My Weight Loss Journey - How I lost 35 Pounds This Year Naturally

*Photos from this post are courtesy of Thirty Five + Oaks*

Cheers to the new year! Today I am officially 35 pounds down since the beginning of "last" year.

My journey isn't from overnight success, I didn't take one of those "magic" pills, and I didn't give in to any of those fad diets either from an infomercial.

I know 35 pounds doesn't sound like a lot of weight, however, 35 pounds can make a HUGE difference in the way someone looks and feels! I went from 182 pounds down to 147 pounds. Although I lost weight, I gained a vast amount of knowledge of what's actually good for me, how to correctly eat portion sizes, and to know when to stop eating. I will tell you all about how I did all this shortly below.

Ever since my first job at 15, all my following jobs after had always been on my feet in customer service between 4 and 9 hours a day. I was always constantly moving, therefore "exercising" between 2 and 5 days a week.  I was always able to maintain my weight very easily and eat just about whatever I wanted.

In June 2017, when I was 22, I started my very first office job after graduating college in the fashion industry as a Textile CAD Designer. Office jobs normally require sitting down in a desk chair 8 hours day staring at computer screen with little to no movement. While working in an office I also learned people love to bring in snacks and treats pretty often. This didn't help my situation.

Over time, I had noticed my clothing had started fitting much smaller, and I was needed to buy size Large in items instead of Medium which had me feeling pretty down.

I started going to the gym about 2 days a week between September and November and continued to eat slightly less, but saw no results, so I stopped. I had then tried a few weight loss systems, and pills shortly after, and still saw no results. Even counting calories for some reason did not work for me for a few months.

Fast forward to March 2018, and I was now wearing XL in tops and 14-16 bottoms in pants. Below are some photos at a low point for me when I was 182 pounds. I had gotten these done in March of this year with Thirty Five & Oaks (which she is fabulous by the way!!)

May came along with the dreadful swimsuit and shorts type of weather. I went to Aruba with Nick, and didn't feel confident in myself while I was there. At this point I didn't even want to wear shorts anymore because of how gross I felt, and was constantly wearing dresses and gym shorts.

There was one day when Nick and I went out for a mini photo session outside our town home and after I looked at the photos, I had a meltdown and cried in the bedroom by myself.

This was when I knew I needed to do MORE. Nothing that I stated previously above had worked for me, and I honestly had no idea what to do next.

My mom had mentioned to me that she was on Weight Watchers and had lost 10 pounds in her first two weeks or so. I know she had done Weight Watchers many years ago when I was young, but didn't really know anything about it.

I hated that fact I had to pay just to use an app and I was so bad at tracking how much oz of food I consumed. I held off for a little while because I thought it would be a waste of money for me.

One Sunday in June, I decided it was time to give it a shot since I had heard about people who saw such wonderful results from this program. Everything from that day changed. I lost 6 pounds my first week. As of today, 12/31/18, I am down 35 pounds.

Like I said before, 35 pounds may not seem like a lot within a 6-7 month period. Was I 100% accurate with WW? No, I was not. I sometimes drank/ate over my weekly limit, I also went out to dinner once a week with my boyfriend and splurged on a good meal every Friday. But considering how much alcohol was sometimes consumed, and how many times I splurged with food in this time span, I think I did pretty okay.

So what is Weight Watchers? How did I lose so much weight from not even working out?

Weight watchers is a diet program that promotes weight loss by making healthy food and lifestyle choices. The program promotes an overall healthy lifestyle but mentally and physically. It does not tell you what foods you can, and cannot eat. There are also no meals that you need to purchase.

WW has an app you will need to pay for to use and track your food intake. I did the points plan of WW. In the point plan, foods are assigned a certain number of points based upon the items nutrition facts. Once signed up for the program, you are assigned a certain number of points each day in which you can eat based on your BMI.

You may eat whatever you like on the program, but you may have to sacrifice for other things. For example, on the program a piece of chocolate cake is worth 23 points. I only get 23 points per day I am allowed to eat. This means if I had a piece of cake in the morning (I love chocolate for breakfast haha), I would need to eat 0 points for the rest of the day to stay on track.

WW has an entire list (up to 200 items) of 0 point foods that you can eat without penalty! Check it out here. That's pretty awesome!

You are also allotted weekly bonus points. So although I could have 23 points per day, I was originally also given 42 extra weekly points. I usually used those for alcohol. (One shot equals between 3-5 points). If you also didn't use all of your 23 points in your entire day, those extra leftover points are then added to your weeklies :)

As long as you stay within all your points you should lose weight! Staying on par with all of your points should allow you to maintain weight, and going over all your points is going to allow you to possibly gain weight, which you obviously don't want if you're paying for the program.

On the program, if you need some more motivation, WW offers classes for a extra charge you can go to weekly as well with other women or men in the same boat as you! I chose not to go to the classes, but I heard they are very motivating if you are having a tough time.

My weight loss journey has been much more than 35 pounds for me:

• It gave me the freedom I was looking for again
• It improved my relationships physically
• I feel so much cleaner
• It boosted my confidence

I am not just writing to post to boast about my accomplishment this year, but I am choosing to write this post in hopes that may be I will be able to motivate someone else if they are struggling too. I wanted to get all the details of this program out, and give the info to someone who may need it. 

You can lose the weight and live a healthier lifestyle no matter how far away you may feel from that goal. One small step, can change your life. 

You can do this.

Start right now!

Happy New year,