Remember to be kind to yourself,** slalexan**. It’s good that you’ve got a grip on what’s realistic and what isn’t. And, considering what your weight range seems to be I’d say you could run a 5K this summer if you wanted to. I’m guessing I’ve still got about 100 pounds on you and I am fit enough to be participating in one next weekend. So if you have the time, I’m sure you could train for one now. Either way, whenever you do it, that’s a great goal to have!
This is a double post if you read the MMP. Sorry about that but I was so excited to see that I’ve lost 90 pounds as of today!
I actually just found a Color Run in Grand Rapids in August. I didn’t realize they were this expensive but I think I want to do it. I am a little sad that I will probably be doing it alone because my friends are running in one this June that has already filled up.
Also, are carrots too weird for breakfast? I just really love carrots and they make my jaw tired so I eat less.
That’s awesome. There’s a Color Run here this month but it’s on a Saturday and I have class or else I’d be there. There is, however, a 5K at my school that same day that starts at 9 and my class starts at 10:45 so i’m going to do that one. No one will want to sit next to me in class when I get there, though.
I don’t think carrots are weird for breakfast. Although, this is the opinion of someone who eats honey wheat pretzels and string cheese for breakfast every single day for the last 8 months or so.
I have a dilemma. In the past, when I want to lose weight, I tend to go at it full bore. I would go from being totally out of shape to lifting and pushing myself to the point of exhaustion immediately. It’s the mentality I tend to attack it with - if I’m not giving it everything I can, it’s not worth doing. But after doing it extremely successfully once, I ended up having 3 aborted attempts later when I ended up giving myself a pretty major injury a month or two into the process. By the time I’d healed up (well, somewhat - my rotator cuff tear never really healed), I lost interest.
So this time around I decided I’d take it easier, not go at it full bore. I’d start with at least 6 weeks of swimming and some supporting exercises. I figure swimming is a good way to whip my whole body into shape with a low injury risk. I want to try to rebuild a basic level of fitness - strengthen my muscles, tendons, ligaments, heart, circulation, etc. before I really get into anything too heavy.
But I’m finding I feel best and feel like I’m getting results if I swim like it’s a resistance/strength training exercise rather than a lighter cardiovascular one. I really pushed it tonight - went for 2 hours straight - and considering my level of fitness that’s pretty great. And I feel better - I feel more like I’d feel after a lifting routine than after riding a bike or whatever.
But I need a full recovery day after every swim doing it like this - occasionally 2 if I pull a muscle. I wonder if I should instead be doing a lighter load, maybe an hour, but go every day. I’m not sure which will get me to my goal quicker. It seems like pushing your muscles to the point of exhaustion is the best way to build them, and quite frankly cardio/aerobic-centric exercise is pretty ineffective at weight loss or building muscle or pretty much doing anything good except cardiovascular health.
On the other hand, it seems like my injury risk is raised, and I’m not sure exactly how one strengthens the supporting tissues - ligaments, tendons, and such to best minimize injury. I’m not sure if a heavier workout with a recovery day is more efficient, or every day light(er) workouts.
My doctor recommended swimming at a good exercise for beginners when she first told me to start losing weight. She told me to go 30 minutes at a time to start and to build up from there. She is a big fan of swimming because it is low impact. She also said that just swimming wouldn’t get me there. She told me to add some resistance training as well for bone strength. I think exercise and health is one of those things where isn’t any one thing that will solve everything.
My husband and I went crazy at the grocery store yesterday and I don’t think I have ever had this much produce in my apartment in my life. Its a shame, really, because the Meijer near our apartment and a fantastic produce section with lots of variety. My husband made a chicken and tofu soup last night that was packed full of vegetables and tasted really good though it was done at like 9 last night when I wanted to go to sleep. We will have it for dinner tonight.
We did all the shopping because today I start trying to keep to my points. I have a whole 45 points in a day which shouldn’t be hard to keep to. I made a 9 point breakfast today with whole grain frozen waffles, a tablespoon of Nutella, watermelon and light chocolate soy milk. I was really surprised how full my plate was when I got done and it only took me a little bit to do.
The whole thing is starting to feel very real and I finally feel empowered to make a change. Today feels good.
So I fell off the horse. I’ve brushed myself off, gathered the reins and got back on. I’m tracking everything I eat and weighing myself every morning. It feels good to be back!
I’d love to hear some quick and easy dinner ideas from any other low-carbers, I think part of my problem was that I got stuck in a meal rut. I’ve got breakfasts and lunches sorted, but I’m usually pretty tired by the time I get home and I don’t like spending a lot of time preparing food.
The thing I eat most are just sandwich wraps. You can find a good low carb tortilla. I think Mama Lupe’s taste the best but they’re kinda small. But other brands are fine. I eat some brand called el banditoria or something from my grocery store… I’ve yet to have a bad tasting low carb tortilla actually.
Anyway, pretty much just normal sandwich stuff. Some lunchmeat (I usually use ham or turkey), cheese (sliced provolone), mayo, mustard, onions, lettuce, pickles, I usually like to put some sort of dressing on it like a thick Italian dressing or sugar free BBQ sauce (Guy’s award winning bbq sauce available on netrition is by far the best I’ve seen, love that stuff). Anyway just takes like 2 minutes to whip them up and they’re actually pretty good and healthy.
I’ve given up on Weight Watchers. Counting points makes me paranoid and unhappy. I’m now back to eating from their old Core program list, and I’ve dropped two pounds of bloat in two days. I’m going to keep doing this, letting myself get properly hungry between meals, and see what happens.
Thanks for that - my initial reaction was ‘but that sounds like lunch’, but in actual fact, lunch is a salad for me. So a wrap would be quite a tasty quick dinner. I shall see if I can get low carb tortillas in the UK.
Beef what is keeping you from the weight room? I know you can’t do full-bore manly heavy weights from when you are 18 but you need to get yourself right and just DO something. Start low and slow with the weights.
What’s going to get you to your goal fastest is 1) Whatever you can stick with and 2) Whatever doesn’t injure you. Sounds like you’re on a path to swimming burn out and swimming injury. Get out of the pool 2 or 3 days a week and lift. It will add years to your interest in swimming, since you won’t be swimming every day.
sandra if you have time on the weekend to make this, this is an amazing meatloaf (substitute soy sauce for coconut aminos. Coconut aminios is soy sauce for people who don’t eat soy). It makes a metric ton of meatloaf so you could eat it for a long time depending on how much you freeze. You could make mashed cauliflower to go with it.
I also keep cut up strawberries covered in Splenda in my fridge. When I am on the go I will have a cup of greek yogurt, strawberries and flax meal.
A crustless quiche is a good meal that will keep for days. Plus it’s got veggies built in! (if you put spinach in it)
I make revolution rolls and use them for club sandwiches (turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato). Could also use them with bacon and eggs, hamburgers, tuna or chicken salad, even peanut butter and cream cheese with some mashed berries.
I do protein main course + bagged salad for most of my suppers, and try and make that main course a slow cooker freezer meal I do on the weekend.
So I’ll have chili + salad, stew + salad, chicken breast + salad…tonight I’m going to try my new freezer meal I made yesterday, I cubed up some chicken and threw it in the slow cooker with diced, herbed tomatoes and lentils. I’m trying to figure out how to integrate lentils and chickpeas, throwing them in with stuff I already know seems the best.
Hey all! I’m once again trying to rein in the calories and get my exercise back up to a near-daily event. I’ve failed at this more times than I can count, but I figure there’s no point in just giving up - at least if I try, there’s *some *chance I’ll achieve some changes!
I’m trying to count calories, because when I try to “just eat less” or “just eat more healthy foods” or whatever, I still just eat too damn much. I think the only hope is really tracking how much energy is going in. The problem is that this is really hard work, and also makes me obsess about food, which is kind of the last thing I need. But at least this time around, I’m trying to count without being perfectionist.
For instance, I mixed up some goat cheese with nonfat Greek yogurt to make a spreadable sandwich base. Old-me would think, “OK, I have to calculate exactly what percentage of this is cheese, what’s yogurt, and how much of the mixture I had, then do the math to figure out the exact calories.” My new approach is to punch in “1 oz 1/3-less-fat cream cheese” and get on with my life. I’m constantly reminding myself that tracking and trying to stay in my limits will probably mean fewer calories per day even when I “fail.” Because when not tracking I probably miss by 1,000 calories, and when tracking I might miss by 300 or less.
My other big thing is to keep coming back to it, even after I sloth out and skip a day or two. That’s really, really hard for me. With my temperament, I could do great if I had to totally fast for a week every month, and eat whatever the rest of the time. I’m very all-or-nothing and I suck at long term moderation.
Week 3 (4?) of The Fast Diet. Today is a fast day and it’s going very well. Oatmeal for brunch, very filling. Dinner tonight is chicken with olives and oodles of broccoli. I find hot tea in the afternoon helps a lot with snack urges. Cold drinks less so.
This past Thursday was a fast-failure! I woke up hungry and couldn’t shake it, so I decided to abandon that day’s fast, and have just one fast day that week. I ate more than I should have for lunch, because I didn’t pack a lunch, intending it to be a fast day. The chicken quesadilla in the dining hall is really good, so I surrendered to its siren call.
I’m employing the WW “no guilt - tomorrow is another day” philosophy here. I refuse to beat myself up over not going low-cal last Thursday. I’ve taken almost 2 pounds off so far. Not the 1-pound-a-week I hope for, but slow and steady wins the race, right? At this rate, I’ll finish losing the 40-ish pounds sometime in 2014.
I think it’s silly to tie food to specific times of day. Eat whatever you want. If you want something easy, it’s great, and if you want it to be big enough for dinner just make two and use lots of meat and cheese.
Weightlifting comes with a higher risk of injury. You strain the supporting tissues way more. Last time I was doing a serious lifting routine I tore my rotator cuff and it never quite healed, it’s been a hassle ever since.
I’m going to get there eventually, but I committed to at least 6 weeks of swimming first because it’s an effective way to increase basic conditioning everywhere. At the end of 6+ weeks of swimming I’ll be in much better shape to try to start weights without getting hurt, hopefully.
I’m just wondering if the best way to spend those 6 weeks is a lighter workout every day or a heavier workout every other day.
I should add that the shoulder is a real problem and swimming seems to be helping to rehab it. I was able to modify some strokes so that they didn’t hurt my rotator cuff as much, whereas you can’t really modify weightlifting easily and maintain good form, so I’d probably just have to skip a lot of upper body lifts entirely.
I would guess heavier every other day would give you better results for goals. The heavy workout will stress your body, causing it to adapt and get stronger. A light workout may not really cause your body to adapt too much, although you’ll lose weight. I think you’re looking more for the body changes necessary for weightlifting, and that will come from the harder workout.
WW now calls this “Simply Filling.” They have a list of Power Foods (used to be the core foods) but the principle is still the same. Eat as much as you need from the PF list and use your 49 extra points for fill-ins. I do believe Simply Filling works best for me because it’s plain food with no extras or breading or toppings, etc.
I know you say you’re not trying to be negative but it kind of reads that way. Most people can do all the things she suggests and never reach that goal—unlike me, who looks like that without even trying!. Maybe I’m just in a crap mood today, but that’s how it struck me.
