Wow Melissa, Thanks! It really is unbelievable to me that I could inspire others – it actually blows me away when I hear that. The cold was hard, and it felt silly wearing a parka to exercise. 10º or a negative wind chill was my cutoff, on those days I would go to the gym, and unfortunately there were a lot of gym days last winter. Best of luck to you!

Thanks so much, Allie! I know exactly what you are saying about that college self, I remember switching from coke to diet coke to save on empty calories, that was real sacrifice.

Yeah Meg! You can totally do it!!! If you start on fitbit or mapmywalk look me up, I’ll cheer you on. I didn’t follow a specific eating plan, just counted calories when I was really trying super hard to lose the pounds. I gave myself the winter to maintain, I knew it would be really hard to lose weight during those months with Christmas and Thanksgiving and all. There was def meals of meat and cheese plates, but I just tried to make up for it by keeping the walking going everyday. Putting in the time to walk everyday was like a constant reminder of the goal I was trying to achieve, even if I knew that I’d be drinking a ton of beer that night, maybe I wouldn’t drink as many. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it worked for me.

Thanks Scoops! I’m going to look into the Fitbit!

Awh, Thanks so much, Hannah! Glad to see you out and about around the blog ;)

Thanks, Anne!

Hey! Yeah, walking in bad weather is no fun! One of the best side effects of a daily walk is elevated moods for sure. It’s helped me out a lot mentally this year. The gym is hard, I feel your pain ;)

Thanks, Janice! So happy for you that you can walk without pain. My mom has had a knee replacement before and I’ve seen from her the struggles with recovery and the joy of being pain free.

As far as food plans go, mine was pretty general. It’s all about the math, I’m a big believer in that. I use my fitbit to record my daily exercise and movement. Through the website and app I record my calories. The website adjusts for you allotted calories based on how much exercise you have done throughout the day. You can also set the level of how quickly you want to lose weight and how intense you want your plan to be. I typically eat around 1200 calories a day. I try and eat a lot of low calorie veggies, salads and use up more of my calories on protein. I would totally recommend getting a fitbit, I’ve been using mine for almost 3 years.

Thank you, Natalia!

You can do it! Summer is the best time to get started, and I think it’s easy to eat healthier even with all the bbq’s and stuff. My husband and I grill veggies all the time and eat lots of salads. Go for what you want!

Hey, Lexy! You are probably right, I am really scared of putting the weight back on but it probably has a better chance of staying off because it took so long to get off. I know that feeling of having it go to your stomach – I still have some saggy stomach stuff going on, and I’ve just decided to accept it as the way it is post kids. It does take a lot of work doesn’t it – exercise and meal planning, woof – I remember when I was in my 20’s I could lose 5lbs during a week of better eating.

I know, Krista! That is the hardest part, resisting that temptation to skip. Thanks for your compliment :)

Thanks, Nicole! I’m so glad you’re into the blog, it’s always good to hear that :) Woah, it’s amazing to me that my tips actually work – so glad you are enjoying gardening.