Grace D. Plunk: Notes on How I Lost Weight

I have been getting tons of questions on RER and social media asking, “How did you lose weight?”

My brother even said I looked skinny! Well, technically he said, “Hey does your head feel too big for your body now?” But I know what he meant.

I have been getting a lot of questions about my diet, weight, what I’m eating and doing… But I’ve been putting it off because it’s complicated. It’s not just ‘1 magic thing I did to lose 20 pounds!’. It’s a lot of different things. And it’s tweaking those things as I go along as needed.

Then, I realized – you still want to know that! Hello, Monican – that’s how you lost weight, even if it’s a collection of random tips or habits.

So let’s talk about it…

*Note: If you are triggered by diet talk or someone talking about their weight loss – go ahead and head on over to another website or Instagram and check out funny memes.*

Notes on How I Lost Weight:

1. I didn’t set a goal of losing 10 or 15 pounds.

I don’t know how much weight I’ve lost because I don’t weigh myself. I don’t want to know. It has never once made me feel good to weigh myself. Even at my lowest weight – it never made me feel better or happy or anything positive.

I’ve been living my life and I NOT thinking about diets and food and my body helps a lot. When I dieted in the past all I thought about was food. Since that wasn’t my focus – I didn’t focus on what I’m eating next all day.

To be honest, I don’t think I’ve lost that much weight because my clothes have went down 1 size but I still can wear 92% of my old stuff.

Oh, and I ‘know my angles’. I stand in a certain way in pictures that I think is flattering. That’s important.

2. I acknowledged the #1 reason I gain weight and tried to work on it.

One of the main reasons why I gain weight and/or can’t lose weight is = SNACKING.

I snack the most when I’m tired or bored.

So, knowing that I snack when I’m tired I started to drink Spark a little before my usual afternoon energy crash. It has caffeine and B vitamins, which help keep me from needing a snack to spike my blood sugar.

To be honest – when I do the 24 Day Challenge I still drink coffee in the morning. That is technically against the rules – you’re supposed to drink Spark in the morning instead of coffee. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with coffee (especially since I don’t put a ton of sugar/cream in it).

So I ‘saved’ my Spark for the afternoon. That helped me discover I got a lil energy boost. I was still pairing the Spark with a snack in the afternoon, but I wasn’t mindlessly shoveling handfuls of crackers in my face.

But this is a work in progress – I still snack when I’m not hungry sometimes.

3. I realized what I should eat to stay satisfied.

After a lot of trial and error – I have realized that I am less hungry during the day if I eat A LOT of fat with breakfast. I put nuts on my smoothie. I don’t measure them, but it’s a lot. I snack on some while I’m making it. I went through that huge container of mixed nuts pretty fast (a lot faster than 32 days – and there were 32 servings in there).

Sometimes I switch it up and have eggs with toast. If I do that I make sure to add avocado or PB toast.

This might only apply to me – the point is to pay attention to YOUR body. If you are always hungry after a certain meal or notice you stay full longer after eating something – make a note of it. Every body is different. I don’t know why but it seems like I do best eating a lot of fat to stay full.

4. I did the 10 day herbal cleanse – but the most important thing I cleansed was my kitchen.

Before my clean eating challenge I got rid of anything that I should have been eating. I have no will power. None. So if it’s here – I’ll eat it. Simple as that. For a long time I tried to have willpower and just tell myself I would only eat a serving or something – but for now I’m okay with acknowledging there are certain things I cannot stop eating once I’ve started.

5. I’m doing some strength training.

I’ve been incorporating more strength training into my workouts. I think this helps me feel better about my body – which turns into me treating my body better. (We’ll talk about this more soon – I’ve been getting a lot of questions on my strength routine.)

6. I ate 4 donuts last Saturday. And 3 donut holes.

Yep. I bought a bunch of donuts thinking I was going to go over my fam’s and share. I didn’t end up going anywhere. I ate one during the day and wrapped the rest up for another day.

Well, they called to me that night while I was watching TV. Instead of eating 1 more donut – I ate 3.

How does help lose weight?

It doesn’t if you’re just going by calories in versus calories out.

But it’s not that I ate the donuts – it’s what I did after I ate all those donuts.

I moved on.

I did get a little mad at myself for a minute. I thought, “I should have thrown them away… it’s my fault for buying extra. Ugh. I didn’t even like that one with apple!”

I got mad at myself, I acknowledged that it was super unnecessary to eat all those donuts. Then, I moved the hell on.

If I would have dwelled on it – I would have kept eating. It would have turned into a binge. Then, I would have felt like crap the next day and not been able to run or tried to cut tons of calories – and that’s how the cycle continues.

Nope. I did allow myself a minute to get mad, but I didn’t allow myself to think about how many calories I just ate. It doesn’t matter – the calorie damage is done. I just let it be and went on with my night.

I’m still a big work in progress. But the work isn’t about my weight – it’s about my habits. I want to feel good. I don’t want to binge. I want to run faster. I love that I can eat a donut without feeling guilty. I still snack at night – every single night and A LOT.

But I want to work on these things because I want to be healthy. And focusing on the habit or my priorities helps keep me from worrying about my weight or what I’m eating. Then, I’m free to enjoy my food and the rest of my life.

Don’t get me wrong – I run A LOT, I eat A LOT of vegetables. I put in effort – I did work on myself. But it’s not about a specific diet, it’s about figuring out all the habits that help and hurt me.

It’s not what you do every now and then – it’s what you do everyday that makes the biggest impact on your life.