How I lost 100+ pounds

In the spirit of true honesty, I haven't lost 100+ pounds (yet) but I will get there, hopefully this year. I'm tall. I can carry a lot of weight, but 100+ pounds is hard to hide. I am not built like my uber-skinny sister(s), I am curvy. Even when I was at my ideal, workout 5 hours a day weight I had curves; not as many as I have now. I really started to gain weight after college (stopped working out 5 hours a day) and I went on a diet. Biggest mistake I ever made was going on a diet. I believe if I had never dieted I wouldn't have gained the 120+ pounds that eventually layered itself on my frame.

It is mid-June and since January I have lost 43 pounds. However, my weight-loss really clicked in mid-February. It all started with a fitness yoga class at the end of January. I had taken a yoga class before and didn't really like it; everyone in the class was WAY ahead of me and they took themselves SO seriously. In the fitness yoga class, most of my classmates are also beginners AND I get to laugh at myself (I tend to fall over a lot when I'm doing balance poses). What a huge difference. It is hard to do yoga when you are overweight, but if you have an instructor that used to be heavy and understands the struggles and is willing to give you alternatives to the poses, it makes it so much more enjoyable. This yoga clicked and that made me WANT to lose weight. That was Step 1.

Step 2: completely change my eating habits. If you've read Dr Furhman's "Eat to Live" you will know how I changed my eating habits. If you have not I suggest you check it out. In a nutshell this is what I'm doing differently. I hardly ever eat meat. Any meat, no chicken, fish, beef, pork and anything else that classifies as meat. Second I eat a LOT of vegetables, raw and cooked. I really enjoy the soups that my husband puts together using all those interesting vegetables you've never heard of. I also stopped drinking alcohol. I was relaxing with glasses (maybe a bottle) of wine most nights after work. That might have been the hardest thing I did (sugar is very addictive); but it is making the biggest impact.

Step 3: once a month (or less) my husband and I have our "wine and cheese" weekend. Usually it is a special celebration (our anniversary; a birthday party we are attending; vacation) Both of us will gain a little weight on this weekend, but the extra weight falls off quickly. Both of us find that after this weekend it is a bit hard to get back into the swing of things (sugar is very addictive).

FYI, my husband has lost 60 pounds and is almost at his goal.