Gosh, girlie -- you can really see it in your face and thighs! I read somewhere that you take off weight in the order you put it on (as the body is not yet attached to the "newer" weight). That tummy weight from the baby may hang around for a bit longer as you're still BF'ing. But push on! It will come off eventually.
jitter, my PT used to call salads "conduits for dressing" ... I liked the image of salads as dimwitted lackeys for the mafioso-like bottles of salad dressing. It's a conspiracy, I tell you! Also, watch out for croutons, crispy noodles, tortilla strips, etc. They're drenched in butter or oil and baked to get that tasty, crispy flavor. I almost fell over when I saw the calorie count for an Asian Chicken Salad I wanted the other day -- almost twice as much as the Cobb (which I thought would be HORRIBLE).
To throw my hat into the fat vs. muscle ring: Most of us know that as you build muscle under your fat layers, the muscle pushes the fat out, making it appear you are gaining or "getting bigger" instead of losing. And the more muscle you have on your body, the more energy is needed to sustain it -- the body will look to the fat for energy as long as you keep the muscles moving and growing.
However, people make the mistake, at this point, of not giving their body enough energy to maintain the muscle growth by not eating more. Therefore the muscles build, a person freaks and stops eating (or severely restricts their diet), and the body uses the muscle for energy, giving a false sense of weight loss. The best thing you can do, jen, is to keep feeding your body now that you're exercising and moving. You're doing great -- keep it up!
well, another night and completed the 2 mile walk. I was a little disappointed because it was so easy this time. i like sweating. we didn't do as many hills and my friend was a little tired. I didn't tell her how easy it was for me.
another day of IF for me. I started eating at 4 pm...and I ate sensibly until 11pm. I really like this. I wonder if it is just a "honeymoon" as someone mentioned as I've been doing it less than a week. I really do feel good. I get the hunger pangs as well as the very full feeling. I need to experience both of these in the day. i know that sounds wierd.
MissSea that little bit of research ( I am a research junkie btw) explains why I have gained inches around my arse, but it is toning up. I figured i was building the muscle underneath. at first, i was appalled, but then i realized--duh that is muscle from doing them hills at 3 mph.
Jen I agree you can completely see the progress! Are you breast feeding? How does IF go with BFing? Are you IFing with reduced calories (i.e. meal skipping), or IF with compact calories (eating same amount in a smaller eating frame)?
I've been reading up on IF a lot atm, it is meant to be a great way to break a plateau which is where I am. Seems to break it IF with reduced calories is suggested, so I think I'm going to give it a go. But I'm trying to work out if I'm going to do one fast day a week, or do skip a meal every second day for a week until I break the plateau (until I can get into the 80s and stay in them instead of bouncing where I am).
First day of the weekend down, and I'm within my calorie budget but I did nibble on a few bad things. Just bites here and there but I was mindful and compensated by reducing what I actually ate at meal time. No exercise though today, and tomorrow I need to do work to prep for lessons next week (I haven't written them yet LOL), so hopefully I get something in.
I kind of stepped into IF by accident. My main goal was low carbing, but I could never find a low carb breakfast option that was appealing AND easy to take on the road. It takes me a couple hours after waking up before I feel hungry for breakfast - by then I'm at the office - so my old breakfast habits entailed something I could pick up on the road and eat at my desk (bagel, egg sandwich, etc). I've never been a snacker, so cutting out snacks wasn't necessary. My problem has never been over consumption of food...just eating the wrong things for my PCOS-laiden broken metabolism.
Once I ditched my carb addiction, I realized I wasn't hungry for breakfast and didn't begin to feel hunger pangs until 11:30AM-noon...lunch time...plenty of low carb lunch options (salad, low carb yogurt, nuts, hard boiled eggs, etc) that fill me. So I got in the habit of not eating until noon-ish, and then when I arrive home from work my DH has dinner ready (because he scoots out to work about an hour after I get home), so I eat dinner with the family at a fairly consistent time each night. Because of my insulin resistance, I try to eat my meals within an hour time frame so I'm not overproducing insulin. Thus...dinner is started and finished by 6pm.
Once I added it all up, I realized I was only ever eating between the hours of noon and 6pm. It has proven to be very very effective for my weight loss. IF, low calorie and low carb. And I can't remember the last time I felt hungry. It seems like it's backwards because I've always been taught that you should eat frequent small meals throughout the day...and for some people with fast metabolisms (like my DH) it does make sense...but for me, it has always made me feel more hungry. Eating during a shortened window of time seems to keep my cravings at bay and makes me appreciate food as a fuel, rather than a luxury.
Last edited by dogdaysofdiets; 07-16-2011 at 06:29 AM.
Well, you are both firmly in onderland. I still seem to be just losing inches. But I'll take it. I am losing inches where it counts on my belly. I have lost 2 1/2 inches from there now.
jitter, on my low days i seem to eat 1800 calories and on my high days 2200. and anything in between. I am really sensitive about my milk supply so i'm trying not to drop too much. The eating is done with regular amt of calories and carbs within the eating window. I too feel just slightly hungry. when I wake up late. I fast until 4 or 5 pm. so I am eating much later, but I don't go to bed until late either.
dogdays, that is definitely IFing. i can only get started on dinner at about 9 pm. so if I don't start losing weight soon, i'm going to tweak this a little though.
so today the scale was stubbornly at 201. although my friend says that her mother's scale is 4 lbs different from my scale. I don't know what the deal is there. I'm going to use my scale because that is where I started.
I know the weight doesn't mean everything...but i'm getting more and more upset with the scale each morning!
Hang in there Jen! It must feel frustrating to 'know' you're toning up and improving your health, but not seeing it on the scale definitely takes an emotional toll. All I can say is it WILL happen. I never attempted to diet that soon after having a baby (she was closer to 2yrs when I got serious - I commend you for committing yourself when you have a newborn...I'm amazed!), so I don't know for sure, but I imagine your body is still recovering. Between that and the breastfeeding, your results will probably be slow moving scale wise. Your body is just fighting you in an attempt to protect your baby.
Feeding your baby is far more important right now and once your LO weans and you're not worried about your milk supply, you can reduce your calories and I bet you'll see a HUGE down tick on the scale. Building all the muscle right now with exercising and creating those wise dietary habits, I think the payoff will be tremendous for you when the time is right. Please don't feel discouraged. You will get your scale rewards in time...right now your rewards will come in the form of smiles, coos, squeals, and drooly kisses from your sweet little baby.
I've skipped breakfast a few times because mornings are mad -LOL- Between breast feeding and solid feeding Oakley, making breakfast for Willow, making lunches, showers and getting everyone dressed we're pretty much running out the door most days and I get to work and think oh heck I missed breakfast. So while it was on accident it got me thinking that maybe I should incorporate IF in. But my milk supply dropped when I started losing weight, I had to watch my calories because if I exercised too much I would notice it, Oakley would be super demanding. Now that he is older and on solids though, I think it won't matter so much. I guess its all about experimenting - like I commented on another thread there is no such thing as failure, only feedback. If it works its all good.
Half way through the weekend and I'm feeling good about how I've coped. I'm looking forward to Wednesday when I can make it to the gym - the downside of work I can only go to the gym 2x a week for the next five weeks until I'm on break again.
thanks dogdays. I am going to DEFINITELY keep that in mind and just keep on keeping on. Thanks for the vote of confidence.
jitter, thanks for the heads up. yes, I don't want to mess with my milk supply, i've just now gotten to the point i feel comfortable pumping. i had an AWFUL experience while i was studying for the NCLEX. I pumped for 4 hours off and on. to make sure he had milk during my classes. well, i went to bed...and he woke up to nurse...and he screamed and screamed because my milk would not come in....i cried and tried everything...finally I got a bottle saved up for class out of the fridge..and gave it to him. that incident left me a little pump shy.
ok, we walked our 2 miles today. We are getting conditioned so we need to step it up. tonight she even noticed it was way easier then it used to be...we walk at 3 mph and the hills definitely make us sweat--so we have been avoiding too many hills. now both of us agree we need to step it up. we can't exercise longer--so we got to go harder. we've been talking intervals which i love. i also found a move i really like. it is like a modified superman. you are standing at a wall or ledge in wall push up position--then you press your heel down...and lift alternate legs and arms. it is a plank type exercise that targets the whole body. I have also started doing wall push ups and tricep dips.
well ladies, I did really well yesterday and the scale said 200.4 today. so what is up with that? The thing is I have this file thing i keep to reset the scale weight...and the weight of that PLUS me keeps going down, but the scale still says just I weigh the same. is that wierd?
i never take anything out of the file box...so it always weighs the same which is 21 lbs. yesterday the box and I weighed 218 lbs, then today the box and I weighed 217 lbs. grr. maybe i need a new scale.
*** i changed the batteries..and I got 199.6*** I'll take it. please let me stay in onederland now!
Yay Jen!!!!! Darn scale...I was having similar problems a few weeks ago (yoyo weights and having a hard time zeroing it out before weigh ins) and I finally went to Target and bought a new one. I couldn't take it anymore. But then I was worried that maybe my old scale was more favorable and starting over with my new one would add a couple pounds so I was afraid to get on it, LOL! But it turned out fine - old scale and new scale were nearly identical. Phew!
Fingers crossed for you that you'll stay in ONEderland!!!
well to add to the scale fiasco, my friend who weighed 138 on my scale and 134 on her mother scale. Tried out THREE different scales at walmart and they all said 133. So that leaves my scale as the outlier. I guess it is time for a new scale.
that kind of pees me off.
I didn't walk yesterday, and I had a hectic day due to the project being due. I got up a few minutes before the deadline and was terrified. it didn't show up as submitted, but my team mate assured me it shows up as submitted on her end. so I think we are ok...phewwwwww.
Everytime I lose a large amount of weight at once I think my scale is broken, so I have a 10L (therefore 10kg) container of water handy so I can check it. Mine gets bashed around a lot because of the kids so I'm always suspicious when I drop a couple kg at once.
