Reele's Diary

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reeledeele

reeledeele

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Hey, I'm Reele, and you guys are at the beginning of my journey.

Because I really seem to have gotten serious about my current goals, I came across this forum. So here's a little background about me (note: this is all in terms of Imperial measurements):
Female
19 years old
Height: 5'3"
Currently: 181.2 lbs.
Body Fat %: 43
BMI: 32.11
Medical Conditions: I suffer from Papilledema (I do not suffer from high blood pressure/ hypertension... I've been seeing a specialist and we're not to sure what's causing it... Yikes, but that's a different problem though, that I'm most definitely working on)

Outside of these stats, I've been pretty okay all my life. I was never the most active kid, but I wasn't ever the slowest. I know in recent years I trained a lot more martial arts, but did not see any weight loss from it. Or at least I would never know if I did, kind of did it for fun and wasn't keeping tabs. I do know tho I don;t recall the shrinking, for the most part I've had a lot of the same clothes for the past few years. But as I graduated, and got into the weird world of 'Young Adulting," I've noticed I've slowly started out growing the wardrobe I've had for years.

If you saw me, you wouldn't be able to even tell how much I weigh because I guess in terms of what's "in" I have good weight displacement/ distribution. However, I see and feel it. It's made me quite tired and I'm sick of not liking what I see. My goal is to get down to hopefully 130 lbs.; I'm shooting for this upcoming October either the beginning or late time of the month. So I guess this is just a way to hold myself accountable. I came here in hopes to find like-minded people that could motivate myself and me vice versa, as well as learn more about the healthiest ways to take care of my body as I try to re-sculpt it essentially. I really feel it this time, I know when all this Corona stuff was coming out I really thought in my head, "wow, this would be the perfect time to become a new you." For some reason those words didn't get me moving at first, but they have now! If you guys have any tips/ advice regarding someone in my weight loss range and experience please let me know. I'd love the help.

(Regarding my goal, I understand I'm not going to just sit at a 130, but I would like for my weight to fluctuate in the 125-130 lbs. range rather than the 175-180 lbs. range.)


♡ R.
 
Hey Reele, welcome to the forum!

Starting this diary was a good thing, it will be the best place for you to find "like-minded people that could motivate myself and me vice versa". You will find most folks here friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful. Read other's diaries too and don't hesitate to comment or ask questions of us.

Your goal of 50 lbs loss by October may possible, but it may also be a stretch. It never hurts to try, you could make it, but if you don't just losing weight is what's important not how fast.
reeledeele said:
I know when all this Corona stuff was coming out I really thought in my head, "wow, this would be the perfect time to become a new you." For some reason those words didn't get me moving at first, but they have now!
Click to expand...
Now is always the best time to start healthy living, virus or not!

I am looking forward to following your progress.
 
alligatorob said:
Hey Reele, welcome to the forum!

Starting this diary was a good thing, it will be the best place for you to find "like-minded people that could motivate myself and me vice versa". You will find most folks here friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful. Read other's diaries too and don't hesitate to comment or ask questions of us.

Your goal of 50 lbs loss by October may possible, but it may also be a stretch. It never hurts to try, you could make it, but if you don't just losing weight is what's important not how fast.

Now is always the best time to start healthy living, virus or not!

I am looking forward to following your progress.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot! I'm excited to be here, and already on your advice I've seen just how nice and motivating people are and can be. When it comes to the date, our absolutely right, I guess I just have it there to keep myself motivated and not lollygagging. As long as I get to a point I feel the healthiest, that's all I really want. I wish you well on your journey :)
 
I'll occasionally post new updated Diary entries in the coming months, but until that point, I'd like to use the end of this one to post good workouts and exercises I can become accustomed to. So that eventually, I can have this huge mental (and digital) catalog of how to get a dope workout with just myself or reasonable items around me. This is the first set of exercises I'm going to try and implement into my daily life! (I got this off of the Gaiam website; if you're not familiar, they're a company focused around yoga/ meditation/ well-being/ etc.)

===

1. ARM CIRCLES

This arm exercise targets your triceps, biceps, and shoulders.
  • While standing straight with your feet flat on the ground and arms extended out to the side at a 90-degree angle to your body, start moving your arms in small, fast circles forward.
  • Do as many rotations as you can and then reverse the motion, doing as many circles as you can in the reverse direction.
  • Take a break and repeat two more times.
  • If you need to sit, make sure your feet are flat on the ground and your back is straight.
You will feel this exercise in your shoulders. You'll be able to do more revolutions if you keep your abdominal muscles pulled in and tight.

2. TRICEPS DIP
  • While sitting on a chair, grip the edge of the seat with your hands and stretch your legs out in front of you.
  • Move your body forward so that your feet are flat, your arms are bent behind you holding you up, and your body is extended above the ground.
  • Slowly raise and lower your body using your triceps.
  • Do three sets of 15.
3. INVERTED ROW

This exercise targets your biceps. I do this exercise on breaks in my office while at work.
  • For this exercise, you need to have something to grab onto that is within your reach while lying flat on the ground. I recommend lying under a coffee table or a sturdy chair.
  • While gripping the edge of the table or chair, pull your upper body up off the ground, hold for a few seconds and lower yourself back down.
  • Do as many as you can, then repeat twice.
This one feels a little unorthodox at first, but, after a few repetitions, you will be able to feel your biceps working.

4. PUSH-UPS

Considered the granddaddy of arm exercises, the push-up is a great way to build upper-arm strength in addition to a stronger core.

To do push-ups correctly, make sure your body is properly aligned:
  • Keep your feet together with your toes pointed down and your hands shoulder-width apart. The entire length of your body should run parallel to the ground. Your hips and back should be flat.
  • This alignment needs to be maintained as you bend your elbows and lower your body to within an inch or so of the floor. For an additional challenge, place a yoga block under each hand as this will deepen the stretch and increase your core workout.
  • Then reverse this motion and repeat.
If push-ups are still new to you, you may want to keep your knees down with your weight on your thighs (not your knees) until you've built up enough strength to perform a full push-up.

5. PULL-UPS

Pull-ups offer many benefits for your upper body. They are especially useful for strengthening the muscles in your arms, chest, shoulders, and sides of the back. However, you may need a partner to assist you as you raise your body up to the horizontal bar, since pull-ups involve lifting your full body weight.

  • To perform pull-ups correctly, place your hands shoulder-width apart on the horizontal bar.
  • Next, raise your body until your chin is just over the bar's level.
  • Then ease your body back down and repeat.
6. PLANK

Plank pose is part of the Sun Salutation sequence in many forms of yoga, but to tone flabby arms, you can simply hold plank pose or incorporate challenging variations of it.
  • Like a push-up, you will need to position your body horizontal to the ground, but keep your body in this position for 30 seconds or more to work your arms.
  • Make sure your wrists are directly under your shoulders and your back is in a straight line.
To give yourself more of a challenge, lower your elbows to the ground and either clasp your hands together or lay your forearms and hands flat against the ground, using your arm muscles throughout the pose.

7. DOWNWARD DOG

Downward dog is another Sun Salutation pose that tones the arms. For this pose, your body will form a reverse V-shape with your heels pressed down or close to the floor and your hands flat on the floor. Ideally, your spine will follow a straight line toward the ground with your hips pressed back. You may need to bend your knees to keep your body in the reverse V-shape.

Use your arms to push your weight back toward your heels and make sure you're not rounding your back. Just like plank pose, you can give yourself more of a challenge by lowering your forearms to the ground and holding the position.

8. HANDSTANDS AND HEADSTANDS
Handstands and headstands are more than just balancing. Both positions require plenty of upper-arm strength to keep your body upside-down and in proper alignment.

If you're a novice when it comes to headstands and handstands, you can do both positions against a wall until you work up the strength (and courage) to perform the positions without the wall's assistance.

In both positions, you'll also need to use your core muscles, keeping your belly drawn in, to maintain balance.
  • To get in the headstand position, crouch down in front of a wall (cleared of any furniture, hanging pictures, or other obstacles) and clasp your hands together with your elbows about shoulder-width apart.
  • You will position your head between your elbows.
  • Lift your legs up one at a time until they're both against the wall.
  • Throughout this pose, keep the top of your head off the floor by using your arm muscles in an upward, lifting motion.
For handstands, place your hands on the floor shoulder-width apart, and keep your gaze on the floor as you lift your legs off the floor to the wall. Keep your elbows straight by using your arm strength.

To get out of a handstand or a headstand, take one leg down, followed by the other.
 
Hello, Reele! Great to meet you! I'm not
reeledeele said:
someone in [your] weight loss range and experience
Click to expand...
- I'm a heap older, and not quite as ambitious in terms of how much weight I'm thinking to lose!
But there'll be someone here who fits... I wonder if @Nelly might fill the bill? She's just made it into the 160s Club (cheers, Nelly! :D ) but has come down from a bit above where you are now.
And also, as Rob says,
alligatorob said:
most folks here [are] friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful
Click to expand...
Some have real-life qualifications in weight-loss, health and fitness related fields, and some have hard-won experience of slogging through their own body-sculpting (Rob himself is an absolute star in weight loss!).
Welcome again and best wishes for your progress!
 
Hey Reele, nice list of exercises, though there are a few I will probably never be able to do, handstands and headstands for example.

Like Amy, I am a whole lot older than you, probably older than Amy too. And I had a lot more weight to lose than you do. But in many ways here none of that matters as much as it might seem to you right now. Its one of the things I have come to appreciate about the forum, we all communicate pretty well no matter our ages, places in the world or other things that normally effect communications. What is most important is that we all share a related problem and are all working to find ways to live with it. I am sure you will be a great addition!
 
Hi, Reele & welcome to the forum. We are a very supportive & friendly bunch & I hope you like it here. Try not to be in a hurry to lose weight. I have yoyo'd all my life & I really think that if I had just found a sustainable & healthy way of eating & exercised regularly at your age I would never have had the battles with weight (it goes on SO easily) that I have now. Like you, I could always carry more weight & always weighed more than anyone thought. How does your everyday "diet" look like now & how do you see it improving? What we eat is the most important aspect to lose weight, but exercise makes us feel better about ourselves & everything else.
 
Hey Reele and welcome to the diaries :) Getting active and eating well can only be good things and I hope we´ll be able to help you stay motivated on those days when it´s just all hard an annoying (you´ve clearly got the other days covered already). Do please be careful when recommending exercises to other people: you can never know who´s listening/reading and with the possible exception of arm circles there isn´t a single exercise on your list that wouldn´t be harmful to some people.
Best of luck on your journey!
LaMa
 
aiminglow said:
Hello, Reele! Great to meet you! I'm not
- I'm a heap older, and not quite as ambitious in terms of how much weight I'm thinking to lose!
But there'll be someone here who fits... I wonder if @Nelly might fill the bill? She's just made it into the 160s Club (cheers, Nelly! :D ) but has come down from a bit above where you are now.
And also, as Rob says,
Some have real-life qualifications in weight-loss, health and fitness related fields, and some have hard-won experience of slogging through their own body-sculpting (Rob himself is an absolute star in weight loss!).
Welcome again and best wishes for your progress!
Click to expand...

Thank you! Just followed Nelly, so hopefully we'll connect soon :) ! And I'll definitely use that knowledge to the best of my ability! Hoping over the months, I can dissect as many forums as I can. Again, thanks for the warm welcome !! <3
 
LaMaria said:
Hey Reele and welcome to the diaries :) Getting active and eating well can only be good things and I hope we´ll be able to help you stay motivated on those days when it´s just all hard an annoying (you´ve clearly got the other days covered already). Do please be careful when recommending exercises to other people: you can never know who´s listening/reading and with the possible exception of arm circles there isn´t a single exercise on your list that wouldn´t be harmful to some people.
Best of luck on your journey!
LaMa
Click to expand...
You guys have already done so much in my motivation! It's nice to have this community to turn to for advice and just everyone's personal insight. You're absolutely right regarding my work out postings. Would simply adding a disclaimer kind of help? I probably won't be posting anymore because I know there's professionals and intermediate people probably making enough exercise related post.
 
Cate said:
Hi, Reele & welcome to the forum. We are a very supportive & friendly bunch & I hope you like it here. Try not to be in a hurry to lose weight. I have yoyo'd all my life & I really think that if I had just found a sustainable & healthy way of eating & exercised regularly at your age I would never have had the battles with weight (it goes on SO easily) that I have now. Like you, I could always carry more weight & always weighed more than anyone thought. How does your everyday "diet" look like now & how do you see it improving? What we eat is the most important aspect to lose weight, but exercise makes us feel better about ourselves & everything else.
Click to expand...
Thanks I'll make sure to be wary! I know if I come on to strong to this, it'll just end up falling off the wagon. The way I'm trying to approach this is more lifestyle, rather than just trying to lose the weight. For the most part I've always been the 3 meals a day (sometimes a late breakfast, but always 3 meals); my main issue is I don't think i eat enough/ frequently enough. What I've been trying to implement now is eating when I'm hungry but with good food in my house. Example being, yesterday morning I had oatmeal with fruit, for lunch I had salmon, asparagus, and mac & cheese, for dinner I actually forgot to eat (oops). In between those meals I'd occasionally get hungry so I'd just snack on pistachios. My main issue in my diet is I take in a lot of carbs sometimes through sandwiches, toast, dinner rolls, etc. so I'm trying to cut those out. Then just taking in more fruits and veggies in the form of simply snacking on them or cool smoothies! I just know for me to lose weight, I don't want to focus on the deprivation of food, but rather ways I can manipulate my eating to where I constantly can be, so hopefully my metabolism speeds up to the new way of eating. Workouts will be a bit of a smaller aspect with what I'm really trying to do. I guess me having a certain weight and time is really just to force my own accountability, because it helps me work towards something. Just know those numbers and dates are set in stone, they're just something reasonable-ish I can go off!
 
Having a goal to work toward and focus on can be a lifesaver, especially during a weird time like this. Not eating enough is mostly a problem if it causes you to lose control and overeat/eat crap later (which is what I do when I undereat for a day or two) or if it means you´re not giving your body the nutrients it needs (which can be hard to do on a very low-calorie diet, planned or not). How you spread out your calories over the day is pretty much up to your own preference. I like to eat three square meals in around 12 hours and no snacks outside of those, others fast for twenty hours and have two meals in the remaining four, or even just one meal a day (OMAD). Some people go keto, others gorge themselves on fruit, veg, grains, and beans. For mostly healthy individuals in the long run all healthy diets have about the same success rate so the only thing that matters is finding one that satisfies you enough that you can stick with it.
 
I agree with what LaMaria said so nothing to add other than to say I wish you luck and will be following your progress
 
Heyo! I'm back from a maybe few weeks of not being too active. I've been running into a lot of health related issues in terms of me being diagnosed with Papilledema (if you've not sure what that is, it's essentially my optic nerves are swollen still trying to figure out why). I had to get a Lumbar Puncture to be sure my spinal pressure was okay, but being entirely honest has kind of thrown me off on my course. In terms of exercising for the time being at least.

Last week was when I had the procedure and I was BED RIDDEN I felt like I would just shatter and was not getting a lot, if any activity in. Even so, I found myself eating actually really good and lost 4 pounds over the span of those two weeks! So I'm still pushing, I know this was a nice little victory but I understand my weight will most definitely fluctuate. Why my goal is more so of a range of me getting down to my lowest but going back and forth 7 pounds above it or something.

Once finals are all over, I plan on using the next 3 weeks before my summer class start to drill material as well as have a seriously intact routine (or really just habit) in terms of me exercising and eating well. I hope I find a way to fit a lot of small, healthy meals throughout the day; that' the main thing I'm concerned about in terms of the coming months.

I realized with last week it really comes down to how I eat, because I can't stress how I would only get up to go to the bathroom, and make oatmeal! All I honestly had energy for, so I hope I can kind of revert back to it (I wasn't feeling to well after the procedure so I feel like my eating was a lot less than usual). Not sure, but I'm extremely motivated and certain I will meet my ultimate goal!!! Bye for now, hope I start doing cute little food journals :)

♡ R.
 
I'll also do cute little notes of what I've planned, or simply done! I took the time to do all of my measurements of my arms, legs, and torso. It's fine if my weight loss isn't as strong as I'd like (I think it does have something to do with recent health issues though... So definitely expecting some change.), but I do hope for some shrinking inches! Miss wearing some old clothes lol
 
Ouch, Reele, that must have been a shock! I hope you´re all ok again now. I remember getting a lumbar puncture when I was 8: no fun at all.
 
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