Losing it!

Ever wonder what the average person spends each year on weight loss? Me too! Both women and men spend a lot of money to maintain their looks in Hollywood, but as my personal trainer told me, it IS their job to look a certain way. They tan, go for botox injections, train at the gym for several hours per day with a personal trainer and have meals prepared for them. They also have teeth whitening done or implants, breast implants, lipo, nose jobs, breast lifts, etc.

When I think about losing weight, which I do constantly, I never seem to think about the amount of money I spend on a food, a gym membership, the cost of training, shoes, and clothing. Others may pay a monthly fee for Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, or other weight loss programs and even nutritionists. There's also the cost of weight loss apps, calorie tracking apps, and heart rate monitors.

Nutrition

My diet is a tricky thing. Last January I joined Weight Watchers online in hopes of shedding 10lbs or so. Instead, the higher fiber WW diet sent me straight to the ER. My gastro told me to cut out all roughage unless it was blended in the form of a smoothie. Telling that to someone who's favorite food group is salad is tragic. I had just shelled out $50 for 3 months of an online membership. WW was gracious enough to refund my money. The hard part was eating healthily without eating lots of fiber or whole grains. I dare anyone (who isn't competing in a fitness competition) to try to lose weight on plain, boring low fiber diet. What I didn't do was scale back the carbs. While I was eating virtually fat free pastas, white rice and breads, I was overloading my body with carbs. It wasn't until I talked to my trainer about changing things up. Her word of advice was to cut back the carbs. Genius. Of course I had thought of doing so, but it's easier when someone in good shape suggests it. Her suggestion: make oat breaded chicken fingers, low carb breads with coconut or almond flour. I found millet and flax pita chips and high protein pretzels at the local health food store. Now are they as inexpensive as their white flour counterparts? I wish. But swapping out these simple items in my diet has made a difference. I am a lot more conscious about what foods I put in my body. There are days like today, where a Lean Cuisine pizza sounds better than a low carb tortilla with turkey. Why deny myself that? It's still fairly low-cal and figure friendly.As human beings we DO need carbs and can't always eat the low carb version of our favorite food.


Gym Membership

While I don't subscribe to a monthly WW membership or have any costly apps on my iPhone, I do pay a monthly gym membership fee. Together, Brad and I spend $38 per month, which isn't bad. It wasn't until my Zumba instructor aka personal trainer called and offered me a 30 minute session. How could I say no? She trains a girl from Zumba who has won bikini competitions. The first session was pure Hell and I loved it. I thought I was going to throw up mid way through, but kept on pushing. I felt like a wimp, but I didn't care. After doing walking lunges with weights, my heart rate skyrocketed higher than it had in years. I'm not think, but I consider myself fit. I do Zumba or the elliptical on a daily basis and when I started training, I was doing Body Pump too. Regardless, I wanted more. We ended my first session and I was begging for a second. After learning that it would cost an additional $120 a month to train two days a week, I had to think about it for a few days. Brad and I discussed things and decided that I could train once a week to the tune of $80 per month. I was going to cut out my twice weekly coffee habit and stop going out to eat for lunch during the work week. There. Done. Sadly, the meals out and coffee added up to $80 every month. Since I signed up for training around the same time my friend did, our trainer asked us if we wanted to train twice a week together and not charge us anything additional. No brainer! I feel like we're getting a bargain AND we have a gym date just about every morning on top of going to Zumba most evenings.

Clothes

I used to purchase my workout gear from Walmart, Target, TJ Maxx or Marshalls. That was until I discovered my new BFF, Lulu. As in Lululemon. It was LOVE at first sight-- of my butt-- in their popular Wunder Under Crops. I'm not kidding, folks. Anyone who has slipped into Lulu has probably had a similar feeling. Those Nike crops NEVER made me feel this confident. In fact, I felt very self conscious, always pulling them up, tugging at the legs. When I met Lulu, I went full speed ahead with this new relationship. She and I became fast friends, spending all of our free time together; going to the gym, to the grocery store, even work. It wasn't necessarily the fact that the brad Lululemon is prestigious, I've just never felt so good in clothes. Period. Having had a poor body image pretty much since birth, I was always drawn to wearing cardigans with everything, nothing tight around my mid section (because let's be realistic, can't everyone see my scars or bag?). As a person, I started to change. At work I now lose the cardigans, on the weekends I wear tighter fitting shirts. Okay, tighter fitting Lulu shirts, but still. Lulu has boosted the confidence that this girl has never seen!

Shoes

Let's talk shoes. I have always had some what of a shoe fetish, so it's not surprising that I have to have multiple pairs of sneakers for my workouts (YES I call them sneakers- make fun all you want). I started out with my plan 'ole Nike's over a year ago. They were fine for the elliptical, but when I started Zumba I quickly realized that they were not cut out for the moves. They had way too much traction. I searched for the perfect pair of shoes for Zumba and stumbled upon a pair of pretty gussied up Nike Free's on sale at the local running shop. They perfectly hugged my feet, were colorful and would match Lulu nicely. I wore them to Zumba that night and quickly realized that I would need to break them in. A week or two later they were perfect. Of course, six months later, I now have THREE pairs of Nike Free's. The way they glide on the shiny wood floor makes them a perfect Zumba shoe for me.


Gadgets

I recently purchase a Polar FT7 from Best Buy. I had wanted to buy one for months, but to the tune of $100 plus, I couldn't justify purchasing one right around the holidays. I called our health insurance benefits company and found that it was covered under our flex spending account! I ran right out to the store and bought it! I tested it out this morning during my training session and learned that I burned almost 300 calories in 30 minutes!! Amazing! My friend and training partner warned me that it could become an obsession. I could look at the calorie count during a work out and keep pushing myself to the round number. For now, I'm using it as a motivator and a tool so that I don't go overboard with my daily calorie intake. If it ever becomes an obsession, it's gone!

My Conclusion

Obviously we all spend the money with one goal in mind; to lose weight and look our best. This week all of my hard work and hard earned money paid off when I went to try on my favorite black pants and looked like a slob. They were too big!!!!! While they had slowly been getting a litter looser on me since I started training, this week they looked ridiculous. When my trainer commented to me this morning that I looked like I had lost weight, it was confirmed. The scale has been kinder to me in recent weeks, but it's the non scale victories (NSV's-Thank you, M, for sharing the term with me) that really pay off!