The Keys To My Weight Loss Success

So many people ask me questions about my weight loss success. What did you do? How do you get motivated? Where do I start? What do I eat?

The answers to these questions really aren't that complicated. At least not for me. My motivation? Simple. I don't want to be fat ever again. I want to look in the mirror and like what I see. That's all the motivation I need. Where to start? Just start. You know the basics - start with that. Stop eating crap. Now. Stop buying crap to eat. Workout. Do any workout -  it doesn't matter which one. Do something rather than nothing.

The bigger question is - how? Here are my essentials - the things that I know I must do for success.

1) DO THE WORK
I don't have a problem with complaining. I complain all the time. But you earn the right to complain by putting in the work. You don't get to complain about how hard it is or how inconvenient it is unless you're doing it. If you're too lazy to make an effort - then stay fat and shut up about it. Don't complain if you're not putting in effort. What's the work?

Work out 6 days a week.
Log what you eat - all of it.
Eat clean. Cheat minimally. Don't dwell on the cheat - move on.

That's really it. That's the core of it. Learn to master these things and you'll see results. You don't have to perfect right out the gate. I've done this for a decade and I'm still not perfect. Just do your best and keep making your best better. Don't wanna log your food? Don't wanna work out? Fine - don't. But stop complaining that you can't lose weight.

2) LEARN & GROW
You know what cutting carbs did for me? Nothing. Jack squat. My body was not impressed. You know what eating from the top two tiers of Michi's Ladder did for me? I lost 5 lbs. Learn what works for your body by trying it. You can't gauge your own success by someone else's. You are not them. Don't wish you were, just find out what works for you. If one diet and one workout worked for every body - there wouldn't be so many different ones to choose from. Find what works for YOU. But don't just try one thing then give up. Don't be lazy.

3) DO NOT QUIT
Losing weight isn't easy and results don't happen overnight. If this were the case - then no one would have weight problems. If I stopped trying just because I didn't see results quickly - I wouldn't be where I am. If you really want to see results - you have to keep going. Getting fit is not something you do for a while and then you're done forever. IT'S A LIFESTYLE CHANGE. You have to know what's helpful for your body and what's harmful. I'm not gonna lie - I still love me some french fries and pizza and chicken nuggets. I know the bad crap that's in fast food and I find it delicious anyway. However, I can count on one hand the number of times I'll actually get fast food in the course of a month ... a few months at that. A year's time - that's probably both hands. Point is - it's not as often as it used to be.

Bottom line is - JUST TRY. Make an effort. Don't talk about it, be about it. Get off your butt, and do what you know you need to. Once you start and see the fruits of your labor - it makes it easier to continue because you'll want to continue seeing the results! Make a plan. What can you do right now that will put you on a better path? Need help? Send me a message and we'll make a plan together!

xoxo,
Sweet Charity

Weight Loss Transformation Video!

So, I already told you that I reached my goal weight. Well, I promised myself that I would do my first transformation video once I made that weight. So - here it is!

Confetti and Balloons Please!

I can't believe it! I really can't! I did it! This is the most surreal moment I've ever had! I can't stop using exclamation points!!!

I REACHED MY GOAL WEIGHT!



Confetti :)



Goal: the weight that I started this journey trying to reach. The number that I chose in my head when I was 18 years old. The battle that I have been fighting for the past 11 years. I have finally won! When I first set out

Nobody's Perfect

Too many people have this idea in their head that if they can't hit their diet and exercise PERFECTLY, then there's no point in doing it all. I don't really understand this mentality at all, but there are so many people who feel this way. I have some friends who say:

Well, since I ate so poorly today - I didn't see the point in working out.

And then there's people who get so down on themselves because they slipped up and ate something bad, that they completely tank their whole diet because of ONE slip up:

I was doing so well, but then I had french fries and then 3 scoops of ice cream, and the next day I had a burger and I just couldn't stop eating bad stuff!

People also beat themselves up about working out:

I only did 30 minutes in the gym today. I'll never be thin :(

I didn't get to my workout today, what is wrong with me?!?

If any of these people sound like you at one time or another, this is my plea to you to

STOP!

Stop beating yourself up for little mistakes.
Stop thinking that just because you didn't do it perfectly, it doesn't count.
Stop expecting yourself to change overnight.
Stop expecting to see results in a matter of days - that's not realistic.
STOP being negative, period!

If you have a negative mentality towards any aspect of diet or exercise - it increases the likelihood that you will fail. You can not beat yourself up over every little thing. People who are fit and lead healthy lifestyles didn't get that way by being perfect. They got that way by being consistent. They did not let small setbacks completely de-reail them from reaching their goals. If you eat poorly one day - SO WHAT?! You know that you ate poorly - that doesn't mean that one day has to turn into one week and one month. It was one day of your life. MOVE ON. You recognize the bad behavior, you learn from it and then you change it. And when you do slip up and eat poorly - that is all the more reason to work out!!! You need to try to cancel out as many calories as you can. Even if the result of that workout won't be a drop in pounds, at least it will help you from gaining weight which would be a step in the wrong direction.

Life happens. Sometimes you just won't be able to resist that piece of cake. Sometime, you won't be prepared and you'll buy fast food. Sometime - you just won't have time to get to your workout. These are all normal things that you should not feel horrible about. What you should do - is pay attention to why it happened, and plan to not let it happen again. Could you have prepared your lunch the night before so that you had it to take with you instead of buying fast food? If you scheduled your workout in your day the way you schedule work and schedule watching your favorite TV, would you have missed it?

Think positively and speak positively to yourself. Pep-talk yourself! If it's not something you would say to your best friend in the world, you shouldn't say it to yourself. Would you ever tell your BFF - you're such an idiot! I can't believe you did that! ? Then don't say it to you. Instead, say to yourself - ok, I'm definitely gonna do some extra cardio to make up for that slice of cake! Or, I am absolutely packing and bringing my lunch tomorrow!

Nobody's perfect. No one gets it right 100% of the time. But if you shoot for 100% consistently, I guarantee you'll at least land in the 90th percentile. This week alone, I've gone off my eating plan - twice! Did I beat myself up over it? Absolutely not. Did I adjust my weekly calorie intake around it AND do a few extra workouts? You bet I did. And if it results in a slight setback for me this week - then that's the price I'll have to pay. I'll learn from the experience, and figure out a better way to resist the temptation the next time. I'm not gonna stop working out and I'm not gonna pig out and eat everything in sight. I'm going to stick to my clean eating plan and daily workouts because that consistency is what has led to lasting weight loss for me. It's not being perfect every step of the way that gets you results, it's continuing on your journey - no matter what that will get you there.

xoxo,
 Sweet Charity

It's Not Always About The Scale

When you're working really hard on your fitness journey, you absolutey CAN NOT measure all of your progress by the scale. First of all - not all of your weight loss shows up on the scale. If you're building muscle and burning fat, the scale does not distinguish between muscle weight and fat weight. It won't tell you "hey, you burned 7 lbs. of fat but you gained 3lbs. of muscle" it will just tell you your 4lbs. down. Which is not a true measure of your loss because 3lbs. of muscle vs. 3 lbs. of fat is a BIG difference.

It's really important to celebrate your non scale victories as well. What can you do now that you couldn't do before? What changes have been brought about in your life because of your fitness efforts? Maybe it's the fact that you can walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded. You can keep up with chasing your kids around. Your cholesterol has gone down. Your clothes fit better. You feel better. You sleep better. You can run farther, work out harder and go for longer. These are all things that are way more important than 3 little numbers on a scale.

It took me quite a while to realize this. Like so many of us, my attention was so wrapped up on the scale numbers that I wasn't realizing all the progress I was making. I didn't get winded when I went out dancing with my friends - I didn't have to sit out every other song because I was exhausted. I was on my feet dancing all night, in 4 inch heels! My endurance improved - I could run for longer than 5 minutes without stopping. Then, longer than 15 minutes, longer than 20, than 30 - over an hour of running without needing to stop! I could never do a pull-up or the bent arm hang in High School physical testing. The monkey bars? Forget it. How is carrying my own body weight across a series of bars supposed to be fun? Well - it's still not really fun, but I can do it. My pull-up count is up to 3 on a good day and I can bent arm hang 'til the cows come home. I can see my arm muscles without flexing. I'm not on Michelle Obama's status yet, but I will get there!

I have just recently reached another non-scale victory. It's no secret to those that know me that I like to wear tight clothing. I just do. Most of my clothes fit me at many sizes because a lot of the things I wear s-t-r-e-t-c-h. Still, fat rolls under tight clothes just ain't cute. So for most of my life, I've had to wear some sort of Spanx garment to at least smooth everything out under my clothing. The past few weeks - I've been able to put on things that usually take a great amount of specific placement and adjusting to hide bulges, without all the effort. I just get dressed. It's still fairly new to me and I'm still kind of shocked over it. I absolutely still suck my stomach in all day, but in general I feel different.

So today, I am celebrating this non scale victory and I think I look pretty dang good. What are your non-scale victories?


Celebrate your non-scale victories!



What Muffin Top?

For the 3 people out there who don't know what a "muffin top" is when referring to a woman's body shape - let me quickly explain. The way modern jeans are designed, the waistband doesn't actually fit anywhere near a woman's waist. It actually sits somewhere below her belly button. Now the waist - that would make sense - it's a natural place in our bodies where our shape curves inward - the middle of the hourglass, if you will. But no - jeans are designed to hit in the middle of our belly fat where there is no natural indentation. So, in the case that you have EXCESS belly fat, splitting it through the middle with a pair of jeans results in fat spilling over the top, very similar to the way the top of a muffin "spills" over the top of it's paper cup holder. Thus the muffin top analogy.

Muffin Top

Now - most people don't even realize that I have a muffin top, but do not be fooled. I was a fat child and an even fatter teenager. If you think that I don't know how to disguise my body so that the public only sees what I want them to see, you are so, so wrong. I have been TRAINED. I suck in all day, every day. That is not a joke or an exaggeration. As a reflex action, my belly sucks itself in the second cloth of any kind touches it. I can strategically place padding, belts, shirts, jackets - you name it - to make my boobs look bigger and my body look smaller. Trust me, ya'll have no idea what I got goin' on! My muffin top is one of my BIGGEST foes in the battle for weight loss. Let me tell you, it is a pain in the butt trying to disguise it in some of my cutest outfits. And of course, my lower belly and thighs are the last places I lose weight, so I've been trying to obliterate this muffin top for years.

The office I work in has mirrors everywhere. On a normal day, I'm adjusting my outfit a bajillion times to make sure said muffin top is not jumping out and scaring people. On this particular fall day - I'm wearing a little jacket that was sent to me c/o one Chalene Johnson. (Love her.) I'm still getting used to the fact that it's a small and it actually zips on me without me suffocating. I didn't notice until today, but because of my body shape - the bottom of the jacket tends to ride up a little bit and rest on my muffin to...

Are you there muffin top? It's me, SweetC.

Wait a second. The jacket rests where my "muffin top" is usually bulging, but today - there's no bulge. I mean, there's still more there than I would like, but it's not spilling out of my clothing. I didn't even think about the fact that when I got dressed this morning, I did not have to strategically position my tights to be sure the muffin top was being controlled. Yes, those are TIGHTS - not pants.

So it looks as though my hard work is paying off. Who knew?

Keep workin' people, it pays off.

Remember Your "Why"

For everything we do in life, there is a reason or a "why". Why do I go to work each day? I go because I need a job to make money to pay my bills. Why am I a free fitness coach? I coach because I know how hard the journey to getting fit can be and if there's any small thing I can do to help someone else on their journey, I want to do it. Why do I dress up and put on make-up and perfume? Because it makes me feel good to look and smell good.

Why do I workout every day? Because I didn't like the way being overweight made me feel. I set a goal in my head of how I want my body to look and I will continue to work towards that goal until I've reached it.

The reason that so many people give up on their weight loss or stop trying is because they forget their "why". In the midst of all of the things going on in life, they let the little interruptions and rough spots get to them and completely forget the urgency they had to start their journey in the first place. Ultimately, the reason always comes back around because if you quit - you didn't actually fix anything. You just postponed your progress.

What's your "why" for wanting to get in better shape? Write it down. Daily, if necessary. Post it somewhere you'll see it. Is it to be healthier so you you can play with your kids and live a long life to be with them? Write that on a picture of your family and put it somewhere you will see it daily. Is it to get back to the kind of shape you were in when you were in High School? Tear a page out of your HS yearbook and circle your sports picture. Give yourself a daily reminder of why you're doing what you're doing so that you'll be inspired to KEEP doing it. No one said it was going to be easy, because it's not. But you're allowed to make mistakes and you don't have to do it perfectly, you just have to do it.

xoxo,
Sweet Charity