Nov 25th to Dec 25th

Total weight lost in SIX months is 54 pounds!
Total body fat lost in SIX months 6.5%!

Total inches lost from waist in SIX months is 8.25 inches! 

Positive changes this month:  The only thing I can think of that makes me happy is that I survived Christmas without eating crazy. :) Again, I made a salad and ate that before eating any of the food that was available. I got full fast and only ate one tamal, which is a Christmas miracle lol. I'm starting to think that maybe this is a good idea for every event at home. It worked on Thanksgiving and Christmas, so why not birthday parties, etc. Even if no one wants salad, at least I feel GREAT knowing I'm eating my greens before the main dinner.

Negative Changes: I was sick over a week so I missed so much of camp. Plus, I had already missed some other days because of events I had to attend. This month was a bad month in terms of exercising. Didn't think it would affect my weight loss this much... lesson learned for sure.

Tip of the month: Change your snacks frequently or you will most likely get tired of it. My list of snacks have included soy beans, fiber bars, almonds, celery, egg whites, and fruits. At the moment I now snack on carrots and hummus, which is really good. I get bored easily, so changing it up makes you look forward to snack time.

These are my results from Nov 25th to Dec 25th based on my journal ...

• I lost 4 pounds this month :/
• I lost 1.25 inches from my waist this month.
• Drank an average of 7 glasses of water.
• The calories I ate this month were an average of 1,312 which went up from last time but is still under my 1,400 limit :)
• The average carbs I ate this month were 159g (close to my goal..)
• The average protein I ate this month was 62 (went down again) :/
• In this whole month I did 12 hrs of exercise which is most likely the reason I did not lose that much this month. This is actually my lowest ever! Lesson Learned :/

<3 Denise

Oct 25th to Nov 25th

Total weight lost in FIVE months is 51 pounds!! :)

Total inches lost from waist in FIVE months is 7 inches! 

A Total of 6 dress sizes down (found out yesterday while shopping :)

A Total of 4 jean sizes down :)

Positive changes this month:  

I have noticed my carbs were decreasing at a slow pace. This month the change I made was no bread at all, not even whole grain. My first month was no white bread/ mex bread. After that I only eat whole grain bread. Whole grain is good, but this time I wanted to see if it will make a difference on my carbs. I only ate whole grain bread if that was my only option and no food was available. In addition, I let go of cheese for now. I only let it go for the last 2 weeks, and it does cut a lot of calories... I'm obsessed with cheese but I really wanted to see what would happen if I let it go..

Negative Changes: 
I started to notice that weekends are not good for me. My calories are higher on weekends than any other day. I need to start planning ahead on my meals, so I do not eat unhealthy stuff. I'm usually not home on weekends, and so I have to grab a quick bite. This is how my calories add up.  Even though I buy a salad or chicken at a fast food place, the calories are not the same. I'm glad I don't go for the burgers, but healthy fast food still adds up.

Tip of the month: 
Not sure if I have said this tip before, but I really do think it's important so I will repeat it again lol. Salads are a blessing! Sounds dumb, but it works. Whenever there is an event or holiday coming up, eating a salad first helps. It won't make you go beast mode on the rest of the food. You will get full faster and will grub less. I tried it on Thanksgiving and it worked. I was able to not touch the mashed potatoes I had served myself. 

These are my results from Oct 25th to Nov 25th based on my journal ...

• I lost 12 pounds this month :)
• I lost 1/2 inch from my waist this month.
• Drank an average of 6 glasses of water.(not good)
• The calories I ate this month were an average of 1,275 :)
• The average carbs I ate this month were 158g (it went so much lower this month, finally!!)
• The average protein I ate this month was 70 (good, but I can do better)
• In this whole month I did 23 hrs of exercise :)

It feels nuts to say I lost 51 pounds. I can't believe I actually did it. It's not my final goal, but I am closer to it now. My only goal this month was to lose the most weight this month, compared to any other month. It was hard and it is slow, but I had plenty of motivation this time around. Apparently, knowing people expect you to fail motivates the heck out of you lol. I am so happy and I hope this continues. I know these next months might be slower, but I will welcome whatever comes my way. :)
<3 Denise

Sept 25th to Oct 25th

Total weight lost in FOUR months is 39 pounds! :)

Total inches lost from waist in FOUR months is 6.5 inches! 

Positive changes this month:  
I am really happy with my protein increase. It has been a goal of mine to keep increasing it, but has been really hard. The increase was minor, but makes me happy regardless. I have been eating more egg whites, and have been eating cereals with high protein. I have paid close attention to the protein all foods have. Hopefully I can continue increasing it and reach my protein goal. 

Negative Changes: 
This month was hard for me to go running on the days I don't have camp. It gets dark early, and being the paranoid person I am, it is very hard to convince myself to go running at night. From now on, if I can't find someone to go with, I will work out at home no matter what. No excuses :)

Tip of the month:  This month was my birthday month and I knew a lot of dinners were coming up. For me personally, restaurants are very tempting. Obviously, most restaurants are NOT portion friendly. One plate can easily be dinner for two. In addition, not all restaurants have healthy options and will be a lot of calories EVEN if you eat half your plate. For this reason, the days I knew I was going to dinner are the days that my breakfast and lunch was light. This does not mean that I go crazy for dinner. I either share half with someone, or take half of it home for tomorrow's lunch (only if it is something I consider healthy enough to eat again). Another thing I do is count my calories by lunch time. After counting my calories, I have an idea of how many calories I can eat during dinner. It is something I do everyday and it is something that obviously worked because my calories were way lower this month.

 My goals for this month were...

1. Lose 8lbs or more
2. Do not exceed an average of more than 1,450 calories
3. 80 grams of protein or more (baby steps towards the 120g goal)
4. Average of 10 glasses of water (need to work so hard on this)
5. Excercise more than 20hrs this month 
6. Keep an eye on my carbs, do not go over 140g average

These are my results from Sep 25th to Oct 25th based on my journal ...

• I lost  9 pounds this month :)
• I lost 1 inch from my waist this month.
• Drank an average of 6 glasses of water.(it went down from last time :((( 
• The calories I ate this month were an average of 1,345 :)
• The average carbs I ate this month were 174g (have to go even lower)
• The average protein I ate this month was 70 (which is 3g higher than last time, so I still need to work on this)
• In this whole month I did 17 hrs of exercise (which is ok, but I know I can do more )

2 out of 6 goals accomplished
Thankfully, I was able to surpass my 8lbs off goal. Also, I lowered my calorie intake a lot! I was constantly checking to make sure I was not going over my calories. The goals I failed on were my exercise hours, I would of lost much more weight if I would of continued working out the days I do not have camp. Also, my water was really low this month. My protein did go up, but not to the goal. Lastly, my carbs are lower but not as low as it should be. This month I am going to focus on being strict with my carbs and protein.
<3 Denise

The reason why I started....

For those that are wondering why I started doing this and what pushed me to do it at age 26....

I have an uncle that was using a website where you can see how many calories you eat a day. He wanted me to try it and after 2 weeks I was in shock!!!! I was eating over 2,000 calories, almost 2,300 calories a day! That was when I realized I needed to change. 

I then started to analyze my whole life. I started thinking about alllllll  the health problems I have encountered. My paralysis, my high blood pressure problems, my hernia, my cyst, the times I have passed out suddenly, etc. It wasn't, "I want to look good in a dress" anymore, it was more like, "I want to be healthy and don't want to continue going to the Dr with these stupid problems." For me, it was to the point where I would see the same Denise, while everyone around me kept seeing the weight going up. So after deciding calories needed to go down, I started to cut off the good stuff in life lol  tortillas, pan Mexicano, chips, etc. :( Plus, I started eating only whole grain, fruit, snacks, vegetables, etc.

 Lastly, the cherry on top was the exercise!! 3 months before knowing I was eating too many calories,  my dear cousin gave me a gift card to start fit camp. I was scaredddddd and I couldn't bring myself to start. So the day I decided to eat healthy and keep calories on check, is the day I text the trainer I wanted to start :) They are great trainers and I still get sore til this day because of the variety. If interested you should check them out. ;) http://www.facebook.com/myfitcampla

 And so this is why I started this change. Reality hit me in the face. Obviously I am still learning, and I have been changing so many things to see what works for me. Hopefully one day I can have a post that says TOTAL WEIGHT LOST IS 80 LBS. Wouldn't that be awesome? :) 80 lbs is my goal for now, but 100 lbs would be my ultimate goal. So I have 50 more lbs to go :)
Thank you for your time. Hope it can at least give you some tips :)
Love always Denise <3

New goals for October

1. Lose 8lbs or more
2. Do not exceed an average of more than 1,450 calories
3. 80 grams of protein or more (baby steps towards the 120g goal)
4. Average of 10 glasses of water (need to work so hard on this)
5. Excercise more than 20hrs this month 
6. Keep an eye on my carbs, do not go over 140g average

Aug 25 to Sep 25

Total weight lost in THREE months is 30 pounds!
Total inches lost from waist in 3 months is 5 3/4 inches! 
Total body fat percent lost in 3months is 3%

This month was soooo hard for me. I started doubting myself 2 weeks ago and lost my motivation. Checking my progress every wk was starting to affect me mentally because the results weren't like previous weeks. Everyone around me starting noticing I was beating myself up A LOT. The bf, my mom, and even my coaches had to remind me not all months are going to be 11 lbs off. I then decided to analyze my calories and compare it to other months... and I found the problem :) I was eating more carbs than before! Turns out honey is bad for you lol. I had been adding it to my fruit juices to add some flavor, but I finally cut it out. It had as much carbs as a slice of bread! Moreover, I noticed I was eating less protein. Protein is something that has been very hard for me to eat or get close to the goal range. For this reason, this week I started to eat some egg whites in the morning, and add a little more protein throughout the day. Hopefully next month I will see some more improvements if I continue this. :)  

Positive changes this month: 

Halfway through this month, I decided to go jogging the days I don't usually exercise. I truly believe that running/jogging is the reason I am losing weight. It is something I have lots of trouble doing because I can't control my breathing and have a tendency of holding my breath. However, after 3months I noticed IF I concentrate on my breathing, THEN I can at least jog lol. I jog super slow, but before I couldn't jog 30sec straight... it was bad!!! So I am very happy about this positive change.      
                                                         

Negative Changes:  I never bought my favorite fiber bars, so I have been snacking on some protein bars that don't have as much fiber. I'm glad I am still snacking on fruit, yogurt, and celery, but I just need to get back on the bars that have more fiber.

Tip of the month: When eating cereal ALWAYS look at the serving size! It's amazing how easy it is to go over the calories they mention in the cereal box. There are some cereals that are 3/4 of a cup, 1/2 a cup, or even 21 squares lol. Make sure you don't forget that milk is not included in those calories. If it is, it is usually used with skim milk. Btw, use the smallest bowls you have. Your small bowls will look very full instead of empty when using a large bowl. Good way to trick your brain ;)

 My goals for this month were...

Lose 8lbs or more (I know with time it would get harder)

Do not exceed an average of  1,500 cal a day

Intake more than 80 grams of protein (based on my size and goal, I should intake close to 100grams)

Water water water! Have an average of 12 cups a day or more

Excercise more than 15hrs this month

These are my results from Aug 25th to Sep 25th based on my journal ...

• I lost  9 pounds this month :)
• I lost almost 2 inches from my waist this month.
• Drank an average of 7 glasses of water.(it went up from last time but it is not as high as it should be )
• The calories I ate this month were an average of 1,446 (it went a bit higher than last month, so that explains why I didn't lose as much this time)
• The average carbs I ate this month were 187g (which is higher than the last month :( 
• The average protein I ate this month was 67g (which is just 1g higher than last time. My range is close to 120g, so I still need to work on this)
• In this whole month I did 20.9 hrs of exercise (which is great! )

3 out of 5 goals accomplished
I was able to exercise more hours this month as planned. In addition, I kept my calorie average under 1,500. Also, I was able to lose 9lbs, which passed my 8lbs goal. One of the goals not accomplished is my protein still being low. Lastly, my water did not reach the 12 glasses of water. Obviously I have to work on my water, my protein, my carbs, and not let my calories go up. Lesson learned. :)
<3 Denise

JULY 25TH TO AUG 25TH

        Total weight lost in two months 21 pounds! :)

Positive changes this month: 

Vege Juices: This month I decided to focus in eating more veges (my weakness!) I can eat fruit but not veges :/ So this month I did green/red juices. I varied in fresh veges (celery, spinach, oranges, parsley, limes, beets, lime, ginger, cucumber ). I found out that many use it as a cleanse. However, my family didn't. I say family because I would make it for whoever was home at the time :) Since I was not using the cleanse recipe, the juice was not always done in the mornings and it was only done once a day. 

Negative Changes: This month I was not able to take my calcium or Omega 3 pill. I had to stop it because it was interacting w/ my meds. I see it as negative because I really do believe it helps staying healthy. In addition, my fiber bars and fruit  for snacks weren't as available this time around. However, i did use other alternatives like yogurt or almonds.

Tip of the month: Measuring cups are your friend :) It helps by making sure you don't go over the serving size suggested in certain foods. Example, my almond intake is 1/4 of a cup to get the calories I want for that snack. I have my cups at work and home.

 My goals for this month were...

Average calorie intake 1,500

Lose more than 8lbs (scared to aim higher lol)

Exercise more than 13hrs this month :)

These are my results from July 25th to Aug 25th based on my journal ...

• I went over 1,500 calories only TWO days of the month. :)
• I lost 10 pounds this month :)))
• My average water intake was 6 glasses of water a day... (too low)
• My average calorie intake was 1,401
• My average carbs was 166g
• My average fat was 50g
• My average protein was 66g (should be way more :/)
• My average fiber was 16g
• In this whole month I did 14.2 hrs of exercise 

Goal accomplished!! :))) 

I did exercise more than 13hrs, which is great! In addition, my average calorie intake was lower than 1,500, which is pretty awesome! I honestly thought it was going to be hard, but to be honest it gets to the point where you know what should be your limit. Regarding my weight :) I lost another 10lbs, which is more than the goal I had set.
Based on my week in Mexico, I am a bit surprised with these results because I wasn't able to juice and drink my regular 8 glasses of water in Mexico. However, I did walk A LOT! You have to walk to buy milk, eggs, water, etc. Plus, we were staying on the 2nd floor, so we did too many stairs lol to the point that I need to wrap my knee. :)
Excited with these changes :)))
<3Denise 

June 25th to July 25th

My name is Denise and this is a blog regarding the many changes I am making to have a better and healthy life. Just by working out w/ awesome people and counting calories!  I have my family and friends supporting me.  I'm honestly just trying to change my life. 

Total weight lost in 1 month is 11lbs!

Background info: I am using a website where I can type what I eat and it tells me how many calories I intake a day. If interested, stores sell journals where you can write your daily calories down. Lastly, before changing my eating habits, I recorded what I was eating for 2weeks to see what I was eating. It was then when I noticed I was eating way over 2,300 calories a day! For that reason my goal for this month was to intake 1,800 calories or less a day..

Tip of the month:

Fiber bars and fruits are great snacks. After a week, your body starts asking for them :)

Positive changes this month: More whole grain/wheat bread. More water (i used to drink one glass a day). More fruit (used to eat one a wk). No fast food unless it's less than 300 calories (i used to eat that for lunch everyyyy day).  Fiber bars! (they are good for snacks). Lastly, exercise! I was doing none.

My goal for this month was to intake 1,800 a day

These are my results from June 25th to July 25th based on my journal ...

• I went over 2,000 calories 6 days out of the whole month.Thankfully, this was ONLY in the beginning where I was first starting to do my changes in eating. 
• I lost 11pounds at exactly one month :)))
• My average water intake was 5 glasses of water a day... which honestly is really low compared to what I should be doing :/ 
• My average calorie intake was 1,625
• My average carbs was 198g 
• My average fat was 58g 
• My average protein was 69g, which is super low
• My average fiber was 17g
• In this whole month I only did 13hrs of exercise

Goal Accomplished!

I was able to intake way less than 1,800 which is really good! I didn't have many detailed goals, since I really did not know what to expect. I am extremely happy many positive changes came this month and will have more goals for the next month. (See next post)