Weight Loss

Ok, so I have really been wanting to do a blog about weight loss. Although I lost a large amount of weight during my pregnancy with Kennedy, I have also lost about 20 pounds in the last year. I hope this inspires someone to take control of their health, or encourages you to KEEP on!! 

Everyone I know is watching what they eat I feel like. And it seems as though they are all using different methods. I don't think any method is right or wrong. I feel like you should do whatever works for you! Not all methods will for everyone, that's for sure!

I have tried several diets over the years, and the only common denominator in my success is JOURNALING! By journaling, I simply mean keeping up with what I ate by writing it down or typing it in. I understand that this method might not work for others, but I am hoping it will help someone! In the past, I used Weight Watchers (WW). WW uses a points system. Each food is worth a certain amounts of points. You get a set number of points to use everyday. Exercise is also assigned points, points that you can add back in. This is a wonderful system! But it can be costly. I do love WW though, and I have lost quite a bit of weight using the points system.

 Some of the other diets I have heard about, and even tried include Paleo, Clean Eating, Low Carb... all of which are high protein, low carbohydrate, and no grain type diets. These don't work for me. I need no limits on what I can eat. I like to be able to eat whatever type of food I want. I have however found a plan which I am absolutely LOVING! I have been on this plan for 30 days. I have lost 8 pounds! That's 2 pounds a week, which is fantastic! I wanted to share about this new diet and how well it works in hopes of encouraging others!

The new plan I have found and absolutely love is called "My Fitness Pal." It is website as well as a phone app (available on Apple and Android). www.MyFitnessPal.com It helps you figure the amount of calories you need everyday. It has the nutritional information for almost ANY food. You can easily find the calories via a search or by simply scanning the bar code! You can even add all the ingredients of your recipe and come up with the exact amount of calories in your own personal dish! 

With My Fitness Pal, you can log your exercise as well! It will quickly help you add back in the calories for almost any exercise you can think of! And what the best thing about this app/website is?? It is totally FREE!!! While I love Weight Watchers, it is very similar to this program, it is just to costly! It is nice to meet with others each week on Weight Watchers as well, but My Fitness Pal has it's own buddy system too! It has a daily news feed where you can post your workouts, weight loss and food diary's. You can find friends from Facebook and comment and encourage each other along the way! I love it! 
Now, I decided to do this post to encourage anyone who is thinking about jumping on the health train to go ahead and get started! No excuse not too with this program. It's free. It's extensive. It even has the friends and encouragement factor covered! 
As you may have noticed, I have filled this post with old pics. I did that to show you how far I have come! And to remind myself to never go back there! And to complete my post, I will post some now pics. I hope you find it as encouraging as I do. Please feel free to email me or add me as a friend on My Fitness Pal! jennifer_l_hawkins@yahoo.com

I have taken up running. I started running last May, and I love it! It's a great way to get exercise and it's something I truly enjoy. I encourage everyone to search and look and don't quit until you find an exercise that you love! Don't force yourself to do exercises you hate! You will end up quitting. Look until you find something you enjoy. For me, it's running! Like my outfit? 

Total weight loss: 70 pounds!

I also want to link you to another blog I posted about weight loss a few months ago: http://thehawkinsfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/weight-loss-journey.html