The Q&A Post

First off...I am not an expert on health and fitness.  Every answer I give in this post will be from things I've researched and my personal experience.  Also, I may have gotten a bit wordy, but hey, you asked! =)

How long did it take you to loose what you've lost so far?  
My journey to weight loss has been a long road.  I won't go into the full details because you can read about it here, but it's taken me about 9 years to no longer be obese or overweight.  And I want to say that this last time was once and for all.  I started out on December 27th, 2009 weighing in at 220 pounds.  It was the heaviest I had been in 7 years.  And in October, I weighed in at my lowest at 163, and have hovered around that since then.  But I've still got a little more I would like to lose just to be in the best shape I can be in.  So that would be from January to October, 10 months, and that would be a total of 57 pounds lost.

Did you do a diet program?
First off, I hate the word diet.  We have turned it into such a dramatic thing, where everyone feels sorry for you, because you have to eat a salad, and you mourn over the fact you're not eating what you really want to, and you become a victim.  I don't mean to be harsh...and I don't mean that towards you...I just knew I didn't want that, because that's the way I felt about it.  So I didn't do a diet program.  I just began working out, and tried to eat more healthy foods.  Now over time, I became more educated and about 3 months in to my regiment I picked up the magazine, "Clean Eating" and it changed my world.  I read about foods I had never heard of, and it all looked so good, and their were desserts!  That was something I felt I could follow!  It was all about eating whole foods.  We have stripped our foods of so many things, and have taken away so much nutrition for things to be fast and convenient.  Eating this way meant, I could actually eat real food, and I was willing to shop and work for it.  After doing that for several months, I hung out with my brother and his wife, who are vegans, and my world was opened up to even more.  So since about June, I've been eating mostly vegan.  I say mostly because Jordan and I travel a lot and I am not always in control of my surroundings.  I have learned to order creatively off of menus, and when we're in people's homes I graciously eat what I am served...and sometimes things are cooked with lard, and that sucks.  But my thing has always been about eating the healthiest as possible.  So I don't "cheat" or "reward" myself or "go off" of my diet, it's about making wise choices and choosing the best possible options for yourself.  And yes you can even eat dessert!  Now- do I have days where I over eat...of course, but I am constantly evaluating myself, and getting back on the saddle.

I have a lot of blogs I follow who all have tons of recipes and you can find the links to all of them under Blogs I Love.  And I have a few cookbooks I love and recommend.  Any of the Eat Clean-Diet books by Tosca Reno, and the Magazine, Veganomicon, The Vegan Table, and Vegan Planet.  

And there are other helpful websites with all kinds of healthy options and easy trade outs for meals.  And quick ones at that.  Here are two of my faves: Kraft Foods, and Hungry Girl.  You should sign up for Hungry Girl's daily e-mail.  It offers great recipe swaps for your favorite foods, along with alerts and reviews on products coming out.

A word on being vegan:
People get scared when they here the word vegan, and while it's becoming more and more popular, people still think you're weird if you don't eat meat.  It's frustrating.  People turn their nose up to my food before they even try it, and I even had someone cook something else because I was cooking...lame!  But I still stick to my plan.  The question I get asked the most is, where do you get your protein...which is funny to me, because we need more than just protein, why are we not talking about fiber, or vitamins....anyway protein is in a lot of things.  I don't live off of salads.  I eat grains that are high in protein, beans that have just as much protein as a piece of chicken, and I do drink protein mixes on heavy workout days.  It's about having a well-balanced diet.  And I decided to go vegan because I actually felt better eating that way.  I didn't feel bogged down by my food.  And just so you know...I am a foody person, so I take pride in making healthy, really good tasting, vegan meals.

A word on Food:
Working out is needed, but the way you fuel your body is most important.  Some of this may be hard.  You may have to retrain your brain and taste buds.  But I promise you, it's so worth it.  Eating more naturally unprocessed foods will cure so much more than weight loss.  Something I have implemented in the way I eat though is that I eat a big breakfast, and decent lunch, and scale back on dinner, never eating too late.  Some days I snack between meals, and other days I don't.  Eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full...and keep yourself busy if you're just bored.

What holds me accountable?  
I thought it was interesting someone asked that, because I think accountability is so important and being held to your word makes you actually do it.  It's why people join groups, or tell everyone they know what their goals are.  For me the thing that held me accountable was getting people involved and having my blog.  I told my husband because he lives with me, and I cook, so obviously this was going to effect him.  I told my friend, because I knew she has similar desires.  And I told my mom because I knew she would know where I was coming from, since she struggled with her weight her whole life.  And the blog.  I told it everything.  It was like therapy to get stuff off my chest, and to see progress from week to week.  It was set to private at first because I was really embarrassed, but then I thought other people could probably benefit from this, so I opened it up.

Oh yeah...and I set goals for myself, but signed up for something so I had to do it.  Like run a 1/2 marathon.  I had not run more than 3 miles when I signed up for it, so I knew I had to put the training in week after week to be ready for the race.  And since I put money into the race, and into new gear, I had to do it, or my husband would've have been upset with me.

What gives you the most motivation?    
At first it was a lot about appearance.  We're getting ready to move to the Philippines and I didn't want to be this overweight person in such a petite culture.  But before all of that, I hated standing next to Jordan and being so overweight while he was so thin.  I hated shopping at plus size stores.  I wanted to look like a normal person.  So I asked if I could get something from Anthropologie if I lost the weight.  But when I lost a lot of the weight I just needed jeans that fit, it didn't matter where they were from.  I still haven't gotten anything from Anthropologie, but I don't care.  After I accomplished some of the things I did, riding 94 miles on my bike, running a 1/2 marathon, I just felt so alive.  I couldn't do that stuff before.  I hated being slowed down by my weight and feeling so miserable and worthless all of the time.  The motivation now is to never go back!  I realize now it's not about losing the weight and then I'm done...it's changed my life, and I want to feel this good forever, and I know it means doing what I'm doing now to maintain that.

A word on working out:
Sometimes working out just flat out sucks.  I'm constantly trying to push myself to do more, to run farther, to peddle harder, to just keep going.  And I honestly, I don't know if I can tell you where that comes from.  You just have to do it.  You have to find that thing inside of you...to tell yourself you're so much stronger than you think, to tell yourself the pain is just temporary, and to tell yourself you're worth every ounce of energy you're putting into it.  It kind of becomes addicting.  I guess it's just about channeling all of your energy into deciding to change and be different.  And that's when the transformation takes place.

Find something you love.  Maybe running a 1/2 marathon is not your thing, but that doesn't make you less of an athlete or less of a person.  Find that thing that you look forward to doing everyday, and do it!

Do you eat before or after you workout?
This is a tough one.  One that's taken me a while to figure out.  I think every body is different and it depends on what you're doing and how hard you're working out.  When I was running I would have to get up 2 hours before I went out to run, to eat and drink my coffee.  And if I did a long run, I was starving by the time I got home.  Currently, because my schedule allows for it, I get up drink coffee and wake up and then I eat breakfast about 7 or 8 and then I workout at about 10.  I drink a mix called Cytomax while I workout to help with hydration, endurance, and recovery.  But I workout for about an hour or more.  And I'll eat a little something, like a homemade granola bar, when I'm done if it will be a while before lunch.  It just takes time figuring out what you need and what your stomach can handle.

And finally:

(That froze at a weird place, I'm not sure why my face looks like that...oh well.)