How to lose the freshman fifteen in time for your winter vacation
The food from Market sticks to more than just your mouth
Freshman year was a huge party filled with ice cream and pizza and every carb you could imagine. Though I didn’t eat strictly market food, I did eat anything and everything I wanted regardless of my health. I’m almost positive that during second semester I was eating two thousand calories a day.
To some people that sounds like a normal amount of calories, but at five feet tall and about 110 pounds, that diet does not work for me. After a year of constant stress eating, I went up ten pounds and couldn’t lose it. As a petite woman, ten pounds looks and feels like a lot on my frame, and not being able to work it off was something I had never experienced.
I felt self conscious because I had more love handles then I wanted, and every time someone would pick me up, they would mention how I was “heavier than I looked.”
My tummy before MFP
This past summer I joined a gym and went two to three times a week for a few hours, and I still wasn’t losing any weight. The problem was more than just a number on a scale; I could no longer fit into my jeans and I’m positive that ‘new clothes’ is something that my student loans won’t cover. I’m also taking a family vacation that requires me to wear a bathing suit, so October through December is the time frame I have been working with.
Coming into my sophomore year, I knew I needed to change something. The gym wasn’t working, so I decided to try a fitness app. I downloaded My Fitness Pal and started on my path to shedding a few pounds. After putting in my weight and height, I put in my goal: 108 lbs. At the time, I weighed around 118lbs, so I thought ten pounds in five weeks seemed realistic.
The app gives you a calorie and step goal based on your body and activity level, and tracks your steps for you. It also estimates what your weight should be in five weeks, after you complete your diary for the day.
Before I started using the app, I had no idea how inactive I was or how badly I was eating. I was walking about a mile a day, eating more than 1,500 calories, and never eating enough protein.
As I logged my food and kept track of my steps, I started to realize that I wasn’t nourishing my body correctly. I am a vegetarian, and it isn’t as difficult to eat protein as everyone makes it seems, but I am also a sugar addict who hates vegetables, so I needed to do a complete overhaul of my diet. I started cooking more for myself, reading the nutrient labels, and taking the long way to class, and it eventually started to make a difference.
My tummy on Halloween (I was Gwen Stafani from the Hollaback Girl music video)
After about five weeks I did lose ten pounds, and I didn’t workout once. I became more conscious of what I was putting into my body, and took extra steps instead of taking the easy way out. Food also became less important, so I only ate when I was hungry, not when I was bored.
Losing weight was the purpose of downloading this app, but I feel better overall; I have more energy and I’m not constantly in a sugar coma at the end of the day. Even if I don’t lose any more weight, I will keep using it.