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Later I met my husband, we married, I moved to the United States and though I thought I was going to have the time to loose the weight, I wasn´t considering the other factors. GMOs, Aspartame, High Fructose Corn Syrup, all artificial junk, and lots of other terrible stuff on food. No wonder why people back home would always say: "The food in the US tastes different." Oh my, what are they feeding you here? Anyways, add to that the fact that I was scared to death to go out. (Have I mentioned, I am the paranoid kind.)  So yup, I gained weight. I got sick, and I gained more. I was stressed and it just kept on coming. I got depressed, and it became the never ending story. I decided enough was enough!


We actually gained weird weight two years ago, and had all the symptoms of being pregnant. We actually thought we were. It was a false alarm, but I kept the weight. Hurrah! (Says she with all sarcasm)

So excess body fat, never more! My husband who is also a bit overweight, was participating in a program with the fitbit at work, and I became very interested. It is a very fun little device that helps you track your steps, distance, calories through their dashboard, and more. Obviously I saw it as an opportunity to loose some serious weight. To read my review on the fitbit zip, click here.

So I have been walking almost everyday to reach  my goal of at least 7000 steps daily. I watch what I am eating both in the fitbit dashboard and a calorie counting website that helps me find how many calories something has when the fitbit doesn´t have the record. The cool thing is that you can add it to your list of foods on fitbit, that way if you eat it often, you already have it there, ready to be counted. I also make sure I keep hydrated, which is one of the best things, and fitbit also helps with that. Word of advice, once you find food that is 0 calories and without aspartame, you are almost in heaven.

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Every other day, I do stretching exercises, which are the best for me. This way I avoid pain in my old injuries. I am lucky to have a swimming pool in the complex area I live in, so I go to the pool twice a week after my morning walk, and I keep positive.

This is the most important part. My husband and I made a deal, and we are not going to eat burgers in 6 months. As you know sometimes it is hard when you have all these burger places all around, but did you know that most of the meet comes from beef that is fed corn? (GMO corn) That stuff is terrible for you. Oh and that´s something else we do too. We grow a lot of food organically. We have a youtube channel called "The Lopez Garden" and we share what we are growing and what we did to make things grow so well, for those that want to give it a try. We are also doing this because we want our future babies to eat only organic, and since organic food is expensive, though less these days, nothing compares to the taste of home-grown food. That way the money we save, we can use it towards buying grass-fed butter, meat, etc. This also would help us get the right nutrients in our bodies so that the fat can go bye bye.

So as I keep on doing this, and exercising, I¨ll let you know my results. Why? I want to encourage other people that they can also change and have a healthier lifestyle. Honestly having the genes, and injuries, and stress that can contribute to being overweight, doesn´t mean you have to give in. We are smarter, and it is our own body, we can take charge over it again. All we need is a little help, a plan, and a lot of will.

For me, my biggest motivation is that I wan´t to get pregnant, and the truth is that if I am heavy, and then gain the baby weight, I am going to suffer from my knees, and other injuries I already have because of sports and work. Plus I could be at risk of pregnancy diabetes and that I will not take, because I don´t approve of having an illness or condition that I could have avoided.

Also, because once babies start walking, that´s it. You´d better be in shape to catch up to them because they not always run to the safest of places, and oh, did I mentioned I am the paranoid type? Lol

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So there, that´s my story right now about my own weight. I am not proud of it, but at least I am conscious that it is a problem and it is there and will always be there if I don´t pay attention to it.
Let me know what you do to loose weight? Please also let me know if you´ve done anything to change the type of diet you usually have. By diet I don´t mean starving yourself to death. Because something that people should know is that if you don´t eat 4-5 times a day, you can also get diabetes. (This I heard directly from a nutritionist.) By diet I mean, changing your habits, and the type of food you are eating. (Example: cutting down on sodas, bread, dairy products, etc. Or, eating more of this or that.)

Thank you for taking your time on reading this post. I hope I do encourage some of you to start saying: "No!" to being overweight for the wrong reasons, and more like: "Yes, please!" To a healthier lifestyle.

Oh and before I forget, let me share that it is important to respect other people overweight or not. We have no idea of what struggles got them there. Respect, empathy and compassion are always the white flag towards peace.