Baby steps add up

 

Now motivated more than ever, I look back and realize just how far I’ve come along. My eating habits have  drastically changed and I feel very proud of it. Just shortly over 2 years ago, I cut out the bad “stuff” completely and never looked back.

Not saying that this is easy for some if not most people, but I had some helpful pushes along the way. With a reason and a strong mind set these sacrifices can be given up a lot easier than expected.

Soda- This was my first step in losing weight and it’s a big helpful one too. It’s amazing, yet disturbing, knowing that one can of soda holds 10-12 teaspoons of sugar. (Which is about 10 sugar packets. Yikes!) That’s 10 times more the amount of sugar I put in my 1 cup of coffee. Add 2-3 cans a day and that’s just asking for fat to pile up. Once I saw the sugar content in these measurements I dropped soda cold that day. It’s been years since I’ve touched a soft drink and you now what, I don’t miss it.

Fast Food- Have you seen the movie Food Inc? If you have, you’ll know why I gave up fast food. If not, watch it! I highly encourage it. (I came across mine on Netflix.) I really enjoy my love for food, but after seeing this I couldn’t stomach eating cheaply processed meat mixed in with mystery ingredients. Who knows what the heck I’m eating if it doesn’t even rot.

High Fructose Corn Syrup-  When I used to buy food I didn’t really bother to look on the back of the ingredient list. I figured, hey, it’s food. What’s more is there to look for? Oh was I wrong. After helpful articles and advice from friends I realized that most of the processed foods I loved so much had high fructose corn syrup in it. This man made sweetener was hidden in almost everything that was in my cabinet. It was no wonder I wasn’t losing any weight eating those high sodium sugared products. Now if anything is packaged I quickly flip over to look at the ingredient list. If HCFS was in it, it wasn't going in the basket. It was simple as that. This was a helpful guideline when first learning to eat better and healthier.

These 3 steps are big stepping stones when trying to lose weight. After I followed these cutbacks I lost about 7 pounds. Seven pounds may not seem like a lot, but when you're 5'2 it does make a difference. I went to a size 11 down to size 9 in a year (with absolutely no exercise.) Can't complain about that.

Have you had any recent or drastic cutbacks that you've accomplished? How did you come to make the sacrifice and have you noticed a difference?