After I had Abby, I had about 30 lbs to lose.
Between this picture after having babies
and this picture after losing the baby weight…
I’ve been able to keep healthy habits, do practical things each day and learn to be a fit mom with good choices.
For me, it is a constant struggle to keep the weight off. Because I love to eat. And I love desserts. And chocolate. And high calorie coffee drinks. And Ice Cream. And, sometimes it is really easy to just not care about my weight and just eat whatever sounds good.
I have to say that being gluten free does help. This new way of eating made me lose the last little bit of baby weight, allowing me to fit into my wedding dress for our 10th anniversary. But, being gluten free is not just a diet fad, it is a healthier way of life for my body.
And that is the key to losing weight, really… be healthy. Don’t diet or starve. Just be healthy. Make healthy choices.
I’ve learned that it takes every day, real life changes. Changes you can keep for the rest of your life.
Here are my Top 10 Real Life Weight Loss Tips… practical tips you can do!
1. My least favorite thing – exercise. Do you see me with that wonderful, beautiful bike up there? When we were in the states, there were times that Jeremy got me out riding my bike kicking and screaming. Well, maybe not quite that bad, but I don’t always go out willingly or with a good attitude. Yet, it is important. And we all know the reasons why it is important to get out and get moving. We just have to make ourselves go outside, or on the treadmill inside, and do something. Go for a bike riding date on the trail or take the whole family. Jeremy and I also started running which has been a huge accomplishment for me. Truly, running the Paris Marathon in spring of 2015 was a huge deal. I highly recommend the Couch to 5K app… but just get moving however and wherever you can.
2. Cut out extra calories. I realized one day, early on in my weight loss journey, that the orange juice I was having for breakfast was 120 calories a glass. Over 1 week, that was 840 calories. for JUICE. that I didn’t need. Just cutting out that alone was going to be a big calorie savings over the long haul. And that is just juice! Think about candy, ice cream… yeah, lots of calories that can be cut out.
3. Brush your teeth after eating. The taste of toothpaste will keep me from wanting to eat anything. It really works.
4. Save dessert for weekends. This one is really hard for me because I could eat dessert every day, at every meal. But again, calories saved.
5. No Diet Pop. Really? Yes, really. Diet pop is not good for you, friends. And for me, I didn’t want the extra calories of real pop, so I quit drinking pop almost completely. Which is a good thing. And, I drink more water now. Get one of these. AH-Mazing.
6. Read other weight loss journeys or fitness/health tips. It helps to motivate you and keep you going! This is a 40 day challenge blog set up specifically for fitness and weight loss written by a pastor friend of ours. You will find a lot of great information on his site.
7. Put a picture of you at your goal weight or another motivating picture in your kitchen. Literally seeing a picture of me in my wedding dress stopped me from snacking many times.
8. Follow the eating rules I have for the kids. If they are eating fruit and veggies, than I should be modeling that and eating it too. When I limit pop, candy, treats and other unhealthy things for them, I try my best to limit myself too. It is easy to say, “You already had one cookie today… no more.” to my girls but VERY hard to tell that to myself.
9. If you are eating gluten free, don’t replace every gluten thing you miss with the gluten free version. Gluten free is not calorie free! I save gluten free breads, cookies, brownies and other treats for special occasions and the rest of the time, I go without rolls, buns, breaded desserts, cakes… it does trim off a lot of calories! Even if you don’t have to eat gluten free, cutting out most breads/baked goods will really help you lose weight.
10. Sleep. If I get enough sleep, I am more ready to exercise and more motivated to keep moving. Sleepy days are lazy days and lazy days mean very little calorie burning is going on in my body.
A few more added to the list over the years…
11. Don’t snack at night. This is almost as hard as exercising. I LOVE to snack at night. But cutting out snacks before bed is a great weight loss tip that helped me a lot on my journey of losing weight.
12. EAT PROTEIN!! Make sure your protein intake is 80-100g per day. That is hard to do so pick up some protein powder, greek yogurt and cheese… add in lots of egg whites and lean meats. You can do it and you WILL lose weight! This is my favorite powder and the drinks are really nice too after a run or long bike ride. Egg whites are your friend. Grilled chicken cooked and ready in the fridge a must.
13. Find a food and activity App – track calories, fats, carbs, proteins and more! plus add in work outs to get a better picture of calories in/calories out each day! I go for a 30% fats/40% carbs/30% protein each day with totals of 1400-1600 calories a day. I love MapMyRun and MapMyFitness.
I hope some of those things help you as much as they’ve helped me. I still struggle in many of these areas but having a concrete list of tips to go back to is a great resource to utilize when I’m having a hard time staying on track.
What are your best practical weight loss tips?
Thank you so much for your story, your modesty, and your love for God!
Great tips.
Indeed really helpful. One of my favorite is brushing the teeth, it really helps reduce your cravings.
I love your tips. They are actually applicable to my crazy schedule and life. Thanks!
You did it, congrats! There’s really a big difference between your pic in 2009 and 2011. You did lose weight and because of that, i would also want to try to shed these extra pounds with the tips yoou featured here. If it worked for you, it might worked for me as well. I know it’s hard as i have tried to lose weight a couple of times already, but this time, i want to be really serious about it.
– HCGBlueBottle.com
Congrats on the weight loss! I know how hard it is! 🙂
Awesome tips!! You look fabulous! The modeling good behavior is hard for me! My girls eat way better then me! I eat lunch when they are napping so no one is around to say “chips, really?!” Thanks for the tips, I need them 🙂
You look beautiful. Thanks for sharing these tips. I struggle with my weight as well. I am going to check out the Slim Fast plan.
Awesome post!! Since September 2011 I also am gluten free. It also has kick started some of my weight loss and I must say it has really motivated me to lose more. I am taking baby steps and cutting out some things that I really don’t need and saving others for once a week or really special occasions.
You look fantastic by the way!!!
Great tips! You look fabulous, btw!
FANTASTIC tips! (And I can’t imagine losing any more weight could make you look any better than you do right now!) Thank you for being an example of a healthy wife and mom. Weight gain is something that worries me–when I look at my family history as well as the thought of having babies. I have exercise as a daily part of life, but I LOVE food and know I could easily go down the wrong road if I’m not careful.
Not eating in the late evening is a big one for me–as is no desserts. EEK. And I have been thinking a lot about what I would limit my kids to eating, and how convicting that must be.
Thanks for sharing!
When I see you (and I am not kidding) I always think: she is so pretty and she always looks great! I completely think you look fine! And I am not just saying that.
I posted about weight loss tips today, too! =) You are beautiful, by the way. You look fabulous!
Great tips!! My big thing is carbs, so I try to limit the – but there are days when it’s hard {like today!!}
The brushing teeth worked for me, as does gum.
Also – to help keep me from snacking at night I knit – since I need to hands it’s hard to hold anything else 🙂
wow I would never guess your still at the top of your weight, that chart has to be wrong.
my tips would be portion control, fill up on veggies and good lean proteins, have fruit and veggies for snacks.
don’t deprive yourself of a treat every now and then other wise you might binge.
that is it for me not much I’m vegan so that is my healthy way of eating and keeping the weight off
Great ideas Jenille. I try to do most of those. I have a lot of weight to lose so I have discovered the Hungry girl Recipes. They are so good it does not feel like you are dieting at all. The ony thing is that all the recipes require a lot of ingredients and are time consuming. So, some days it is hard to motivate yourself to make the recipes. I have hd success with her food and exercise and cutting down to one little can of diet coke a day. My issue is sticking with it and keeing it off, I always seem to come uo with excuses and gain back everything I worked so hard to get off. This time I started a blog of my journey, thinking that if people were reading it then it would make me accountable for my diet and feeling guilty if I do not keep up wih it.
Great tips I know to live by, but implementing… well, you know! 🙂
Thanks for the shout out!
Those are really great tips, Jenilee! You looked beautiful before and after 🙂 I have about 30 pounds to lose too, but I’m so tired I just don’t know if I have the energy to try right now. We started a weight loss page on FB, so that has been encouraging. Anyhow, I was thinking about you yesterday and thinking how fitting into my wedding dress could be my goal for losing my weight too. I would love to renew our vows one day like you did!