What's your secret???

So a lot of people have been emailing me asking me how I've lost weight. It may look like it was a quick overnight thing but the reality is it's taken me about 7 months to lose 28 lbs. I've gone down about 3 sizes (I'm in that annoying "between sizes" right now). There really isn't a special secret. I went to my doctor and told her what I wanted to do. She gave me some tips on eating and working out and the rest was up to me. I don't starve myself and I don't drink Slimfast 2 meals a day. I don't take appetite suppressants and I don't just live on broccoli and carrots.

Although lately due to being ultra busy and a few weeks of being sick, I usually hit the gym for a good hour. I start out with weights. I do only 5 min on the treadmill to warm up, then hit the weight room. I do leg machines and lunges and other machines and make it so I can hardly walk the next day. After about 35 min on various weights I do 10 min of crunches. I HATE doing the crunches. After those I hit the treadmill or elliptical machine for 15 min to do some cardio. I get a lot of cardio throughout the day walking around the office and doing laundry, vacuuming, dishes, dancing around with the kids and other activity that 15 min at the gym is good enough. Besides, working on the weights and doing lunges work up a sweat just by themselves.

Food... okay, so most of Europe had a big lunch, what we would have as a dinner, they have for lunch and their dinner is like our lunch :) . So I started doing that. I eat a simple breakfast, usually a banana and muffin or sometimes just the banana. For lunch I keep it simple as well. Some days I'll have more and some days less, but lunch is probably the most I eat all day. Dinner is VERY small. Usually my cucumber salad (pictures) or I'll stir fry some zucchini and yellow squash. I'll sometimes add a little chicken or piece of salmon. On the nights I know I'll be going out to eat with my friends I'll have a smaller lunch that day so I can go crazy at dinner :) I have cut out a lot of sweets.

So here's my new favorite salad. I take a whole cucumber and chop it up into chunks. I then chop up some red onion. I add some seasoned feta cheese (I don't get light... I get the good stuff!). I found this amazing Greek dressing at Target... it's the Target brand you can't find at grocery stores. It's my favorite. I add just a little dressing and stir it up... mmmm.... best dinner ever! I've added grilled chicken to this salad and if I liked tomatoes I'd add those too. This salad actually fills me up and my doctor wrote it down and said it sounds perfect for someone trying to lose weight.

I'm not ready to put on that bikini yet and probably never will be there... but I feel great and have lots of energy :) Enjoy the salad!!!!