New Purse for a slimmer me

I don't really like to talk about my weight or weight loss, but I have to take a moment and brag - I have lost 20 pounds! The unfortunate thing is that I am still in more or less the same size clothing (which means my clothes were way too tight before). Now I am swimming in all of my clothes and am very happy about that. Hopefully I will be sizing down soon.

To celebrate this milestone - I bought a new purse - a Butler Bag. It is awesome and I love it.

If you are wondering what is the secret to my weight loss success - it is a change in attitude.

This time, I decided to take a long haul approach. My mantra is: "It is all about direction not speed". My attitude is that if my general calorie intake is less than my general calorie output *eventually* I will lose weight and it is all about direction - not speed. So I started making little changes one at a time.

Along with the "direction not speed" mental switch (which I still have to keep reminding myself), I made a firm commitment that "NO" is not part of my diet/lifestyle (as in "no" cookies, etc.). I noticed when I tell myself I cannot have something, then that thing becomes my focus and I think about it until that is all I want. Instead I tell myself that I can have whatever I want, but I try to eat a smaller portion of it. Then I started to replace some snacky things with fruit and veggies (but mostly fruit, because I still like sweet and they travel well).

Then I found the golden ticket - I got an app (for my iPod touch) - "Lose It!" that tracks my calories and exercise and I make myself use it even when I know I am way over. That has made a huge difference in finding my empty calories. So I slowly looked at my empty calories and started to systematically cut them out if I don't love the food. I only eat food that I love! I don't bother with food I don't like or love. (For example I love a good steak salad and I have noticed that I don't really care about the crunchy friend onions that are added to many of them, so now I just order without that).

I started to consistently eat yogurt every morning (I know I talk about yogurt way too much on this blog, but I really feel so much better when I eat it daily). I almost always have an apple or an orange or both handy - they are my junk food snacks of choice. I try to eat berries everyday. With Lose It! I track my fiber and I get about 25-30 grams a day with my food intake - I add extra beans to my Chipotle burrito bol (which is usually 2-3 lunches now). I stopped taking my daily vitamin and instead just try to eat a variety of good food to get my nutrients (I think I was using it as a crutch).

I started walking in preparation for the Seattle 1/2 marathon. I usually walk about an hour 3 times a week and once a weekend I do a long walk of at least 2 hours (that will all be over soon though). Believe me when I say this has been a gradual process to exercise this much. I mostly do walking videos at home in the evening after Audrey is in bed. I take the stairs almost all the time and if it is a short flight, I run them.

Most of the changes are things I have done in the past, just not consistently enough - but one of the intangibles is that I now *love* my job - and job happiness means I am not running to starbux or McD's for a sanity break everyday. I still love my fancy coffees and that certainly cuts into my calories, but with a goal of 1/2 pound per week, my calorie budget is very reasonable.