A Little Lost... Cassy's Story

MotherOf2

MotherOf2

New member
I'm 21 years old with 2 kids and a husband. I'm a stay at home mom and my days are jammed packed to say the least.

I would not consider myself a lazy person and I feel I have a good understanding of nutrition and am consious of just about everything that goes into my mouth (as well as my family members mouths).

I've never been "skinny" but when i had my first child i gained about 50lbs and i know exaxly how it happened. I was a young teenager and i sat on my butt watching tv with my boyfriend (who is a perfect weight btw) eating a big bag of smarties (or whatever else he brought home) every night... boy i wish someone had told me eating for 2 meant eating an extra snack or 2 a day not an extra helping of dinner or pie...

anyway... since i gained that weight I stuck there... (didnt even know i was there till i saw a picture of me laying on my side with my new baby looking like a cow). honestly i didn't do a whole lot to lose it... in stead i found a way to become confident in what i had become. At 220 and a few years later i decided im big but im still beautiful.

nearly 3 years later i hadn't lost a pound, nor gained a pound (one point for me i guess : / could have been worse..) Then i got pregnant with my second child. long story short by the time i was about to burst i was only 5 lbs heavier than i was pre-pregnancy i guess my pregnant sized metabolism was working in my favour. afterwards 15 lbs lighter and with my aches and pains all gone i was glowing. it wasnt much but i had the lowest number i had in years and since ive always maintained my weight wherever i was and i maintained that for a few months I figured those 15 lbs were mine. not so. when i stopped breastfeeding a few months later my numbers climbed right back up, pounds at a time.... i'm doomed....

I feel like im defeating the laws of weightloss...

My eating habits IMO are fine... My flaws may be my portions at supper time are sometime a little on the bigger side according to the food guide. I also have a tendancy to want to snack at night time since my husband is a junkfood and snack junkie (again... a man of perfect weight... imagine my frustration...) but i try to stay away and if anything its practially plain popcorn... All in all I'm strong believer that i will not starve myself and if im hungry (truely hungry) i will eat and if i want to have a cupcake i will have a damn cupcake because if a weightloss program is too hard and you NEVER get to have anything you enjoy your going to cave completely...

Physically I'm pretty active, and according to fitness.coms fitometer in pretty great shape. although its not considered exersize i am running around all day doing housework/yardwork and taking care of kids... i dont even know how many times a day i run up and down my stairs. I'm not the type to be sitting around when there are things that need doing and you rarely see me plopped in front of the tv.

The strange thing is that i used to eat more (more junk at that) and was a whole lot lazier when i worked at a call center before i left on maternity leave with my second child and never went back. In theory if intake less calories and burn more while being physically active even just cleaning as apposed to sitting at a desk shouldnt at least something happen?

Though it's a little long i feel that with an understanding of my past it helps better understand my delimma in the present and hopefully I can get some answers that best apply to me.

Most recently my life has become even more active. my daughter started kindergaurden in september and since i do not drive i walk her to and from school every day. now its only a 5 minute walk there but its a brisk walk. I have to take my time on my way there so 4 year old feet can somewhat keep up but on my way home and on my way to pick her up i might as weel be running with my stroller...

My huge step... I bought a wii fit about a month and a half ago in which i do about an hour of exersizes in the period of time between when i drop my daughter off and pick her up... i do it at this time simply because my daughter is gone and my son is napping and i can do it without any one tugging at me or bugging me...

I know wii fit isnt supposed to be a miracle work out plan or anything but for the first time i have something to motivate me to do REAL exersizes. I can't afford nor do i have the time to go to a gym and have a trainer help me out. so its the best i can do... anyway.. before i got the wii i had already somehow gotten to a somewhat firm 215 which was still better then the 220 i was stuck at.. when i started wii fit i was all gung ho and was working an hour a day 7 days straight, feeling the pain and proud of it! within a week I was down to 210. now 7 days a week is very unrealistic for me, especially on weekends when im the busiest and everyone is here to inturrupt me. so it went down to only week days. my weight spiked up a few pounds then continued to decline till i got to 206... the lowest i had been since i lost weight a year and a half ago with my pregnancy... i was at an all time high... and with that my weight spiked right back up to 210ish where it hovers to this day and been stuck for the past several weeks... its only 5 lbs but how am i ever going to lose 50 if i cant even get past this 5?

i know i need to keep going i know it takes time and though i keep picking up my motivation for a day or two, my motivation is going out the window. i feel so hopeless... i feel like im giving and getting nothing... i feel like at least when i wasnt trying to lose weight i wasnt being dissapointed. i feel like why am i waisting my only alone time on something comepletly unproductive when i could be doing some more productive housework or at least having some quiet time relaxing by myself.

I keep telling myself that its probably just muscle gain or maybe it because ive been drinking a lot more water... i know i shouldn't care about numbers but how else do i know its even working? ive been thinking about getting one of those body fat hydration level scales to see if that can give me some insight. BTW does anyone know how well those work? all i know is im tired of looking at my wii fit BMI and being told im obese (which i have no problem with, im not in denial... i know what i am and dont really care what its called) i just know its not all that accurate since im pretty muscular it has no way of knowing that my body mass is affected by my muscle mass...

i dont know... i just dont understand it... im lost... i feel im in good shape...i have no physical pains due to my extra weight. i can run up and down my upstairs and basement stairs several times in a row and am barely winded (i do it several time a day when it come to laundry and my washing machine being in the basement)
under all my belly fat i must have some seriouse abs with all the ab strenghth i have, i have muscular arms and legs. whith all the muscle i have and muscle supposedly being a great calorie burner why am i not getting anywhere?

I know weightloss is a pretty long process and maybe im just impatient i just didnt think it would take THAT long to see results... aside from straving myself which i wont do or spending an extra hour or two a day exersizing which is unrealistic for me... i dont know what else i can do... should i just keep doing what im doing and just try to stay motivated? how can i stay motivated when my numbers keep going higher or staying the same? I will post a list of the exersizes i focus on and the reps im doing soon and maybe someone can give me insight to let me know if its not enough or if i just need to keep it up and be patient...
 
My Daily Exersizes

I do other exersizes as well but these are the ones I mostly focus on since I've read they the most effective (for excersizing more muscles at once) and/or because i enjoy them the most. These are all on Wii Fit.

Tricep Extention with 10 lb wieght (20 Reps/Arm)
Push up and side plank ( {girly style :p} 10 Reps, 20 If I can)
Rowing Sqaut (45 Reps)
Single Leg Twist (20 Reps/Leg)
The Lunge (20 Reps/Leg)
The jackknife sit up (today in my wii fit challenge I accomplished 100 Reps)

I also do some yoga poses. These are the ones i do most frequently:

The Warior
The Chair
The Bridge
The Triangle
Downward Facing Dog
The Standing Knee Pose

Finally in the arobics section! I love to do the hula hoop. I really feel it in my abs and it gets my heart racing. I like to do it between the above excersizes as a sort of INTERVAL TRAINING to get my heart rate up and blood pumping between excersizes

I usually finish off my workout with a faster paced step for 20 minutes.
 
My Eating Habits

I usually start the morning with things like a small bowl of cereal or 2 pieces of toast with jam or maybe a begel with low fat cream cheese

Sometimes I may just have what the kids are having and have a small bowl of KD or a grilled cheese sandwhich... no not my best options but i dont always have time for making myself seperate meals if i have time to eat at all. If i do ill make myself some rice with low sodium soya sauce or have some carrots with low fat sour cream dip or maybe a ham sandwhich

any snacks are usually veggies with dip or a handfull of vegetable crackers.

Dinners dinner time can be any thing from a 3 course meat, potatoe, veggie meal to spaghetti with meatsauce to tacos to home made pizza and fries ... I try to keep my serving sizes to a minimum but so that im not still hungry. but i will say dinner time is the only time where i dont think about calories necessarily.

Im not a dieter. iv'e always found that if i restrict what i eat too much i just feel deprived and just depresses me till i quite bluntly say F*** It and eat everything i've wanted for the whole time period.
I don't count calories, it sounds rediculous to me. ill look at the nutritional information to get a general idea of what im putting in my mouth i am always consious of what kind of food it is im putting in my mouth and try to stick to more natural forms of food if i can but i wont sit there and whrite down every calorie I ate that day... i tried it, its not for me, it just makes me crazy...

the thing is even if my dinner was like 1000 calories ive only eaten like 500 throughout the rest of the day so that by 5:30 it's not really a whole lot right? even if i squeeze in half a bag of popcorn as a snack between dinner and bed im only looking at about 1700 calories in a day... is it just me or does it not seem all that bad? maybe my thinking is warped.... what do you think?
 
A new Attitude

Over the past several days of being on the forum i've realized my attitude was a little off... I realize now that i've been doing a lot of complaining and been stuck in the rut of saying to myself "it must be impossible for me to lose weight. it just doesnt make sence". In reality it's only been a month and a half and im just starting out and it will take some time...

i've learned that though it is nice to see lower numbers, I shouldnt focus on them so much because for one when it doesnt do what i want i just get depressed and makes me not want to bother. Second, a lot of things could be contributing to the changing numbers especially since im focusing on quite a bit of strength training...

Most importantly i've learned that i need to keep truckin no matter what the scale says because its not about reaching the perfect number. It's about changing life as i know it, and this is just the beginning, the weight will follow suit...
 
Well done getting a Wii fit, It is a good way to get started doing more exercise. A fellow student in my PT course got one and was surprised how much of a workout shot got despite her existing fitness level.

take measurements and use those as a method of tracking progress in adition to the scales because when the scales may not have changes your body shape may have.
 
I know I invested in one of those scales that Tell you your weight , body water, total body fat and the calories needed to maintain your weight, lol of course im not trying to MAINTAIN I wanna lose it. so u can reduce what it tells you. I didnt know if you were interested just thought i'd share. It wasn't even that expensive Its the Tanita BF681W one. it helps me more than thought it would. You can program 4 people and they have a guest mode which is awesome because I dont wan to enter my age height and fitness level everytime I wanna use it I push one, my stuff pops up and the fun begins LOL
 
Trusylver said:
Well done getting a Wii fit, It is a good way to get started doing more exercise. A fellow student in my PT course got one and was surprised how much of a workout shot got despite her existing fitness level.

take measurements and use those as a method of tracking progress in adition to the scales because when the scales may not have changes your body shape may have.
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thanks! wii fit really is a helpful tool. It's the first thing ive ever tried to assist in weight loss and i'm impressed with it. it's great because it gives me plenty of workouts to change up every day. it motivates me because im always trying to improve my score in the game. and its the closest thing i'll get to a trainer monitoring my movements and giving me tips. iv'e had it for about 6 weeks and im down 10 lb so far... i would probably be farther, but i had a few weeks where i cheaped out on my workouts (less days less time) thinking it wasn't going to help anyway after i hit a platue, then gained 5 back. but since ive been on this forum i've gained a new attitude, got back into working out a full hour 5 days a week and the 5 i gained back fell off in a few days.
im trying not to take numbers so seriously now and just trust that if i keep up the hardwork every day it will pay off. :)
 
BetterBody81 said:
I know I invested in one of those scales that Tell you your weight , body water, total body fat and the calories needed to maintain your weight, lol of course im not trying to MAINTAIN I wanna lose it. so u can reduce what it tells you. I didnt know if you were interested just thought i'd share. It wasn't even that expensive Its the Tanita BF681W one. it helps me more than thought it would. You can program 4 people and they have a guest mode which is awesome because I dont wan to enter my age height and fitness level everytime I wanna use it I push one, my stuff pops up and the fun begins LOL
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i am really interested in one of those scales. i just wasnt sure if it did what i thought it did and havent gotten to looking it up yet. my husband tried to tell me all it does is caculate your BMI the same way wii fit does but i could have swore i saw a commercial and that it actually can tell what your body fat and water weight are. which is very handy because those are what matter... my bmi considers me to be obese but it also doesnt consider then i have a lot of muscle mass or may be carrying extra water. thanks for the info :) :hurray:
 
Though i will not allow the numbers on the scale affect my mood or performance in my workout. today I weighed in at 205 which is the lightest i have managed to get in the past 5 years and only accomplished twice. I only have 6 lbs to go before i am below the 200 mark wich for me will be amazing. just to have a 1 as the first number in my weight is at this point almost unimaginable. lol am i really as rediculous as i sound? lol :blush5:
 
Woohoo! Nice work :)
I have a Wii Fit too and it's actually a really useful little tool. On thing I just got yesterday, that I think will really help a ton is I picked up a bodybugg. It's a little device that your wear all day that tracks your movements and how much calories you're burning. Then you enter your food intake and it lets you know exactly were you are each day. It also give's meal plans and helps you plan your goals. It was on sale for 129.95 yesterday, so I finally got one. There is a 12.00 a month fee after the first three months, but if it helps then it will be well worth it, I think. (). It also helps as if your wear it 24x7 for a few days, you get a really accurate picture of how much on average your body burns in calories daily. (Oh and no I dont work or sell these things :)

I'm with you as well on not being a dieter. I never have been able to diet, and starve myself, it just dosent work for me. I have managed to lose about 55lbs in the last 5 months, through just getting into the gym and getting some good exercise, and reducing my portions, and trying to generally eat healthier.

The good thing is that your here, and your already off to a great job!!
 
GregOlso said:
Woohoo! Nice work :)
I have a Wii Fit too and it's actually a really useful little tool. On thing I just got yesterday, that I think will really help a ton is I picked up a bodybugg. It's a little device that your wear all day that tracks your movements and how much calories you're burning. Then you enter your food intake and it lets you know exactly were you are each day. It also give's meal plans and helps you plan your goals. It was on sale for 129.95 yesterday, so I finally got one. There is a 12.00 a month fee after the first three months, but if it helps then it will be well worth it, I think. (). It also helps as if your wear it 24x7 for a few days, you get a really accurate picture of how much on average your body burns in calories daily. (Oh and no I dont work or sell these things :)

I'm with you as well on not being a dieter. I never have been able to diet, and starve myself, it just dosent work for me. I have managed to lose about 55lbs in the last 5 months, through just getting into the gym and getting some good exercise, and reducing my portions, and trying to generally eat healthier.

The good thing is that your here, and your already off to a great job!!
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Thanks!
that does sound like an interesting device. I tend to wonder how many calories I'm burning as I do things... but I think I would more or less look at it as something satisfies my curiousity... If it didnt cost that much I would probably buy one. but personally I dont feel I have a strong necessity for one. or at least not yet. so far things are going good on my own :)

Some people swear the best way to lose weight is through diet then theres people like me who swear by excersize. I find it much easier to get myself to excersize and feel good about it, than to tell myself you can;t have that and feel crappy about it. all in all you need Proper excersize AND nutrition but my focus will always be excersize, And thats the way I like it :D
 
So, I was feeling a bit guilty today... I didn't get much sleep last night, so as my hubby suggested i took a nap during my usual work out time when my daughter was at school and my son was napping. to top that off my neighbour brought me 3 huge slices of cake last night (sabotage I tell you). and as its been sitting on my counter all day evertime I walked by I would end up "tasting" some icing. Thats actually kind of pissed me off a little so I decided to say F U cake and threw it in the garbage. On a brighter note while my husband put up some more christmas lights, I decided to rake the front lawn (in the dark) for the sake of getting at least some last minute excersize in. Now I dont feel as guilty which is always good :santa:
 
Im freaking out a little on the inside :willy_nilly: I missed my workout yesterday and now im going to miss it tomorrow because some of my family is comming for a visit during that time (it's the only time they can make it and they have to pick up some furniture). I missed my workout yesterday and now im going to miss it tomorrow. Am i over reacting? I just feel like I'm on a roll and im afraid all these days off are going to throw it for a loop...
 
MotherOf2 said:
Im freaking out a little on the inside :willy_nilly: I missed my workout yesterday and now im going to miss it tomorrow because some of my family is comming for a visit during that time (it's the only time they can make it and they have to pick up some furniture). I missed my workout yesterday and now im going to miss it tomorrow. Am i over reacting? I just feel like I'm on a roll and im afraid all these days off are going to throw it for a loop...
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Oh honey! You'll be fine!! Just don't let it effect your next days work out :) Perhaps you can squeeze in a little jumping jacks or something, lol (i know it sounds silly) but anyway don't fret! It will be OK!!!! I know that sounds lame coming from someone who makes excuses to not go to the gym but I swear if I took my own advice sometimes I'd be skinny minnie by now!! ugh!!

Also, do you love your wii fit??? I want a wii so bad!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I know i shouldnt be freaking so much. I just feel like weight slip on so fast and easily if i mis 2 days out of the 5 i work out im going to wake up with an extra 5-10 lbs lol.
I LOVE my Wii Fit! As A Matter Of Fact That IS my workout. I collect 1 hour of wii fit credits a day. credits are minutes you collect from each workout. i probably wouldnt be as dedicated without it. it graphs my weight makes me take a body test every day so i always know where im at. it graphs how much i work out and in wich areas, being yoga strength training or aerobics. and based on my own research it has a combination of the most effective excersizes. by that i mean they work the most amount of muscles in one excersize. the best oart is its not just a workout its a game and im always looking to beat my own score (and others if they play along). I could go on and on about it i just love it. if you havent checked it out at yet, you should.
 
Hey there. You are doing great so far. It really does take a lot of time. I know I want to see results right away and I have to remind myself that I didn't get fat overnight. You have the right attitude, you will get there. I think the Wii Fit is a great tool. At least you're doing something to exercise. Don't get down on yourself for missing a couple workouts. Like xxmanduh said, just make sure that it doesn't affect your next workout. Sometimes life happens and you can't get to your workout. On the days you can get your scheduled workout in just try to go for a walk or do something active. Housework and chasing your kids counts!!!! As long as you're not sitting around all day, then you are doing something great for your body. It doesn't have to be on your Wii. Keep it up. You are doing great!!
 
lol yeah I'm trying not to stress... the problem is i've kind of engraved in my mind that it's impossible for me to lose weight wich I'm still working to unravel... I think once i get passed that darn 205 mark i'll start believing it's going to work but right now im still sitting at a point i've been to and bounced back from all too easily. for some reason i feel (or just worry) that what im doing right now is only going to maintain me at 205 which kind of freaks me out because no one should have to work this hard to be 205lbs lol... I dont really count chasing kids or housework as anything because i worked my butt off doing that too and I was still maintaining 220 at that point...
Right now my concern is that what i'm doing isnt right... my general idea/plan is to work on gaining muscle to be able to increase my BMR, in general my metabolism. so my main focus is strength training. I do have cardio and what not too. i'm just worried im not going about it the right way. i see all of these post about working these muscles these days and cardio these days when i do all of it every day. then theres the thing about you should focus on cardio first and dropping your calories to lose the fat, THEN do strength training and up your calories.... I dont know lol... it's too much stuff to think about. I wish my body could tell me exactly what i should be doing..
for now im just sticking to what im doing unless i stop seeing results. but my theory is if i just stick to strength training and not restrict my calories like a dieter who just wants to drop fat does, it might take longer to drop the weight but in the end i'll have a higher metabolism which is ultimately what i want.
lol i need some professional help i think :banghead: lol :leaving:
 
I know what you mean. I too get confused about what weight loss method is best. I really just drive myself crazy sometimes trying to do the 'right' method. I haven't even weighed myself since before I started coming here. I'm scared that if I do and my weight hasn't changed, I'll go eat a cake or pie.:piggy: Right now I'm going to stick with one thing like you. I know that if you keep at it, the weight will start coming off. I know it's frustrations, but keep going. I can't remember, have you ever checked to see if your thyroid function is normal? Sometimes if your thyroid is not functioning properly, you can either gain/lose too much weight or stay the same. Just an idea.
 
wii fit has me weigh in every day which it says is good bc it helps you always know where your at but it also causes me to flinch when it goes up even a pound (which i'm trying to keep under control after all if its only a pound its probably just water anyway). I've thought about having my thyroid tested but I guess ive just never gotten to it. I never get around to seeing the doctor. I didnt even get around to seeing the doctor for my one year visit after having my son back in July :S. Also I havent really even tried till almost 2 months ago so i didnt really have a real reason to believe it could be a problem. theres no reason i shouldnt be down to 200 in about 2-3 weeks if i still dont see a change maybe i'll book an appointment...
 
MotherOf2 said:
lol yeah I'm trying not to stress... the problem is i've kind of engraved in my mind that it's impossible for me to lose weight wich I'm still working to unravel...
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your doing great and I am sure you have the determination to get there this time :)

there is no need for things to be complicated, stick to your strength and your cardio, and you will reach your goal !!
 
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