Cool, Thanks.
I’ve been looking into fitness equipment lately, and rowing machines are actually pretty economical. Most treadmills have a motor, so I find they’re usually more expensive than a rower (unless you get a manual treadmill).
Well folks, after 15 months, lots of running, better eating and a half marathon I have lost 50 pounds. I have more energy, feel great and it has contributed positively to the beginning of my teaching career. At 170 I am technically no longer overweight for my height. I’m going to exit the weight loss club as a success story and continue to run and keep fit as best I can in this busy profession!
Good luck to all of you and look forward to seeing you on the skinny side!
Quasi, many congratulations and best of luck to you! Check in once in a while to keep us updated!
This morning it was chilly for the first time this season. Too cold to walk the dog in shorts. I grabbed a pair of jeans I had not worn since April or so…TOO BAGGY!!
They were falling off of me and a belt just made them gap and wrinkle up around the waste! WOOOOHHOOOOOOO!!! 
I really liked using the rower at the gym, but I have friends on crew and was afraid to do too much of it, lest I end up with man-shoulders 
Well, I’m very frustrated at this point.
Since I first posted in this thread (Feb I think), I am now up about ten-ish pounds to 203.
On the plus side (heh), I have been going to the gym, if not super regularly, at least enough to notice the effects of having a bit more cardiovascular endurance (I probably average 1.5 visits to the gym a week). So, I at least feel ok about that.
I felt like I was making better food choices, but aparently not. I think a huge part of the problem is that if I have large quantities available to me, I tend to eat them, while I would also be fine eating a smaller portion if that’s all there was.
But yeah, up ten pounds, and I’m down to three pair of pants that I can wear comfortably, and many of my shirts are starting to feel a little tight. sigh
There’s a part of me that just wants to give up, go out and buy a new wardrobe and forget about this, so I can stop feeling frustrated about not being successful with loosing weight.
Well, I weighed myself for the first time last night (it was a week), and it’s hard to tell on my analog scale but it looks like I’m down 5 pounds! Water weight, I know, but still kinda exciting.
Eonwe, you can do this! Maybe someone with portion control tips will pop in and give you some pointers.
newscrasher, Yay!!!
In other news, I saw my doctor yesterday and got official numbers. I’m down another 14lbs. in the past four weeks, for a total of 71lbs. I’d like to lose about another 80.
Qasimodal That’s excellent! Thanks for sharing your success. Feel free to pop in from time to time and give us updates.
Last week I increased my walking schedule so I walked every day last week and every day so far this week (except this morning). Previously I had been walking an average of 3 mornings a week.
I’ve lost weight but I’ve also developed a low level ache in my right knee (and a blister on my toe). Now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t look into some kind of low impact alternative to walking/jogging. And possibly new shoes.
Or maybe I should stop trying to jog until I’m a bit lighter. Most days I’ll alternate jogging and running.
Whatdya think?
I haven’t read all the posts in this thread (tl;dr), however I can advice everybody to look into herbalife. Its basically a shake that replaces your meal, its very healthy and if used properly can make you lose weight. The biggest thing is though that its a shake of about 250 ml (not a lot) but keeps me from getting hungry for the entire morning. It has al the nutrients you need, and its easy to follow. I was quite sceptical at first as well, considering I was healthy at the time and considered herbalife redundant. Before I started with herbalife I had a lot of problems with astma and ‘hooikoorts’ (I don’t know the english translation) this all but disappeared now. And I feel more healthy and energetic in general after using the products for some time. I am not overweight myself (I am actually considered underweight) but I heard a lot of great stories from people I know personally.
Look it up, and if you got any questions just ask. My parents are distributors of herbalife and its really as great as they say.
Wow, its working great so far for you. Congrats indeed.
Eonwe, keep at it, increase the amount of fresh Veggies. Find one you like and make it a major snack. Fill up of no fat, low cal stuff like plain, air popped popcorn. Remember most pretzels are low to no fat and low calorie. Find the ones that are. Carrots work great for me. I even enjoy the Caramel Rice cakes. Are you an Ice cream eater, if so, try low cal Ice Pops and Fudge Pops. I often have 2 or 3 ice pops a day. They are only 15 calories each and the Fudge Pops are 60. Neither have fat.
Well, I thought this would be a bad week for me at it was. After making my goal of under 200, I am back up to 202 and flying to Chicago early tomorrow. So next week will probably be bad again. 
Oh well, I will get back on course in 2 weeks.
Jim
And again, my weight loss has slowed to the point where it’s now predicting 178 by Christmas. I’m so friggin’ tired of being a slow loser. Still, 185.5 this morning, which is only a pound from my lowest weight as an adult EVER. I hit 184.5 for about twenty minutes on May 25/06, then the move and my month-long trip home came and I gained about five pounds.
I’ve found a new class at the Y which I really enjoy, called 'Y Body Sculpt". It’s weight training using the body bar and dumbbells, along with some floor work (crunches of DOOM) and a little aerobic/cardio dance. As it’s been many, many years since I lifted a weight that wasn’t wearing a diaper, I’m still aching from the Wednesday morning class. Next class is in less than an hour 
Keep it up!
Don’t give up yet. Jim’s suggestions are good ones–the first steps I took were finding low-calorie, high-bulk snacks that I really enjoyed, and to work on portion sizes.
One trick I used at first was to snack on (SmartPop) popcorn and baby carrots to fill up, then eat small portions of whatever meal I’d made–paying a lot of attention to every bite, savoring and chewing and really enjoying it. Takes longer to eat this way so your stomach catches up with your brain. I also paid a lot of attention to my belly and whether or not I felt full or satisfied, and quit eating then.
As I’ve lost weight and adjusted to “normal” portion sizes, I find I get satisfied on much, much less food than before, and that the feeling of “full” or “stuffed” is not a pleasant one, anymore.
Good luck, we’ll be here for support when you’re ready
I struggle with the addiction to the “full” sensation. I would love for each meal to end with my stuffed and dreamily contemplating a nap.
This is not helped by the fact that most food is now served in gigantenormo portions. I believe that portion control is key to my weight loss, and weight watchers is a fantastic program, for me, to control how much food I am consuming.
newcrasher Thank you for putting into words what I’ve struggled to describe all these years. “Addicted to that full feeling” that’s exactly it.
I tend to eat very fast also. Dinner at my place may take 2 hours to cook but only about 10 minutes to consume.
My understanding is that it takes the body at least 20-30 minutes to get that full feeling so eating a lot in a little time will deprive one of the full feeling and send me back for second helpings.
In addition to learning to live with just a little less than “full” I need to learn to eat more slowly and really taste my food.
One thing I had to address was emotional issues. I had been using food as an anesthetic all of my life. Have you thought about why you enjoy that full feeling? It may be time to start chasing some old demons.
For running, the #1 most important thing is to have good running shoes…and I mean GOOD running shoes. Your feet will take a huge pounding unless you have good ones. Go to a real running store like the running room (not sportchek or sportmart) They will properly assess your feet and give you a good pair.
Whats your weight? I began running at 220 pounds, which was 50 overweight for me. With good shoes I was okay…but I had to build up the mileage over time.
[QUOTE=Quasimodal]
For running, the #1 most important thing is to have good running shoes…and I mean GOOD running shoes. Your feet will take a huge pounding unless you have good ones. Go to a real running store like the running room (not sportchek or sportmart) They will properly assess your feet and give you a good pair.
Whats your weight? I began running at 220 pounds, which was 50 overweight for me. With good shoes I was okay…but I had to build up the mileage over time.[/QUOTE
I have been running for about 4 months and I am up to 4.5 miles, which takes me about an hour. I am slowly building up the mileage.
But I am bored.
Frikkin’ bored.