Taking things one day at a time

S

shayne

New member
So I thought why not give this diary a try.. I'm still kinda new and I need heaps of advice as this is my first ever attempt at doing the weight loss the healthy way

A brief intro

Name: Shayne
Age: 23 (turning 24 on Jul)
Occupation: Medical Student
Starting weight: 195lbs (January 2011)
Current weight: 170lbs
Goal weight #1: 170lbs (done! March 18 2011)
Goal weight #2: 160lbs
Ultimate Goal weight: 135lbs
Reason for wanting to lose weight: Mainly, who wants a young obese doctor to talk them into a healthy lifestyle, etc etc? Also, I'll be entering my junior internship in a week or so and I just wanted to prepare for it by being a little fitter.. you know.. not panting walking up the stairs, etc.

Now that I've started the ball rolling, I know I don't want to stop shredding weight! I weigh myself every Sunday and for the past 3weeks I feel like I haven't lost any weight at all. It's frustrating and I ended up binging over it yesterday. Shame shame! :(

Is this the dreaded plateau? 3 months into my weight loss have I finally hit it? How to get over it?

Here are my photos from last January and Feb. Decided not to put my March photo on as there isn't really much change noticeable.. Sorry for the bad quality on the second one as I only used my phone
 
I didn't go to the gym today as my trainer has skipped work and decided to do workout at home. It went ok I guess... Still working blindly on this plateau. I read somewhere that to break it I can either up my workout or eat more calories to take my body out of survival mode where my metab goes down to save energy. Did just that and now I feel a bit hungry which is a bit odd as I've eaten less in the past couple of weeks and was just fine... I feel really helpless atm not knowing how to make the weight go down again. I've been stuck for 3 weeks and it's really messing my motivation to keep going..
 
It's good you can still keep up the training without your trainer around. I know you probably don't have a lot of time, but do you do things like incidental walking (walking an extra bus stop, to the store, up the stairs instead of taking the lift?) I don't know how much difference that objectively makes, but subjectively it makes me feel a lot better when I can do that. It's also something to aim for if you're having a bad day or things don't go to plan ("I don't really need anything, but I'll walk to Tesco and back and pick up some apples" kind of thing).

Would it help you to keep a food diary? I know calorie counting isn't for everyone, but I'm finding the most helpful aspect of it is that I think before I put something in my mouth, and I'm keeping myself accountable (even if only to my calorie counting program- although I'm copying the information here to increase my accountability, but that's just me). Given you've hit a plateau, is it worth (re)thinking what you're eating and how much? (I imagine with your schedule trying to eat well is going to be very difficult)
 
I bring my own food to school and for snacks luckily, our canteen offers a few veggie dishes I munch on. I don't really count calories as much now as I've gotten quite a good grip of the calories in most of the foods I consume. Mostly I do portion control since it's easier and more convenient (that is providing you know how to eyeball your portions! which I'm quite capable of coz of all the failed diets I've had in the past.)

As for walking around, yes I do that but not as much. I still feel quite heavy and I suppose all the walking is straining my weight bearing joints especially my knees. I don't keep a food journal but I do keep an exercise journal where I place the workout I've done for the day and then rate it from 1-10 as to how exhausted I was after that. From there I saw a pattern of how my endurance has increased over the weeks and when to change workouts.

Hope that helps!

If you read / learn on anything about the plateau, I'd really appreciate any bit of advice! :D
 
Went boxing with my trainer today. Loads of fun! I really enjoy the sport and glad that my trainer has introduced it to me. I'm sure I'll still be boxing after I'm done with my twice a week sessions with him. Just found another (and cheaper) boxing gym near my place.

And oh, I've just realized that after 3+ months of working with a trainer I'll be on my own starting next week and it is scaring me like hell! I'm not sure I'm ready to do things on my own but getting him for another month is just too expensive already..

/EDIT/

I have a feeling I've broken through my plateau. I weighed myself after boxing and lost 2lbs! Still not 100% convinced. I'll weigh myself again tomorrow after waking up (my usual time) and will tell you how it went.
 
Hi Shayne,

I am so glad you had your pictures posted cause i was thinking you must be a very short man. lol. And your weight already seems so low.

Anyhow, you can read my thread, including the link to my first thread. I have only been here a week but i've had a bit of experience with dieting in the pas and i've learnt from my mistakes. And on this current diet i've lost 4kg so far.

I strongly recommend keeping a food list here. Really try to set good eating habits in place and make it a lifetime thing. Make your healthy food enjoyable. But low fat.

Understand your weaknesses and try to quit them or at least keep them for special occasions.

I believe in three good meals a day and only a snack or extra meal if you are starving. If you normally eat from boredom, you have to find a way around that too. YOu have to look ahead to see where the sabotage may come from and try to have something in place to minimise the damage.

Here's some links that may help too.

I am not sure you are in starvation mode. YOu have to be eating quite low calories to be in that mode. If you keep a food diary, and you start to plateau, you are in a better position to decide whether you are undereating or overeating.

I"ve never been in a plateau. On the diets that have always worked for me, i've eaten only three healthy meals a day and done quite good training daily, mostly cardio stuff. Even in starvation mode, i don't think you stop losing weight so i think that the plateau might be more that you are cheating on your diet or eating too much anyway. chuck away that high sugar/fat treat that you believe you've earned. You probably haven't. :)

Seriously, dieting is a drag but its worth it i think to be fit and healthy and to feel good about our bodies.

My diary is called [/B]I'm aiming for 59kg[/B] I should put a link in my signature. I"ve lost about 4kg in about 5 weeks now.

someone here put me on to he nutritiondata.self.com website. Its got some handy tools.

Another tip is is to plan your meals ahead. Even if its a day ahead. I am keeping a table on a separate file of all my meals as i go and projecting some ahead too. It does all become a bit obsessive but i think its hard not to be a bit focussed and successful.

I"ve come around to the drinking water strategy. I think it helps keep the need for snacking at bay but if you do it in anticipation its good.

I think i've gone on for long enough.
 
I use fitday.com to monitor my calorie intake before and I think I'm quite ok with eyeballing my portions now. I've talked to my trainer about not losing weight and he has explained that we've done quite a lot of weight training in the past few weeks and that my latest weigh in with him shows that though I've lost weight from fat, I've gained muscle weight as well. So I guess that explains why I haven't been losing weight. Someone also suggested that I may not be eating enough and so I tried raising my portions by 100-200cals the past two days. I'm back to my old portions now and as I've said, my scale said I've lost some weight :D

Planning my own meals is quite difficult as I live with my whole family. Although, I've convinced them to shop for healthier items such as chicken, fish, veggies and have them rid of the soda, cookies, etc etc. Mostly, I still do portion control. I'm not as obsessive as to what I put in my mouth, just as to how much calories are in it.

Thank you for the article link. It was informative indeed.
 
I think you might have misunderstood me. I don't count calories either. But i do know where most of them are and from time to time and i read the labels on food so that i don't have any nasty surprises. I do find it helpful to know what sort of calories i can consume every day but i have a rough idea anyway. But really i don't base my diet on numbers but on nutrition and sustainability.

The reason i suggested a food diary is because its easy to see then if someone is not eating enough and risking "starvation mode" or on the contrary, if they are eating too much.
 
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I go for the quality of the food myself. Since I took up medical nutrition at the uni I guess I've been more conscious of what I eat and the knowledge I've gained from the course is really coming in handy. I've been through a lot of diets in the past my self. Back when I was still young and stupid, I've even resorted to starving and purging. But now that I've learned from my mistakes and incorporate it to what I learn from my textbooks, I feel like I'm more equipped to actually make this work. My calorie counting mainly is in my head only. I count while I put my servings on. And I'm not very strict with it as well. I've tried the strict 'stick-to-the-good' approach to dieting and ended up with horrible cravings! My view is that as long as I'm losing weight, I'm doing it right! I suppose my self control holds a huge role in being able to eat the 'bad foods.' I think over the years I've learned when to stop munching and when I should stop. Way back before med school, I would have been able to eat through 2 slices of cake but now knowing of my risks for diabetes and heart disease, I usually think twice even touching a piece of cake!
 
I guess I'll switch my diary entries' font color so that people won't get confused :)

So, I stepped on my scale again this morning and I'm really disappointed! I'm still at 170! I wonder how I ended up at 168 yesterday?
 
Ok, I know I've said this already.. but I can't seem to lose weight! God, it's been three whole weeks and I haven't lost a solid pound. It's getting me so frustrated and disheartened that I just want to binge eat over it. The only thing stopping me is the amount of cash and hard work I've already spent to get this far but I doubt even that can keep me holding on for much longer!
 
Aw hun, why is that? I'll need all the advice I can get! :)

Ok, so instead of this coming Wednesday, I went to the gym today for my last work out with a personal trainer. God, I'm worried as to how things would work out now that I'm on my own! I've been working with him since January and he's designed all of my workouts for me. I feel like I'm not ready but then again, when will I ever be?

My scale is playing tricks on me I think! Early morning weigh ins say I'm at 170. After my workout this afternoon I'm at 168lbs! I don't want to celebrate stepping of the 170 mark just yet. I want to see 168 consistently on my scale first!

Anyway, I'm feeling extra sore having boxed 2 days in a row. And today was pretty tough and I feel like my arms are about to fall off! We kept boxing till I couldn't lift my arms anymore! But I really do enjoy it and will probably keep boxing even if it's not with him. I'll recommend it to anyone to be honest. It's a good workout, you'd sweat tons, and learn a bit of self-defense hehe
 
I'm starting to get bored with my workout DVDs. Are there any good DVDs you can suggest? I'm thinking of getting P90X as I've been reading a lot of good things about it but I'm not very sure as to I'm ready for that.. So far, I've done Hip Hop Abs, Tae-Bo, Barry's Bootcamp and Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. Suggestions?

PS
And, oh! I've lost a pound!!!!!!!!! After three whole weeks I'VE LOST A POUND! :D :D :D :D
 
Congratulations on your loss! Sounds funny doesn't it to say that. Usually its condolences but losing weight sure is happy event.

I reckon its the boxing. That does sound like a lotta fun. I have noticed before when you do a sweaty and long training session your weight can be way down. Its fluid though of course with that is energy too. So its good. All that sweating would have lost you a lot of water, most of which you'd have to replace. But that's not to be disheartened. You burnt fat. Maybe you should stick with the boxing. I mean it must be really active with all that "dancing" you are supposed to do. And it would be great mentally too. I'd love to do it.

Well my advice is as before. If you keep a food diary and your weight's not budging, on analysis, its easy to see where you can cut back a bit, where you might be taking in too many calories. If you don't have any record, its all just guesswork. A food diary is more objective than guessing but not as anal as calorie counting. I say do it this way, because i think its important to get the food part right. You don't want to have to get on a spiral of doing more and more exercise to get the weight off.

There, that's my advice. :)
 
I think I'll give it a try. I'll jot down all my meals for the week and see what I can figure out from it. As for boxing, you really should try it! It's a good way to vent your frustrations out as well hehe
 
I'd probably give it a try but i can't afford things like that. And b) i don't think there is boxing in my local town. Its very small. The nearest place would be an hour away, same as my preferred class option which is Iyengar yoga. This yoga is also nice for the mind but in quite a different way than boxing would be. Opposite probably. More calming but also interesting and stimulating. You can come away learning how to dissipate your frustrations through easy mental relaxation techniques. A small example. You know when you are late for work and you can't go any faster because you are on the train; you know when you are in a situation you can't do anything about? Well, yogic mental relaxation can help you let all that go. I don't know how it happened that i learnt this in class, because they don't tell you how to think in yoga (at least not in the little bit of it that i've done) but i did learn some new skills from yoga. I also learnt that when running, how to loosen muscles that are tight or tired. And how to focus on particular areas and think about them so that you can be more relaxed. It enables you to keep going for longer. I found it fascinating, whereas i think boxing would be exciting and empowering but in a very different way to yoga.
 
I'm thinking of attending yoga classes too! Lucky for me that my gym membership allows me to join quite a number of classes. I've already joined the cycling class and now that I have no trainer, I will probably give the kickboxing class a try. Yoga is next on my list but what's keeping me from going is that I'm scared of making a fool out of myself! I don't have the littlest bit of knowledge of what they do in class! So I'll probably observe a class first before actually joining in.
 
Will be attending Les Mills Body Combat Class tomorrow at Fitness First. Hopefully, I won't make a fool out of myself!
 
Ok, so I'm not a morning person! Couldn't get up at 6.30am to be able to attend the 8.30am class! Just checked the gym timetable.. no other class today that I'm interested in. *sighs* I want my trainer back! Will probably just workout here at home for today.

PS I LOST ANOTHER POUND! Woop Woop!
 
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