Well, here it is, a brand new year and even a brand new decade. Anyone out there making resolutions about fitness or health this year? Don’t mock; last year I was one of those New Year’s resolutionists, and compared to Jan 1. 2009, today I am 28 pounds lighter. Additionally I can run 4-6 miles at a time and am in training for a spring half-marathon.
So thpppppt to people who pooh-pooh the “New Year’s resolution” crowd! Bring them on, I say!
Anyway, my news for this week is that I measured myself with a tape measure for a sewing project I’m considering, and discovered to my great surprise that although the scale has only changed by a few pounds over the last two months, I’ve lost 2 inches off my waist and and another 2 from my hips. That’s a total of 7" from my waist and 6" from my hips since this time last year. (Incidentally my calf measurement hasn’t changed in all that time, probably because of running.)
No resolutions, other than to keep on keeping on. I wasn’t a resolutioner, having started this in June: but I think it was better that way. I am notorious for not keeping resolutions. This was, and continues to be, a life-changing experience.
I’ll find out Monday about how many inches I’ve lost, but I am down 43 pounds from my starting weight. The application has been sent in for the Arrow Meltdown: I’m walking a mile and a half every day, with strength training on M-W-F. I started out with 3 pound dumbbells, and I’m up to 8 pounds now. I can’t go a day without exercise. My seat belt in the car fits better. The clothes I’m wearing are smaller. At work, I was the one who needed motivation: now I am the motivator.
Damn. I’m crying.
My family, all you guys, SparkPeople, and my co-workers have been the motivation I need to do this. Finding SparkPeople changed my life. I can’t thank you enough for that, because I joined after reading you and Ivylass rave about it.
Slow and steady is the way to do it. The weight didn’t come on overnight. And think of it this way: you only have 64 pounds left out of your original 80! You can do it!
I lost 40 lbs in 2009 and went from a couch potato to running a half marathon. This year I want to lose 20 more lbs, which will put me at ideal weight, and run a full marathon!
I was doing fantastic until I started grad school in September, and I gained 5-7 pounds over the last semester. I could see it in the mirror/fit of my clothes before I actually confirmed it on the scale. I just got into that stress —> eat -----> pass out on couch ------> stress cycle. When you’re constantly running around trying to make deadlines it’s hard to just scream, ‘‘STOP!’’ and take a look around.
Well, I’m breaking the cycle, because I’m not about to gain back the 50 pounds I lost. I cherished that healthy person I was just 6 months ago, and I’m determined to get her back. I’ve cleaned house, thrown out the soda and am back to water and whole foods. I’ve also scheduled daily exercise. It’s going to be a challenge, but I feel that my happiness this year will be dependent on it. I was not happy at all last semester. Something’s gotta give, you know? Might as well be me.
I’m going to get on the weight loss bandwagon right from the start this year.
I am 29 (for 12 more days), 5’2" and I weigh 218 pounds. I actually started my losing a bit early. I was 220 last week. I have 3 more pounds to go!
My boyfriend’s father (who has lost 30 or so pounds after a faux heart attack scare earlier this year) told me to not think about losing 90 pounds. He told me I need to lose 5 pounds, and only five pounds. He has been using that mentality and he said it made things much easier for him.
I am leaving for Disney on January 11. The last time we went (in 2004) I was about 180 pounds and I was miserable in the early September Florida heat. I promised myself that the next trip would be much different. Obviously I didn’t live up to that.
So, I turn 30 on the 13th and my gift to myself is going to be dedication to taking care of my body.
After we get back from Florida, my boyfriend and I will finally be getting a dog. Since I’m home all day, I will be the primary walker and play companion. I am very much looking forward to it. I have a big motivation problem but knowing that a cute doggie is relying on me for her exercise will help get my lazy butt out of the house.
I eat healthy food. So, as far as food is concerned, my goal is to get control of my binging habits. I also want to cut out junk food and soda. I love water and I don’t particularly like soda but I still go for soda. I need to drink more water.
I love my juicer. I just need to get better at using consistently.
So, that is my intro to all you 2009 losers. I hope that in 2011, I’ll be with you in talking about how much I’ve lost.
congodwarf, I will put in a plug for SparkPeople. I joined up last year in January and throughout the year it really helped me stay on track and continue with my weight loss/fitness efforts. It’s totally free, and has a food tracker, exercise tracker, recommendations, community support, articles, etc. There’s a lot of good stuff there. I highly recommend it to anyone trying to make a serious diet/fitness lifestyle change.
newcrasher, there is an outside chance that if I do well in the half-marathon in May, I’ll start training for a full marathon in October. I haven’t decided yet if this is too ambitious or not. I really, really, really, really want to run a marathon but I want to wait and do it right and not injure myself. So we’ll see.
Juliana, I am so thrilled that you are having so much success! Feeling better and less tired was one of my first signs that the fitness and diet thing was paying off for me. I just love it. I’m still not totally used to it, actually. I don’t really think of myself as a fit person just because, well, I never was one before, but then I’m like, you know, I can run 5 miles, that probably counts as “fit.”
olives, I always feel better and less depressed when I’m getting regular exercise. I say that running is my Zoloft, which sounds dismissive and jokey, but actually I’m really not kidding. Regular running has a similar effect on my mood as antidepressants used to.
Yeah, me too. And let me not mince words – I was MISERABLE last semester. There was a point I wasn’t even sure I was going to survive to Christmas. And I will do everything it takes to not go through that again, including get my lazy bum off the couch and exercise.
I’m always so surprised at what a difference it makes – not just with my mood, but my energy and even my libido. It even makes me crave healthier food… I never rely on exercise for weight loss, but it is indispensable for a slew of other reasons.
(So far I’m on day 3 of my ‘‘Exercise every day’’ streak – even went for a bonus walk in the freezing cold today, and enjoyed it!)
MsWhatsit If you want to, you can certainly run the 1/2 marathon in May, wth 5 months of activity behind you. You will need to start training very soon to do it right. Googl 1/2 marathon training programs and you will see that you should get started in about 4 weeks from now.
After you finish the hal you will want to rest and recouperate for a few weeks. I am not sure you will be ready to tackle a full mrathon in October. That will be upushing it to train properly. You are right to say you want to do it right and not hurt yourself. I was not completely ready for the half marathon. I pushed it a bit toofar, and on top of that I sprinted the last .10 mile and hurt my knee. I start running in training for a 1/2 in March tomorrow, and hope the knee holds up.
Yeah, I actually have already started my training program. I took a 12-week program and stretched it out to more like a 19-week program, just to give myself extra time to build up the miles. Thanks for the advice, though! I take all I can get.
Here I am again. December has been troublesome for me - too many temptations, a couple or three too many big dinners, and I’m back up to 214 lb with even the 34"-waist jeans only marginally wearable. Still, I did it before and I can do it again.
An early priority for me is to schedule a daily walk when I get in from school, instead of retiring to my lair. I can get that finished before teatime. Also kiss the peanuts goodbye, they’re my besetting sin but I have noticed the old “eating when not hungry or especially enjoying it” thing setting in so they shouldn’t be that much of a sacrifice. And it’s back to weighing and measuring breakfast portions and so on.
Once more unto the breach… being somewhere close to 185 by the end of May would be nice.
I lost ten pounds last year, and held that for a while, then lost another ten and that’s still off. This year I’m aiming for more. I’m happy that I haven’t put back what I lost, but I still have a long way to go.
No New Year’s resolutions here, just a constant mantra and reminder. I make my own happiness. No one can take from me what I don’t give them. Dealing with those other things that are not specifically about my weight will help with my weight, because stress-eating is NOT my friend.
I’m using an onling calorie tracker too (I use FitDay; it is a very good idea to track what you eat and how much you exercise each day, as well as regular weigh-ins. For me, the big change has been accountability - instead of kinda sorta having an idea what I ate and what I weighed, now I KNOW (and I was wrong before, anyway - it’s easy to be optimistic when you don’t actually know). I’m aiming for slow, gradual weight loss, too; at 43, I have zero interest in having to do this again after this time - I’m looking for sustainability this time. Calorie counting online is pretty easy, too.
15 and a half pounds down! I don’t measure myself, but I notice that my clothes are fitting differently (my butt and legs are getting smaller from all the biking and walking - my stomach is having less shrinking).
I’ve lost 55 pounds since April 7 (Weight Watchers works!). I didn’t even try to stay strictly on the program over the holidays, but neither did I binge or pig out. It was just too hard to keep track of so many things that I had no idea what was in them. Also, my work schedule was crazy and I wrecked my back a little bit shoveling snow, so I haven’t been on my elliptical in a few weeks.
And I refuse to beat myself up for that. I may have gained a pound or two over the last few weeks, I know exactly why, and now I’ll climb back on the wagon. Holidays are crazy, and IMHO you’d have to be superhuman to be “perfect” all the way through.
Besides, I still got plenty of compliments on looking so thin from people who hadn’t seen me for a while. So I’ve got lots of fresh motivation to lose that last 20 pounds. (I have only 5 pounds to go to get into the “normal” range of the BMI charts, so technically I’m only 5 pounds overweight! )
I use the Wii fit for my weigh ins. I am going in to the living room right now for my first one of the year. I weighes just before Christmas and it was 178. I will be ok with a gain of few pounds.
I got to my target weight at Slimming World just before Christmas, and after two weeks off the plan completely, I think I’ve only gained a couple of pounds so I’ll be happy with that. We spent part of the holiday slobbing around at home, and part of it visiting family so it will be good to get back to the more normal routines and start on the weight loss/maintenance programme again.
I had pulled off quite a bit of weight in 2003-2004, was even down to within 15 or so pounds of my Weight Watchers target. Then I fell off the wagon, prompted among other things by a death in the family, and a lot of stress due to that, plus starting a new medication that sometimes has weight gain as a side effect.
Gained it all back plus 10 pounds.
Then my gallbladder acted up last month, and I had a high blood sugar reading. The gallbladder is of course forcing me to go on a very low-fat diet, so I’m losing weight as a result and the blood sugar too. Hopefully if I pull off enough, the blood sugar will be controllable via diet.
Sparkpeople is looking to be very helpful with all of this. I might rejoin Weight Watchers as well though I haven’t found time to get to a meeting.
Of course, I keep fantasizing about all the high-fat meals I’ll want to eat once I can, so perhaps it’s best if the gallbladder doc can’t schedule me too soon!!
Haven’t weighed in in about a week - well, I check on the bathroom scale but that’s not too accurate. I see the doc Friday so I can compare that reading with what I got last time there.
Last night at Fat Club I’d gained a pound and a half, which puts me 1lb above my target weight which is fine because you remain at “target” provided you stay within 3lbs of your specified target weight (mine is 140lbs).
I’m back on the plan now, and looking forward to cooking sensible meals and not living off margaritas and champagne!
I went to my first WeightWatchers meeting last night, started counting points today. I know it’s not the points that are going to make anything happen, but for now it’s a good way to get a handle on how much I eat and portion sizes. And writing it all down with a commitment each week at meeting is helping me focus on this.
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