Diet Face Off 2: Megan, Wrap Up

I am so grateful to Livestrong for giving me this opportunity.  Due to my schedule at work, it was hard for me to fully jump into the DFO at first.  My late nights at work, and 2 jobs, made it difficult to follow an eating schedule, and to get any exercise in.  Sure I was running some, and I ran a 10k race, but it wasn't enough.  At first I thought it was going to end before I really had a chance to take fully advantage, but when the DFO was extended, I said "OK, this is my time!"  I actually checked my body fat at the end of 6 weeks, before I joined the gym, and it hadn't changed from the start.  Basically that almost 1% loss has only been in the last 3-4 weeks.  

I've learned a lot about myself over the course of starting the Best Life Diet.  In learning about the Hunger Scale, I've found out that I eat a lot out of boredom, and when I'm alone.  That's also when I tend to eat the worst.  I've also learned a lot about my personal habits, and "laziness" that stops me from doing a lot of things.  At the beginning of this more than at the end, I would find myself coming home from work planning to exercise, and make some sort of excuse.  I still do this occasionally, but have managed to get at least 5 hours of exercise in per week for almost 4 weeks now, so I'm getting better.  I've also learned that things I like to eat that are bad for me, don't really make me feel good either.  Too much sugar gives me a headache, and if I eat ice cream after dinner my stomach gets upset, like it's too full.  I don't know why I never noticed these things before.

I still have about 20 lbs to lose, which is a long way to go for me.  I need to continue to stop making excuses, and continue to push myself out of my comfort zone.  I will still try to follow the Best Life Diet as well as I can.  I really like that it's reasonable, and follows the basic principals of eating well and exercising regularly.  Any restrictions and I usually fail, but with this, I feel like I can allow myself a bad day here and there, and it's OK in the end.  Now I'm just continuing to learn how to make the bad days fewer and farther between, and really getting the most out of this "diet".  I know that on the days and weeks where I really followed the plan, it worked, but I need to continue to be more consistent, and stop sabotaging my progress by holding onto old habits.

If anyone wants to continue following my journey, I use my food diary to post comments almost daily, and I'm going to continue my blog posts once a week on my profile.  Thank you all so much for your support!  If it weren't for this DFO, I probably would not have found the same motivation that I've had for the past 10 weeks.  This really was the kick in the butt I needed!