Weight Loss: A No-Cost Way

My husband, who was formerly in the Navy, decided to go back into the military in 2007. He wanted to join the Army National Guard. Upon joining, he had to go to what is called the Warrior Transition Course. Warrior Transition is like a short version of boot camp for prior military servicemen (and women) and is physically demanding. While he was off doing sit-ups, pushups, pull-ups, running and all of the other military basic training exercises, I was at home and decided to take a little step on the scale. That was a wake-up call!

Being 5'5" and receiving a reality check from my new digital scale, I weighed 176 pounds! Because my husband was away doing a lot of physical activity, I figured he would come back home looking nice and buff and will have lost some weight. Why couldn't I do the same?

Then it was off to my journey on the internet to learn new ways to eat, get healthy and lose some weight! This visit brought me to a website called "Hooah4Health.com." I then clicked on a link that said "Body." This was one of the biggest resources for health that I have ever encountered on the internet. The information is based on the US Army physical fitness standards. It explains the food pyramid, heart rate, exercises, including aerobics and how to eat healthily!

Upon clicking through the website to learn more, I was brought to another website sponsored by them titled "h4htracker.com." This was the best tool to help me get fit and lose weight. After reading the information on hooah4health.com and then actually "tracking" my progress on h4htracker.com, I had a visual on what my diet and exercise problems were. The website contains a weight management tracker. You have to input what you ate into a food pyramid. Now originally I thought that I would probably have to starve myself to lose weight, but in reality I was not eating enough to begin with, and when I was eating, it was all of the wrong food!

To explain how the website tracks your progress, when I first woke up in the morning I would step on the scale. I would then input my weight under "Enter Weight." After getting ready for work I would eat my breakfast and then go to the website and click on "Enter Food." That was usually a bowl of cereal (grains), with milk (dairy) and a banana (fruit). All I had to do was click the "+" on the food pyramid for each type of food that I ate. By the end of the day I took a look at my food pyramid and realized that I was not eating enough grains, vegetables, dairy and fruit. Then there is the top of the pyramid titled, "Fats/Oils and Sweets." I learned that you can only click that button once a week! No more nightly snacks!

The great part of the whole hooah4health.com weight management tracking is that you also have to keep track of your mood and how much time you spend on exercise. This whole process can really make you feel guilty when you see your own daily results. The website gives you a performance overview for today, this week, this month, last month and since joining. The page breaks down your performance with slider scales that start from red (bad), orange (not good), yellow (you're almost there) and green (you're doing good).

My weight, when I started tracking, was in the red. It was great to see each and every day and weekly, my weight slider moving to the right closer to the orange, then to the yellow, and then in the green! It was very rewarding. With all of the resources available, with a fitness schedule and a food tracker, hooah4health.com is a winner in my book!

Do not get discouraged when you start exercising. When I started sit-ups, I could barely do ten of them. The running and jogging were tough at first so I didn't push myself too hard. I graduated myself into around 100 sit-ups, three sets of 25 pushups and ran for 20 minutes every other day. That usually gave me my 30 minutes total exercise each day. On my "off days" I would at least go ride my bike for 30 minutes to get some exercise in. In the beginning, that was even rough for me. I had not ridden a bike since I was a kid!

By the time my husband had completed his Warrior Transition Course, I had lost about 26 pounds. I had to go to the airport to pick him up. I was so excited! When he got off of the plane, I didn't even recognize him. He had lost a lot of weight himself. What a surprise it was for him to come home to a skinnier, healthier, happier wife! I think he was expecting to come home and have the same junk food for dinner that we used eat, but those days were gone! I changed what I eat, my exercise habits and overall attitude toward staying active and healthy.

To sum things up, I lost 36 pounds and now feel really good about myself. I feel much healthier, happier and energetic. It was great to go from size 12, although I should have been wearing a size 14 to be honest with you, to a size six. If you want to lose weight, I recommend visiting hooah4health.com and bypass the newest "Alli" and other weight loss pills. You should save your money on all of the weight loss pills and sign up for free. You'll really see what is going on with your diet and health. Included in their website is a body mass index calculator, an optimal body weight calculator and also a heart-rate zone calculator. You couldn't ask for more!