I’ve gained about 35 kilos since leaving school, mostly because I don’t play any sport or go tramping anymore, but also because my eating habits have turned to rubbish. I’m never going to be 50 kgs again, but I’d like to get down to about 65-70, especially before I head overseas (June). I lost a bit before christmas, mostly through eating healthy stuff at work, and walking for about 40 mins a day, but my routine turned to custard over christmas.
But it’s a New Year, I’m heading off on my OE in June, and I wanna be at around 65-70 kilos when I do.
I’m incredibly ignorant however. Can someone here reccommend me a good website or book that outlines, in very simple language, what kinds of food I should be eating? Once I move out beyond vegetables, I’m lost. Or maybe outline what’s worked for you in the past?
I’m in. I’m in the midst of a life reboot and with so many major changes in my life (no more school being the largest) I’m taking this opportunity to tackle a lot of things I don’t like about myself (cleanliness, hygiene, health).
I’m unfortunately hard pressed to weigh myself right now since I’m too large to use my mom’s floor scale. I’m 6’6" and weigh between 295 and 305 lbs. My goal is to drop 40 lbs and then evaluate my health there. Being on a large frame I’ve always been told my weight would be heavier than was supposed to be “right” so laying down a weight loss goal is difficult as I’d also like to put on muscle. So the goal is either 40 lbs off, or loss of 4" on the waist.
I wear 42 x 34 pants and I’d like to bring that to 38 x 34. When I get there I’ll evaluate about how I feel and how I look and what the next step is.
The plan is to eat small snacks through the day and not let my hunger build up so that I can avoid gorging myself. So I’ve got a Sams’ thing of Nabs and such so that I can pack 2 or 3 for the day as snacks to avoid the siren call of snacks.
I would life to lose about 20 - 25 lbs. I am not quite at a point when I would consider myself really “fat” but I am in the worst shape I have ever been in.
Actually, i am looking at it as more inches I need to lose. I want to be a lean, mean, muscle-y machine.
I have ordered the Body-for-Life for Women. I have read it and like it much more than the Body-For-Life for Men. I am starting it as tomorrow.
My birthday is mid-April. I was hoping to go to Mexico for my birthday (if we can afford it) as I am turning 30 this year. I want to be in shape by then. It gives me 4 months and I know I can do it!
I have made a deal with a friend that by my birthday, if nothing else, we both have to be able to look back at the four months and say that we did as much as we could, and then some.
My birthday is mid-April too. That gives us both a nice milestone to work toward.
I sympathize with Savannah, knowing how that feels. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies.
In my case I eat healthy food, low fat and mostly whole foods. I eat out rarely and never eat junk food. My cholestrol and triglycerides are always very low, which my doctor jokingly tells me “can’t be true” - the same thing he said about my being overweight and vegetarian. In my case, I don’t binge, I don’t overeat. I simply don’t exercise enough. A lifetime of losing and regaining weight has reduced my musclemass so low that my metabolism is at a crawl. So in that sense, without exercise, almost anything I eat is “overeating”. Hypothyroidism doesn’t help either. My weight sabotages my exercise efforts with tendonitis. I need to lose 40 pounds to reach the ideal range of BMI.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. This time, instead of my usual WW-like approach, I’m going to participate in a program my internist recommended. It’s a medically-supervised very-low-calorie “fasting” program (shakes, shakes, and more shakes). A battery of tests prior, labs every two weeks, behavioral meetings every week, mid-week checkins, a longterm maintenance program with real foods. I do best when I don’t have to focus on menu plans and special recipes. When I can turn off my appetite and focus on life and exercise I do much better.
I’m not recommending the fasting approach for others, but I have to try all my options.
Actually, I’m participating in a weight loss bet at work as well… Everyone dumps $50 into a pool. Those that lose 5% or more of their body weight by March 14th get their cash back and then split up the money left from those who didn’t make the goal. There’s also an optional $10 side bet which goes completely to whomever loses the greatest percentage of weight in that time.
My plan is to pick up where I left off last summer (winter always makes me lazy!). That is running 7 miles twice a week, playing 4 games of hockey each week, and doing either a long-distance hike or go skiing once a week.
I’m also going to add in some high intensity interval training twice a week and upper body/core workouts twice a week… Whew… I had to write it all out and make a schedule to make sure I can fit it all in and stick to it! Ideally I’ll be 20 pounds lighter by summer (putting me at 189 pounds, perfect weight for someone of my build)
On the diet front, I’m cutting out fast food except for when travelling and removing sugared soft drinks. Plus I’m going to be more conscientious of my portion sizes. I have to be careful because all the physical activity I do leaves me constantly hungry - I’m trying to find a way to fill myself up with healthier things than I do now (I’ve been known to down an entire large pizza and still be hungry…) I’m going to go with the strategy of eating smaller portions more often rather than the two large meals I do currently.
I guess I’m off to a good start already – I rang in the new year with a 9 mile run this morning.
I had a friend who did this and dropped something like 80 lbs, or something huge. I don’t recall. She was amazing at sticking to it and not cheating. It can work, but it was hard on her. She told me the story about dropping one of her shakes and spilling it on herself and she literally used her straw and sucked it off of her clothes to get as many of the calories as she could.
I had some leftover ground beef with onion, garlic salt, pepper and Tapatio. There was enough to make a sandwich with two ounces (estimated) of medium cheddar and three Roma tomato slices. Now, that’s a lot of Calories. But it made me full. Not ‘satisfied’. Full.
This being New Year’s Day, I had to have my soul food. I had a bit less than half a bowl of the hamhocks and black-eyed peas. I had a little less of that amount later of ham hocks and collard greens. I did not make cornbread.
So that’s what I’ve eaten today. No idea how many Calories that was. Probably like a million.
Exercise-wise I did what I posted before, only I jogged 6:45 instead of five minutes. I was not as winded afterward as I was after jogging the first four days. In a short time I’ll go for a walk around the block; approximately 1.6 miles.
Weighing myself has been discouraging. I haven’t done today. In a week I’ve lost like a pound. At this rate I’ll be just over one-third of the way to my target weight by my birthday.
The doctor at the local clinic said that he could help me with my weight. I’m suspicious that he’ll prescribe medication.
Thanks for starting this, Khadaji – I was going to start a new weight loss thread but never got around to it.
Anyone with nothing better to do can find the details about my methods and progress in the previous weight loss thread, Basically, hie myself to the gym and eat better and moderately (surprise, surprise!). My workload precluded me from going to the gym pretty much from Thanksgiving up till now. But I managed to hold my weight steady over that time, even though I wasn’t being particularly religious about my eating habits over that time (not pigging out, but not being fastidious either). Not bad considering all the holiday yummies out there – but then again, I work at home, so no workplace potlucks or snacks to deal with. Maybe the increased muscle and metabolism are finally doing their thing!
I’ll head back to the gym this week and get started up again. Nothing better to do in the dead of winter anyway. And I’m gonna need to buy a new swimsuit before I go down to Texas to visit the folks in March.
I had a Coke the other night just for shits and grins. I used to be a total Cokehead (heh), but gave up soda in favor of yummy ice water about a year ago. The Coke tasted totally gross. My conversion is complete! (Although I still like a root beer or something fizzed up with Sprite or 50/50 now and then. That’s OK, because I’m not supposed to have caffeine anyway.)
I see that nobody has posted their numbers as we had been doing previously. I’ll start (middle number is an estimate because I use the gym scale as my standard):
In spite of the things I’ve mentioned re: holiday eating, I really have been eating less. And the foods I’ve been eating over the last few days have been lower in Calories than my usual fare. (e.g., Slim Fast shakes: 200 C, boiled broccoli: ? C)
But even with the daily exercise and walks, I’ve managed to gain back half a pound of the single pound I’ve lost.
What’s your liquid intake? Your weight can fluctuate up to 3-5 pounds in a single day due to water. I am down 2.5 lbs from Sunday to today, but I don’t for a second think that it’s all fat.
Be wary of eating too little. That will stall your weight loss.
My name is Shirley Ujest and I would like to be a Big Fat Loser.
It isn’t that I need to drop 20ish ok 30 if I were fixated on an actual number. I need to move more.
So, my goal this year is to walk 30 minutes a day and eat clean ( no junk food)
Today it was quite mild ( for Michigan) and I was able to log in 30 minutes on the track at school and figured I did about 2.5 miles very casually.
I am taking it one day at a time.
I also have a fixed goal of Late April to have a slimmer line on a formal dress that I have to wear for a clambake in [size=1]cough* my honor.[size=1]cough*
So, to say that I am properly motivated is an understatement.
I lost about 125 pounds through Weight Watchers from 2002-2004, putting me at about 10 pounds below my WW goal weight (I shot for low because I wanted to give myself “wiggle room” so I didn’t have to pay anymore if I gained a little.
Since then, some of it’s crept back on through shoddy eating habits and letting exercise slide, so now I’m about 13 pounds above my target weight (aka 23 pounds above my desired weight). I’ve been pigging out throughout the holidays, and vowed that on 1/3 (that’s today!) I would get back on-program. (Would have started 1/1, but a friend who cooks really well had us over for games and food yesterday).
My methodology:
Go back on WW flex points (of which I get 22 per day base).
Begin exercising for 30 minutes a day (I joined Curves, since I was able to find one that’s very close to home and focuses on the workout, not all the silly games/social stuff that doesn’t do it for me, so I’ll do that, bicycling, ice hockey twice a week, and fill in the gaps with Dance Dance Revolution).
Cut way down (but not give up) sweets and treats. Everything in moderation. That’s what I love about Weight Watchers: you can eat anything as long as you count the points. So my Thursday-night half of a small pizza and daily small handful of M&M’s is okay. Sadly, Cold Stone Creamery once a week isn’t.
Weigh in once a week and track my progress on a chart I’ve got hanging in my bathroom (and now, report it here too!)
Thanks, Khadaji! I don’t go to Weight Watchers meetings anymore, so it’ll be nice to have somewhere semi-accountable to track my progress.
Liquid intake: Four or five cups of black tea with a little non-fat milk, and two packets of Splenda between all of the cups. Four or five 12 oz. glasses of water.
FWIW, this is what I’ve eaten today (I’ve been awake six hours): Slim Fast shake (190 Calories, 4g fiber), one serving oatmeal (150 Calories, 4g fiber) with one tbsp. strawberry jam (50 Calories, 0g fiber). Plus four cups of tea and two 12 oz. glasses of water. So about 400 Calories and 8g fiber.
I quit smoking 1/2/2005 so after a year of not smoking I feel like I’m ready to tackle the next lifestyle adjustment.
Yesterday I watched the Big Fat Loser marathon on Bravo.
I want to exercise every day specifically at least a 30 minute walk and never watch TV commercials without getting up and doing something (sit ups, pushups, jumping jacks, whatever) I did that yesterday most of the evening while I watched TV. It must have worked because I can really feel it in my muscles today.
And I have LifeForm software with which I will track my calories. My plan is to eat whole foods and try not to eat when I’m not hungry and stop eating when I’m not quite full.
First, since weight will fluctuate daily a couple of pounds weighing weekly can really mess with your mind if you weigh in on an “up” day. I suggest a daily weighing and then a weekly average, YMMV. I think the Hacker’s Diet suggests this.
The other thing is that if you’re working out body weight is the least accurate way to measure fat loss. Body Fat % or even the fit of your clothes is a much better indicator of your progress.
So, tonight I’m digging to the bottom of the drawer with all my slacks in it and pulling out that pair that I haven’t been able to wear since last year. I’ll try them on every week and see how long it takes to be able to actually wear them in public.
