BY FRANCES COLLISON
I used to eat chips and pizza on weekends before I decided to change my eating habits. Watching what I ate started out as a diet, but became a lifestyle change. Breads and wheat are a big part of our family meals. While I was in high school, I noticed I was gaining a lot of weight. One afternoon while I was volunteering at the Creston Public Library, I spotted a book titled Wheat Belly. I signed it out and started reading. That book changed my life forever and I have never looked back.
Most of my life I have exercised almost every day. My work at Gins On Canyon restaurant and delivering papers is my exercise, but I plan fitness classes into my schedule as well. This year I attended a variety of different classes during the daytime. I have been doing yoga and swimming on Mondays, bowling or Bocce on Tuesdays, fun swimming on Wednesdays, and Gentle Fit on Thursdays. I also loved my Masters Swim classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. It was fun and it was good exercise. Losing weight was harder than I thought. It required looking at what food I eat and portion sizes. This is one of my struggles. There is more to life than eating breads, dairy and sugar based food. Cutting bread out of my diet was super hard because I always craved it, but I replaced it with healthier options like fruit, gluten free bran muffins, nuts, and proteins like steak, lentils, beans, and oysters. When I have burgers, I eat them without the bun. Sooner or later this became my habit. I noticed a lot of changes inside and out of my body that included being able to swim more laps without breaks, to not crave bread that much, to lose some upper belly fat, and I had more energy than before. Since I reduced eating breads and chips, I am feeling healthier and slimmer every day.
My favorite fitness classes are Masters Swim and Gentle Fit. They help me stay motivated by keeping fitness fun and challenging. I am very proud of my progress. I found this quote in another good healthy living book. “Basically if your diet isn’t healthy, you won’t feel healthy and you won’t lose weight.” (You Are What You Eat by Gillian McKeith).
This year I joined the CDCC Just Tri It Triathlon on June 10 at the Community Complex in which I had to complete a 500 m swim without breaks. It requires exercise and outdoor fun. Being a part of a triathlon team was an adventure and was something new that I had never tried before. It was a great opportunity to be the swimmer of my team called the 3 Amigas. There were prizes along with lunch and snacks. It was fun to join and socialize. My team’s personal best time was 1:24:50. My teammates were my best friend Karli Shrubsall and her friend Darlene Amendt. It was a cool experience and I would do it again next year.
What I learned about losing weight is that if you can believe you can do it, then just do it. Pick healthy options and watch your portion size along the way. It is not easy but it feels great in the end. There is more to losing weight than just eating healthy. You have to be active too!