I have a confession - I'm a yoyo dieter!  or at least I became one in the last 3 years.

 

I was up for being a Hydroxycut spokesmodel.  I was down to 113 lbs and looked amazing but they couldn't decide if I had enough muscle tone to be one of their spokesmodels so after a few weeks of playing with my emotions I told them to shove it the final week.  What happened next was a disaster.  I went on a no workout binge eating rampage and gained back 15 lbs within 5 months.  And why?  Because the hydroxycut diet and life style they put me on was unsustainable.  I was eating no added salt, no unnatural sugar, exercising 3 hours a day - 2 of which were cardio.  I was watching calories so strictly that it was becoming a huge stress for me and I did the worst thing I can think of - I gave in to diet sugars after years of swearing its unnatural toxins away from my body.

 

For the next 2 years I would constantly go back on a strict diet and workout schedule.  I would lose a lot for about a month and then suddenly crash.

 

This time around I'm doing it right and I'm doing it for me.  I'm already down 7 lbs - 3.5 of it has been in the first week of this diet bet.  I'm slowing my sugar intake a little a day.  I'm lowering my salt intake a little a day.  No cold turkey dieting for me.  I'm working out hard when I can but not beating myself up hard when I can't.  I'm not choosing exercise over time with friends or family because that's not sustainable.  On days I have too much going on for a full workout I put in a Jillian DVD or do some yoga.   I'm listening to my body when it's saying "hey you need extra calories today".  I'm letting myself cheat in moderation - yeah that's right!  yesterday I had a personal pan pizza from Pizza hut!  I drank a ton of water with it and didn't cheat in other ways but I still had a deficet this morning.  Because I held fast to my diet plan the rest of the week.  I'm not endorsing cheating really - just saying if you want to STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP OVER IT.  This is about making a sustainable lifestyle plan and I refuse to crash diet again.

 

KP