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Fifty Plus in the Gym

My weight loss journey started when my mother died in 2004. All of a sudden, a switch was flipped. My health became my #1 priority. Watching her get sick and die made me realize the importance of health and fitness. At my heaviest, I was almost 200 pounds. Now, I am only 4 pounds away from my normal BMI weight for my height! When my primary physician told me that I needed to reach my normal BMI weight, I never thought I could do it. It seemed like an unreachable goal. I needed to lose more than 40 pounds. My first step was to figure out why I was overeating. I knew that job stress caused me to crave sweets and carbs. I was having a love affair with lemon poppyseed muffins and oatmeal raisin cookies. I also knew that diabetes was rampant throughout both sides of my family, so I needed to figure out how to control my cravings. My solution was — “out of sight, out of mind.” If I didn’t see the food, I didn’t crave it. So I asked my husband to stop bringing certain foods into the house. If he did bring the food into the house, I asked him to hide it from me.

My second step was to start exercising. I began small by walking for 5-10 minutes after every meal. That small move got my metabolism up to burn off calories. After a few weeks, I began to notice a change in my body. I weighed myself every few days to make sure I didn’t gain weight. My weight stabilized and I even lost a pound.

My third step was to reduce portion sizes. I used to eat 3 – 4 slices of bread per day, and a male colleague told me to cut back to a max of 3 slices per day. I used to eat a full poppyseed muffin every morning and I cut back to half a muffin and added fruit every morning. Instead of eating potato chips with my sandwich at lunch, I ate cinnamon applesauce because it added fruit and sweetness to my lunch, but only 100 calories.

For afternoon snack, I used to eat 2 large oatmeal cookies. They were so moist and chewy and sweet, but they were making me fat! Each cookie was 240 calories and 4g of saturated fat. I slowly weaned myself off of the cookies by cutting back to 1.5 cookies per day. After a couple of weeks, I cut back to 1 cookie per day and added a few nuts. Eventually, I cut out the oatmeal raisin cookie and switched to 100 calories of nuts and 100 calories of fruit.

My last and remaining step is to eat healthy and count calories every meal. I limit my daily intake to 1400 – 1500 calories of food. I make sure I walk/exercise to work off 100 calories every day. If I eat more than 1500 calories in one day, I work out extra and/or cut back the next day. If I order dessert at a restaurant, I only eat half of the dessert.

Losing weight is a daily challenge. Keep an eye on the scale and be aware of everything you put in your mouth! Count calories, and if you do overeat one day, cut back the next day. Move your body every single day.

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