Fall SDMB Weight Loss Thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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We didn’t have one of these for October, so I thought I’d just call this one the “Fall” thread and it can be for Oct/Nov combined. :slight_smile:

How is everyone doing? Newbies, maintainers, people still working on it…the more participation, the better!

I’m still losing very, very slowly, but I’m feeling great. I started out at 210 lb. in June and am at 188.5 as of this morning’s weigh-in. The interesting thing is that based on pants size alone, I think I may actually be the smallest I’ve been as an adult, even though I’m not at my lowest adult weight. I weighed 175 lb. in summer of 2004 after I had my second baby, and was wearing a size 14 in pants at that time. Well, I just went shopping last weekend, and all of the size 14s fit me perfectly. And, the pair that I bought is actually feeling somewhat loose. :eek: This may just be that manufacturers have vanity sized the pants a little more since 2004, but I think actually that running has got me into shape and built muscle so that I’m at a smaller size even though I weigh a bit more. Which is awesome.

I will put in my regular plug for SparkPeople at this time. It’s a totally free (no really, it’s totally free) site that has a nice nutrition and fitness tracker, a lot of community support, a bunch of articles on fitness and nutrition and other health topics, etc. There is an SDMB group on there if anyone joins up. I have found it to be really motivational and helpful for staying on track.

As we move into fall, it’s a lot harder for me to get in outdoor running workouts, but I still do as much as I can outdoors, and then fill in the rest on the indoor track at the gym. Which is boring as crap, and doesn’t provide as good conditioning as trail running does, but it’s not as bad as the treadmill.

I think right now I am as happy with my body as I have ever been. I’m turning into kind of a proselytizer for running, but seriously, I cannot recommend it highly enough. I used the Couch to 5K program to get from being a complete and total couch potato to now where I am running about 8-10 miles per week, and I love it and it feels great and I am in the best shape of my life. Just felt like hopping up on my running soapbox for a minute. :slight_smile:

OK, so, let’s get this thing rolling, guys! Who else is out there?

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I’m out there too. I started to get serious about fitness when I did the couch to 5k. I definitely agree with you, it’s an excellent program. I combine it with some moderate anaerobic weight lifting about three to four times a week. I’ve lost 35 pounds and I’m planning on keeping it up.

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Still down 20 pounds: I don’t weigh in again until first Monday in November. Exercising every day: keep a set of dumbbells at my desk for those boring breaks during calls, like when someone’s placing an order. I even just had a coworker come into my office and tell me he could see a difference and he was proud of me. That’s never happened before.

Exercise is my stress reliever. I get stressed out at my desk: I go hit the treadmill and I feel so much better. I’m so busy, both at work and home: that’s my time to destress and unwind. I love every second of it.

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I’m here. Down nine pounds in (counts) three months (talk about your slow going). On the plus side, I hear the slower it comes off, the likelier you are to keep it off, because you are actually making sustainable lifestyle changes instead of crash dieting. I’m aiming for 50 pounds total, but my real life goals are to try to get rid of some health problems and start wearing normal-sized clothes again. My husband is losing, too - we’re both calorie counting (me online, him on his iTouch), and trying to walk or exercise every day.

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April 7: 220.6 pounds (size 22/24 jeans, 1X/2X tops)
October 20: 179.8 pounds (size 14 jeans, M/L tops)

Thank you Weight Watchers!

I still have ~30 pounds to go, though people are telling me I look fine now. (But if they could see me in the buff, they’d know where those 30 pounds are!) I’m 5’7" and weighed 135 in high school and college; my official WW goal is 150, but I plan to get down to 145 for a margin of safety.

I’ve been walking a few miles a few times a week on and off all summer, but recently I decided to add jogging to the mix. It was a slow granny jog, but this week I managed to jog 0.75 mile straight one day (along my 3.75-mile course, and alternating a few minutes jogging/walking the rest of the way) and 1.25 miles straight another day (again, alternating walk/jog for the rest). It took me 17 minutes to do the 1.25 miles, which I realize is pretty slow, but I figured I’d better get used to the impact before I work on speed. (The morning after that first 0.75-mile jog, I found out exactly which muscles I’d used to do it!)

Hoping to run a 5K in the spring. And I bought an elliptical trainer yesterday (it’ll arrive within 2 weeks). Yay me!

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That’s awesome, Scarlett! I ran a 5K in September, and while my time was nothing to write home about, the experience overall was amazing. I definitely want to do it again. :smiley:

Cat Whisperer, I have heard the same thing, about how the slower it comes off, the more likely it is to stay off. That is what keeps me going during plateau weeks. Well, that and fitting into “skinny” jeans again. :slight_smile: Well, and along similar lines to what Juliana said, hearing compliments from people I know. My mom especially has been telling me lately how amazing I look. Which, I mean, she’s my mom, but still, it feels good to hear that kind of thing.

I am having issues lately with scheduling. We’ve been getting home really late some nights and it’s all too tempting to just make grilled cheese sandwiches or (gack) stop at Mcdonald’s or something. I need to figure out quick yet healthy solutions for quick dinners when necessary. Anyone have good suggestions?

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I weighed today, a few days ahead of schedule. I couldn’t wait any longer. I’m now down 23 pounds! Two more pounds and I hit my first goal. It would be nice to be able to set a new goal on Monday…

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Woooohooo to all us Losers!

I will second Sparkpeople. I’ve kept the 40 pounds off for more than a year now. Go me!

On a side note, I will mention that one of the SparkTeam Team Leaders recently died due to complications from her weight. I saw it on the Leader Message Board. I checked out her page…she was trying to lose 510 pounds. :eek: I’m so sorry she started too late.

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I can’t remember if I posted in one of these before.

Anyway, in March I weighed 201 lbs and a size 16. Now I’m 173lbs and a size 12, but may be veering into the size 10 area soon (fingers crossed!). I don’t have a specific goal weight at the moment – it’s more about getting healthier and fitter.

Like MsWhatsit, I’ve turned into something of a running evangelist after completing Couch-to-5K back in June. As of this month, I’ve run three 5Ks and 1 8K. I was training for a 15K to take place this weekend, but hurt my foot last week and have been off the running since. I’ve gotten up to running 7 miles without stopping – albeit slooooowly (my pace is about 12:10 to 12:30) – but considering that I thought I was going to pass out in the first week of C25K, that’s not too bad! As I give the foot a rest, I’m walking and will probably do some aquajogging or swimming to maintain the cardio, but will be back running as soon as possible. This summer, I dreamed about running in the cool fall weather.

My weight loss has plateaued at the moment, so I’m doing my best to pay attention to my food intake. It’s a tough time of year for that, but my husband helps keep me accountable for both diet and exercise. He’s also a runner, and been doing it for many more years than me, but we can both encourage each other to get out of bed and go for a run in the morning.

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I need to get cracking again. It’s been about a year since my last try, which was a weight loss pool at work. I discovered that I’m very motivated by money. Well, by betting, anyway. In order to not lose the $20 I had put in, I joined Weight Watchers, which we running about $15/month at the time. It wasn’t a bad investment, as I won the pool.

I’ve joined the Spark People, but don’t do much more than passively recieve their emails. Is the SDMB group there active? What all does joining that entail?

Oh, I’ve been bouncing between 260 and 264 lately.

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It’s very easy to join the SDMB SparkTeam, you just have to search for it. It’s small, but we do chat with each other.

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I’m still working on the last ten pounds and just cannot get them to come off. I admit, that, lately, I’ve been so frustrated that I haven’t even been trying, but I’d like to get back on track and try to lose them by Thanksgiving. Good job, everyone else!

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Is Sparkpeople friendly to low-carbers?

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Yeah, Angel of Doubt, you can really make SparkPeople work with pretty much any diet you want. It has recommended meal plans, but I actually have made very little use of that part of the site. It also gives you its own recommended calorie, cabohydrate, etc., intake, but if you don’t like any of its recommendations, you can just reset them with your own. I’m not eating a low-carb diet, exactly, but I do eat a lot fewer carbs than SP officially recommends, so I just reset my personal daily target to 50-150 grams, instead of whatever it was before.

I actually think that while the nutrition and fitness trackers are really helpful, the best part about SP is the community support. The Couch to 5K team on there was motivational while I was still doing C25K, for example.

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Yeah, I never could get that last 20 off. And I gained 10 more this year. I’m still down 90 pounds that I lost a couple of years ago, however, so I tell myself that it ain’t all that bad. As long as I don’t gain any more.

But I finally found something that has helped me get my mind back in the game. Something diabolically simple. I got a bunch of those stars that teachers put on their kids’ papers and I put up to three of them on my calender at the end of each day. Silly as it sounds, wanting to get those stars has really motivated me to stay within my dietary bounds.

I’ve already lost about two pounds in a little over a week and I’m hoping for maybe ten more by the end of November. By the time of our company’s Christmas dinner (which will more likely be around New Year’s) maybe, just maybe I could be down twenty but I’d be happy with fifteen. I’d be at my lowest weight ever as an adult. A couple of years ago I was at 245 or more pounds. As of this morning, I’m at 154.4.

Oh, it would be so nice to wear all those pants that have been languishing in my drawer because they’ve become too tight. And some of my tops too.

Good luck to everyone who’s posted. There sure has been a lot of success with you so far.

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I only seem to flit through this thread occasionally. But today was a big one for me, I’ve lost 71.6 pounds. Yes, it’s taken 2 years, but I’ve done it and I’m still going forward to make it to my goal.

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You are amazing!

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Good for you! Who cares if it took two years? The way I see it, no matter how slow the loss, if you’re losing, you’re going the right way. (But don’t ask my husband how well I take week after week of plateaus when I think I’m doing everything right. :slight_smile: )

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OK, dagnabbit! I just joined Weight Watchers…AGAIN. (And I used to be a WW leader! :smack:)

I joined back in February and was doing pretty well, but it was a Saturday morning meeting, and as summer ramped up, I had too many Saturdays when I was out of town.

So they started an At Work program today, and I re-upped. Fortunately, I hadn’t gained back everything I’d lost back in the spring.

We have fabulous health insurance. They pay 50% of WW right off the bat – no pre-certification needed. You just need to provide proof you actually attended the meetings.

Congrats to all youse guys who are doing so awesomely!!!

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I’m on a medically supervised HMR diet. 20lbs down, more than I care to admit to go.