Sattua, I’d be concerned that if you lost 30 pounds your dresses might fit well in the bust, but might then be a little loose in the waist and hips- although you could get them taken in. I think you can probably lose inches off the bust, in fact my hairdresser lost 30 pounds doing one of those really structured plans and she said she went from a 36DD to a 34B. And I’ve certainly lost boobage, much to my enormous relief.
HelloNinja, do you have a Sparkpage? I can’t find you when I look your name up.
I tried the dresses again last night. One of them I can get on. It’s tight like a coat of paint, but I can get it on. The other one starts to get too tight around the bottom of my ribcage. Ergh. Well, we’ll see what we’ll see, I can wear the one dress for both the ceremony and the reception if I need to.
Fortunately, they both have sort-of-high waists with full skirts… so any loss in the waist and hips isn’t a problem
I’m going to join in! I’ve been participating in the C25k threads here for the past two months, and I’ve gotten to the point where I’m no longer embarrassed about myself and the gym. I want to pursue the weight loss thing more seriously.
I’m starting at 160lbs and my goal weight is 130lbs by next June. My ‘usual’ weight is 145, so it will be interesting to see if I can get below it.
I just joined Sparkpeople (username: kiwisnap). It looks like a really awesome site, I can’t wait to look around at it more. Thanks to those who recommended it!
Do you like that one? I get bored very easily with most workout DVDs. Once I have all of the steps down and can keep up I want to move on to something else. My biggest problem is that I hate the music on most of them. I wish they would make ‘old hippie’ versions of good workouts. Zumba is really fun and I haven’t made it past advanced into the power workout yet so I have a while to go before I need some new ones. I like ones that are more like dancing than basic aerobics steps.
Let’s see… the one I can get into is this one. The one that’s too tight around the ribcage and bust isthis one. They’re the prettiest dresses I’ve ever owned. I think that even if I can never get into the second one, I’ll keep it, just for the joy of having it in my closet and fingering the lace… (sigh)
Karyn, do you count calories? I have never been able to lose weight without having strict rules about what I ate. Weight Watchers Core worked for me a couple of times, now I’m straight-out counting on SparkPeople. It’s a lot of work, but it’s also liberating to know exactly how many calories you’ve eaten, and what else you can eat that day. As for workout videos… Sweatin’ to the Oldies? Eeeeek.
I weighed about 250 in 2004 and then I got down to 135 by the end of 2005, which was about 5 pounds too low. At first I measured everything and looked up every calorie but eventually I had memorized the calorie count for every food I ever ate and could get portion sizes right by eye. I’m one of those people that can eat the same things for breakfast and lunch every day without getting bored and I only shop once a week so that I’m not tempted to buy junk all the time. The hardest thing to deal with is cooking things for my partner that I can’t eat more than a tiny bit of but he’s a big guy and doesn’t need to lose any weight.
The first workout tapes that I ever tried were those Richard Simmons ones that a friend gave me. I still cringe when I hear his voice. Eeek is right. Belly dancing is a lot of fun too especially if you’re over 40 and not in great shape. You get the added bonus of laughing at how ridiculous you look in the mirror as you discover aching hip and stomach muscles you never knew you had.
I don’t know that I have any special tricks beyond the boring old ‘eat less and exercise more’. I think that what works for people varies depending on how much they have to lose, how much time and/or money they have and what kind of physical shape they’re in. I couldn’t get myself to dive in all at once at the beginning so I did it the one step at a time. First I changed what I ate for breakfast, then lunch, then worked on portion control at dinner time, then sweets and then I finally started to exercise.
One of the things that I should have done but didn’t was to make sure that I didn’t go below 1200 calories a day when I got to the last 10 pounds. There is such a thing as too much self-control and it’s easy to lose perspective. I looked terrible at 135 and had to gain back 5 pounds to lose the emaciated look from my face. The other thing that I didn’t do was continue to weigh myself once a week when I hit my goal weight. I figured that I had it down and didn’t need to but here I am 4 years later having to lose 15 pounds again.
I like it, only I realized this morning that it’s actually the CardioMax DVD, not the bootcamp.
It has an option to mix and max the levels, so that will (once I get bored) let me mix things up a bit.
I don’t know if you’d be interested, but at one point I bought the Yoga Boot Ballet DVD - it didn’t draw me in, but if you want to try it, I can send to to someone. If you don’t like it, pass it on to someone else.
I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet of my weight since early 2007. Weigh daily with a running weekly average. In 2007 I lost 7 lbs. That’s right, 7. Yes, I was somewhat discouraged by my slow rate of loss but you know what, I lost 7 lbs! I didn’t gain weight and I didn’t stay the same and most of all, I didn’t quit!
The only way to fail is to quit. Discouragement can make you want to give up but then what? Decide that you’re not going to lose weight? Decide that you’re going to eat whatever makes you happy and damn the consequences? Decide that you’re just going to get fatter and fatter and more and more miserable? See…every time I got discouraged I asked myself those questions and neither of the other possible options was any good at all.
So this year, in July I joined WW and I’m making faster progress because there’s a plan to follow and accountability (which, apparently, I really need)
So, today, I weigh 159. Three years ago (January 06) I topped out at 185 so I’ve lost 26 lbs in three years. That’s an average of less than 1 lb a month. 1 lb a month = 100 calories (approx.) so little changes, eat a little less, exercise a little more. Learn to do things differently.
More than anything, I want this to be the last time I lose weight. That’s my goal.
I can only see the first one and it is so beautiful! It’s antique-looking, vintage I guess. I love it. One day I hope to be able to wear sleeveless and not be self-concious. One day I will.
Yeah… looks like it has sold out completely. I snagged the last size 14. When I posted that link this morning, it was only available in size 8. It’s cream-colored lace over buff satin with a wide buff ribbon around the waist. Big puffy skirt. Spaghetti straps. So perfect (sigh).
Thanks : ) Let me see if my neighbor has it first. She orders then by the dozen from Amazon, does them once and decides that she hates them and orders more. She’s going to start working out as soon as she finds one she likes. I think that means that she’s looking for one that doesn’t expect you to break a sweat.
Speaking of sweat I think it should be a law that every exercise video has to have some middle aged women gasping and panting in the background. As annoying as he is at least Richard Simmons had some people that looked like they needed to lose weight in his videos instead of just 20 year olds in perfect shape. It would be encouraging for us old people.
After being down to 181 last week, I’m stuck at 182.5. This weekend, I didn’t count calories, but I didn’t pig out either. And now I’m back to the grind and that weight isn’t coming off. And I’m really, really grumpy about it. Ooooooooooooooo it just burns my biscuits. I’m tempted to go to McDonalds and have a quarter pounder with cheese and fries. That would be 1000 calories. TAKE THAT, METABOLISM!
I’m happily contemplating getting gift cards for Christmas! I totally need new clothes, and I will be thrilled to shop this year!
I’ve lost a total of 28 lbs since June 6, 2008, and although I’m having trouble seeing the difference in the mirror, I have been assured my many that the change is noticeable.
I had a cold all of last week but I was eating normally. I was also taking cold medicine. Other than Monday of last week, I stayed out of the gym all week. Drank my usual amounts of fluids (water) on a daily basis. As a result of my cold, I didn’t even go out last weekend and have my usual few beers at happy hour, etc., which always pushes my weight back up.
I saw my weight get off the plateau I was on and start to move downward again and bottom out at the 194.6 on the 7th. Now I’ve put all the weight gain back (actually moved up to 199.7) and I don’t see why! I went to the gym Monday and Tuesday of this week and I’m going again tonight. I’ll also go on Saturday morning.
I’m just yo-yo’ing and falling further and further behind where I should be to meet my goal.
MeanJoe, what is your current workout routine at the gym? It might be time to mix things up a little bit. Sometimes all it takes is something simple such as switching from the treadmill to the elliptical one day a week, or switching the order of how you lift weights. We are creatures of habit and tend to do the same routine over and over, and our bodies get used to it after a while. We need to shock them out of it. For cardio, you might try HIIT (high intensity interval training). Here is an article on it. Most cardio machines will have an interval setting.
Yellowval - Yep, I hear you on the body adjusting to the routine and the need to switch it up. The thing is, I’ve only been going to the gym consistently (min 3x a week) for the last month so I don’t think my body has adjusted. Additionally, as to the “routine” it really varies based upon the amount of time I have. When at the gym I do either:
A.) A 60 minute fitness class, either cardio/kick-boxing or toning. If I make it to the gym 3x a week, this is either 1 or 2 of my visits doing this type of class. I really prefer this type of class at this stage because it pushes me harder (cardiovascularly - is that a word?) for 60 minutes and makes me work parts of my body I would not normally do i.e. glutes and abdominals… I hates doing abdominal exercises.
B.) If I do not have time, am not able to get to the class on time, or I am intentionally taking a class off to switch up my routine then I am typically doing 30-40 minutes on a Precur cardio machine on some form of interval setting. Not sure how to describe it but it would start with low resisitance/incline then move to higher resistance/incline then back down. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. When I finish with that, I’ll usually go spend 20-30 minutes lifting weights using free weights (dumbbells) working mostly chest, back, biceps, triceps, and shoulders. Usually 3 sets of 12.
Not an incredibly complicated routine at this point. I’m in poor shape so and my focus has been on getting into the regular habit of going to the gym, burning as many calories in the time I can spend there for weight loss, and general toning. This will be the first week I’ll have gone 4x in a week assuming I make it as planned tonight (cardio machine & weights) and Saturday (toning class).
On the diet side, I’m generally targeting around 1700 calories intake per day. I sometimes have less (1500) and sometimes I slip over (2100).
. Teach me, o master! You obviously know what you’re doing. Carry on, carry on.
When I finish with that, I’ll usually go spend 20-30 minutes lifting weights using free weights (dumbbells) working mostly chest, back, biceps, triceps, and shoulders. Usually 3 sets of 12.