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Old 05-23-2005, 01:55 PM   #1  
No pain, No gain...darn.
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Unhappy How quickly will I start to see results????? I need encouragement...

(I'm probably going to post this in the welcome forum as well since I'm new...)

First, allow me to introduce myself...I'm 5'2 and 194 lbs. I live in paradise! Although sunny Florida gets hot and is prone to hurricanes (we survived 3 last year), I choose to look at it as my beautiful paradise! I just recently began working from home (a BIG transition...I've worked since I was 15 yrs. old and never had the freedom I do now. I'm in the process of adjusting to that and my new husband of 4 1/2 months! I also have 3 pets/furbabies: Feona (cat), Freedom (60 lb. Heinz 57 dog), and Fibi (5 lb. chihuahua/rat terrier mix). My life is one HUGE blessing right now and I'm so thankful.

BUT I need to lose at least 60 pounds . When I was in high school, I weighed 120-125. Last July, I got engaged and began working out and dieting for our wedding, which was this past New Years Day (yay!). I lost 25 pounds in 5 months. Could've been more, but I didn't work as hard as I should've. I basically did low carb/low calorie diet, minimum 30 minutes of cardio 3x/week (mostly treadmill) and mild strength training at the gym 3x/week.

Then, we went on our honeymoon (to Canada- oh to be there now...). Of course, I was NOT going to diet while on our honeymoon, so from that point I basically gave up the dieting and exercising (typical newlywed from what I've heard). Needless to say, I gained back the 20 pounds in the last 4 months. So now, sadly, I'm back to square one.

A good friend of mine (who makes me sick with her motivation) has inspired me to start exercising again . We both weighed about the same 2 months ago and now she's two sizes smaller "through diet and exercise" (I cringe at those words). I started exercising the week before last (May 5). Last week was my first I full week (I exercised five days), but the week before that, I exercised 2 days. I officially started weighing in last Monday. After all that work last week, I weighed in this morning and I didn't lose ANYTHING!

Here's what I'm doing...
1. Exercise:
-I walk a minimum of 1 mile per day in at least 15 minutes. Some days, I do Leslie Sansone's 1 mile WalkAway the lbs. for Abs with 3 lb. weights in my hands to get my arms going. And then other days, I take Freedom (my big dog) to walk with me. I'm gradually trying to push myself a little more. When I'm walking the dog, I try to jog at least twice for a short distance (like a quarter of a block.) My plan is to increase to the 2 mile walk sometime this week, but I SOOOOOO dread that!
-I've been trying to do crunches everyday (at least 50). Last week, I only did 150 Monday and 75 Tuesday. That's as far as I got.

2. Diet: I drink the AdvantEdge Low Carb shakes for breakfast and lunch and then I have a 'sensible' dinner. I hate dieting (who doesn't?). When I lost weight before, I realized that I am not an overeater. I'm a lazy eater. If I don't plan ahead, I will end up eating something bad. So, I found that having those shakes available (I buy them in bulk) really keeps me on track and works for me. HOWEVER, last week, I ran out of them on Wednesday. So, the rest of the week wasn't low carb.

3. I am a watergirl(I get this from my granny). I love water! I drink a minimum of 64 ounces everyday. I probably end up with more like 3/4 of a gallon by the time the day ends. I have a 64 ounce mug that I bought from Wal-Mart...it has a bunch of cool facts about water and how good it is for us. I usually go through it 1-2 times per day.

So now...I'm sitting here writing this...thinking about that walk...dreading that walk...I need some encouragement! I don't want to exercise today- I did all that work last week and didn't even lose any WATER weight! I'm eating processed cheese right now for lunch and I want pizza. Help!
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Old 05-23-2005, 02:50 PM   #2  
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Hi Amanda, welcome to 3FC! Congratulations on losing your first 25 pounds, that's great! And don't worry, you are really on track. The safe rate of weight loss is 1 or 2 pounds per week. Slower weight loss is much more likely to stay off later. I think you are doing great How many calories do you consume? You might need to eat a little more food. The AdvantEdge drinks are not meant to replace your meals on a regular basis. They are an easy option to mini-meals, if you follow a plan that splits your meals up into 6 mini-meals per day, such as Body for Life. They are a good snack or quick breakfast if you are in a hurty. For a regular breakfast and lunch, you really need more food and nutrition than they provide. If you don't do this already, I would highly suggest logging your food every day in a notebook. Every bite, sip, or nibble. www.fitday.com is also a great way to track what you eat.

Increasing your milage should make a big impact, so making that move this week is a good idea. We are supposed to walk at least 5 miles per day, or 10,000 steps. If you get a pedometer, you can see how many steps you get in, and try to increase it. This is not just for the exercise session, but throughout the day. Keeping track of steps has helped encourage a lot of people to move more, because it makes them more aware of how little or how much they walk.

If you didn't lose any weight last week, even water weight, don't worry about it, it should all even out in time. You may just not have had any excess water to lose, lol. Move up to the two mile walk and weigh again next week

If you dread it, find something to make the walk more fun. I burn CDs with my favorite music, and I only listen when I'm on the treadmill. I turn a fan on while I walk, put on my headphones, and really look forward to the experience. After you get used to more exercise, you'll probably look forward to it, too. We had a discussion about that not too long ago, how we hate it at first but grow to love and crave it after a while.

Good luck!
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Old 05-23-2005, 04:26 PM   #3  
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The problem with shakes is you learn nothing about how to eat for the rest of your life. The way to lose weight is not to diet, but to make healthy lifestyle changes you can continue. I doubt anyone is going to have shakes for breakfast and lunch the rest of their life. Exercise to lose weight has to be 60-90 minutes per day, every day. You are doing what is needed to be healthy when you do less. Again, you need to develop a program you can follow indefinitely. When you stop exercising, you will gain weight.
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Old 05-23-2005, 04:40 PM   #4  
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Patience, grasshopper.

Yes, the shakes should only be a jump-start measure at best. A lot of folks on these boards advocate the "make a few small changes gradually" approach, and it works for a lot of people. I had to draw a line in the sand, though, and there are lots of folks like me who do better making a full-scale assault on a comprehensive plan. Either way, though, it has to be something you feel you could continue doing for the rest of your life.

I've lost 170 pounds so far after being seriously overweight all my life. One of the differences between this time and all the other million times I tried before is that I realized I could choose between losing weight quickly, or keeping the weight off. I really think it's either/or. If you are only focused on "results" then your results will be short-term. If, however, you think about making those fundamental changes to your lifestyle that you can sustain indefinitely, then you are on your way to not only losing weight but keeping it off.

Forget about "dieting" and "losing weight." Instead, undertake a lifestyle makeover that will fuel and nourish your body appropriately for the rest of your life. Then, the weight will take care of itself.


I think it's important to sit down and decide: Which
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Old 05-23-2005, 09:39 PM   #5  
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Echoing the sentiments on the shakes. They gimme the shakes just thinking about em. Diet IS a scarey word, because diets are a temporary measure. What happens when you go off one and go back to eating the way you always did? You need to eat healthy and balanced rather than trying to starve yourself. Try switching to whole grains, reducing your pasta/bread intake (but keeping them whole grains when you do have them), more lean meats, more veggies and fruits, lots of water...I'm sure you know the drill. Make it a lifestyle habit, and a way you can always eat. Having a slice of pizza with a lot of salad, instead of the other way around. Not getting upset when you do break ranks, knowing that you'll go back to healthy eating again afterward, that you simply indulged for a time. So what, get back on the horse.

And as someone mentioned, you have to exercise 60 to 90 minutes a day to lose weight. Once the weight is off, you can drop your exercise time down and maintain. I can't do walks myself...too time consuming. So I learned to run instead. Turn that one mile gradually into a jog, then perhaps a run, before increasing to 2 miles. You can do it in less time and get more of an impact in the calories you burn.

Also, you may not lose weight all the time. Especially if you build muscle, you might even start to weigh more for a bit. Try measuring yourself too. Even if you don't lose weight, you MIGHT lose inches. Or try not weighing for longer periods in between. With having so little to lose, you're apt to lose more slowly than someone who is quite a bit more overweight. You have to give it time and realize that it took time to get there. It takes time to get back.
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Old 05-23-2005, 10:13 PM   #6  
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hey,
I wish I was in paradise right now.
I think you are on the right track and agree with a lot of what people have said so far.
Try and figure out your calories, and what food groups you are eating from. Its always better to eat whole foods, than processed ones. so even though the shakes are good and easy, they have still been processed like crazy. Plus, you get to eat so much more food when your meal is veggies and whole grains.
You don't want ot go under 1200 calories a day and if you are working out hard, probably it should be higher.
I would also say up your work outs to 45 minutes or a hour.
Ok, with that said, it took me 5 months to lose about 12 pounds and then I was like what am I doing wrong why is it going so slow, so I recomminted my self and started journaling and counting everything I ate, and making sure I got in at least 4 good work out a week and added 2-3 days of Pilates for 30 minutes in the morning, now, I have lost 12 pounds in about a month. I kow I probably won't keep it up at this rate but I'm figureing out that I have to do it full force or it will be just that slow and I don't want that.
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Old 05-24-2005, 09:58 AM   #7  
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I'd just like to point out that yes, you can lose weight without doing 60-90 minutes of exercise every day. Maybe that's what some people need, but I, for one, certainly don't have 60-90 extra minutes in my day. If you haven't been exercising regularly anyway, ANY exercise will help you out. I've read multiple times that most of your weight loss comes from what you eat, not just exercise (I think the number was 80% diet, 20% exercise). I'm not saying exercise doesn't help, but I can say that by eating healthy food, watching my calories, sodium, and fat, and making better choices, I have been steadily losing weight WITHOUT exercise. I did start going to the gym again this week, which should certainly help to increase the rate at which I lose, but I don't want you to get discouraged in thinking you have to work out for 90 minutes every day! That is an awfully daunting statement, and many people either don't have time or physically cannot do that much exercise (until they have built up more stamina over time), so it can be very frustrating to think that's the only thing that will work. Everyone is different, and every bit of movement helps. Yes, the new American dietary standards say 60-90 minutes "most days" to lose weight, but that is a very generalized statement, and we are not all manufactured robots, so our bodies vary.

It also does NOT have to be 60-90 (or however many) minutes straight through. If you have 15 minutes in the morning, jog in place. If you have 15 minutes at lunch, go for a walk, and if you have 15 minutes before dinner, try some crunches/lunges/squats/weights/whatever-you-want, etc. Breaking it up throughout the day makes it seem less impossible to fit it all in. It also ensures that you will get some exercise (if you find a day particularly busy, maybe you skip your lunchtime 15 minutes, but at least you still had the other little workouts for a total of 30-45 minutes for the day rather than being too busy and skipping an entire 60-90 minutes of workout time and not getting any exercise for the day).

No need to reiterate the lack of calories and nutrition and healthy eating habits in the shakes--I agree with what others have previously said. I also agree with jennie--make sure you're getting enough calories. This may sound crazy, but eating more can sometimes help you lose faster. If your body isn't getting enough fuel, it will hold onto every bit of fat it has in an effort to conserve, making it MUCH harder to lose weight. Only very rare cases, under the supervision of a physician, require anyone to consume fewer than an average of 1200 calories a day. If you're exercising, you may need a little more, and if you're already overweight, you also need more (the larger your body, the more it burns in simple everyday functions).

In any case, I wish you the best of luck. We all know how difficult it is to start new habits and make this weight loss journey a permanent lifestyle change. Don't get too frustrated with slow weight loss--just know that NOT gaining is a big step in the right direction, and your body will thank you for it!
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Old 05-24-2005, 11:37 AM   #8  
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You've already gotten lots of helpful advice, but I really have to chime in and emphasize that the on a diet/off a diet mentality will *really* hold you back in the long run. If you want any weight you lose to *stay off* it really has to be a lifestyle change.

Try to work up to eating less processed foods. You'll feel so much better! Eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins will give you so much more energy.
Keep a food journal so you can really see what you're eating each day, and if you're getting enough of the nutrients you need. Whatever plan you follow, it all comes down to calories in vs. calories out in the end.

For exercise, try and find something that you actually enjoy. If you dread walking, how about skating? or swimming? bicycling? tennis? dancing? Look for exercise classes you might enjoy. If you're really just an exercise hater... keep with it. Eventually you will come to crave it. Your day won't feel complete until you've gotten your heart rate up.

Try to be patient with the scale. Keep your focus on your long term health, and the weight will eventually take care of itself.
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Old 05-24-2005, 01:59 PM   #9  
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I have just sent you a PM
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Old 05-24-2005, 02:05 PM   #10  
No pain, No gain...darn.
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Thank ya'll so much for posting to help me. I really appreciate everyone's advice.

Almostheaven...thanks for reminding me to measure! I have a goal chart on my front door that I update each week with my weight and measurements. This week, I completely forgot to measure. I went and measured just now and I've lost 2 inches (1" in my waist and 1" in my hips)! These are the two areas I need to lose most, so THERE IS HOPE!! Now, I feel like all that work last week really did pay off.

Jillybean...thanks for bringing me back down to real life on exercising expectations. I'm so not ready for 60-90 minutes of exercise at one time yet. Just thinking about that makes me want to go to bed and not get up. Yesterday, I turned on the Leslie Sansone 2 mile video and I could only do 1 mile. I'm trying to build my stamina right now and just the thought of 60-90 minutes of exercise at one time makes me sick. Oprah had a lady on her show recently who was a die-hard perfectionist, but her house was a wreck (dog feces on the floor, maggots, mold in the toilet, couldn't sit on couches, couldn't walk on the floor...) The psychologist on the show said that her behavior (or lack thereof) wasn't due to laziness- it was due to perfectionism. Sounds off, doesn't it? Well, I understand this because I'm a perfectionist. And basically, if I can't do it all (and do it right) at one time, I won't do it at all. SO...keeping the mentality that I don't HAVE to do ALL of my exercising (and other things) at one time is a healthy mindset for me.

As far as the shakes go, I do know it's a temporary thing. During the beginning, though, I need them because they fill me up like a meal and they are easy. Otherwise, I'm eatin' Fritos (which I am chewing on right now) and cookie dough. Having them available for a quick mini-meal or snack is what I end up doing. I also find that the Body for Life plan with 6 small meals a day is what my body likes. I get hungry every 2-3 hours. The shakes are also good for that because they're only 100 calories and 0 carbs. When I was doing this before, I would buy the slimfast low carb snack bars (they have one that tastes exactly like a butterfinger) and have one between brkfst and lunch and then another between lunch and dinner. I would like to get into eating more veggies and fruits...which I have actually, but fruit goes bad so quick.

One other thing that helps me is the weight watchers "don't bring it in the house" thing. My mom has struggled with her weight since before I was born, so over the course of my life I've done weight watchers without even knowing it- and who knows how many times!?! When I was growing up, she would not buy junk food or anything that would be tempting for her. So I've kinda applied that to my life as well.

The bottom line is that I need to discipline myself and I came to this site for support because discipline is so hard. Like I said before, I really appreciate everyone's input. I need it! Encouragement is important to have daily. I hope I can be support to others here too.
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Old 05-24-2005, 02:26 PM   #11  
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There is nothing wrong with the shakes as a snack, and eating every 3 to 4 hours is crucial, I think, not only to metabolism but blood sugar levels, satisfaction, and many other things. It just sounded like you were using the shakes as meals rather than eating much real food.
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Old 05-24-2005, 03:17 PM   #12  
No pain, No gain...darn.
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I am using the shakes for meals right now, but I am snacking between too. I'll gradually increase my intake of food once I've been doing this for a couple weeks. I guess you could say I'm doing Atkins again, because I'm counting carbs...and I'm counting calories too. That's how I did it before- I just didn't stick with it after the wedding.
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Old 05-24-2005, 03:45 PM   #13  
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I'm kind of following the same plan as you are. I own a couple of Leslie Sansone's videos and DVDs, and I must say, I hated them at first... and now they're the highlight of my day!

Just two weeks ago, I could hardly make it through one mile or either The Power Walking System OR the Walk Away the Pounds... but now, I do 4 to 5 miles of the videos a DAY! It's amazing how quickly your body will adapt!

Also, I was on a "shake diet" for a while too. I did the Slim Fast meal system for about two months... and, while I didn't enjoy having nasty shakes for every daytime meal, it did teach me how much I SHOULD be eating. Also, if you look at a lot of those shakes, they have a pretty high cholesterol count (in my opinion... but I'm obsessed with avoiding cholesterol). Also, those "snack" items that most plans include are just as bad as eating a regular candy bar! No thanks!

Anyways, to get to my point: You might not see a lot of change at first (I only lost a pound in two weeks! Inches are another story though!)... but give it another month or so! Either way, just look at your body... I assure you that you'll see firmer legs and arms!

Good luck!
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Old 05-26-2005, 12:58 PM   #14  
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When I started out I had a real time/planning problem as well. I was often not home and did not have time or place to cook. Dinner was always my main problem because I was going from work to evening classes. I was often eating in my car because of a time crunch. I used the shakes and found them to be very helpful (Shake for dinner instead of vending machine is a good idea).

Here is something that worked for me and may work for you as well. I didn't want to be on a "Slimfast Diet" or whatever because I felt long term this would not work. I began planning my meals at the beginning of the week so I had time to get groceries. My "planning" was very informal. Mostly me standing in the grocery store thinking what can I buy for the week that I can grab and eat, that is healthy too? I tried to buy fruit and veggies, but limited them to one or two dinners that way there wouldn't be too many and spoil. (To get the rest of veggies I worked them in at breakfast and lunch.) Then when all else failed used the shakes as "back up". Fruit went bad, forgot to make a sandwich earlier, no time for groceries, etc.

I found there were weeks where I had shake every night for dinner, and weeks I didn't even have one. Bascially the shake became my back up instead of the plan. Maybe you could try something like this? Or start replacing one shake a week with a meal, before you know it you don't need them.

Also I agree with jillybean about the excercise. Better some than none! 60-90 min sounds overwhelming and if you jump right in to trying to do that much can be discouraging. Better to start slow and still be at it 3 mo from now then burn out in a couple weeks. I saw the Oprah plan, which started the first week with 30 min cardio/weight sessions and added 2 min to each session per week. At the end of 3 mo you are almost at an hour. Sounded like a good way to build up.

Maybe instead of the dreaded second mile, stop. Mix it up with something fun, dancing around the living room, whatever. Or try lifting some light weights, great for taking off inches and making it look like you weigh less. Even if you only buy some simple handwieghts they make a good start.

Whew! That ended up being a long post. Keep up the good work.
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Old 05-31-2005, 11:28 AM   #15  
No pain, No gain...darn.
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Yeh-I haven't been doing the shakes as much lately. I bought some good fruits and veggies last week and I've been trying to snack on those. If I want something that's junk, I have it- but I just have enough to satisfy my craving and that's it.
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