Hi everyone! I hope you have all had a great few weeks since I last guest-posted here. My life has kicked into high gear over the past month with the work trip I took at the end of March and with Easter, among other things. Things always tend to get busy for me around this time of year before it settles in for summer, but it’s been good and I’ve managed to stay on my food plan in for most of it.

I say most of it because I’ve definitely taken a couple little diet vacations. My company celebrates their anniversary every year, normally by taking all of us out for a nice dinner, but this year they decided to take everyone on a trip to a farm. And not just any farm, mind you, this is what you’d call a fancy farm. It’s located on a gorgeous 4,200 acre property in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains and they do raise animals and grow produce, but they also have luxury guest quarters, activities like horseback riding and hiking, a full spa and food to die for. It was absolutely amazing. You can see their website here.

I definitely had to take a Weight Watchers break for this trip. This place is renowned for their food, which is described as “Foothills Cuisine” and much of it is grown and made right there on the property using organic methods. While my husband and I were horseback riding, I was talking with our instructor, who said that they also support local farmers in the region for just about anything they need that they don’t produce themselves. That’s definitely right up my alley. Even though I wasn’t tracking what I ate whatsoever, all of the food was incredibly fresh and there were plenty of impeccably-prepared vegetables to enjoy. In fact, I have never in my life enjoyed veggies like I did here. But, on the other hand, there was still a lot of food to indulge in, including one of my personal faves macaroni and cheese.

I also took a diet break on Easter because it’s my personal philosophy that calories don’t count on holidays! Ok, I know they do count, but I find that giving myself some leeway to eat whatever I want occasionally does help me stay on track in the long run. If I deprive myself too much, I normally end up rebelling and overindulging or quitting the plan altogether. We had a really nice Easter at Meg’s, which she just posted about, and we had delicious grilled steaks, potato salad, garden salad and more. I enjoyed it so much that I didn’t even feel like having a cupcake for dessert! I also didn’t have any candy that whole day, which I was proud of. I’m not a huge sweets person to begin with, but I didn’t want to go totally overboard by getting started on the candy. Once you start, it’s hard to stop.

So in-between these breaks, I did my Weight Watchers plan with the extra points I talked about previously. The last time I weighed, I was down 10 pounds, which is 2 more pounds than last time. All in all, not too bad, but I’m definitely ready to really buckle down and get more weight off for spring and summer. On a positive note, the extra points I’ve incorporated make this is the easiest, most relaxed diet plan I’ve ever done, especially in comparison to other things I’ve tried before. I’ve learned quite a bit from some of my previous efforts, which have helped shaped my personal diet philosophy. Everyone is different in what works for them, but I’ve formulated a few do’s and dont’s for myself based on my own experience.

The first time I remember trying a diet was when I was 17. I spent the summer working for a small local family fun park in the concession stand (worst job ever, by the way) and I gained about 10 pounds from sampling the pizza, hot dogs, ice cream and other junk food a little too often. To get the weight off, I tried exercising every day for a month (no diet change) and I lost 5 pounds. Then, I decided to try Weight Watchers for the first time (my mom had done it before, so I used her materials) without exercising and I lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks. Lesson learned: Exercise really helps with toning up, but what I eat makes the most impact on my weight.

After that, keeping my weight down wasn’t too hard for me for awhile. Of course, being super-young and really active tends to help a lot. I remember eating out all the time during my first year of college and having a much bigger appetite for less-than-healthy fare than I do now, but I simply added a college aerobics class a few times a week and managed to go down a size. The next year, I decided to go to a university in a different town and I lived on campus, which meant I walked everywhere I went. I also used the student gym regularly and watched what I ate, so I actually lost weight rather than gaining the typical freshman 15.

After that, the person I was dating at the time ended up moving to the same town for college and, as in many relationships, we tended to eat a lot together, especially out at restaurants. I started noticing the weight coming on again. After getting fed up with it, I decided to try a strategy someone told me about that involved eating less than 10 grams of fat a day. I was all about the low fat craze and thought that eating as little fat as possible was the best option, but it equated to a very small amount of food per day. I also started working out much more strenuously. I got down to my lowest adult weight ever during that period, but it was extreme and I often felt weak and jittery. I managed to maintain it for awhile, but I found that it was always harder to lose weight after that, so I likely damaged my metabolism. Lesson learned: Extreme diets might work initially, but they aren’t effective for the long term and they can ultimately make it much harder to lose weight. I also now know that fat is totally necessary for the body, albeit the right kinds.

After graduating from college, I took up Atkins (plus a few similar plans) and drastically reduced carbs from my diet. I really liked that I could eat some of my favorite things and, as long as I didn’t include carbs, it wouldn’t spike my insulin and cause weight gain. It worked pretty well at first. I lost about 15 pounds and felt more clear-headed and energetic. But, ultimately, restricting myself from eating an entire food group proved to be too much for me. When I ban something from my life, I tend to crave it even more, whether it be for psychological or physiological reasons. All the weight came back – and then some – as soon as I went off the plan. It also failed to work as well after I tried it a few more times, indicating that my body was building some kind of resistance to it.   Lesson learned: Moderately restricting carbs can be a great strategy for weight loss, but I won’t totally eliminate them ever again.

Then I started dating my soon-to-be hubby. Looking back at pictures, I was at a great weight.  I still wanted to lose a few pounds at the time (of course), but now I would die of happiness if I got back to that size. I did make a few more weight loss attempts around then, but I went through a period when my weight just wouldn’t budge, no matter what I did. Again, I likely damaged my metabolism by some of the more extreme things I did and it took time to recover. After being in a relationship for awhile, my weight did budge, but it went upward. It’s easy when you’re happy and in love and eating out a lot together for that to happen. After getting engaged, I decided to go on Weight Watchers again before our big wedding day. I lost almost 15 pounds before getting married and I felt good.

Of course, then there was pregnancy, which changed everything – for better and for worse. As I talked about before, I ended up 30 pounds heavier after having my children. Plus, as I also mentioned in my first post, I gained another 15 pounds later without realizing it. Before having kids, I normally had just 10-15 pounds to lose at any given time - and looking back there were certain times that it was more vanity weight than anything – but now I’m facing my biggest weight loss challenge ever. Plus, getting a bit older means that my body doesn’t respond quite as quickly as it once did to diet and exercise, making it even more daunting.

On the positive side, pregnancy has really changed my attitude about everything. Even when at my thinnest before, I was critical of myself and how I looked. I always wanted to lose more and I spent a lot of time comparing myself to others. Now, it‘s hard to believe I didn‘t appreciate what I had and I try not to be so hard on myself. When you see your body create two new lives and watch it bounce back after two painful c-sections, it becomes much easier to focus on the positive rather than the negative. When I do my eating plan now, I find that I have a nice sense of accomplishment and control at the end of the day knowing that, no matter what else happened or how crazy my day was, I didn’t overeat or cause weight gain. And when I do have time to myself for exercise, I totally appreciate it and I like doing good things for my body more than ever before – particularly because time to myself is much harder to come by.

Over the years, I’ve also learned a lot more about what I think is healthy. I might go into this a little more later, but basically I’m all about fresh, preferably organic food in it’s natural, unprocessed state whenever possible. I refuse to eat “diet” food now and I let myself eat things I love, just in smaller portions. For example, I love sour cream and I’d rather have a smaller amount of the regular, full-fat kind than a larger amount of the reduced-fat version. Some people are the opposite, where they prefer quantity more, but I find that I’m satisfied with less food and I have far fewer cravings when I eat things I actually like.

As you can see, I’ve had plenty of ups and downs over the years – more than I’ve mentioned here - but I think the things I’ve learned can definitely help with the weight I need to lose now.  I’m just trying to reign it all in and make sense of how to apply everything in order to get results. It’s one thing to read about and research various health topics, which is something I’m really interested in, but another thing to actually apply the concepts, which can be more difficult. I think I’ve cultivated some good habits, but I still have more changes I’d like to make. Maybe eventually I’ll have it down to a science and I won’t need a diet plan, but I know that journaling, tracking and measuring food is important for me right now. In the meantime, I’ll try to incorporate more healthy changes, one at a time. As they say, it’s all about the journey when it comes to your goals, not just the destination, and I can‘t expect to do everything all at once or to be perfect all of the time. That’s another thing I’ve had to come to terms with.

Does anyone else have any lessons learned while dieting that you’d like to share? Or, some diet habits that have worked really well for you? If so, I’d love to hear about it!

Have a great weekend!