My personal weight loss journey and how it can help you.

I know I'm not the only person in the world working on losing weight and I'm certainly not the first. But I've been healthy and, unfortunately, I've been over-weight. I'm definitely experienced in all facets of weight. After my second child, I have struggled with losing the majority of the "baby" weight, which I easily put on. It took me a long time to face the facts and the hardest part of the journey, thus far, has been making the decision to change my lifestyle from sedentary and junk-food based back to active and healthy living. Even though I enjoyed eating the crap that wasn't good for me, I hated the way I felt and looked. So, I have decided to live my life healthy, being a good role model for my children and others.

Obviously, you have to make this decision for yourself. No one can make this decision for you, when you get tired of being tired--make the decision to change your life!

A few months ago, right before the holidays and the madness of constantly eating, I started recording my consumption habits. Unfortunately, they weren't perfect during this time, but an effective way to see what I was doing wrong and where I can improve. An easy-to-use, low-cost application for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple family is MyFitnessPal or myfitnesspal.com for your PC. Most foods are already stored into the app, which you can easily search and enter into your daily food log under Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, or Snack. You can create meals that you frequently consume to save time in future journal entries, without having to enter each ingredient independently every time. Log your workout information for the day and it computes the calories burned, or manually enter them yourself. You can also share your information with friends or family, making you accountable to others if you need (like me). I have been maintaining my food journal for four+ months and it has definitely made me accountable for my actions. I know which days I was under my caloric goal and which days I busted it, causing a lapse in weight loss. I choose to eat 4 to 5 smaller meals a day to keep me from overeating at lunch or dinner.

Record everything you put into your mouth and make sure 80% of your days are filled with healthy eating. Always, watch your portion sizes--a food scale is a great way to do this.

You can't get around it. Healthy living means you have to sweat, or at least move. I have tried various forms of exercise in my lifetime: Tae-Bo, aerobic classes, cardio machines and weights, DVDs/videos, Kinect fitness, walking/jogging, spinning, tennis, almost anything you can think of. If only I had consistently practiced them, I wouldn't be in this predicament! Currently, my husband and I are working out together to Shaun T's Insanity, a dvd collection of cardio circuit training and it lives up to its name! This is new for us, normally we workout separately unless we play tennis. But it is effective for us--we are holding one another accountable to exercise and pushing ourselves harder.

Success with exercise comes down to being consistent by working out 4 to 5 times a week for 45 minutes to one hour. Find a few exercises you enjoy and rotate them throughout the week to beat boredom.

Ultimately, my first major goal is to lose 30 lbs by Easter 2012, but I have created mini goals to keep myself motivated and excited about my progress. Like a lot of people, I have little patience and I want to see my results immediately. So, 1 1/2 to 2 lb per week weight loss seems a little frustrating to me. But I know this is a healthy rate of shedding extra baggage, so I offer myself rewards for hitting my mini goals to keep me motivated and on the right track. I break up my rewards in 10 pound increments and provide myself incentives as I hit each marker. Examples are a new piece of clothing, a healthy dinner out with my husband--alone;),. a family outing to a new recreational place, the list is endless.

Pick your goal deadlines and rewards in advance and make certain they motivate you enough to keep you engaged and inspired. Try not to use food as a reward!

So as I go through the trials and tribulations of weight loss, again, I hope to relay my experiences and knowledge to others, who might benefit from our interactions. Thus far, I have lost 5 pounds in nine days of consistent exercise and healthy eating. Don't get me wrong, I have had relapses, even within these nine days, but I am losing the weight and I am excited. In future hubs, I plan on getting more in depth in balanced diets, fitness regimens, etc. Please feel free to let me know what helps and what doesn't!

Exercise, eat right, and stay motivated--its simple, right?!?!