Week 39 & 40

I finally lost a pound - Hallelujah! So now I'm up to 54 pounds weight loss.

At least I learned exactly what I need to do to maintain my weight. If I want to lose my last 25 pounds I have a decision to make. I either can continue what I am doing and very slowly lose the weight or start cutting down calories and carbs and amp up my work outs. I really haven't decided which I'll do. I'm guessing maybe some weeks I'll do more extreme measures but probably not all of the time. I really don't like counting calories or being really extreme about working out, it just doesn't fit into my lifestyle. That's why I have loved clean eating so much. I haven't had to worry about counting anything. I just eat healthy whole foods and don't eat the fake stuff. Once I knew what I could and could not eat then it really didn't become something I had to put a lot of thought into.

Through my journey I've discovered a very interesting common misconception about weight loss. Now I don't want to offend anyone who has talked to me about my weight loss. Really I have only been flattered and felt good about all of the compliments and conversations I've had. I just noticed a common theme in the comments that I've found to be quite interesting. That misconception is that people seem to think that losing weight is accomplished by exercising. Most of the people who have talked to me about my weight loss have made comments or asked questions like this: "Wow you look great, you must be working out a lot," "you've lost a lot of weight - are you running?", "You must have joined a gym," "What kind of work outs are you doing to lose so much weight?" and many more in this fashion. It's interesting that exercise is what people assume I've been focusing on to lose weight, when really it's the food you eat that has a much greater impact on your body size. Now if you are already slender then certainly exercising is going to help you tone and look even better. But if you are very much over weight a jog every day or an hour at the gym daily is not going to help you accomplish your weight loss very rapidly. I read on a fitness site (I wish I remembered which one) that 80% of how you're body looks is in relation to how you eat. So that means only 20% is related to exercise. I have found this to be completely true. I can go weeks without working out and still lose weight, but I will not lose weight if I eat unhealthy foods or an overabundance of food.

I credit some of the misconception to Biggest Loser. I love Biggest Loser and have been watching it for years, but I have never liked how they emphasize the exercise portion of losing weight and only barely touch on the diet portion. I'm sure they feel that it is much more interesting watching people doing killer work outs then having dietary lessons. But it is a bit of a disservice because the majority of Americans certainly can not work out for 6 - 8 hours a day like the contestants, and so will not see much of a result by just walking or doing a 30 min exercise DVD. Then they will likely give up because it's not working. People need to know that it's the food you eat that is really going to impact losing weight. If you have a lot of weight to lose you have to eat healthy and that's that.

I do believe that exercise is important for overall health and well being. When I exercise I feel better, I have more energy, I have much less back and joint pain, and I have been told it's good for my heart. So, yes, I believe people should live active lifestyles. Getting up and moving is most certainly an important factor in living a healthy lifestyle. And all people both over weight and at a healthy weight should make being active a priority in their life.

But, for those that have a lot of weight to lose the major thing that should be changed is the diet. Then when the pounds start falling off, you'll want to get up and move because you feel so much better about yourself. And quite frankly it will be easier to get yourself moving!