For those of you that are doing so well, what is working for you? I have hit a bit of a standstill - though a lot of that has to do with my eating habits and lack of planning. Just wondering what you have been doing...
Staci - almost there! keep it up, great work!
Lluvyblu - great work! Keep checking back. You'll get there.
wannabenurse - you're doing amazing. So happy to hear that you are getting so close!
Last edited by Musicangel; 04-12-2011 at 12:44 PM.
Just checking in and letting you all know I am back, but I won't post a weight until this Sunday, probably. Not sure I am brave enough to get on the scale yet. I didn't eat horribly on vacation, but I did enjoy myself too! Giving it a couple days to settle, drink lots of water and get back into a regular eating/exercise routine.
Looks like there is a lot of success happening here! That is good motivation for me. This is always the hardest part for me and where I have always failed in the past, getting back at it after a big event. I am determined it won't happen this time and I have to remember how much hard work it took to lose those 34 pounds and I do not want to have to do it all over again! Musicangel, are you following a particular program? I have been calorie counting and working out 5-6 days/week which was working great until about the last month or so, it really slowed down. I think I was getting a little lax about counting my calories and logging them though so I am hoping to be a little more strict with myself starting now and re-ingnite the fat burning flame so to speak. I also want to put a little more energy into my workouts and see if that helps. I am curious about what everyone else is doing also!
I'm not sure what it is exactly that is helping me. I follow the Weight Watchers plan but have been skimping on my workouts lately. But we have gotten very busy at work so I'm running back and forth from one end of the building to the other almost all night. Lately I have been walking the dog instead of doing my cardio. I don't know if it's just the change in activity at work and switching from cardio to walks but I'm thrilled with the results the last few weeks.
Stepped on the scale for the first time since the beginning of TOM, and found I was exactly at my pre-TOM weight, 244. Guess that's a good thing, since it means I didn't do any gaining in the past several days, but would like to have seen a loss, since I have upped my exercise in the past week. Hopefully if I keep it up, I'll be back on the losing track!
Thanks for the input. I do like to ask questions that incite conversation and interaction...We can't just be all weigh ins all the time...
Welcome back Jomatho - hope you had a great vaca! I have the same problem after going on vacation. Or even after a hangover day. You'll get back on track, we totally believe you can!
slowrunner and anachambers and staci73, so happy that you are making so much progress! Keep it up! Thanks for the input as well staci!
I really need to get back to exercising. It just seems like my weight loss is so up and down when I am exercising. But, when I'm not...it seems like I have more problems with eating right. 192.4 this morning...back to my low weight after another short period of gain. It started with Chinese and a piece of chocolate cake...then a little binging here and there. But, I've been doing well this week. Just need to get interested in exercising again.
You're so right! I don't think I answered you properly before, either. I've seen a steady loss with no plateau since I started at the beginning of March (with the exception of TOM), and there are three things that are working for me:
Weigh every day (except during the inevitable TOM uptick) and enter it into a spreadsheet with a graph so I can always know where I'm at. I know some people don't advise daily weighing because small gains can make you feel bad, but those daily numbers keep me on track and keep me aware of the consequences of my choices. It's also helped me realize that those days when I eat too much don't matter! I'll gain for a day, then be right back on track the day after, and still keep losing.
Eat a huge breakfast every day with lots of added fiber. I'm planning to start the Slow-Carb diet in a few months (from Timothy Ferriss's "The 4-Hour Body"), but for now breakfast consists of a big bowl of high-fiber cereal topped with flax and psyllium husk, yogurt, a banana, coffee, and a big glass of water. I'm stuffed when I'm finished. When I don't have breakfast, or if I just have something small, I stay hungry throughout the day. But on big breakfast days, I usually eat less overall. (Plus [TMI] the fiber does its job!)
Exercise at least 5 times a week and track it just as diligently as I do my weight. I use Nike+ to track minutes/miles, and count any non-walk/jog exercise as uncounted bonus minutes. I've also joined the April Exercise Challenge thread and have joined a few mileage challenges for people of my fitness level on the Nike+ website.
There are a lot of things I don't do, like count calories or deny myself *anything*. I'm a fairly independent person, and I don't like being restricted, even when I'm the one doing the restricting. In the past, I think I always failed because everything was about denying myself things that I wanted, and that just made me want to quit. This time, it's all about adding things - more exercise, more fruit, more veggies, more fiber, more water. If I still have room in my appetite for a piece of pizza or a burger, I'll just have it and not beat myself up over it.
lostangel05, Could it be that your up/down weight when exercising is due to muscle building? Sometimes you'll be losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time, but it doesn't show on the scale. Another thing that could affect it is variation. For me, the longer I do the same exercise, the less effective it becomes. With walking/jogging, that means I change my speed and distance from week to week, but I also try to do some other exercise to mix things up, like strength training twice a week, or using the Wii (my favorites: Wii Tennis and the 10-minute hula hoop game on Wii Fit). Don't give up on exercise - you'll start seeing your results soon enough!
I'm still plugging away on this challenge, though I'm not where I wanted to be by now thanks to TOM (less exercise + more eating!). I have a feeling I won't get to my Cinco de Mayo goal (230) by the time I see my family in May because it's now 3 weeks away, and I'll be spending the last 5 days of those three weeks in San Francisco with (thin!) foodie friends. I'm okay with that, though, since I did set the bar high and will get fairly close to my goal by the time I'm in the Bay Area. When I get there, I'll let myself enjoy the food, and try to get in more exercise by walking around the city while I'm there!
What I've been doing is avoiding having any tempting crap in my apartment. My boyfriend and I eat lunch at the dining hall, so usually I will have a slice of pizza or soup or something. It's amazing how I'm not even tempted by the dessert bar anymore. It helps that nothing there is actually *that* good lol. I don't have a scale at my apartment, so if I want to weigh myself I have to go to the rec center and work out first :P. I think the biggest thing for me, and it's something jomatho mentioned, is getting back on track after a "mess-up" or big event sort of thing. Before when I tried to lose weight, if I messed up I would just say the heck with it and give up entirely. It feels like a weight off my shoulders to realize that ONE bad day can't take away all the weight I've already lost and it can't prevent me from losing more.
Thanks Musicangel, I had a great vacation and I am relieved to say I am below my pre-vacation weight to a new low today!!! I was so worried about finding the balance of having a good time, but not gaining too much weight that I will have to lose again. I worry too much!!! 195.4 this morning gets me closer to my "below 190" goal, not sure if I will make it by May 5th, but I will be close and that will be good enough for me. Oh, and below 190 at my weight is no longer obese . I want to be overweight
Slowrunner, you have a nice plan in place. I hope you see great results in the next 3 weeks, even if you don't meet goal!
Lostangel, I eat much better when I am active too!
Ana, good for you, way to go!!!
Staci, you are on fire! WOW! Don't question it, just keep it up and run with it!
I've been counting calories, and logging everything into my iTouch Lose It! app. I try to keep my meals between 400-500 calories each.
The weather recently because decent enough for me to pick up the C25K program where I left off last December, so I'm going for 25-30 minute runs three times a week. On the days in between I do 45 mins-1 hour of Zumba or some strength training. Saturdays are my rest day, but I do major house cleaning so I count that! Sundays I have bellydance practice for 3+ hours. Sprinkle in lots of daily running around with my toddler!
Unfortunately, the scale hasn't budged at all for the past week. I weigh myself daily, or every other day. I read somewhere that you should weigh daily because if you gain three days in a row it's a sign you need to change something, and you might not catch it if you weigh in only once a week.
. I want to be overweight 
