Stefanie vs Weight - Part 6

So I'm proud to say that I'm still going strong! My current weight is 173.5lbs. That's about 11.5lbs since October (when I posted my weights the first time). More or less I average about a 1lb loss per week so I think that's something to be proud of.

For Christmas, Eric got me a Bodybugg. It is a monitor that you wear on your arm all day and it tells you how many calories you are burning all the time. It also works as a pedometer and wants you to take 10,000 steps/day. It's funny how many that is, especially when I have a desk job for 9 hours - 4 days a week. This monitor has been so great. I always logged my calories based on the machines at the gym or what my tracking website calculated. Now I know exactly how many calories I'm burning per day and per workout. It helps me understand my food intake a lot better. I know exactly what I'm taking in and putting out which is all weight loss is about.

Right now I am eating approximately 1200-1600 calories a day and attempting to burn about 2600. If I burn 2600 I will eat 1600 calories but otherwise I try and keep my intake on the low end. If I can have a deficit of 1000 calories per day that yields a 2lb loss per week. I try and abide by this but obviously I'm not spot on as I really lose about a 1lb a week. I eat a TON of veggies but I really need to work on lowering my sodium intake.

I still use the website My Fitness Pall religiously. I have started making friends on there and joining challenges. I'm participating in 2 right now: Burn 3500 cal/week and a New Years to Valentines challenge to lose as much weight as I can. It's nice feeling accountable to people, also to have a streak going of logging food/exercise for 115 days now. It's definitely become a great place for encouragement and food and exercise suggestions for me.

I work out daily for the most part. I go to the gym about 6 days a week and will let myself workout from home one or two days if I really want to. Generally I do the elliptical for 35 minutes for a 400 cal burn and then do the stationary bike for 100 calories. Or I'll do the elliptical and then jog. If I don't do machines I'm taking a step class, zumba class or the bodypump class. I've managed to make "friends" at the gym too. We chat for a bit before and after classes and it's nice because they notice if I'm not there so I feel accountable to show up.

It's not hard or a struggle to eat healthy and stay active. I measure my food, have a pretty good knowledge of what things contain now (calorie wise) and try not to eat out. I don't over think exercising. I just do it and that seems like a good mentality for me.

It's crazy to think that I'm currently 12 lbs lighter than I was when I got married 4 1/2 years ago. My body shape is definitely different since having kids but it's neat to know that this is the lightest my co-workers have ever seen me! They are all super supportive so that is great too!

Here I am on Devon's first birthday on 12/15/09 at approximately 215 lbs:

Here I am this Christmas at about 177lbs or so:

I feel fantastic and have so much energy. I'm sleeping better and just have so much more confidence.

I just want to say that I write these posts not for any pat on the back or comments about how I look but because I want a record of all the hard work I'm doing. I've been overweight most of my life and I think it's important to record the journey of becoming the person I will be for the rest of my life. I will NEVER be over 200 lbs again. I know, it's a bold statement but it's one I believe now.

I also hope that if anyone stumbles across my blog and can relate to me that they can find some hope from my journey. That would be so wonderful!