I am coming late to the party, but would like to join in
My stats:
Age: 35 (will be 36 in August)
Height: 5'3"
Weight: 242 lbs
I've actually lost about 15 pounds from the beginning of Feb, when I was at 257 (my highest weight EVER, went to the endocrinologist at the end of January and cried when I got back to my car . . . ) to the beginning of April of this year. Then I got sick and really fell off the track. I'm now healthy enough to get back to it. A few weeks after the endocrinologist's appointment . . . I decided right then and there that I simply refused to spend the next third of my life as a fat chick. I wasn't fat as a kid or a teenager, or even a young adult, and it's my goal not to be fat again. In past years I have worked on all the emotional and psychological issues surrounding my food addiction and I am FINALLY having some success, doing my doc's plan.
I am exercising 5 days a week doing cardio and strength training (also some balance and ball work to strengthen my core) and I am not calorie counting, though my doctor recommends it. When I lose 10% of my body weight, I'd like to join a Pilates or Zuma class (my YMCA offers them free with my membership).
What I'm doing is following my endo's "program" . . . all it is is:
1) lots of real green tea (no sugar, but green tea doesn't need it, particularly if it's flavored with jasmine or another naturally sweet herb/flower) . . . he says green tea helps regulate your metabolism, and he wants me to have 3 cups or more a day. It's a good thing I love tea anyway! LOL!
2) To eat healthy meals comprised of high-fiber, whole grains, lots of veggies, almost no added sugar, a lot less simple carbs, and a goodly amount of protein, particularly fish and chicken. I personally have added no high-fructose corn syrup, no soda, really lowering my caffeine intake, really lowering my processed and/or simple carb intake, and trying to eat real, whole food with no preservatives or chemical additives. Oh, and I quit eating fast food altogether, although I've been ignoring fast food for about 5 years.
3) He recommends a lifestyle switch in which you only restrict your calories every other week. He says, "It's impossible to perpetually restrict your diet. People, including you, *will* snap and binge eventually, which pretty much negates any benefits they might have made. Be nicer to yourself, and don't force yourself to do something you can't do." This seems pretty easy to me, because I (like many of you, I'm sure) tried to restrict my calories a la Weight watchers or some other program and I could only do it for about 3 months at a time before I gave up and reverted. It's so much easier to only restrict your calories for one week, and then go back to eating good meals in the correct portions (but not worrying about how many calories that salad dressing is) the next week.
4) My doc wants me to exercise doing at least 60 cardio high-heart-rate exercise 7 days a week. Yeah, right. But I am managing, now, after about three months of it, to do 45-50 minutes of that sort of exercise 5 times a week, which I think I might be able to push to 6x/week, but not every single day. Dang. When I started I couldn't do more than 20-30 minutes 3x/week, so for everybody who thinks you can't, if I can (over 250 lbs and with asthma and degenerative disks to boot!) than you can too, you just have to start where you are, and move forward.
My goal is pretty straightforward. I am not and will never be a skinny, willowy body type. My body is that of a 1940's pin-up girl. I have medium-to-large bones, and a TON of muscle, and the same 'look' as Mae West or Marilyn Monroe. I am a work horse, not a show horse. And I will never be the tall, thin body structure that's all the rage right now . . . but I'm ok with that. I prefer having (and showing) my muscles. I like being a strong, fit woman!
I don't want to try to get to 115 lbs or some insanely (for me) low #. And BMI will always be a crock for me because of all my muscle. What I *do* want to do is get lean, I'm hoping to eventually build more muscle while losing fat and wind up at approximately 18-20% body fat. And whatever that means in terms of number of pounds, I'm cool with it.
The last time I'd gotten to this sort of goal I was 170 pounds, but I was an attractive, fit, *lean* size 10-12. Right now I'm a very fat (40% body weight, ugh) size 18 from the waist down, size 22 from the waist up. This needs to change! And it is changing, when I started this process, I was a 26 on top and a 22 on the bottom.
The other thing that works for me so far is to have tiny goal weights for weight loss purposes. I try to lose 2 pounds per weight loss goal. Right now 240 is my next goal. It feels self-defeating somehow to have 5 or 10 pound weight loss goals. But I know I can accomplish losing 2 pounds at a time
Thanks for starting this thread, I'll let you all know how it goes here and there. My goals are small, the process slow, it will take 2 years at a minimum for me to get where I want to be, but when I hit a big milestone, I'll certainly share!
Whitewater
