In my experience, losing weight is might harder in your thirties than your twenties. I gained quite a bit of weight at the end of college. And then I continued to gain when I started working. I eventually said enough is enough and easily lost close to 40 pounds. I barely remember what I did to lose it. I started doing some moderate exercise, started paying a little more attention to what I was eating. That was about it. I don't remember it being difficult at all. Before I knew it, I was back to a very healthy weight again.
This time around, several years later, not so much. I started eating out less and less, and cooking in more and more. I started running (jogging) several times a week. I went to the gym. I continued to gain. I finally tried the South Beach Diet and it worked. Here are the top four things I changed that helped me lose weight over the last year:
- I replaced my usual cereal (bran flakes, shredded wheat, rice krispies) with quiche and turkey bacon. I make the quiche with egg beaters so my cholesterol go out of control. I use the South Beach Vegetable Quiche Cups to Go recipe. I bring 2 with me to work each morning and heat them up in the microwave. My co-workers are always commenting how amazing they smell and wishing they had them.
- I greatly reduced the number of carbs with dinner. I stopped eating large plates of pasta, white rice, bread and started eating a lot more meat and vegetables. As a result I've actually greatly expanded my horizons and come across some really great recipes as a result.
- I replaced my usual sandwich for lunch with leftovers from dinner the night before. We make some great dinners and we always cook an extra serving of everything so I can have some for lunch the next day. As with the quiche, I get comments several times a week how amazing my lunch looks and smells. It's funny how people are so jealous of my "diet" food.
- I found other ways to satisfy my chocolate/sweets cravings. I always have fudgsicles (of the no sugar added variety) in the freezer and occassionally make chocolate milkshakes in the blender with unsweetened cocoa and artifical sweetener (splenda). This really helped me get over the hump of the terrible cravings at the beginning.
What has your weight gain/loss experience been in your thirties? What are some things that worked for you?