OK, I just joined SparkPeople as well. I’m MsWhatsit, same as here. Now I’m waffling on whether I should go to the WW meeting on Wednesday like I had planned. It looks like SparkPeople offers a lot of the same stuff, for free, but without the in-person support. Anyone have thoughts on this?
Sigh. I hate dieting.
I already exercise, so in order to lose weight I have to eat (what feels like) virtually nothing. I do everything I can to make big meals volume-wise with few calories (cottage cheese plays a large role in this). But still, by the end of the third week my body ain’t fooled no more. 
It damn well knows there’s a calorie deficit going on and it’s very insistent that I “fix” it.
Trying to give myself a “jump start” on losing, so ran 7.5 miles yesterday and 7 today. Don’t think I’ll have time for more than 4-5 tomorrow.
Well, I’m still here as well. I’ve picked up a kg over christmas, so I am 89kg for the start of the year. I have been fighting the boomerang flu - just when you think it’s gone, it curves round and smacks you in the back of the head. I ran 8.5 miles on Boxing day, I felt that good. Then, a few days later, I was snuffling and coughing again. We did some nice walks, though.
The aim for this year is losing 10kg - so that I am well under 80kg. The rest is mostly exercise goals. I’ve signed up for the local 10km in March, which will be easy (but I aim to shave 5 minutes off by time to 45min). I want to do a triathlon in April or May - just a sprint tri (400m/20km/5km), though the local tri in April is a longer event (400m/20mi/6mi) and I am tempted to go for it. And a 10 mile is on the cards later in the year. Mostly I hope to be more structured and less gungho about training. I think I didn’t get quite the results I wanted due to over-exercising, and I want more recovery time. I still look heaps better than I did, and I need to go shopping for clothes, but I want to get smaller before I spend the money, dammit.
Si
I tried to friend you but it says the user doesn’t exist. I think SP is having some server issues right now. I’ll friend you and Kerrigan and MsWhatsit as soon as it gets back up.
Kaio, instead of “dieting,” have you tried portion control and keeping track of your calories? 3500 calories = 1 pound. So either you exercise more or eat less.
Happy New Year everyone! I’ve never posted in the Weight Loss Thread, but it’d be really nice to have support on my mission. My resolution last year was to lose the weight I gained, but wishin’ an’ hopin’ didn’t work, so this year, I’m doing diet and exercise.
After my last child was born (five years ago), I lost all the baby weight and then some. I was smaller than I was in high school. Then hubby came back from the army and I started cooking enough for an army, and eating enough for a soldier. Oooops! Forty pounds came back in just three months, and stuck for a year and a half now.
So, my starting weight (what I’d been up til Christmas) is 154. My goal is 114. Santa brought me Dance Dance Revolution, and it has a workout mode that counts the calories you burn and lets you set goals. By doing that and counting calories like they’re money, I’ve lost ten pounds since Christmas. I feel much healthier now, as I was not getting any exercise before, but I hope I don’t keep losing it sooo fast, or it’ll probably be harder to keep it off.
Good luck to all and keep it up! And ivylass, you look great.
Ms Whatsit, I have done something similar with the sugar and refined carbs.
I started the South Beach diet on 12/27 and am almost done with Phase 1, which allows no sugar, flour, etc. It’s been difficult but I really feel a LOT better in terms of fewer blood sugar crashes, etc. I always thought that South Beach was like Atkins, but it’s different. I have done WW in the past and don’t have great success on it, mostly because I have some food addiction issues that make it difficult for me to do it well. So, right now, I’m eating tons of vegetables, lean protein, lots of beans/legumes, and low/no fat dairy (cottage cheese and plain yogurt, mostly. The latter is now dessert for me, and I love it.) Yes, I could actually do the same menu and call it WW, but somehow this works for me.
I don’t like to name a goal weight, but I would like to fit back into the clothes that I seem to have busted out of the past few months. (And my poor husband would like that as well—not because he thinks I look bad now, but to avoid the temper tantrums I have when I try something on that doesn’t fit around my midsection). Still, I’m hoping for a nice surprise when I weigh myself on Wednesday.
Yeah, lorene, what I’m doing right now is essentially Phase 1 of South Beach, which I’ve done before and had very good success with. The only reason I went off it was because I got pregnant. I’m thinking about skipping WW for now and just doing my version of low-carb combined with SparkPeople. (My low-carb isn’t really that low-carb, but I try to limit carbs to no more than 45g per meal, as this seems to work best to regulate my blood sugar.)
The goal weight that SparkPeople suggested for me seems laughably low, and is a weight I haven’t seen since high school, but I admit it’s nice to fantasize about actually seeing that number on the scale again.
I just set up a SparkPeople account and added everyone in this thread who posted a username as my friend. Savannah and Kerrigan, I couldn’t find you. My username on SparkPeople is IamtheLorax.
My plans to Eat Well and Move more for this year are off to a slow start.
I am suffering side effects from antibiotics for a sinus infection and I have been chained to the toilet since Saturday night.
The bonus is I’ve probably lost a few pounds, though not the ideal way at all.
Once I can shuffle more than say 20 feet without having to run back to the loo or lay in my bed in a fetal ( foetal for you brits) position, I shall devote more time to this thread and myself and getting a job and stuff.
It’s going to be a busy 2009.
My thought is to really know yourself. There’s something pretty effective about in-person support. I could never have done it without external accountability, and for me WW was just what I needed. You could always go and try out a meeting, to see if you think it will be beneficial. They should allow you to sit in as a guest without paying any money. You’d only need to pay if you want to weigh-in and get the booklets.
[sub]disclaimer: I now work for WW so you can be sure I’m probably not the most objective source[/sub]
I’d completely forgotten about the awesomeness of dance dance revolution. I need to dig out my old dance mat. Thanks for the inspiration!
If it’s ok, I’d love to join this thread.
I’m 148 right now, and am looking to be around 140, so I don’t have a lot to lose, and my main goal is health. I’ll tell you a bit about myself.
I am a fitness instructor part time (spinning) and go to the gym almost daily. My typical week includes teaching two or three spinning classes, a couple of 30 to 60 minute runs and three 45 minute weights-type workouts. I’ve recently bounced back from alcoholism (sober since April!), which piled up the pounds (I was at about 173 or so). I’m slowly taking them back off, but I still have a few to go and they’re stuck there.
So, any advice/insight, etc., is appreciated, plus it will be awesome to have to be accountable somewhere!
That’s exactly what I’m doing. I used to do FitDay, now I’m doing SparkPeople just for this purpose. I work out more when I can, but there are days that I don’t have the time or the energy to work out for an hour and a half (I already do 45-60 mins 4-5 days a week, so “more” is quite a bit more). And like I said, after about three weeks, my body damn well knows that there’s a difference between 1400 calories and 2200 calories and really wants me to “fix” that little problem.
I know the math, I’ve done this before, and the only thing that ever works for me is following the calories in : calories out model. That doesn’t make it comfortable to do so. I wish it were. So as far as I’m concerned, this is a “diet.”
The advantage to my metabolism is that I maintain weight practically without effort – except when I’m on medication. So it becomes a downside when I’m trying to lose, because my body is very very good at maintaining. Sigh.
Kaio, what does your typical workout look like right now?
MeanJoe checking in for the first week of January:
Current Weight: 190.8
Goal Weight: TBD
Goal Date: TBD
Starting Weight: 203.00
Starting Date: 10/15/08
So I missed my first goal but I’m okay with that. I’ve stayed pretty consistent with the gym and am feeling much better overall. I have to figure out what my new goal should be in terms of what target weight by what date. I’ll put some thought into it and update with a post at a later date or time.
Right now I’m feeling really down - started dating someone a few weeks ago and it was going incredibly well and then poof old Joe got dumped last night. So I’m just feeling like drinking, eating crap food, blowing off the gym, etc. today and not setting any goals or having motivation to do anything. I. Hate. Dating.
MeanJoe
I joined Weight Watchers on December 28 (to beat the new year rush) and lost 2.6 pounds the first week. Only 35 more to go. Months of therapy for other areas of my life have apparently worked their magic on the food pathway of my brain because I’m looking at food and following the WW plan differently. Like a grown-up would. Making conscious choices. Making the “good for you” choices. And after 20 years of yo-you dieting, I have come to the conclusion that you can run 100 miles a day, but you won’t lose weight if you stuff your face. For me, it’s all about what I put in my mouth. But I continue to exercise.
On my first official weigh-in day on WW, I’m at 214, which means I’ve lost two pounds since my “unofficial” start on Saturday. That’s largely meaningless, of course; I sometimes fluctuate as much as five pounds a day. The real test will be next Monday, after my first full week.
Sounds like you’ve got it dialed in peedin, I wish you much success.
Most recently:
Aerobic workouts with the goal of burning a minimum of 2500 calories per week. What that usually ends up looking like is about a 5 mile run 5 days a week. This is a little more than usual (my “normal” workouts are about 4 miles times 4-5 times a week). It also, according to SparkPeople, ends up at a bit more than 2500 calories per week, so if I’m having an off day at the end of the week I might do a shorter workout, if I can still reach my weekly goal.
On days I’m particularly frustrated, and I have time, I’ll do longer runs. Over this weekend I did 7.5 miles and 7 miles. That’s around an hour and a half of running.
Also I recently started weight training again (as of shortly after Thanksgiving). I’m doing high-intensity training (one set, perfect form, sloooowwwwwllly, until muscle failure) because weight training bores me to tears and that’s the best I could come up with to make me keep going back. One set, even done slowly, takes less time than multiple faster ones. I do upper body/abs twice a week, lower body/lower back once a week. Mostly because I figure that running does its own bit to help with lower body tone.
On weight training days, between the run and the weights I’m usually there for close to two hours, which is okay while I’m not working, but I’m wondering how I could possibly swing that when I have to be commuting and working for 10 hours a day.
BTW, for anyone who lives in Chicago especially, or big cities in general, check with your local Park District (or whatever city agency manages your city parks). Chicago Park District has a number of parks which have fitness rooms, which are $45 for three months. They’re not giant awesome gyms, by any means, but they have the basics (treadmills, bikes, ellipticals, and enough weight machines to make a complete workout). And the price is less than half of most private gyms, without an initiation fee, or a year-long commitment.
I’m down to 197 from 240 last March. My husband bought me a heart rate monitor for the holidays, and I used it for the first time this morning, and it’s really awesome. It tracks calories burned too, so I can add that into my diet and exercise software. I ordered a couple of strength training dvds and some hand weights, so I’ll be adding that to my aerobics routine as soon as they arrive, which should be this week. I’m pretty excited about it.