How I Lost 12 Pounds During the Quarantine

For a long time now I would always tell myself that I’m going to lose 5 pounds. My weight had slowly crept up after giving birth and a lot of my pre-pregnancy clothes still felt a little tight.

Then last fall my 28-year-old brother in law passed away unexpectedly and I began having really intense heart palpitations. I’ve had heart palpitations for the last 15 years or so, but they became much more frequent and disruptive to my life. I began to see a cardiologist and underwent several tests and was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia.

I was prescribed some medication to slow my heart rate, which worked – but I also felt like it slowed down my whole body down. It was difficult to even get out of bed in the morning. I felt sooo groggy and I swear it slowed my metabolism, as I gained 4 lbs. in a month alone!

I was so distraught.

I went back to the doctor and decided to stop taking that medication. It did slow my heart, but didn’t make a difference in my palpitations and who wants to be taking medicine every day for the rest of their life at 34?! Not me.

So I went off of it and decided to try more a holistic approach to see if that would help to ease the palpitations. This included daily meditation, seeing a therapist about my anxiety and trying to live a healthier lifestyle. With regard to the healthier lifestyle and diet, I more or less finally decided to stop saying that I would lose some weight and actually just DO IT.

Three – four months later, I’ve lost 12 pounds (my goal initially was 10,  so I’m thrilled!!) and really it wasn’t that hard! I just had to buckle down and make some changes.

So today I’m sharing the five changes below that have helped me to finally drop the pounds!

I know a lot of people struggle with weight loss and although a lot of what I’ve done I’m sure you have heard before, but it sometimes helps to hear it again!

1. Get a Move On

I love exercising so this one I was mostly already doing. But I wasn’t exercising as consistently as what I should have been to lose weight.

So I started shooting for at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity every day. And on days that I really didn’t feel like it, I would tell myself to go for a quick 10-15 minute walk outside.  Then by the time the 15 minutes is up, I’m feeling better and decide to keep going even further to reach my daily exercise goal.

In addition to walking, I started incorporating running (ok, more like a slow jog 😆) into my walks. I may run slow, but it’s the fact that I’m trying that counts because nothing really kicks your butt quite like running does!

And on lousy weather days, I started doing fitness videos from YouTube on my TV. There are tons out there but my cousin had posted one day that she had worked out to Sydney Cummings’s workout videos. So I started watching her YouTube channel and have done quite a few of her videos and I really like them! The best part is that they are all mostly equipment free, so all you really need is yourself and some space in your living room to move!

2. Partner Up

If you can, it’s almost always more fun to take on a challenge with someone else. So in this case my husband and I decided to do a weight loss challenge for the first month to get a jumpstart.

This was actually huge motivation for me because I created the challenge with a winning prize that I really wanted. If I won, then I got $100 to Nordstrom and if you know me, then you know I looove to shop so nothing was going to stand between me and my gift card!! 🛍🛍🛍

And it was a lot more fun to celebrate losing a few pounds together, all while encouraging each other to eat healthier and be more active along the way.

3. 7pm Cut Off

7pm Cut Off simply means that you do not eat anything after 7pm each night.

I think I first read this diet tip when I was in high school. There was some article out with tips about how Oprah had lost a bunch of weight and that particular one has always stuck with me because it’s fairly easy to implement.

The science behind it also makes sense. It’s mostly that you don’t burn a lot of calories in the evening, so don’t eat too much! I try to eat dinner most nights around 5pm so that by 7pm I’m still relatively full and not snacking!

This also creates a better eating cycle where you are now more hungry in the AM and will eat bigger meals for breakfast and lunch, which should leave you to feel full enough to just eat something light around dinnertime.

4. Be Accountable

Find something or someone to help keep you accountable and moving towards your goals. For me, this has come in the form of my Apple Watch.

Back in February, I decided to get an Apple watch mostly for the latest heart features that it has. It regularly tracks your heart rate and it can also do an ECG which tests for an irregular heartbeat.

I love this watch, but I didn’t anticipate how much I would really LOVE THIS WATCH. I think it’s amazing and it’s my new best friend! (You can shop all Apple watches here and at the end of this post!)

I really didn’t know much about the watch or its features before I owned it. I thought it was mostly to get text alerts and calls more readily, which honestly wasn’t appealing to me at all!! lol like don’t bother me! 🤣

But in all seriousness, I feel like this watch was designed to make you the best version of yourself possible. It is set up with some basic goals –  it tells you to exercise every day for 30 minutes, has set move goals (calories burned) in a day and wants you to stand for a minute every hour of the day.

If you don’t exercise or move enough throughout the day, then the watch gently encourages you to try and make your goals and I think this has really made a difference in making me get off my butt and move!

It sounds silly but there is something meaningful and satisfying in looking down at the watch and seeing all of the circles closed (goals made). It’s important to me to close those circles, so most days I get it done and I feel better about myself for making my goals!

The Apple watch is expensive so it may not be something that is attainable for everyone to purchase and work with for accountability. However, it is super important to use something to help you to reach your goals and hold you accountable – whether it’s a wallet friendly FitBit, best friend or a husband who is also trying to lose weight and encourage each other!

5. You Are What You Eat

Be mindful when eating! This is probably the most important tip of all.

Like I said earlier, I’ve always exercised and I love working out because sweating and working my body makes me happy. Hello endorphins!

But – and I’m sure you’ve heard it before – a bad diet can erase any exercise routine quite quickly! This has been true for me for years since I couldn’t lose 5 pesky pounds and I knew it was from my diet BUT when you love cooking and baking as much as I do it’s hard – I just couldn’t put down my beloved chocolate brownies!

If you love food and sweets as much as I do then this is the hardest part of losing weight. I knew I couldn’t fully give up anything or I would just binge on it later. So since one of my favorite mottos is “everything in moderation” I’ve applied it here and simply feel like I am eating less sweets than what I used to, but still eating them!

I’ll eat one brownie instead of three and I’m ok with that. It doesn’t feel that great to be eating three huge brownies anyway! It tastes good, but 5 minutes later my belly kind of hurts. 🥴

But I can’t just cut out chips or any junk food because I really love the taste of it. So I have learned to just eat smaller amounts of these delicious foods while also trying to incorporate healthier foods into my diet.

And there you have it!

Those are five changes I’ve made over the course of the last few months to help me lose 12 pounds. I look healthier and more toned, but I also feel healthier and that’s the most important thing!

And side note – although I do still have heart palpitations, they have been much less intense. I am still thinking about getting an ablation to rid them for good, but it’s not something that I think I needs to get done during the COVID crisis!

Have a great day and I hope you found my tips helpful! Leave a comment if you enjoyed this post!

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