I saw some of the signatures - and MANY of you have lost quite a bit. There's a couple of ladies who actually began almost at the same weight as I did and have similar targets but are much ahead of me in the losing game.
I've been on my weight loss project for just over two years now, going from 258 to 182.5, a loss of 75.5 pounds. I've written about how I've done it in my weight loss site, Annie Takes Off, which is linked in my sig below. But mainly, I stopped eating fast food, large hungryman dinners for lunch, and eating sugary snacks all day. I'm teaching myself portion control, though I am not counting calories per se. I do use my eletronic scale often to measure out reasonable portions.
I drink enough water/tea to stay hydrated, but I don't force the stuff down. I exercise around 5 times a week, either spending a half hour on my elliptical, or going for a 2 mile walk, with some good sized hills along the way. And since New Years, I lift weights 3-4 times a week. So far, I'm happy with my results.
The first 40 or so pounds, just kinda of went away. I didn't make a "concious" decision to lose weight, I just quit eating junk. I moved to KY 12 weeks ahead of my finacee, bringing our 2 kids with me, at the time, they were 2 and 8 months old. I was full time, everything. Single mom, full time employee, full time cook and chief bottle washer. Fast food would have been easier, but with us maintaing 2 households, financially, one here, one in Los Angeles, it would have been a bit of a strain. So, the kids and I started eating at home more, I was way more active in work, I went from a stay at home mom to a full time employee in a physical job. It was summer, it was hot in the plant and warehouse, they provided unlimited water, and I drank it like it was my job. I took the kids to the lake every weekend, it was free, wet and we could stay all day. We spent alot of time at the park, it was free, they loved it, we could stay all day, as long as I PLANNED AHEAD. I learned to buy cases of water 2for5 at wal-mart, keeping them in my trunk, I planned snacks that didn't need to be in the fridge, lots of fresh fruits and veggies, roasted/bbq'd chicken, and, it just kind of went away. I was shopping for shorts, since mine kept falling off my butt at work, and realised, I had suddenly gone from a size 22/24 when I got here in April, to a size 18/20 by August, all without concious effort. Matt got here and I started slacking, letting him do more, more cooking and things, and we started eating out again. He's a big fan of fried foods, white rice etc. Around December, I realised all my smaller sized 18's were getting tight, so now, I've decided to go ahead and lose the rest. Heck, I lost half of it without even meaning too, how cool is THAT?? So, now that I'm actually trying, it seems much harder, and seems to be taking way more time, but it'll come off, as long as I stick to the healthy food and staying active. I think thats the biggest part. Not just the 30-60 minutes we all take a day to excersize, but to STAY ACTIVE, outside of those times. I play with my kids more, we walk around the yard and admire the snow, birds, whatever, and I don't count that as excersize, I toss my kids around on the bed and couch, we wrestle on the floor, I just DO more with them. And, it helps. My plan, such as it is, is to look at my plates, in quarters. Half is strictly for fruits and veggies, as fresh as I can get them, lightly cooked, usually steamed with loads of citrus juice, garlic or whatever in the water, 25% to whole carbs, such as brown rice, whole wheat pasta, a whole wheat slice of bread, and the other 25% is for lean protien, chicken, fish or tofu, most times, at least once a week red meat, turkey is HUGE in this house. I eat 4-6 times a day, 3 small meals and 3 snacks. Snacks are usually nonfat yogurt with fruit tossed in, today I had a HUGE bag of spinach and yellow peppers. I dont limit my veggie intake or fruit, although I try not to eat to many fruits past 8 pm, mainly because of the natural sugars in them, I try and use that during the day for extra OOMPH of energy. I walk 3 miles 5 days a week and have added some weight lifting in 3 times a week. Honestly, on 3 days a week i spend 1 hour and 15 mins working out, the other 2, its a quick, 45 minutes to walk 3 miles. I think the biggest hurdle we all face is purely mental. Most of us it seems, are natural caregivers, nurturers. We take care of everyone else, before we take care of ourselves, and when we DO do something for ourselves, we tend to feel guilty. For me, it was learning to be greedy, for 45-75 minutes a day, out of an entire 24 hour block to devote to just me. And frankly, with less weight, that means I can give even more to the people I love. So, its a win/win for me. Good luck in your journey!
I just decided to start eating right and motivating myself to exercise. If I started slacking off, I'd have to look for new motivation...generally I'd change my routine and mix things up to get it interesting again. I started just by eating healthier around August of 2002 and lost over 40 pounds. Then I added exercise in June or July of 2003. By the end of the year, I'd lost another 40 pounds...double the loss in half the time by concentrating on both eating and exercise. By the time I reached 140, I found out I was pregnant, so weight loss went on hold. Since the baby, my life has changed drastically, bought a house, moved twice, etc. etc. So I haven't focused on losing. Got back down close to what I was and have just been maintaining. I just renewed my efforts to lose the rest this past Monday though, so hopefully soon.
I started with Medifast at the end of July. I purchased 5 meals a day from Medifast and ate one meal of a protein and vegetables. It worked for me. The food is pretty good although small. But I was eating 6 times a day. I lost 24 pounds in about 3 months.
Then I stopped losing and was bored of the food. I started simple calorie counting. I write it down in a little notebook - not high tech. I lost 14 more pounds on my own. I'm stuck at 150 now which was my original goal weight. I'm thinking about 10 more pounds but it's taking a lot of focus just to maintain right now.
I maintain the original regime from Medifast and eat about 6 times a day - very small meals. 5 meals are 100 - 200 calories each and dinner is about 400 calories. Someone will say that this calorie level is too low but it worked for me.
The other important thing for me is that I have dessert every day around 8-9 pm. I save 100-150 calories for this and have sugar free pudding or a low calorie ice cream treat. Sometimes I just have a piece of fruit. I look forward to this all day. Also, this is the time of day I am hungry and I go with it. I usually have a cup of hot tea too. This is no calorie and just takes a long time to sip.
I do focus on foods that take a long time to eat - soup, salad, popcorn (100 cal mini-bags are great). An apple is better than a banana because it takes me 3 times as long to eat it. Oranges take even longer.
I do work out 4 times a week at least on an elliptical and once a week with low weights.
Would you care to share your statistics, please? 43 years old 5'8", married, 2 kids.
What was your starting weight? 173
What is your current weight? 141.5
And how long did it take you to get here? 13 months and counting. Goal is 133 and I hope to get there by June.
What was your diet / exercise regime?I started by lowering fat and calories. Found 3FC and read goal post by Glory87 and then picked up the SuperfoodsRx book and started eating more healthy choices. I have to admit I don't exercise like I should. I was walking 25+ miles per week when I started out, but I wasn't working, so that was easier. Now I work full time and although I did great exercising in January, I've lost my uumph to get back to it in February. The good news is that I've overcome a 5 week plateau (that came after gaining 8 pounds of holiday weight). My plan now is to follow my own meal plan. I've never been fond of other people telling me what to eat (can you say control freak?), but if I make my own plan I can easily stick to it.
What was your starting weight?
I had actually stopped weighing myself and I was too chicken to get on the scale when I started, my best estimate is around 200 lbs.
What is your current weight?
128 lbs
And how long did it take you to get here?
I started in July 2004 at around 200 lbs. I weighed 165 lbs in October and 153 lbs in December. In February 2005, I started plateauing at 140 lbs - this lasted until June 2005 when I dropped to 137. I weighed 135 lbs in October 2005 and weighed 128 in January 2006. So, about 7 months to lose 50 lbs, another 9 months to lose the last 15 or so lbs.
What was your diet / exercise regime?
There's a link in my signature if you want the whole story, but basically I realized that for 20 years I restricted and yoyo dieted my way from 140 lbs to 200 lbs. I had to accept that a short term approach did not have long term positive results. I wanted to diet for a little while and then eat "normal" - but my normal meant venti full fat lattes, muffins, pizza and nachos. I had to change my normal - forever. So, I gave up almost all junk, switched to whole foods and voila - 2 years of permanent weight loss, for the first time in my life.
Would you care to share your statistics, please? age 38, 5'3", no kids
What was your starting weight? 150 lbs, size petite 14-16
What is your current weight? 120 lbs, size petite 4
And how long did it take you to get here? started in Aug 05, got down to 118 lbs in Aug 06, have been maintaining since then but put on a few pounds over the holidays that I am still trying to lose.
What was your diet / exercise regime? Exercise: I started exercising three days a week with a personal trainer in Nov 05. Within a couple of months I added a couple of days of cardio on my own. My current regime is seven days a week. When all goes according to plan, it is weights three days with my trainer, a free 1-hour group session with my trainer (weights and cardio) on one day, various cardio equipment for an hour on one day, running 5-6 miles on one day, and swimming for an hour on one day. I almost never miss a day, but sometimes I have to do something other than what is planned for the day.
Diet: I already didn't eat fast food, hardly ever ate at restaurants, and didn't eat a lot of desserts, so just making simple changes like that clearly wasn't going to do in terms of weight loss. In Nov 05 I put myself on a 1200 calorie a day diet. This meant eliminating all beverages with calories (except the very occasional glass of wine), eating low-fat or no-fat instead of full-fat, and cutting back on bread and pasta products. Eventually I increased my calories to 1400 because of the amount of exercise I do. Currently I'm maintaining at around 1500-1600 calories per day; I probably need to cut back down to 1400 per day to lose the holiday pounds.
Would you care to share your statistics, please? 41 years old, 5' 4", 2 kids (ages 22 years and 16 mo. LOL)
What was your starting weight? 250+
What is your current weight? 148
And how long did it take you to get here? and What was your diet / exercise regime? I just decided to start eating right and motivating myself to exercise. If I started slacking off, I'd have to look for new motivation...generally I'd change my routine and mix things up to get it interesting again. I started just by eating healthier around August of 2002 and lost over 40 pounds. Then I added exercise in June or July of 2003. By the end of the year, I'd lost another 40 pounds...double the loss in half the time by concentrating on both eating and exercise. By the time I reached 140, I found out I was pregnant, so weight loss went on hold. Since the baby, my life has changed drastically, bought a house, moved twice, etc. etc. So I haven't focused on losing. Got back down close to what I was and have just been maintaining. I just renewed my efforts to lose the rest this past Monday though, so hopefully soon.
Would you care to share your statistics, please? I am 43years old, married, with 3 daughters 19, 17, & 15, yes it was the 2 year plan.
What was your starting weight? 287, perhaps a little higher. I was wearing a size 26/28 at the plus sized stores. I am now wearing a size 14 or 12 at a regular sized store and large shirts, last week I even bought a medium.
What is your current weight? As of this past Monday (Monday's are my weigh-in day) I was 197 lbs.
And how long did it take you to get here? I started weightloss journey on September 4, 2006, a day I will always celebrate as my re-birth-day.
What was your diet / exercise regime? I kinda gave it an all or nothing apporach. Since I was doing everything wrong, I felt the need to change everything. I elminated most added sugars, flour, potatoes, rice, pasta, high fats, bread. I eat basically low fat proteins like fish, white meat chicken, some soy products, no fat yogurt and skim milk. I eat a ton of salad and veggies.I will occasionally have the rare treat. I started out slowly with the exercise since I was doing practically nothing before hand. I started out walking and have been increasing everyday. I break my workout into 2 sessions a day. I walk in the morning for about 27 mins and then again in the afternoon. I also do sit ups, leg and arm work and dance. The most important thing I changed was my attitude and outlook about food. I decided that I was no longer going to use it to entertain me when I'm bored, console me when I'm sad or angry or any other emotional reason that might pop up. It's a process for sure and I've still a long way to go. But so far, so good.
Last edited by rockinrobin; 02-09-2007 at 06:47 AM.
Please share your weight loss experience
