My Methods

In the past I have used:

• Nutrisystem
• Turbo Jam
• HCG
• Weight Watchers

All of which I have had some success with.

Nutrisystem – I didn’t find the food appealing, it really looks nothing like what they show on TV and coming up with my vegetables to make all the time was hard.

Turbo Jam – Very effective especially when you follow the jump start diet.  My problem was I didn’t like most of the food in the recipes.  I still use the work outs frequently though.

HCG – Had great results but not really family friendly.  My husband liked the food, but watching others eat foods I craved was hard.

Weight Watcher – I did the online version and it helped, it was finding the time to track all my food I found difficult.

This time I started the C25K program several weeks before I even decided on a change in life style.  I started C25K at 2 weeks post partum and I have stuck with it!  I realized a few weeks ago that I needed more though.  I started trying to watch what I was eating, but it wasn’t working.  I was over eating and I knew it.  Last week on May 2, 2012 I started using My Fitness Pal (MFP).  I had an account from using it before, but the new phone app is awesome and makes tracking food much easier with the barcode scan function.  I no longer have to spend 5 minutes searching for one food.  This time I have also gotten onto the site and reached out to fellow members for support. 

Things that are working for me right now:

• Planning out my food the day before and entering it into MFP.  This way I can use the bar codes and it saves me time.
• Preparing my food the night before (except for dinner) and getting it ready to put in my work bag. – This eliminates not having enough time to figure out what to take in the morning and how many calories it’s all going to be.  It also allows me to measure out the proper portion size so I’m not guessing.
• Eating several small things throughout the day.  Eating at 2 hour intervals seems to be keeping me from getting hungry and I’ve heard it helps boost your metabolism.  
• Breaking my lunch into 2 sections.  I eat half of my sandwich and then about an hour later I’ll eat the other half.  
• Really thinking about if the calories I’m eating are worth it.  I removed 16oz worth of coffee in the morning and replaced it with water because the coffee (with milk and sugar), just wasn’t worth it, and now I benefit from always getting my 64oz of water in if not more.
• C25K!  I love the feeling of pride I have after pushing myself to finish a run.  Today I finished week 7 of the program.  Once I finish the 9 week program my goal is to increase my speed.  Right now I’m only going about 2 miles in 25 minutes.
• Nike+ - Using the sports band and being able to visually see my runs and set goals gives me a great feeling of accomplishment.
• Doing Strength training on my non-running days.  I still do my Turbo Jam videos because they really are effective.

I hope in times when I’m struggling I can come back and look at this list and get back on track.