Diet, Exercise and Discipline

     It's sort of comical the looks I get when I respond to the question "How'd you do it?" I get the question all the time when Someone notices how much I've lost or sees a Facebook post with my face looking half the size it was a few months ago.
     My response is always the same: "Diet and Exercise, man." The looks are comical, because although every time you hear anyone who knows talk about what really works where fitness is concerned, the answer is "diet and exercise" that's not what anyone wants to hear. Since I lost so quickly and efficiently and haven't' shown any signs of a rebound, obviously, it must be some super diet, right? I must have done some magic Cayenne Pepper and Lemon Juice Cleanse, taken a bunch of expensive supplements designed to improve my liver function, completely cut out anything purple from my diet and gotten 12 shots of magic hormone replacement juice a day, right?
            The most comical thing from my perspective is the dejected reaction when I didn't' say something that someone can BELIEVE is a quick easy solution...but how is exhibiting 2-3 months of discipline on both the diet and the exercise side of the house any less of a "Quick and easy" solution than any other fad diet?
         As I was approaching my initial goal and looking to transition into a "maintain" mode, I went to visit my doctor to talk about how to make sure I didn't' rebound. When he saw my weight which was 45 lbs less then the last time he had seen me 3 months earlier, I heard the familiar question: 'How's you do it?" He followed up with a quick.."is this something you just did, or is this a lifestyle change?" I told him" Diet and Exercise" and he laughed for 5 minutes and asked if I wanted to tell some of his other patients that.
          The question about lifestyle change was a good point, I thought,. Part of my diet plan was to ensure that while I was taking everything in what was very small doses for me, I wasn't' cutting OUT anything that I was going back to eating eventually, if in higher doses. I was also managing exercise in a way I could grow and sustain, and keep doing long term. What I hadn't' realized is that I was thinking in terms of "Can I sustain this" I was thinking about "can I make this a lifestyle change."
        So there's the Big Secret of how I did it:

1. I looked at my diet, in terms of calories in, set a minimum calorie target of 1200, which is what you need at least to keep from going into starvation mode and slowing your metabolism down, then went LOW (Not NO) fat, sugar and sodium, and high protein and fiber. I set a maximum Calorie target of 1600, but actually for the purpose of quick weight loss I went as close to 1200 a day as I possibly could. 
2. I looked at my exercise plan, and decided that I needed to do SOMETHING every single day, because if I skipped, skipping would lead to more skipped days, and it was easier to hold myself accountable to everyday, even if at the beginning it was just a walk. I started with things that challenged me based on the shape I was in, and altered day by day, things I could measure and increase over time, but also varied day by day, living room routine off YouTube (Early on) one day, Half hour on the elliptical in my apartment complex exercise room the next day, a half hour or so walk a third day. It was amazing how fast "Basic" Living room Workouts turned to more advanced, difficult things, One mile walks turned to 3, and I was able to challenge myself more and more. One workout a day turned into one workout and a 3 mile walk after dinner. Which led to one 6 mile walk a week,, and days with 2 workouts built in. But mostly feeling able to do more and more and not feeling like I was on my last breath because I'd been active for half an hour. 
3. I needed to track. So here's my first recommendation, it's a free app (As you can see from the blog's title, I like free) My Fitness Pal. www.myfitnesspal.com My Fitness Pal is available for I-Phone and Android. It syncs with a lot of other fitness apps and basically lets you input everything you eat, and all your exercise, calories in, calories out, and helps you see where you are against net calorie goals for the day based on how much you're trying to lose. More on this later, but Check it out, this App is the best I've found for managing your nutrition and exercise goals together. You put in your weigh-ins, hook up with your Facebook friends, post your successes to Facebook or Twitter, I found it incredibly valuable in managing everything. 
4. I needed to adjust. What I was doing the first week doesn't even come close to what I was doing by the 8th. As I went, as I lost, I paid attention to what seemed to help, what seemed to hurt, adjusted accordingly. Now I'm adjusting even more, as I'm trying to slide into a daily lifestyle that will help me keep up this level of activity, maintain this weight, and keep feeling as good as I do. 

             So, did you hear anything new? Anything fancy? Yeah. Sorry. Maybe it's boring, but the results are not. While I was aggressively working on my weight and trying to lose as quickly as possible, Getting on the scale every morning knowing i would be a LITTLE lighter and looking to see how much was DEFINITELY not boring.  Looking in the mirror and feeling a little bit better every day about how I look isn't boring. And feeling great after a 3 mile run, knowing you still have enough energy to walk the dog isn't boring. I think I need to change the answer to the question thouhg. It's not Just Diet and Exercise. It's definitely "Diet, Exercise and Discipline."