A work in progress

bella85

bella85

New member
Shortly after my brother came to visit me - I bought a scale and stepped on.

It read an astounding 305lbs.
I sat down on my bed and cried.
I work hard and was able to get down to 265.
This was fall of 08/spring09

Ive been able to maintain 270 for the past two years - but I am fed up.


My goal is 160lbs. I dont have a deadline - but I want to be able to have kids in the near future - and I am afraid my weight is holding me back - so the sooner the better.
 
Every percentage that you loose (27lbs = 10% loss for you atm) helps with fertility, joint movement, and over all health. The best thing I did was start immediately with a diet overhaul and then start on the working out.

The biggest thing I learned was the total calories I ate a day (1200) was the big deal. I am a mom. I have a very busy life. I didn't have the time or the patience to make sure my diet was all low carb or low fat or a certain percentage of things. I was cooking for a family of 3 so I had to make meals we all could enjoy and be with in my calories. Some days when I really wanted a cookie I would have it but then I would need to shift around the calories I had left and make good choices to stay at the 1200 mark. So for me diet wise it was all about staying at the 1200 calories a day not necessarily made up those 1200 calories. Although it do eat pretty damn healthy now with the occasional treat (a woman needs her chocolate fix now and then!!!).


As for working out I started only able to walk 20 minutes or so on flat ground. Every week I added 10 minutes. Until I was able to do 60 minutes. Then I started by finding a set walking pattern of walks that were 4-6 miles and began trying to beat my best time by adding sporadic jogging This took around 3.5 months. After 3 more months I was running those 4-6 mile patterns (up and down hill to boot!)

As for weight lifting I am a HUGE HUGE HUUUUGE fan of it. As you build muscle you burn calories just sitting around. I started with 5lbs dumbbells (one for each hand) then I would add 3-4lbs to the weights a month and restarted the weight lifting from the basics doing 10 reps x2 and move up to 20 reps x2 slowly. Going to fast or to hard can cause injury and slow your progress. I did 5-8-12-15 dumbbell sets if that helps give you an idea.

Just know YOU CAN DO IT!!! It is important to celebrate the small victories and not let the bumps get you down <3 <3 <3
 
Hey bella, I think that kiksalu had some great points! Start slow and do what is manageable.

I like the idea of making smaller goals like losing 5% of your body weight in a certain time frame. These shorter-term goals can be really encouraging because you constantly see progress. If you only think about that ultimate goal of 160, then getting down to 250 is still going to seem so far away from your goal. Sometimes that can get discouraging and often people give up. They seem to forget that they just lost 20 lbs! All they are looking at is how far away they are from their end goal.

Do you mind if I ask you what you are currently doing for diet and exercise?
 
I just started using myfitnesspal on my phone to track my calorie intake. Right now I am trying to maintain under 1900cals a day. I would like to lower that but I want to try and make sure I succeed at 1900 first.
I got a gym membership before Christmas and had been going several times a week - however I just moved and havent gotten back into that schedule.
I recently attained a bowflex and have been using it daily - combined with walking 30mins to and hour a day.
I understand the importance of smaller goals - its just hard to look at it ina smaller frame of mind. Even though I have lost 40lbs - which for some people is huge - it seems like nothing to me : /
 
Hey Bella, it looks like you're off to a good start. If you're just starting with these changes, then definitely give yourself some time to start seeing results. Have you started a journal yet? This can be a great way to keep you on track because you constantly have people 'checking in' on you to see if you're doing your exercise, sticking to your diet, etc.

What type of workout do you do on the Bowflex? Do you do a whole body workout every day? If so, you may want to look at spacing it out so that you do a whole body workout every other day, with a day of 'rest' in between (you can still do cardio), or split up the workout so that you can use the bowflex every day, but not work the same muscle groups 2 days in a row.
 
bella85 said:
I understand the importance of smaller goals - its just hard to look at it ina smaller frame of mind. Even though I have lost 40lbs - which for some people is huge - it seems like nothing to me : /
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I understand this all too well.

When I first started, I felt like losing 40, 50, even 60 pounds seemed like nothing. I'd look in the mirror and become discouraged at the fact that losing such a vast amount of weight had little impact on my general appearance.

But ya know, if you just stay with it, you will eventually notice a little bit of shape forming in your body. You'll notice small things overtime that you may missed initially. It will continue and eventually you'll be surprised at the changes :) It's a very gradual process. Believe me. It can test your patience at times, but the difference between succeeding and failing rests entirely on you. If you don't give up, you won't fail. Simple as that :)

Also, and I know it's difficult, but it would be a good idea to take monthly pictures of yourself so you can really see the differences. Front/Side shots in a shirt that's 2-3 sizes smaller than what you're wearing currently is how I did it.

I say it's difficult because it's not very encouraging looking at yourself in that condition at first, but it really does show you the progress you're making much more definitively than only by looking in the mirror every day :)

Eventually, you can look back on all the photos and use it as motivation to see just how far you've come :)

Good luck to you and keep us posted, bella! You can do this!
 
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Thanks :)
Its always good for the support.

I havent started an online journal to date. Its been a long time since I have been into blogging of any sort.

I did make it out to the gym today - I love going but it seems so hard to fit it into my schedule sometimes.
 
bella85 said:
Thanks :)
Its always good for the support.

I havent started an online journal to date. Its been a long time since I have been into blogging of any sort.

I did make it out to the gym today - I love going but it seems so hard to fit it into my schedule sometimes.
Click to expand...

Great job on making it to the gym! It can be hard to get into that routine! If you're not into posting a journal online, a personal journal is a great option because it keeps you accountable to yourself :)
 
Im not opposed to an online journal - I am just very personal about somethings. I have considered blogging but I like to keep my online people mostly seperate from my RL people.

I went to my parents and used their scale - I usually do this once a week since they have digital - and mine is just a spinny dial.
I weighed in two weeks ago about 286 on theirs (which on mine im usually between 270and 275) and today I was 281.8. Progress? I hope so. Fear... just water weight. I spose we will see :)
 
bella85 said:
Im not opposed to an online journal - I am just very personal about somethings. I have considered blogging but I like to keep my online people mostly seperate from my RL people.

I went to my parents and used their scale - I usually do this once a week since they have digital - and mine is just a spinny dial.
I weighed in two weeks ago about 286 on theirs (which on mine im usually between 270and 275) and today I was 281.8. Progress? I hope so. Fear... just water weight. I spose we will see :)
Click to expand...

Maybe you could at least have a chart that you update weekly with your weight loss numbers :)

It'll help with your accountability while providing the personal space between your online/irl people since it'll only be numbers and dates :)

Personally, I own 2 scales. The reason for that is I eventually became too heavy for the first scale to read (300lb limit), so I had to get a 400lb capacity one.

Every so often, I'll weight myself on both and it seems the 300lb capacity one will sometimes read 0.5-1lb higher than the 400lb one. Then other days, it'll be reversed. I don't know what that's about, but I've always used the 400lb one for my current progress since it seems to be the most consistent.

Anyway, keep up the great work, bella :)
 
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