“Have you lost weight recently?”  I’ve been asked this question by about 10 different people over the past couple of months.  And yes.  I have!  Starting this summer, I began some lifestyle changes that have resulted in me losing about 6 kilograms — Yay!

Mike’s mom sometimes sends us some magazines from the States, and one of our “care packages” had a couple issues of Prevention.  I’ve never read this mag before, but I stumbled across a really helpful article entitled “8 Secrets of the Naturally Slim” in one of the issues.

I’ve made the article title into a hyper-link which takes you to a copy of the article online, if you’d like to take a look.

The tips listed in the article were really common-sense, but revolutionary for me.  Things like the fact that feeling hungry is not an emergency.  A hunger pang is not a problem that I immediately have to solve by cramming down a snack.  I can wait until a mealtime.  It’s going to be okay.  Also the idea that you eat until you feel satisfied (not until you feel stuffed).  I started to try and “tune in” to how I was feeling hunger-wise throughout a meal, and found that I really only needed to eat 1/2 (sometimes even 1/3) of what I had been eating before.   Crazy!

I also came across another article in the mags from Mike’s mom that referenced green tea as having appetite suppressant qualities.  So along with eating less quantity-wise, and eating less frequency-wise, I have been drinking a cup or two of green tea when I feel hungry between meals.  This amounts to 3 or 4 cups a day for me.

One thing that I’ve partially had to grieve, (and maybe partially had to celebrate too) is the idea that these life-style changes I’ve been making this summer, really should be just that…  Life-style changes.  In other words, this is the way I’ll be living from now on.  Pretty wild to think.  But, then again, I’m over 30 now, so I guess it’s good to amend things like eating habits as I grow older.  Part of being human.

So, I’m on my way.  I’d still like to lose another 6 kilograms to get to my desired BMI weight. But I’m confident it can happen.

–Jen