It's about frickin' time!

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lil-zombie

New member
Hey all,

I've been lurking here for a while, and I have to say that these forums have been a big inspiration to me. That said I think it's time that I start posting to keep the motivation up, so I'm starting my diary today.


Here is a quick background:

I've been overweight since, well since always. Last summer I spent my vacation in San Francisco and had an awesome time, but It wasn't as good as it could have been because I found myself struggling physically more than I ever have, those hills can really kick a fat person ass. Looking back at the photos from that vacation, I really had trouble even looking at my self, something had to give.

So since the fall I've been working on loosing weight, and it has been going well so far. I started in the fall by buying a scale and reducing the portions that i eat, drinking a boat-load of water, as well as cutting out junk and eating better foods. I love cooking, so making my own more healthy meals isn't an issue, but it did take a bit of will power to discover foods beyond cheese and butter, it's an ongoing process but it's is coming along.

I had lost a bunch of weight on just changing my food strategy (about 30lb), but at first I was just winging it and using a bit of common sense. Now I've taken the leap to actually counting calories.

In the new year I also decided that I need to just suck it up and start being more active. So I set a goal of doing a bike marathon in the summer (I enjoy cycling), and got a gym membership so I could get myself in shape over the winter.

At the gym I've been doing cardio and free-weights, and the weight is continuing to come off.



Basic Stats:

Gender: Female
Age: 32
Height: 5'4"
Starting Weight: I'm gonna say about 285, but I'm pretty sure it was more than that.
Current Weight: 229 as of this morning.
Goal weight for now: 165


All that sounds pretty good, but I'm still finding it pretty discouraging at times, I feel like I've been doing a ton of work just to go from "really, really fat" to "really fat". But that's the point of this diary I guess. Gotta keep the motivation up when i'm felling pissy.

I'm gonna post some pics of the progress eventually, but I'm not sure that I'm up for that yet. I think I wanna break 200 before I start getting all public with photos.

I'll keep positing at I continue to loose weight, and I will continue to loose weight I promise.
 
Welcome to the forum!

Gongrats on your weight loss so far! Good luck on reaching your goal!
 
Hi Welcome to forum, and well done you for losing the weight so far. You will feel so much better and have so much more motivation when you see it coming off, and I have all the faith that you will reach your goal <3 xx
 
Aww, thanks guys. I'm totally feeling the love on this forum, reading other people journals and posts are the best inspiration in the world.
 
Ok, Time for an update...

Gym bits are going well. The biking is getting a bit dull in the gym, so to spice it up I've started doing a bit of running. I can't wait for warmer weather, so I can get out on a real bike!!

I jogged for 20 min (i think for the first time in my life) on Tuesday, and today I ran for 5 min of my 20min jogging workout, and i managed to live to tell about it... woot!

On the down side, I'm beginning to think I've hit a bit of a plateau in the weight department. I'm still clocking in around 229ish, which as been steady for about 2 weeks now. I'm not really sure at this point if I'm miss-calculating calories or just hitting a slump.

I thinking I'll drop another 250 cal off my daily and see if that sparks up any more movement on the scale, but i'm a wee bit concerned because i'm already on a 1000 cal daily deficit.

Too much?

I've read before that adding back in some calories can spark up the weight-loss, but that still seems counter-intuitive to me.

Advice anyone?
 
Congratulations on all the weightloss!! I'm doing p90x and some people have found that if they don't have enough calories their body will not let go of the fat. I think they were doing under 1400 calories. If yours is really low I would advise doing more exercise and upping the calories. I would just say experiment with calories but do not go too low. Also if you eat lots of sodium its probably just your body retaining water too.
 
wow - congrats on the weight loss so far, that is fantastic!

When I lost weight 2 years ago I hit a plateau for a few weeks. I increased my calories with a couple of healthy foods (like whey protein, etc...) and the next week I was down 2-3 pounds. Mentally, it makes NO sense - but it is worth a shot. Sometimes we starve ourselves trying to lose this weight and that is just another form of being unhealthy.

Happy losing!!
 
Blarg... lose weight faster!

I've been feeling impatient recently.. mostly I think I'm just board, I need a new hobby or something to distract me because I've been fixating on diet and exercise lately.

Sometimes you just need to bitch out-loud for the sake of bitching I guess.

In terms of a real update, I did tighten up my calorie count a wee bit and the weight started to move again, I'm down to 215ish at the moment, but oddly none of the weight seems to be coming off in any of the areas I'd like it to (ain't that always the way). Truthfully, I can't really tell that I've lost much of anything, god knows where the pounds are going, mostly I just feel like i'm getting flabbier. Perhaps I'm just deflating?

That said, I guess I'm just too close to it to see the change. It's kind of weird, if i try on old pants from before I started this whole thing they look like clown pants, but if i look at myself in the mirror i don't see any change. I hate my f-ed up self perception.

On a positive note, I've been doing well at the running, I'm up to about 4k in 30 min, which is huge for me.. and the weather is finally starting to turn around so i might even get out on the bike one of these days.

I'll update again soon..
 
Hello lilzombie, I really liked your first post, because it sounded like you were going to make eating wholesome foods and giving up the junk the priority. And also because you talk about cycling and i am into cycling.

But you don't keep a list of what you are eating. Do you do that somewhere else. I believe its a good way to identify where things need to tighten up.

I think the fact that you cut back on some calories and noticed a result proves the issue here. People plateau when they are eating too much for the amount of exertions they put out. I think that most people who worry about this, are far from going into starvation mode.

I find its easier to see where to cut back if i note what i eat daily. But you gotta list everything!

I was also pleased to see about the bike riding. Yeah it must be hard riding inside. So dull. I couldn't do that. I wouldn't even try it. I'm a touring cyclist. I lose lots of weight while touring. Maybe you could get into that idea too. I am going away soon for two months. I ride for about 4-8 hours a day carrying about 15kg of gear, depending where i need to camp or how good i'm feeling. I still only eat three meals a day. I lose fat fast. Its an exciting way to lose weight.

Cycling would be a lot better for your knees than running. If you are on the heavier side, running is very hard on the knees. Walking would be better than running. Yesterday i went for a long walk and noticed that it wasn't that much slower than running when i first start. I walked 8km. It took 58minutes. Steady exercise like that for at least an hour takes off fat.

Have a read of the discussion on cohens diet on the special diets forum. I am not saying you should do it. Its expensive but it might give you some ideas. One girl gave me a link to her food diary when i asked to know what they are eating. I still don't know how much they are eating but those women seem to be losing weight. Though they don't exercise. But that's another matter. YOu are into so you should keep doing it, right.

I am a bit of a ranter. Sorry about that.
 
Hey fortyfour, don't worry about the rant-y-ness, I love to get other peoples input and opinions, that's why I'm here.

Food-wise I'm using my phone to track what i eat and the calories in/out for the day. I'm using an app called "lose it" and it is working pretty good so far. If nothing else it is making me feel accountable for whatever it is i'm shoving into my mouth at any given moment.

I've still been trying to cook healthy and learn new recipes, I've really cut down on the amount of red meat, cheese, butter, and that stuff, that i eat. It still makes the occasional appearance at meal time, just not as often. The big goal for me it to change my food lifestyle, I need to learn how to cook foods that are healthy and satisfying.. I can't just be on a "diet" and it can't feel like i'm restricting or punishing myself, because I'll just gain it all back if i slip into old culinary habits.

Some recent meal highlights include: Bean Burritos, Prawn Chowder, Vegetarian Chili, and a Slapped-togeather Curry that turned out fricken awesome. I'm eating lots of fruit and snacking on vegetables too. When I'm out I try to stick to stuff that sounds vaguely reasonable but restaurant foods are tough, it's hard to tell what the hell they are putting in there. That said, I have no intentions of locking myself up in my apartment until I hit my goal weight, a girl's gotta have some fun every once in a while right? Usually I just make up for it with some extra gym time.

One of the things that I've been trying to reconcile is my shitty relationship with salad. The problem being.. I don't like salad.

Ok, maybe that's a bit harsh...

I mean, I guess... I "love" salad... I'm just not "In love" with salad. If you know what I'm saying. ;)

I keep trying to have some sort of relationship with salad, but I find it an unsatisfying experience every time we have dinner together. Worse still, when I do enjoy a "date" with salad, its because chicken or something I like better tagged along.

I'm sorry salad, I'm just using you to be with chicken... It's not me, it's you.

Seriously tho.. The cycle touring sounds like a hell of a lot of fun. I'm looking to do some of that this summer.. There are some local attractions that I want to check out, so i can get more in-touch with my local region and get outside at the same time. On a similar note, I had dinner with a friend from college the other week, he was telling me about a bike tour he did across Australia.. it sounded amazing, a little too big of a trek for me right now but you never know...

Yikes! Who's rant-y now?
 
lilzombie - well done on everything you have accomplished so far. I had to chuckle with your line about feeling flabbier. I am going through that phase right now - but only my midsection. One day it feels smaller and tighter - the next day...blah and flabby. I find the body changes quite strange....but I know there are changes happening.

I'm with ya on the 'clown' pants and not really seeing too much of a difference.

Keep it up, the weight will come off.
 
ok, just quick update for today..

I'm clocking in at 208lbs at the moment..

I've been speeding up on my running so now I'm doing about 4.5k in 25 min.

And on my days off from the gym I've been sneaking in a 10k bike ride after work, I'm wishing that i could go longer but the weather has been supper crappy so i start getting a little pissy around kilometer 9..

Today i decided to bike to the game store and pick up portal2 for the xbox, that trip ended being 23K in total, and aside from my feet almost freezing off in the windy 2º weather we had, I enjoyed the ride... also now my ass hurts.

Food is getting more fun again too. Because of all the extra exercise I've been able to add in some more treats and slightly richer foods. I'm still being diligent about counting calories, and being mindful about the quality of foods that i'm eating, but I feel like I'm struggling with it less.

Hopefully next time i get around to checking in I'll have broken the 200lbs mark. I can't wait untill that happens. I've been 200lbs + for as long as i can remember I guess maybe since grade 11.. I mean, crap that's over 15 years.

I'm still thinking of a good way to celebrate that one....
 
wow! your sooo close to that 200 mark! I can't wait to hear you come back and say you're in ONDERLAND!!!
 
picture time

Ok, so at one point long ago i said I would post some pics.. Not sure what I was thinking but I said I'd do it, so we might as well rip the band-aid off fast.



Alright. here goes...

attachment.php


That's me just after the 2010 Winter Olympics @ 280ish.




And here I am today @ 198lbs...

attachment.php




And here is a conehead smiley just because i watched that movie last night.

:conehead:


It's weird, I thought i would notice more of a difference, but I really don't see much (between 280 me and 198 me, not between me and the conehead).

Maybe that's just my f-ed up self-perception working overtime. But whatever, I'm still happy with what I see in the numbers, and physically I feel a million times better.

So there you go, I finally broke 200lb and worked up the nerve to post some pics. Now I'm gonna go celebrate by having a beer and then loosing another 40lbs over the summer..

I'll keep y'all posted.
 
I'm checking in at 191/196 lb today.. 191 is the weight I'm at if Im using my old scale, but I just bought a significantly better digital scale and that reads at just a tad over 196..

I think i like the old scale better lol.

On the bright side I'm happy that those numbers are still both lighter than my last weigh-in, so there's not much to complain about.

In other news I joined a local girls football (soccer) league, I haven't played since i was a kid... It's been a heck of a lot of fun, and some good exercise too!

I'm trying to keep the momentum up and the running is getting a bit dry so Im looking for variety, the football should help.

Also, I'm proud to say that I haven't started my car in a week, I've been biking every where I can, given the price of gas right now I'm more than happy to let the car sit for awhile :)

ok, so that's it for the roses, and sunshine, now I will share my WFT weight-loss story of the week...

Last night I'm laying in bed reading, after I finished the article I was on, I rolled over to put my ipad on the night table. When i roll back into my mattresses body dent I feel this large lump under my back. WTF is that? I think. I look around for the usual suspects, the phone is its dock, the clicker is on the table, the cat is laying at my feet.. so what the fuck is that under my back!?!?!

I lean over to the one side and swipe my hand under my back to fish out the lumpy culprit.. At this point I realize that the lump is me! Yeah, that's right, my loose-back-fat-skin got folded up under me. Wtf and ewwww, all at the same time.

It was one thing when my clothing didn't fit, but now my "me" is starting to become "ill-fitting", and this isn't the sort of problem i can solve at The Gap...

I hope that as time passes and I loose more weight the lumpy-flabby bits will tighten up. But, if they don't I'm gonna have to start collecting skinny girls so I can make myself and new meat suit like that guy from silence of the lambs.
 
Congrats on the weightloss so far! You're doing great! I'm not sure if its just the closeness/angle of your pictures, but from what I can see, there is a noticeable difference between your "then" and "now." I think sometimes we're just too hard on ourselves sometimes, and when we really want something, it just can't seem to happen soon enough! But don't push yourself into thinking you're not doing well. You've come a long way and you should be proud! As corny as it sounds, I find myself quoting, of all things, an icon pic I saw on a friend's xanga (hah, who remembers that? pre-myspace/facebook days anyone?). "Don't try and rush fate, all good things come to those who wait." Don't rush yourself, have patience, and always remember that you're the doing the best that you can. It'll take time, but in the end, its all worth it!
 
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