Tell me your weightloss success stories...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This thread is partially a question but mostly a place for people to share their stories so I am putting it in MPSIMS. If this isn’t right please have mercy and move it to wherever is appropriate.
As I have grown older (31), the 98 pound weakling physique I carried through highschool and into college has left me and I find myself amazed to somehow be (and I swear this happened while I was sleeping last night) 40 pounds overweight! At 5’6", I should be around 150ish pounds according to the literature I have seen but, well, I seem to have ‘overachieved’ in this category. I hate these things where getting the higher number is BAD. I get angry when I play golf for the same reason, but thats not important for this post I suppose…

Anyway, I realize I need to do something (probably a lot of somethings) to get this weight off, but I am fighting the lifestyle changes I need to make and one of the largest reasons is that I’ve never lived any other way.

My world is one where the McDonalds drive thru is only 5 minutes away and buying an extra cheeseburger is never discouraged. It’s a world where ‘cooking’ means setting something in the microwave and hitting the ‘TV dinner’ button and “gormet” cooking is when the thing I am cooking doesn’t HAVE its own button and you have to set the time manually. It’s a place where ‘fruit’ is nearly always follwed by ‘loops’.

I have no concept of healthy eating and thats a huge problem for starting this. Getting the motivation and determination is one thing, but assuming I manage to get that far I still need to know what to DO, and I haven’t a clue.

So… I am looking for your success stories along the lines of, “I was x pounds overweight but I implemented a strict diet of fried yak glands and tofu and now I can fit through a hollow eraser cap”. Especially helpful would be details on what you attribute your successful outcome too, and what your daily routine was, what things were the hardest, and how great it feels now. Share your story of your success for all to hear, but share the details too so I can blatently rip you off and lose all this extra poundage before someone names a pie after me :slight_smile:

2

Motivation is easy. Call over two or three of your closest friends and find a notary public, and sign a document stating that if you don’t lose, say, 10 lbs. in the next two months, you’ll eat an entire can of Alpo in front of your friends.

After that, you should have no trouble figuring out what to do and sticking with your plan.

3

Do I get to pick the flavor of Alpo?

4

For the past year and a half, I’ve been following the Atkins way of life and am proud to report I have lost 88 pounds (and still counting). IMO, this was the easiest way for me to control my weight, as I ave a problem with portio control and this plan allows unlimited consumption of no carb foods, and liberal amounts of low carb food. Plus, you will find tha you fill up faster because of the high amounts of protein and fat. As with all diets, te first two weeks are hte ardest, but after that, it’s clear sailing.

Of course, YMMV. :smiley:

But regardless of method, I wish you the best of luck! :smiley:

5

I lost about 50 lbs and about 10" on my waist. It took two dieting attempts, the first started around june of 2003 and ended around dec 2003. Then from dec 2003 to march of 2004 I didn’t diet at all. Then I started dieting again and quit in june of 2004. I haven’t taken up dieting seriously since because I really don’t care enough to get motivated, and losing the last 30 lbs will be harder than losing the first 50.

6

I’ve been losing weight pretty steadily over the last few months – nothing dramatic, but definitely noticeable. I’ve probably dropped twenty-five pounds since June. (And now none of my shirts fit! Alas. Mixed blessing indeed.)

I have:

  • walked/exercised more (if it’s a mile or less, you can do it on foot, and it’s usually very pleasant!)
  • eaten less. One of the most pivotal moments came when I realized that, hey, I didn’t actually have to eat everything that I was served. It’s perfectly all right to throw away half of a hamburger, or a dozen french fries. Don’t feel guilty about not eating it all.
  • ordered water with my meals, no soda. This is such a little thing, but it really helps. And it’s cheaper! Hooray!
  • not ordered that extra cheeseburger. I figure, if the first one doesn’t do it, I can always go back for more. But ordering two right away is just setting yourself up.
7

Here’s a thread on how I did it. I’m pregnant now, but will be back on the weight loss wagon in no time.

8

I’m 6’ 2" tall, and weigh about 218, which is technically overweight, but not really. At one point I weighed 260 and smoked three packs of cigs per day and felt miserable all the time.

On 19 August 2003, I cold-turkeyed the cigarettes. It was the only way for me. Drove me nuts for about two weeks but it will pass. I purchased a gym membership and go almost every single day (run three-five miles on treadmill, work out on machines, some free weights).

When I’m sick, I go to the gym, when I don’t feel like it, I go to the gym, when it is inconvenient, I go to the gym. Period, end of sentence, no ifs, ands, or buts. I do it. It works for me. It may not for others.

I totally quit soft drinks as well.

Will power alone sustains my efforts.

As Yoda said: “Either do or do not.”

Sir Rhosis

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I made two few simple changes: made sure there are no snacks by my computer (out of sight, out of mind!), and switched from drinking soda to tea (which cut out a lot of calories there).

And that’s been it.

I didn’t have all that much to lose to begin with, but I’ve dropped somewhere between 5 and 10 pounds so far and I seem to have hit my ‘balance’ weight where so long as I contiune on with my standard eating habits (everything in moderation) I’m not going to lose or gain weight over the long term.

<< A cat at rest will tend to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside food. >>

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Krys92gp, thats awesome! I’ve heard so much argument about Atkins I hadn’t even considered it. Sure sounds like it worked for you though!
Tracy Lord, I think giving up soda will probably be one of the biggest challanges. I know it’s tons of empty calories but I am hopelessly addicted to Cherry Coke :smack: I geocache as a hobby though, so upuntil recently at least (been cold and rainy) I’ve been getting the walking in.

Sir Rhosis, I smoke about a pack a day right now. That’s the other thing I seriously need to tackle. I don’t have the courage to do both at the same time though. I am hoping that working on losing weight and exercising will encourage me to quit. Congrats on quitting! Thats a serious accomplishment! And you quit soda too! Your will power is unhuman :slight_smile:

Aye… thats the thing right there… total dedication!

11

Over the last three years, I’ve lost in the neighborhood of seventy to eighty pounds, just by changing my diet (not dieting, just not eating junk food) and becoming marginally more active (Two to three mile walks everyday. The motivation was easy: I got a mixed-breed border collie. Better than a personal trainer.) It’s taking a while, but that’s okay with me. I’ve got time.

12

I have also been on Atkins since Jan 17th of this year. I am currently down 66 lbs since then.

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I lost 30 pounds–through exercise and eating right. And damn, it still feels good. :smiley:

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I lost 30 pounds (I’m now 170) as a result of the SDMB weight Loss Club thread that started back in April. Nothing fancy; just reduced calorie intake, no snacking, moderate exercise; I dropped several pounds per week and it has stayed off.

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This might not be that inspirational but here goes anyway. I recently had to lose a smallish amount of weight (5 or so pounds) to make a weight class for a race. I exercise regularly and am pretty much at my ideal weight anyway so it was really tough to get the pounds off. But I did it over a month with this diet.

Breakfast: Cottage cheese and yogurt. (both protein and dairy)

Lunch: Half a pound of vegetables. (fiber to fill you up)
Tuna. (protein)
Whole wheat crackers. (fiber)

Snack: Walnuts. (omega 3 fatty acids)

Dinner: Big spinach salad with 1/2 ounce cheese and basalmic vinegar for dressing. (more fiber)
Half a pound of vegetables. (even more fiber)
Brown rice. (fiber, fiber, fiber)
Protein source. (either beans or tofu, I’m a veg)

Dessert: 1/2 oz. dark chocolate (good antioxident)

Anyway, this was actually a lot more food than I was used to eating but it had so much fiber I was pretty filled up. Keeping the protein high and the refined carbs low helped too. And I still allowed myself treats. The key was the large amounts of vegetables. Since I don’t cook, I bought them freshly pre-made at a local gourmet store so they were really yummy. Now I actually liek vegetables.

The hardest thing for me was cutting out sugar. But now that I’m used to not eating so much, large quantities make me feel sick. I tried to eat some candy corn the other day and felt like crap after. I’m not sticking exactly to this diet now (I’m more flexible for dinner) but I’m continuing to eat a lot of vegetables and feel really healthy…

16

I have a lot of muscle but I was at 5’10’’ 238 pounds, I stopped drinking any soda and practically only drink water now except on certain occasions I only eat 2 meals a day spaced at least 5 hours apart and climb a rope in my backyard(using only my arms) about every other day and try to jog about once a week for 4 to 6 miles right now I weigh about 197 and I feel so much healthier :wink: I still would like to lose a little more weight though

17

Earlier this year I found that the pants I had bought a few years earlier because the older pairs were getting tight were themselves getting tight. Instead of moving up to size 34’s, I swore off this slippery-slope crap and decided to take it off. I was also beginning to feel older, creakier and weak, but a small increment at a time. I realized that it would be relatively easy to stop the process now, but if I waited another 5 or 6 years, I’d be seriously out of shape and it would be exponentially harder to reverse the slide.

No idea how much weight I’ve lost since I didn’t have a scale handy when I started, but I’m 2 inches lesser around the waist and feel a cubic hell of a lot better. Maybe 10 pounds? I still have a bit to go before I’m finished.

I did it by first cutting sugary pop out of my diet. I figure I was sucking down 500-1000 empty calories per day, calories that were winding up in places I didn’t want them to. At the same time I started walking regularly. After a while, when I was stronger, and my legs could take the pounding, I took up running. After I was running for a while, I began to keep count of my daily calories. Paying attention to that made me pay more attention to the quality of the food I was eating. Once I was making sure I was getting 1800 calories per day, spread over 4 smallish meals, I found I was actually eating better than before. I feel more consistantly throughout the day than when I only ate two (huge) meals.

Now that I’ve been doing that for a while, I’m getting back into weight-lifting, which has always been my preferred mode of exercise. I wound up giving it up 7 years ago because grad school was kicking my ass and never got back into it, something I kick myself for every damn day. This time, there’s nothing in the world that can make me quit. I hate being out of shape and weak.

Anyway, I’m now at 5’9" and 165 lbs, leaner than before and somewhat burly. I still have a bit of padding around the belly that I’d like to get rid of, but it’s not a big problem. The pants that were tight before, I can remove without unbuckling now. Not one of the dramatic changes that some people here have reported, but I intend to make this a lifestyle change rather than just a diet.

I think what worked the best for me was the gradual transition from lazy slob to non-lazy slob. I think too many people go cold turkey and take on everything at once. Baby steps seem to work better.

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Wow, that ran long. Sorry about the length there… :smack:

19

I joined The Army. Lost 30 pounds in 2 months. Kept it off for 4 years. Got it all mack in the 2 months following the end of my enlistment and haven’t moved more than 5 pounds in either direction in the last 8 years. :rolleyes:

20

A lot of you mention giving up soda. I know that people who am friends with and are much healthier than me react to the soda I carry back to my desk the same way they might if I was carrying a dead rodent :slight_smile: They really look upon it as evil incarnate.

For those of you that quit, did you replace it with anything? I don’t have much luck drinking just water with meals because I miss having a ‘taste’ to the beverage. I think mixed ‘tea’ drinks, but don’t those usually have a lot of sugar in them as well? Are things like ‘Crystal Lite’ good replacements?

Slotar makes me feel a little better concerning the doing things slowly rather than cold turkey. I’ve developed my bad habits over years and I suppose it would be very difficult to simply change over night. I like teh idea of making small improvements over time. And I DO have that pair of nice pants that I can no longer get myself into. Several in fact :slight_smile:

My biggest motivation I suppose is that I feel tired all the time. Did those of you who put all those pounds away find that your energy level increased? I find I’m just as tired when I get up as I felt when I went to sleep the night before…