My Dirty Little Weight Loss Secret

Wow, I hope you didn't really think there was a secret! There's not. No magic wand or miracle pill or special shake. You've got to put the phrase 'hard work' into your vocabulary. A weight loss journey is only as successful as your mindset.

After years of just hoping I would be skinny when I woke up in the morning, I've gotten my brain to realize that the best things in life are worth working hard for.

Friends and family have been asking what I've been doing, how I've been getting these results, so I figured I would give you the rundown of a regular day, nutrition and fitness wise:

NUTRITION - A typical day consists of:

• Breakfast (with water):
• fruit (a banana, an apple or 1 cup of cantaloupe)
• chocolate chunk granola bar.
• Lunch (with water):
• sandwich (2 slices of bread with either peanut butter and jam or ham, american cheese, pickles and mustard)
• light string cheese
• pudding cup
• Dinner (with 1 cup of 1% milk):
• chicken breast or steak
• broccoli, carrots and/or potato
• 3 country biscuits with strawberry jam
• Dessert:
• a Smart Ones snack or 1 serving of fruit with light yogurt

Throughout the day, I drink at least 8 glasses of water (usually 9 or 10), which isn't that difficult once you get used to it. I drink 5 glasses at work alone.

(dinner example: foil wrapped chicken breast, with broccoli and carrots - mmm)

EXERCISE - A typical weekday:

• After getting home from work, I throw on my workout gear and iPod and hit the sidewalk to get my cardio in. I jog/walk a 2 mile trek up and down my street, which has peaks and valleys because it surrounds a mountain.
• Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I also do strength training exercises that focus on entire body, upper body and core, respectively.

EXERCISE - A typical weekend day:

• I usually wake up around 7am, get my gear on and drive a couple miles to the base of the mountain where my trailhead begins. Nowadays, I'll hike 3-4 laps around my trail, where each lap is 1.2 miles. Usually out of there in about an hour, depending.

I am *thisclose* to having lost 30 pounds this year. But I'm not only seeing results on the scale. My clothes are fitting better or falling off, I feel more energetic, my skin is healthy and hydrated. But I have medical proof, too: my cholesterol.

(my cholesterol has gone from 245 to 141 in less than a year)

My BMI has gone from 31.6 to 28.3 in less than 3 months, and took me out of the Obese category about a month ago.

I realize this type of plan isn't something that many people can do, but it works for me because I have no family obligations (kids, husband, etc.) out here to have to plan my days around.

I think one of the biggest tools in my journey so far has been SparkPeople.com. It's easiest to describe as a health focused facebook. You have friends, blogs, statuses. But there are food trackers, exercises/fitness measurement tools, articles and quizzes. It's great to have the support of a community who knows what you're going through because they're exactly where you are, or have been there at some point in their lives. They just 'get it'.

So anyhoo, that's what I've been up to.