Losing 30LBS on a busy schedule

I get it, kids, work, socializing, day to day tasks, it ALL adds up and can be overwhelming. Honestly at the end of the day your health gets put on the back burner. I honestly didn’t even notice my health and wellbeing was slipping until I was 30LBS overweight with high cholesterol. I knew I had to make changes, but felt so lost with the overabundance of information about weight loss and dieting.

After a ton of research I decided to develop a plan that was both sustainable, time efficient and effective. I scheduled my HIIT resistance workouts to be three times a week for 20 minutes each session for a total of 1 hour a week of resistance training. On “off” days I’d walk as much as possible and do one full session of walking 2-3 miles.

Making my health priority and being grateful for what I could currently do was key. Working out from a place of gratitude and not hate made it possible to show up everyday and do the work (after all, it’s just 20 mins). I wanted to make my health numero uno, I wanted to be able to be active and play with my kids for as long as I can.

Micro and sustainable changes in my diet also played a key role. For years I had tried overly strict and unrealistic diets to lose weight. These diets work short term, but are UNSUSTAINABLE and honestly worthless. If it’s not something you can do for life, then you shouldn’t start. It’s about moderation, not deprivation.

Another change that really helped was planning my food. My workouts and day were all so scheduled, but I didn’t make time to cook and plan what I should eat that day. My eating felt mindless and uninspired. Once I started eating real food and not food substitute (what I like to call things that make you feel full, but don’t really do anything for you) I noticed a huge shift in energy.

What if I told you that you could burn an extra 400+ calories a week passively? Sounds good right? Well my friend, that’s exactly what resistance training does. After a lift your metabolic rate is increased and due to the increased muscle mass you're creating through training your body will demand more nutrients and burn more calories! This combined with a few sessions a week will create more muscle (that toned look) and around 400ish calories a week passively burned! The best decisions I made for efficiency, one 20 minute HIIT with lifting incorporated would burn 300ish calories. This strengthened my overall body and with smart exercise choices kept me relatively injury free.

Okay, all of this is great, right? But it’s not easy and basically damn near impossible to achieve this on your own. Staying motivated and realizing this is a LONG process. Having some form of accountability will make you progress and go so much further. Mine came in the form of workout partners and eventually group fitness. Suffering with others just makes it so much easier! Having to show up everyday for others makes you show up for each workout.