Things started when one of my youngest daughters decided to help her mother and sisters shed a few extra pounds. She bought each of them a Garmin Activity tracker, I am not sure which model. She and her sisters were the first to get started, then a month or two later my wife got her start. Our daughter helped her set up the Garmin, and the software to track her weight loss, calories and activity on her iPhone. One app is Garmin Connect™ to keep track of her steps, sleep & to join challenges which my daughter starts. The other is MyFitnessPal, a calorie counter & diet tracker.
After they calculated her daily caloric needs, and a quick lesson how to use the software, they started prepping meals for a week at a time. To our surprise, our daughter bought all the food for her mother and brought enough for both of them to the house to prepare their meals. She did this for the first few weeks, preparing the menus and helping us prepare the food for both of them, she even bought containers to put the food in. Before we knew it, there were three meals for each day, for a whole week in the refrigerator. We were so greatful for the help and the meals. It took a little while to understand the apps, but finally it all came together.
It was not long before we were on our own prepping meals for the week, then my wife and I decided it was easier for us not to prep the meals for the whole week, but to make them as needed. Breakfast and lunch were prepared the night before and dinner just before it was time to eat. This worked out much better for us, and did not take hardly any time as compared to making meals for a week, and the variety was much better. I learned to count calories using the CalorieKing website and make the meals with the right amount of calories for the day. Sometimes our daughter would show up with snacks that she made from recipes she found online and we would add them in to meal plans.
Things have been going quite well. My wife says I have finally learned how to fry eggs properly, and that I am becoming a better cook. I am not so sure, I think her weight loss is due to the fact that she eats my cooking (or maybe not eating it... just kidding) and her hard work. We are so grateful to our daughter for getting us started on my wife's weight loss journey, both the weight loss and our daughter's willingness to help in this endeavor has been a great blessing to both of us.
Christmas update: She is now down 95 pounds, just a few more to go!
Haven't updated is a while, but she made the hunderd pound mark early in February... One year 100 pounds!