Seven Quick Takes- Goal Weight Edition!!

I made my goal weight in Weight Watchers this week- YAY!!!  They give you a range to and I picked the highest weight as my goal.  I think some more weight will come off as I keep up this new lifestyle- maybe 5 more pounds.  We'll see.  Here are the top 7 ways I lost 20 pounds.  

-1-

The Anti-Inflammatory Diet

I haven't been perfect, but in general, I follow this diet.  Basically, no processed or fast food, potato, and tomato.  Lots of mushrooms and fish.  I've also taken out  dairy and grains.  I make lots of Paleo recipes.  Wellness Mama is my favorite.  Not one of her recipes has failed me. 

-2-

Sleeping

I'm trying to get better sleep.  I'm not perfect about getting 8 hours, but that is my goal.  I probably get more like 7 each night.  

-3-

Exercise

I take 2 15 minute walks a day.  One is at lunchtime.  The other is after school.  I also do 20 minutes of hard cardio like swimming or running during the week.  I added this when a YMCA satellite location opened at a school one block from my house.  It literally takes me 2 minutes to run there from my house.  What a blessing!  On the weekend I do an hour long run.  Again, this doesn't happen perfectly everyday, but it's a goal.  I want to add some yoga stretches and weights for about 10 minutes in the morning, but haven't been able to squeeze them in yet.  

-4-

Going to a meeting every week

Food has been a life long addiction for me and facing it every week helped me chip away at bad habits and face the fact that I have a disordered attachment to food.

-5-

My leader

She is super encouraging and positive.  

-6-

My friend J

We go together.  She has some more weight to lose and I'll be going each week with her until she reaches goal. 

-7-

Learning not to be so hard on myself

This could be a post in and of itself.  But, by going every week, I had to fact the fact that I was so hard on myself that I didn't want to face the scale.  I was equating my worth with the number that is on the scale.  I've always had a hard time reconciling the fact that God didn't want me to be the weight I was, but he still loved me no matter what weight I was.  My all or nothing brain took a long time to wrap it's head around the fact that both could be going on at once.  I'm still working on it though.  Just like I'm working on the sleep and exercise and the anti-inflammatory diet.  It's a work in progress.  

If you told me a year ago that this is how I would lose the weight or that it would take a year, I would have laughed.  I never in a million years thought I'd find an hour a day to exercise or be eating such a limited diet.    I always hated walking.  People really can change.  I pray that He guides me through the next phase of maintaining these wonderful habits.  God is good!  God Bless you tonight.