OK, I weighed last night. :::shamefaced::: 231lbs. I don’t have any specific plan to lose with or a specific goal in mind. Maybe to lose 32 lbs by the end of the year sounds reasonable? The main change I am making (and this is more of an effort to save money) is to bring my lunch to work instead of eating out every day. I’m not necessarily going to be eating typical diet food. Like today I had a ham and cheese sandwich, a clementine, a few baby carrots, and a chewy granola bar. Not unhealthy, but not celery sticks either.
I decided Tuesday night around 7 pm after smoking my last one in the pack that I wasn’t going to buy anymore cigarettes either. We’ll see how long my resolve on that one lasts, but I did OK yesterday, and I’ve been at work all day today with only a couple of instances that I wanted one.
Hi, everyone! I thought I’d pass by and share my experiences.
About two months ago I started exercising much more frequently, while not changing my dietary habits much. To my surprise, I started to lose weight! I’d been stuck at 210 for a year. I have lost 7 pounds in the past six weeks… including over the holidays, which I attribute to having a nasty toothache and headache curing the period of maximum snack availability. I just wasn’t hungry.
A fitness test a year ago said my ideal weight was in the 180 range. I’m now feeling much more hopeful and even excited that I can do this. I’m stronger, too. Much of my exercise has been towards increasing basic strength and endurance from their previous office-worker lows, but now I can start to look at building strength and visible muscle!
I’m 51, and I weighed about 120 in high school (and thought I was fat!). I thought 145-ish would be a realistic weight to attain, but it’s possible my body has other ideas. I’ll keep it up for another couple of months before I give up.
I eat a lot of grilled fish, sashimi, and chicken breast. I also sparingly eat lean steak, lamb chops and canned tuna in olive oil. Salads are sometimes undressed, sometimes dressed with a little simple olive oil and red wine vinegar. Being an ethnic food junkie, I cheat once a week with something usually Asian, like Vietnamese, Indian or Korean food. Even then, I try to not overdo it. 'Taters, white bread, white rice, and white pasta I mostly avoid.
Had my first weigh-in of the new year, and ended up at 200 even. That’s a gain of 0.2 pounds* since 12/20, but I still made my 2007 goal. I’m tentatively considering shooting for a 20 pound loss by June.
And we get eTools now! I’m point-izing my recipes.
Which is damn good, considering that I went through 3 birthdays, 3 Christmases* and a New Year’s in that time period.
Okay - I’m in as well. Last year I put on three and a half stone and currently stand at 13st 6 (189 for you 'mericans). I was intending to join the “lose weight through starvation” lighterlife programme but they wouldn’t accept me because I’ve suffered a bout of mental illness, which sucks a bit. My target weight ideally is to go back to what I was at the start of last year - 10st/140 pounds.
So, instead I’ve decided to go on the slimfast diet (any people who’ve tried that and want to share I’d be interested to hear) and ratchet up the exercise I’m doing. I currently play squash about once or twice a week and usually play badminton once a week as well. I’m planning to start going back to the gym to do cardio work (hell, it’s only a 5 min walk from my flat, I’ve hardly got an excuse for not going) and some classes in the evening. I’m also going to start doing what I used to do and walk everywhere - no more buses for me. That’s quite significant because my commute involves a 20 minute walk from the station to my office so that times 2 a day every day should start to help quite a bit.
I’m toying with the idea of weightwatchers as well - any advice on that? I’m not sure you could do that with the silmfast diet as well, though.
I’m back. I’ve been holding hands with tdn on the plateau but I’m about to jump off. Maybe I’ll pull him off with me
weighing in at around 172.5 which is where I’ve been for about 6 months now. Time to get serious. I’m trying to be a good example for my daughter. Haven’t walked much since I’ve been on vacation and the weather’s been cold here in FL (not that there’s any excuse)
Good luck and I hope we can all be losers this year.
Oh, and whilst using a weight conversion site to get my figures one of the ads that flashed up was this - http://www2.fatloss4idiots.com/1280index2.html . I’ve read a few pages and it stinks to high heaven of bullshit. Apparently if you reduce the calories you eat and increase your exercise you still won’t lose weight. Hmmmm, funny because I’ve done that in the past and it worked fine. No, what I was SUPPOSED to be doing was calorie shifting, you know, that time honoured approach to weight loss. :rolleyes:
Unless you are looking for a temporary fix, I would skip the slimfast and head to weight watchers. There, you will learn how to eat better, and keep the weight off. I’ve used slimfast before with mixed results. It did help me lose some weight, but as soon as I went off of it, the weight came back and more. I am having much more success with weight watchers. I am learning how to make better food choices, and better eating habits.
I would skip the slimfast simply because I think they taste disgusting. YMMV. Hover, you can use the slimfast shakes if you are on WW. If you follow the Flex plan, you get a certain number of Points per day. You’d just figure out how many points are in the shake (I want to say that a can is like 4-5 points, but don’t quote me on that because it isn’t a food I routinely eat) and incorporate that into what you eat for the day.
My recommendation, whether it’s WW or not, is to eat real food, not drink it. I personally get more satisfaction out of chewing my food, so when I drink a shake, I’m not satisfied and tend to look for more food to eat. I don’t even do places like Jamba Juice for that reason. I need solid food, man!
I want to join this year, too. I’m not technically overweight, I’m 5’3", 142 right now, but I look better at 130, so I want to get back to that.
I’m really excited this year, though, because I was surfing the net and came across a mention of Kanten (also called agar, I guess), which is apparently a big diet aid in Japan. I haven’t been able to find many studies on it in English, but I did find this one. I couldn’t find anything saying it didn’t work, so I went to the store to pick some up, because it couldn’t hurt to try. And I lost five pounds in seven days, with one of the days being new years eve! (This is completely unheard of for me–I normally struggle mightily to loose a pound in a week.)
Basically you mix a bit of this stuff (1/2 tsp) with boiling liquid to dissolve it, then flavor it however (I use crystal lite), and either drink it hot or let it cool, at which point it gels. If you eat/drink some before your meals, it makes you feel already full, so you don’t eat much. It’s made from seaweed and has no calories, but lots of fiber and expands in your stomach.
Anyway, I don’t know where you can get some in the States, but I thought some of you might be interested in trying it. I’m really excited–I can barely finish a small plate of food after I’ve taken some, and I feel full for hours.
I leave next week for three weeks in the states, so I’m basically just hoping to drop a couple more lbs this week and then maintain until we get back.
Last day of my first week on Core. Have no hopes that it will be working yet–I’m one of those people for whom it takes a couple of weeks to kick in, I think. I am feeling less ravenously hungry though, even managed to get through some mornings and afternoons comfortably without snacking. Last year when I did this, I was working from home and never going out, so I could use my points “selfishly.” Now I live in a new place and have a new job, and I need to save those points for socializing. Spent nine last night for a movie night–definitely worth it. Slowly doling out more, over the course of the next week, to consume a package of unusual holiday goodies from a friend–definitely worth it.
So psyched that my shinkendo classes are starting again tomorrow. Five points per session! Woohoo!
I need to get serious about losing weight. I went to the doctor Friday to get a persistent cough checked out, and found out that I was up to 283 pounds, which to the best of my knowledge is a new high. I suspected that I had been gaining, but since I don’t have a scale I hadn’t realized how much. As a point of reference, my weight has generally hovered around 250 for the past twenty or so years. After my wife died four years I started putting on weight, then then managed to drop down to 240. Unfortunately, since I retired a little over a year ago I’ve been spending too much time sitting around and grazing.
I don’t have any particular plan yet, just going to cut back on what I eat and try to get more exercise (like taking a walk every day, although I’m considering getting a treadmill if I can clear out enough space in my spare bedroom for it). I don’t know if I want to try anything like Weight Watchers; I remember checking out their website once over the summer.
Anyway, I figured mabe if I started checking in here it would give me a little more incentive, and maybe pick up a few tips.
Hi Teela, I’m very close to your age (48 in Feb), and I’m also 5’5".
I’ve managed to drop weight past the plateau you mentioned by increasing my work outs to six days a week–three days of either running or aerobics (I prefer running but the winter weather doesn’t always cooperate), and three days of either weights or power yoga. I also count my calories very strictly (1700 a day), and I seem to have stabilized my weight at about 120-ish.
Okay - I’ve been reading the weight watchers site and I’m sold, it seems like a good system and there are loads of encouraging testimonials (in fact I know someone at work who’s used the system and lost weight too, although she didn’t keep it up and put it back on again). There’s even a meeting spot around the corner from my office, so I really have no excuse not to go. I’ve spent most of today feeling hungry on the “wonderful” slim fast diet which can’t be good, either. I’ll use up what I’ve bought, but I’m not too encouraged by it.
(This is completely unheard of for me–I normally struggle mightily to loose a pound in a week.)