Hello! My name is Lisa, and I've been looking for a fitness forum to interact with some folks with similar goals and hobbies. Fitness has slowly become my favorite hobby! It took a while to get here!
I've struggled with eating disorders, food addiction, and my weight since adolescence. My weight has always been up and down. Three years ago, I decided to lose weight in a much more, "healthy," manner than I'd been doing before and used SparkPeople's fitness and nutrition trackers, losing forty pounds! I felt great! However, despite my decision to make only changes in my diet and exercise that I thought I could maintain for a lifetime, events happened that changed my focus, and I was soon back to fastfood breakfasts, evenings on the couch with the TV, and fifty pounds back on.
Last summer, I was at my highest weight. I knew that I could lose weight again, however I wanted to stop placing so much emphasis on my weight and place more emphasis on how I felt. I wanted the energy, positivity, and exhileration that I felt when I was losing weight before. So, I decided that I'd just try to work on changing habits and forming ones that I definitely knew I'd want to keep around.
The biggest part of my goals were that I wanted to make fitness and exercise something that I LOVE - something that I'd look forward to. I focused solely on working out before work each weekday. I constantly affirmed to myself that this was to improve my moods and energy level. I was only using the Wii game My Fitness Coach to begin with.
By Christmastime, I'd saved up money for an elliptical and added that to my regimen. I'd either do the Fitness Coach game for thirty minutes, or stay on the elliptical for twenty and then do ten minutes of dumbell strength training. I lost some weight and was feeling great about myself! I hit a plateau with my weight loss but didn't let it frustrate me. I just continued to work out and tried to substitute some healthier meals in for at least one meal per day.
Two months ago, I went through a devastating breakup. Everyone expected that I'd use the emotional crisis as an excuse to let myself go with all the goals I'd accomplished (in this area and in many others, financial, spiritual, emotional, etc.) and indeed, for two days I did nothing but mope and cry. I did feel a strong pull to resort to my old habits and treat myself horribly like I'd done for so many years. I mean, if someone leaves you for the person that you are, you aren't likely to feel good enough about yourself to take care of yourself.
I bounced back, though! On the third day, I decided to stop crying about the fact that he'd taken his Wii, what I considered to be my main source of fitness, and his heart from me. I tuned my cable box to FitTv and did a workout with Gilad. I set up the DVR to record several of the shows off FitTv, and loved that I got to do a different exercise routine every morning. I use TurboJam, and love it, but doing the same moves everyday is so monotonous and boring.
I've kept it up since the breakup, and changing up my fitness routine broke through my plateau and I've been losing again! I can see definition forming on my stomach (my stealth abs underneath my beer belly lol), I'm receiving frequent compliments on how much better I look, and I feel even more confident and empowered, knowing that while many expected me to lose my motivation, I still have it. In fact, I'm feeling more like fitness is FUN for me and that I don't even need any extra motivation to get up and hop on the mat in the mornings.
Recently I've been trying to incorporate more stretching and flexibility routines, some yoga, and some breathing attunement. I'm getting more into my spiritual beliefs and want to keep everything balanced. It would be easy for me to make exercise an addiction and pour all of myself into it, but I need to stay balanced in order to keep from burning out.
So, my routine is really just whatever I feel like doing from the DVRed shows off of FitTv. I usually do a workout with Gilad three times per week and then do an episode of Namaste Yoga one day and something more fun one day. I love the Dance and Be Fit program, and I'm enjoying Cathe Frederich's coremax and stretchmax routines. I also still do TurboJam often.
Only thirty minutes in the morning for now, though I did an extra thirty minutes of TurboJam last night just for fun.
I've struggled with eating disorders, food addiction, and my weight since adolescence. My weight has always been up and down. Three years ago, I decided to lose weight in a much more, "healthy," manner than I'd been doing before and used SparkPeople's fitness and nutrition trackers, losing forty pounds! I felt great! However, despite my decision to make only changes in my diet and exercise that I thought I could maintain for a lifetime, events happened that changed my focus, and I was soon back to fastfood breakfasts, evenings on the couch with the TV, and fifty pounds back on.
Last summer, I was at my highest weight. I knew that I could lose weight again, however I wanted to stop placing so much emphasis on my weight and place more emphasis on how I felt. I wanted the energy, positivity, and exhileration that I felt when I was losing weight before. So, I decided that I'd just try to work on changing habits and forming ones that I definitely knew I'd want to keep around.
The biggest part of my goals were that I wanted to make fitness and exercise something that I LOVE - something that I'd look forward to. I focused solely on working out before work each weekday. I constantly affirmed to myself that this was to improve my moods and energy level. I was only using the Wii game My Fitness Coach to begin with.
By Christmastime, I'd saved up money for an elliptical and added that to my regimen. I'd either do the Fitness Coach game for thirty minutes, or stay on the elliptical for twenty and then do ten minutes of dumbell strength training. I lost some weight and was feeling great about myself! I hit a plateau with my weight loss but didn't let it frustrate me. I just continued to work out and tried to substitute some healthier meals in for at least one meal per day.
Two months ago, I went through a devastating breakup. Everyone expected that I'd use the emotional crisis as an excuse to let myself go with all the goals I'd accomplished (in this area and in many others, financial, spiritual, emotional, etc.) and indeed, for two days I did nothing but mope and cry. I did feel a strong pull to resort to my old habits and treat myself horribly like I'd done for so many years. I mean, if someone leaves you for the person that you are, you aren't likely to feel good enough about yourself to take care of yourself.
I bounced back, though! On the third day, I decided to stop crying about the fact that he'd taken his Wii, what I considered to be my main source of fitness, and his heart from me. I tuned my cable box to FitTv and did a workout with Gilad. I set up the DVR to record several of the shows off FitTv, and loved that I got to do a different exercise routine every morning. I use TurboJam, and love it, but doing the same moves everyday is so monotonous and boring.
I've kept it up since the breakup, and changing up my fitness routine broke through my plateau and I've been losing again! I can see definition forming on my stomach (my stealth abs underneath my beer belly lol), I'm receiving frequent compliments on how much better I look, and I feel even more confident and empowered, knowing that while many expected me to lose my motivation, I still have it. In fact, I'm feeling more like fitness is FUN for me and that I don't even need any extra motivation to get up and hop on the mat in the mornings.
Recently I've been trying to incorporate more stretching and flexibility routines, some yoga, and some breathing attunement. I'm getting more into my spiritual beliefs and want to keep everything balanced. It would be easy for me to make exercise an addiction and pour all of myself into it, but I need to stay balanced in order to keep from burning out.
So, my routine is really just whatever I feel like doing from the DVRed shows off of FitTv. I usually do a workout with Gilad three times per week and then do an episode of Namaste Yoga one day and something more fun one day. I love the Dance and Be Fit program, and I'm enjoying Cathe Frederich's coremax and stretchmax routines. I also still do TurboJam often.
Only thirty minutes in the morning for now, though I did an extra thirty minutes of TurboJam last night just for fun.