By: Brigitte Coburn
Ponte Vedra High School
Over the last year, I slowly started eating worse and worse and exercising less and less. My typical daily food intake for the summer of ’08 was a bagel sandwich for breakfast, chicken wings and fries for lunch, a bag of chips for a snack and topped off with a cheeseburger and fries for dinner. Along with drinking almost nothing but sweet tea, I gained almost twenty five pounds from the end of my sophomore year. When I started dancing again, and school, I may have lost five pounds solely from the lack of temptation. However, when I had to stop dancing all together due to knee injuries, I was not in a healthy state. The weight may have not been enough for people to generally notice due to my tall figure, but it was affecting more than my figure. I also noticed a bad attitude change and I was always tired.
Luckily, in January of the same year my parents decided that the whole family needed a lifestyle makeover. So, in an attempt to make this a healthy life makeover, they came up with outlines. We were to eat healthy and exercise to our discretion for four months and we would all have a weight loss goal. For the girls, we would need to lose fifteen pounds and for my dad, it would be twenty. In order to stay motivated, they came up with consequences and a reward. If anyone didn’t meet their weight loss goal, they would have a consequence that was designated specifically for them. Mine happened to be to wash both of my parent’s cars every weekend for a whole year. Although what motivated me the most was the reward; whoever lost the most percentage body fat would win a $200 shopping spree. With all of these in place, we began our diet on January fifth.
Because of my knee problems, I decided that my choice of fitness would be swimming. So, for six times a week I would swim laps for 30-60 minutes and occasionally do abs workouts. The eating part of the lifestyle change was the hardest part to stay on track with. I started by counting calories and trying to keep the daily count to under 1,750. By doing this and focusing on a lot more fruits and vegetables my daily diet transformed into eating a small bowl of Special K for breakfast, half a sandwich with more meat and veggies than bread with a yogurt and a fruit for lunch, a small after school snack and finally a carb free dinner ( like a grilled chicken salad). Now I’m not going to lie and say that I never fell off the band wagon, but in order to keep myself sane, I allowed myself one “bad” meal a week along the lines of a buffalo chicken sandwich.
After four months my goal of fifteen pounds was surpassed by six pounds for a total of twenty one pounds and needless to say I saw a lot of improvements. I didn’t end up wining the reward money, but I didn’t feel upset because of all of the things I did obtain. I obviously felt lighter, but I also was a lot more positive and had tons of energy. I did get a little off track right after the end because I kept on focusing on foods that I couldn’t eat for those four months but now, two months after the diet I am maintaining a healthy weight by continuing to exercise daily and focusing on eating foods that are good for me.
If I had to give advice on starting a healthy life, I would say to start slow and don’t focus on any one side of health; you must both eat well and exercise. Exercise at first for only thirty minutes daily and slowly work your way up. For the diet side, counting calories at first until you get a general feel for what is good or what is too much. A healthy weight is not being thin and looking good, but it is about feeling good about yourself and eating foods that better your life.
Top ten foods I live by now:
- Nuts: almonds, peanuts, anything (the perfect snack that keeps you full!)
- Chicken: contains protein without all of the fat that other meats have
- Brown rice: a great alternative to white rice with almost half of the calories
- Granola: although high in calories, it is still really good for you
- Grapes and Blueberries: taste as sweet as candy and easy to snack on
- Wraps instead of bread on sandwiches: always wheat or wholegrain
- Oatmeal: great alternative to cereal and contains more fiber
- Eggs: contain a lot of protein to keep you from getting the munchies
- 5 Calorie Jello: makes for the perfect dessert!
- 100 Calorie Popcorn packs: better for you and contains more product than a bag of chips
