genetics.  I always always make sure I get at least 2 teaspoons of healthy oil a day, and that does wonders for your skin, hair, and nails.  Maybe it’s all of that.  Even if I had pounds of hanging skin I know it would be worth it to not feel the way I felt before.

What are some of the biggest changes you’ve made?

Well the pizza guy is probably worried about me.  I used to do take out A LOT.  I work A LOT.  I leave my house at 3:45 am!!! and usually roll in the driveway around 5:30 pm.

That’s a long day.

All those stereotypes society thinks when they see an overweight person – they are lazy, they eat huge amounts of food – well a lazy person doesn’t work 12 hours a day.  I wasn’t exactly a volume eater either.  I just ate all the wrong things.

I was tired.  I didn’t get quality sleep because my stomach was always jacked up. I wouldn’t be prepared so I would fall into the same take-out eat-out pattern.

So the biggest change I made was getting organized.  I meal prep faithfully every week.  On Saturday or Sunday or whatever day I have off (which is sometimes only one) I make at least my breakfast and lunch for the coming week.

Most of the recipes you see on this blog are my staples.  Most of them are awesome reheated, so I’ll make a couple of them, portion them out in containers, and take them to work on Monday.  Besides keeping my kitchen in cooking ready condition, this is the biggest secret to my success.

I’ll alternate a couple of them for lunch/dinner.  I’m so busy that I don’t mind eating the same thing a couple of days a week.

I’ve also flipped the script about eating.  As portions grow we have gotten used to these super sized amounts of food.  I try to focus more on quality over quantity.

For those of you that follow WW, you will see these recipes that make things like muffins or cakes that are lower in points and full of nasty stuff like protein powder.  I would rather take the hit and eat a small piece of cake than some nasty concoction just so that I can eat MORE.

It is amazing how a little goes a long way once you really get in tuned with your body.

I also joined a cult.  We call ourselves potheads (can’t wait to see the google search on that one) and we swear by cooking with the Instant Pot.  This amazing little appliance has made my meal prep a breeze.  I cannot put into words how much this little kitchen appliance has helped me.

Why has this time been different?

As the tag line of my blog says, I was a serial Weight Watcher. I’ve gotten close to goal twice before, but never made it.

So why now?

Well I do think the program has improved, but mostly it’s because I came to one very important conclusion.

This is all my fault.

Yes, that’s right.  It’s not genetics or gluten or how my body processes carbs or the full moon in November.

It is because I was consuming more calories then I burned, which considering no one force feeds me, is my fault.

There is nothing that is going to let me just eat what I want.  I have to consume less (and now the same) amount of calories that I burn to lose weight (stay the same).  Period.

And so do you.

It’s funny because as I lost the weight I found out a few surprising things.  First of all, I’m not big boned and do not have a slow metabolism.  I’m also not doomed because of my genetic makeup.

Who’d a thunk it?

I’ve also built this amazing support system around myself.  Meetings for sure help me, but I also have a great support system on my Facebook Weight Watchers Tough Love Group and also my Instant Pot Healthy Recipes Group.

This blog, this crazy, rambling blog keeps me on track too.  I never dreamed in a million years that over 100,000 people would visit this blog.  It still blows my mind, and every ounce of support just keeps me going!

So what can we expect from My 30 Point Life in 2018?

More recipes.  I know I’m not the most prolific recipe poster out there, but those that read regularly know the reason why.

I make something successfully 3 times before I’ll post it.  I’ve had to many experiences from other blogs with slick filtered to the hilt pictures that turn into crappy ugly food when you actually make it.  Food is expensive.  If I don’t love it, I won’t post it just to post or get more hits.

I also suck at photography, but on the bright side your stuff will probably look better than my pictures 🙂

I’ll also share my new adventures in exercise and hopefully learn to hate it a little less.

The plan is also to post more of what I eat each day – to keep me honest and maybe help a few of you along the way.

There will probably be less weigh in posts because how many ways can you say “I stayed the same!”  If we have a really good topic that week at our meeting I might post, but they probably won’t be weekly anymore because it is pretty snooze worthy now.

So that’s about it.  This is my 100th post.  I’ve lost about 40 of my 65 pounds while writing this blog, and I truly, whole-heartily appreciate all your support!

I did this:

You can too!

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Aside from writing this blog, I have a new novel out.  Going Home is a book about second chances, set in a holiday obsessed town.  If you like Hallmark movies, you’ll love this book!

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