Having fun losing weight
WOW!!! Our first month, and we lost a combined 25.4 pounds in one month. . . SO COOL that we are losing weight!!!!! We've always had fun together, and 2017 is going to be one of the BEST years ever!!! We found that change came a lot easier than we thought it would once we got motivated to lose weight. We love focusing on life and not work. Amy has always told me I need to work to live, not live to work as I have always done, forgetting to take care of myself. I love to work, but I'm learning to love enjoying life. . .boy is it fun!
Like most women, I always put others ahead of me. Unfortunately, I passed that life issue on to my favorite person in the whole world, Amy. She has always worried about everyone to the point she has made herself sick. Not anymore; we both still care about others, but we know to help others, we need to care about ourselves first. If we don't lose another pound, or if we gain everything back, we will NEVER sacrifice our self-worth for anything others want us to do. We are NOT going to gain it back this is too much fun!
Start with the focus on losing weight - diet only.
As we mentioned previously, we decided to only focus on our diet to start our weight loss journey and not exercise. After all, this is our life, not a marathon. So many people say you need to diet AND exercise, and you do, but we felt that doing both at the same time is asking for failure. Our bottom line goal is to be happy and healthy - oh, and to laugh (A LOT)!
We needed to figure out how to have GREAT food while losing weight. We knew eventually we needed to start exercising but we needed to be successful with something FIRST, so diet it was! We've had so much fun coming up with new recipes for the old food we love.
Send us your high-calorie recipes
We encourage our readers to share their favorite high-calorie recipes with us. Amy and I would love to reimage these recipes into healthier and diet-friendly versions, with the ultimate goal of sharing them with others. Your contribution is greatly appreciated in our mission to enjoy delicious food while maintaining a healthy weight. Thank you in advance for your input.
Drink that water!!
Amy and I realized that we needed to cut back on our beloved glasses of wine and Martini nights and increase our water intake. However, we quickly grew tired of drinking plain water. That's when we stumbled upon "water enhancers" such as Crystal Light's Blueberry/Raspberry flavor. We even joked about having "Mocktails" on Friday nights. There are many delicious water enhancer flavors available from brands like Crystal Light and Dasani. Personally, I highly recommend starting by adding your favorite flavor to your water; I love the Blueberry/Raspberry flavor. This helps to keep water interesting, and if you're missing the taste of wine, try drinking it from a wine glass to trick your brain into thinking you're cheating.
Should we start to exercise?
In March, we began to realize the importance of incorporating physical exercise into our daily routine. Although we were not completely prepared to start immediately, we decided to devise a plan. For this purpose, we purchased the Fitbit. We wanted to assess our current activity levels, just like we did when we started monitoring our diet. The Fitbit proved to be an excellent tool as it tracks the number of steps taken, heart rate, and even sleep patterns. It's remarkable how my resting heart rate has dropped from 78 to the low 60s with regular exercise.
The Fitbit has a lot of really cool features. Initially, when we began using it, our aim was to track our daily activity levels. We were quite surprised to discover that we were not moving around as much as we thought. However, Fitbit allowed us to keep track of our movements, including the number of calories burned daily, our sleeping patterns, and other interesting statistics.
Walking with the dogs
Starting in May, we began taking morning walks. Our four dogs get very enthusiastic about it. Although we have a spacious yard that is over 1.5 acres, they still enjoy going for a stroll. However, with four dogs, it can be difficult. To manage, we take them out in pairs because they tend to get too excited when all four are taken out at once
When we started walking, we only went about a ½ mile because the dogs really couldn't go any further. At least, that's what we told our neighbors. Oliver and Frank were just as out of shape as we were. Oliver would lie down right in the middle of the sidewalk when he was "done walking"!!! When a 140-pound dog lays down, you don't put him in a "puppy bjorn" and carry him home!!!! So we had to build him up slowly and are working hard to help the dogs lose some weight with us.
Frank would walk as far as we wanted, but his legs would start shaking, it was so sad, but he loves walking. Roscoe and Elvis ran all the time, so they didn't have a problem. We slowly built up the distance and now have a great routine. Oliver is losing weight and has lost 5 pounds so far. He is so sassy now (he still lays down when he's finished with the walk).
Losing weight, we are 71.2 pounds down!!!!!
From February 28 through May 29, Sue lost 20.6 pounds and is down 33 pounds since January 31. Amy lost 25.2 pounds, down 38.2 pounds since January 31. For a combined total of 71.2 pounds lost since January 31. We are so proud of ourselves and look forward to summer.
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