5 Tips To Getting Started On A Healthier You

Hey girls!! It's Stephanie from The Blue Zoo. This post was one of my very first posts over at my blog. I thought I would share it here with ya'll cause I happen to think it has some good advice! I'm wishing you all the best of luck and am here to offer encouragement, or to yell at you to get your lazy butt up and workout!! Your choice....

A little over a year ago I realized I weighed way more than I wanted to! I weighed just as much as I had when I was 9 months pregnant with my twins. I had been skinny my whole life. Only really gaining weight when I was pregnant. I ate junk all the time. I never worked out. Hated it actually! And somehow the pregnancy weight always dropped off with no effort. Until my last pregnancy. Some of the weight hung around. It didn't drop off. I was eating a ton of unhealthy foods. My only exercise was cleaning house, obviously it wasn't enough to make any difference in my jiggly butt!

Over the last year and a half I have managed to lose 45 pounds. I am now at a healthy weight. But it still takes a lot of effort to eat healthy and workout. People are always asking me how I did it. It wasn't easy. It took a lot of will power and good friends. Here are some tips on how I got started.

5 Tips to Getting Started On A Healthier You

1. Don't think of this change as a diet. Don't even tell people you are "on a diet". Because being on a diet implies that one day you will be off the diet. Think of any changes you make as simply stepping toward a healthier life. Because that's what it's all about - being healthier and happier inside and out. (Being a skinny bitch definitely makes me happy!!)

2. Find a friend or family member who wants to get skinny with you. (This is where I say THANK YOU JESSICA to my BFF. She is awesome. I would not have reached my weight loss goals without her!!) For me this worked out great. Because we both wanted to get healthier and skinnier. We were both focused. Your buddy needs to be someone you can call when you are craving fries, so she can remind you what your butt will look like if you eat them. Your buddy also needs to be someone who will kick your butt out of bed and make you exercise if need be. While bloggy friends here are great and wonderful, if there were someone who could physically drag your ass out of bed that would be awesome!

3. Measure your portions!! I cant stress this enough. This is the first thing I tell people when they ask for my advice. Get out all your measuring cups and spoons. If you want PB&J for instance, measure out the exact amount of peanut butter and the exact amount of jelly that it says is a serving on the package. Just from doing this one little thing I lost like 4 pounds that first week. (Before I started exercising or anything else.) I was shocked that I often ate 3 times the recommended serving!

4. This kinda goes with #3. Write it all down! Keep a food journal and write down everything you eat. If it has calories and you put it in your mouth, write it down! At first I just kept track of the calories and fat grams. Later I started tracking my protein and grams of sugar too. Calories add up fast. There's just no way you can keep track of everything you eat in your head. Plus it helps to know that if by the afternoon you've already eaten 1400 calories, maybe you should pass on the 900 calorie piece of cake in the fridge!

5. Exercise. Really. I know, it seems obvious right? However when people ask me for advice, exercise is the last thing they want to hear about. I think they are really hoping for some magical pill or something. But no. Working out is the answer. When I first started I was chubby and out of shape big time! So I started small. Luckily my husband bought me my own elliptical that I set up in the living room. I was lucky if I could finish 10 minutes on the darn thing! But I kept at it and now I can do an hour. I also started walking as fast as I could while cleaning around the house, doing squats while cooking dinner, and crunches while watching TV in the evening. So start small, and gradually add more and more ways to add activity to your life.

I found that cute little hula hoopin' gal at Webweaver's Free Clipart.