In an effort to keep our August Thread from growing too large, here is the September thread.
Good luck losing! 
Goal: Knock it down 5#.
168.5 September 1 weight. August 1 was 170.5. Pardon me while I roll my eyes.
Can I join? I’m really new to this weight loss thing, but I can recommend a really cool website - Weight Loss Resources. It has a food and exercise diary, with a database with calorie and nutritional content for a huge amount of different kinds of food, both British and American brands. You enter your details and the amount you want to lose, up to two pounds per week, and it calculates the number of calories you can eat each day. You get extra for exercise. It makes it really easy to keep track of what you eat and the amount you exercise. It has a three day free trial. I’ve been been using it for a month and finding it extremely useful.
Welcome to the club Peak Banana. Good luck losing! 
Still hovering. Grrrr…
I’m hitting the gym four days a week now, 45 minutes on the cardio machines. Ivylad confirmed something I’d heard on the radio (he was heavy into weight lifting and fitness before his injury) and that if you want to lose weight, you need to keep your heart rate around 100-120 beats per minutes. Anything above that and you’re not burning fat. Here I was thinking I was doing good getting my heart rate up…
I’d also heard of “burst training” where you exercise as normal for about five minutes, then go all out, like your ass is on fire and your hair is catching, for one minute, then back to normal, repeat for 30 minutes. Ivylad said that would work, but recommended I do the work out, then do the burst at the last minute. That’s supposed to keep your metabolism up for longer.
I will try both of those.
Hey - I’m back in for this month. My August included a 2 week vacation, moving across town, a change of duties at my job, and getting ready to go back to school, so I’m afraid the old diet and exercise thing has been thrown out the window a bit. I gotta get back on the wagon!
At the beginning of August, I was 154lbs. Today? 153.
Bah!
I’ve been doing pretty good as far as diet and exercise goes, but my loss has slowed way, way down recently. I’m at a reasonable weight for my height at this point–I’m 5’9"–but I have far too much fat around my middle for my comfort. I’m not quite sure what to do now, since I know I won’t be able to maintain a diet with fewer calories than this.
I haven’t been journaling like I wanted, but I also have been much more conscious of what I’ve been eating. I start class on Tuesday, so it’s going to be easier to get into a routine (I usually have more success with my eating than during the summer, and less success with my exercise).
I think I have the boyfriend on board with some semblance of an exercise routine, so that’s good news. I definitely need a buddy.
My goal this month: get better at tracking what I eat and start cooking more so I don’t end up relying on fast food when I’m hungry. I plan to continue running for my exercise and hopefully I will lose around 5 pounds this month. Best of luck, everyone.
Also there’s nothing like reading about weight loss to make a person hungry.
I kept meaning to join the August thread, I just kept getting called away with something or other in mid-post. It’s 2AM and the house is asleep, so I may be good now.
Long story short: Injury+Surgery+Cast+Couch+Comfort Food x 8 months=35 pounds*.
I’m getting married at the end of May of '08. I bought my dress before I fell down my front steps and wrecked my ankle. It is a size twelve, and sadly I am not anymore. So I started weight-watchers in August, with 10 months to lose 30 pounds, and save me some expensive alterations I hadn’t budgeted for. I need to lose another 25-30 beyond that, but I’ll worry about that after the honeymoon.
I am down 6 pounds so far. I’m not finding it too difficult, other than I really don’t like most fruits and vegetables so I’m starting to feel like a little kid at the dinner table, with my own inner-mom squawking in my head, “You can’t have the rice until you eat the greenbeans!” I have a fridge completely jam packed with fruits and veggies and I went to bed hungry tonight because I just couldn’t bring myself to eat any of it. Not sure how I’m going to deal with this for the long haul (My diet used to be mostly starch and sugar, with a side of bacon). I’m hoping eventually I’ll adapt.
I used to enjoy eating them in moderation, but now that they’re a large portion of my meals I’m really sick of them. Veggies all taste the same to me, but again I hope that I will eventually develop a better taste for them individually as I eat them more.
*Probably more, to be honest. I didn’t really get on a scale at any point after surgery. When I went back to work not a single item of clothing fit and I had to make some emergency purchases, and a lot of that stuff got loose by the time I finished physical therapy
Well the doc has told me that I can do some light lifting. He couched it in all kinds of crazy CYA language, but he said I could do it.
I will probably start again today or tomorrow.
Totally unsolicited advice? Try eating different veggies. I mean duh, right? But how many of us keep buying the same three veggies our moms made that we’re sick of, and we teach ourselves we “don’t like vegetables”? That seems to cover most of the people I know. So next time you go to the store, give yourself an extra few minutes and find one random fruit or vegetable that you’ve never used or eaten, buy it, then come home and Google it. You might find it’s really horrible. Or you might find a new wonderful yummy to replace an “oh, not again” veg in your diet. I found garlic stems, lychee fruit and some amazing melon whose name I forget but rind I remember that way (as well as the yuck - quinces and gooseberries (although to be fair, I think the gooseberries were past their prime - I’m going to give them one more chance.))
Or go simpler - or more creative - with the sauces, whichever you’re not doing now. I was pleasantly surprised when I started to try some of Weight Watchers’ own recipes. They tend to the very simple end of the cooking spectrum - I don’t think anything has taken over 45 minutes to make, and many are in the 15 minute zone - and they don’t have as many (high calorie) sauces and things as I’m used to. And it’s like I’m getting to know my old familiar veggies all over again, because now I can taste them, instead of the butter/salt/sugar/cream I was drowning them in. A very simple taste can be a radical departure for a cluttered tongue, and my vegetables taste much more distinctive and appealing now.
Either that’s simply not true, or I’ve magiced away a lot of fat. My bet is on the first one. There are oodles of myths around about exercise and eating, but in reality it is pretty simple. Sure, there’s an optimal fat-burning heart rate somewhere, but it varies from person to person and with age, and there is no heart rate anywhere where no fat is burned.
Hey everyone,
Welcome to Peak Banana.
Weight Aug 1 —165.5
Weight now—160
I am happy with my progression. 5.5 lbs in a month is fine at my age and with the amount left that I have to lose.
My SO is nervous that I’m going to lose too much, HA HA HA!!! He saw pics of me when I weighed 140 lbs and thought I looked way too thin. I kind of did. I think I look ok at around 148-150.
But if I only make it down to 155-157 then that is ok too. I’m proud of what I have accomplished. My mgr. at Weight Watchers is going to send me to Leader training so I get to show other people how to do this too! I’m excited! I get to go to Boston too!
Hey Why Not, I love your suggestion of trying a new fruit/veggie. I like to do this too. It really does keep things interesting and I like to experiment.
I’d agree, but go further to say the ‘optimal’ heart rate probably also varies from day to day, and you might as well just exercise at a rate that feels comfortable for that day.
(To Everyone) Exercise doesn’t have to be a bad experience!
My official weigh-in day is tomorrow, but it looks like I lost a total of 12 pounds in August. I feel like I’m off to a good start. I think I lost a bunch of it from my butt and hips, because I now can wear a pair of jeans I’d gotten too big for, and another pair suddenly is super-baggy in the seat. At the end of the month, I have to buy some new pants for a work convention, so now I have an additional excuse – my old pants will be too big anyway. Yay!
Ivylad explained it that at the lower heart rate, the lactic acid in the muscles burns. Anything significantly higher than that for a sustained period, the body thinks its in survival/crisis mode, and holds onto the lactic acid.
These things are always heavy on the theories, light on the evidence. You keep your heart rate high; it’ll work out. As will you.
Okay, I’m in for September’s thread.
Welcome, Peak Banana and Obsidian!
My goal for this week: water, water, water! And at least 100g of protein per day.
I was at a Baha’i conference for the weekend. My eating habits weren’t terrible, but weren’t wonderful, either. I did get a lot of incidental exercise, as I was the teacher for the 3-5 year old class!
I’ll step on the scale in the morning and see how I’m doing.