Hello, my name is Julie and I am a foodie.  I love to cook really good food and I love to eat really good food.  Over time, I gained some weight.  In my 40’s the metabolism just isn’t what it used to be.  I “tried” losing weight the last few years doing Weight Watchers.  That didn’t work, I think because I work out a lot and the conversion of the activity points wasn’t accurate enough.

Then I tried Atkins & Paleo.  That was just not working for me as I love pasta and I am not going to give up pasta, bread and potatoes for the rest of my life.  So, I kind of gave up.  I said to myself, I will just eat healthy and workout and accept staying at this weight.

Then in January, I read an article in Cooking Light magazine, called the Social diet.  The idea was to use social media combined with fitness trackers and apps to lose weight.  I was intrigued.  By using a combination of fitness trackers, such as Fitbit or Up24 by Jawbone and food journal, such as My Fitness Pal everyone that participated lost weight.  What really had me getting excited was these were all foodie people, that had found a way to lose weight while still eating delicious food.  I am just not someone that can have plain brown rice, poached chicken and steamed vegtebles and survive.  I need flavor.  I need to put out food that I would serve to guests even if it’s Tuesday night.

So, I bought the jawbone, set a daily goal of 12,000 steps a day, which is equivalent to 5.9 miles.  Then I logged back into My Fitness Pal (MFP)and put a goal to lose 1 pound per week.  This gives me 1,200 calories a day.  Now, before you say there is no way I could stick to 1,200 calories a day, this is assuming no exercise.  MFP syncs with my jawbone band so if I burn 600 calories in a day, MFP automatically calculates 1,800 calories for me.  I can choose to eat the 1,800 or go lower, if I want to have a bigger calorie deficit.

What I do is look at my total calories over the week.  I try to focus on extra calorie deficits during the week, so that I can ease up a bit on the weekends.  Go to dinner, have some wine, have a treat, etc.  Well, I have been doing this since January and have lost 13 pounds so far.  If I gave up all treats and wine and good food I would have lost more.  However, I know that if I gave everything up, I would have quit trying to lose weight after a  week or two because I wouldn’t want to live that way.  Moderation is my friend.

Here are some of the things I ate this month, while losing 3 pounds:

Lasagna

Chicken Broccoli & Rigatoni

 Perfect Roast Chicken

 Zucchini Succotash with Chicken & Pesto

White Chicken Chili

Yes, I ate all of these delicious, amazing dishes and still lost 3 pounds.  I worked out every day, tracked all my food and just made sure to stay within my total calorie range.  I focus on eating whole, fresh foods, getting in lots of fruits and veggies.  I have pasta at least once a week.  If I am having pasta for dinner, I won’t have any carbs for breakfast or lunch that day.  Again, it’s all about moderation.

With all the fancy diets, I think people get away from the simplicity of losing weight.  It is a simple math equation:  Consume 3,500 less calories than you burn and you lose 1 pound.  By using a fitness tracker and accurately knowing how many calories you are burning, and recording exactly how many calories you are consuming, you know your numbers.  Stay within your numbers and you will lose.

I love my jawbone.  I wear it every single day.  I check my UP app on my phone all day to see what % I am at for my daily goal of 12,000 steps.  I park further away in parking lots to get extra steps in.  I take the dog for a few more walks.  I take conference calls on my treadmill.  If it’s 4:00 and I am at 70% I go for a walk to make sure I hit my 100%.

Is it a pain to track your food?  Kind of, yes.  Although MFP is easy to log into, I can track on my laptop, iPad or iPhone.  Over the summer, I got a little lazy and stopped tracking religiously.  Guess what?  I gained 4 pounds.  I got rid of 3 of those pounds this month.  For me personally, if I am not tracking, I will likely be going over.  I know I have to do it and that’s ok.  I love wearing a size smaller.  I love the way I feel now.  I still have some more that I want to lose but I am happy with my results so far.  This is really working for me.  Maybe it could work for you too 🙂