Mini-Goals Even if you're not at goal yet, this is the place to share your successes and achievements along the way! Success can be measured in many ways besides the scales. Tell us about your triumphs, including Non Scale Victories

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Old 10-20-2011, 07:55 PM   #1  
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Default Lost 30 lbs and got abs w/pics - I'm happy & proud!

For the first time in 10 years, I woke up happy today with my weight. I'm totally, entirely, completely happy. It's been a long and steady and slow process, but I've lost 30 pounds, got toned, and got healthy. I also lowered my resting heart rate from about 85 bpm to 38 bpm. I'm posting this under the mini-goals because I'm still about 5 lbs away from actually reaching my true goal, plus I want to tone my arms the way I've toned up my abs. Amazingly, I can actually see a six-pack-ish kind of shape to my stomach (with good lighting, of course).

My method: 1300 to 1400 calories a day and a ton of exercise. I work out at least 2 hours per day. I jog, take speedy uphill hikes, yoga, and private pilates 3 times a week.

Biggest food change: portion control. I always ate very well/healthy, but I ate a lot and often. And I had a love affair with cheese. My first few weeks doing calorie counting were brutal. I honestly thought I was doing it wrong because there did not seem to be any way a human could live on such a small amount of food. I even got a new food scale because I thought my old one must be broken. The portions seemed so so SO tiny! I would blow my daily calorie budget by mid morning and then have to starve the rest of the day. It took me about 2 months to figure out how to spread out my calories. Now I feel the opposite! I can't imagine eating as much food as I used to eat. There are many days I have to force myself to eat something before going to bed so that I don't under-eat. Under-eating is something I would have never, ever, in a million years thought I'd struggle with...but I do.

Biggest surprise: I can't be sedentary. I need exercise. The fact I just typed those sentences is amazing. I was the biggest, laziest slouch. I would go months without proper exercise. Now I can hardly skip a day. Most days I work out twice. I do not "eat back" the calories I burn exercising, but on the rare days I do 3 hours of exercise, I'll up my calories to 1500.

Tech Gadget: I used My Fitness Pal to count calories and record my weight. It's a free app download on my droid. I used it faithfully for months and it was very helpful.

Foods I can't live without: Fage 0% greek yogurt, kashi lean, and splenda.

Cheat days: I don't have cheat days. Personally I didn't need them because I don't crave sugar or fried foods. I never ate badly - I got fat because I was sedentary and ate too much. Everyone is different, but for me a cheat day would have really messed me up. My goal was to change what I thought of as a normal amount of food.

Pharmacological Help: Even though I don't have cheat days or cheat meals, I do love a little bit extra cheese now and then and because I travel a lot, I can't always be totally in control of what I eat. For the meals I eat at restaurants or for the times I added a little extra cheese, I took an Alli (aka. Xenical) tablet. It helps absorb some of the fat and minimizes the damage a restaurant meal can cause to the daily calorie budget.

Plateaus: I've had months of plateaus, probably because I was exercising so much and not eating enough. I'm not really sure why I didn't lose weight faster considering that I ate very on-plan and was very active. In hindsight, I probably should have taken a diet break and eaten more but I liked the consistency of 1300-1400 calories a day and didn't want to adjust. I stopped being bothered by my plateaus (bothered me a little, of course) because I really saw this as a permanent change and I was confident that in the long term I'd reach my goal. I didn't see weight loss as a race so time wasn't an issue.

Photos: Oh I wish had taken more photos!! I have no true before photos because I avoided the camera. The before photos here are at about 175 lbs. I'm wearing the same jeans in both photos.

Old Measurements:

Bust 41
Waist 31
Hips 42

New Measurements:

Bust 38
Waist 27
Hips 37
Attached Images
File Type: jpg collage jeans front anon.jpg (37.2 KB, 139 views)
File Type: jpg collage jeans side.jpg (25.1 KB, 104 views)
File Type: jpg collage jeans back.jpg (34.0 KB, 101 views)
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Old 10-20-2011, 08:02 PM   #2  
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Wow! Congrats to you! You look fantastic!
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Old 10-20-2011, 09:08 PM   #3  
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CONGRATS....on your hard work and your success.
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Old 10-24-2011, 12:20 PM   #4  
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Oh, wow! You look so amazing. And for the record, I'd love to have your abs in your before picture. Love your hourglass shape.

Congratulations on all your hard work and thank you for sharing your story and pictures with us!
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