Ok, I lost 20 pounds because I had my tonsils out & then got strep 2 weeks later. So, that was rough, but something positive out of it is I can wear a pair of jeans that I haven't worn in a long time! So, I'm trying to keep up with all of that. When I started feeling better it was still hard for me to eat b/c I wasn't used to eating real food or real portions. I decided it was a good time to consciously watch what and how much I ate. I did lose a few more pounds, but went back off of my diet for about a week because of stress and gained a few back. But no big deal, I'm ready to start losing again and eating right! Plus, I am trying to go to the gym (I do pay for it, guess I shoudl use it) and do the treadmill whenever possible (but haven't gone in a week or so).
Anyway, I was wondering who else is trying to lose weight & what they are doing and how are their results? What are your goals?
*I'm basically just trying to eat more fruits and vegetables. More lower calories foods. I don't really try to count the calories of the fruits/veggies, but I have been a lot more conscious of other foods I can clearly figure out the calories. Watch my portions (cuz I can over eat with no problems!) And trying to walk more (treadmill or around the neighborhood). My goal is to lose 20 more pounds by my vacation which is over July 4th. I would have to lose 2 pounds a week right up until we go. I think it's doable, but I won't be disappointed if I miss my goal by a couple of pounds b/c I know just by getting close I will feel better about myself physically, mentally, emotionally, etc. But I would LOVE to feel better about my bathing suit this year! And when I get back from vacation I will start back up so I can lose maybe another 10 pounds by fall.
I'm not sure how realistic my goals are. But I'd love some feedback and suggestions and ideas. Plus, we should use this thread to encourage each other and perhaps even for accountability. Good luck!
I am also trying to lose weight, I exercise about 3 hours a day. I use a channel on DirecTV called FitTV. They have different exercise routines. I have been using them for about 6 weeks. I do 1 hour of cardio and weight training and 1 ½ hours of Yoga exercises. I am slowly starting to tighten up, my husband says he sees a real difference. For my diet I eat a high fiber/high protein diet, I try to eat around 30-40 grams of fiber a day, plus alternate between chicken a fish throughout the week. My husband is the one who started us on the diet. I think that is the key to sticking with it is the fact that he is doing it with me.
My goal is to completely tighten and tone my body and lose about 30 Ibs.
I currently have strep. Yuck....I can't remember a time feeling so sick. And to make things worse I can't keep anything down so I'm afraid my antibiotics aren't getting a chance to do their work. But I've lost 10 pounds! I'm hoping when I'm over this that I will have broken my cravings and can start eating better.
I have DirecTV but haven't tried FitTV. I will have to check it out. Although, I don't think I can fit 3 hours of exercise into my daily routine.
oh-io: I currently have strep. Yuck....I can't remember a time feeling so sick. And to make things worse I can't keep anything down so I'm afraid my antibiotics aren't getting a chance to do their work. But I've lost 10 pounds! I'm hoping when I'm over this that I will have broken my cravings and can start eating better. I have DirecTV but haven't tried FitTV. I will have to check it out. Although, I don't think I can fit 3 hours of exercise into my daily routine.
How in the world do you make kale, spinach, beets, and peas taste "so good"? I would *love* to eat healthier because I agree that it is God honoring to take care of myself.
But as soon as I even try eating something like spinach or most other veggies, I lose my momentum and head back to the chocolate bar. :-{
Is there something wrong with my genes? (Don't even mention the problem I've got with my *jeans*!)
I'd be happier and healthier if I'd lose some weight...
JaneFW:Jiva, you don't do weights every day, do you? You should take 24 hour breaks between using weights, just in case you don't know, or your muscles will not heal.
Yes I do weight training everyday. I alternate one day I use 3 Ibs. weight, then next day I use 10 Ibs.
Why more isn’t always better The trick with weight training is that you need to actually rest more than you need to train. When you train with weights, you are breaking down the fibers in the muscles of your body. These tiny tears in your muscles will need to repair in order to grow larger and stronger muscles. Each time you train with weights, you are allowing the opportunity for this re-growth to begin; however, you need to give your body time to complete the process. The best advice on how often to train with weights is to skip the day after lifting for a particular muscle group. For example, if you lift for your upper body one day, you should not train it on the following day. But if you want to lift for your upper body one day and then the lower body the next day, that’s fine. So long as your muscle groups are getting about forty-eight hours of rest in between workouts, this will allow your body to build muscle. What happens when you don’t rest When you’re not resting after you train with weights, you are not allowing the fibers to rebuild. Instead, you are continuously breaking down the muscle fibers, which can cause injuries. Some of these injuries can be so severe that you might have to rest for a much longer time to get things back to normal – or even have corrective actions taken. Tears in the muscles can take a long time to grow back and then may require therapy in order to grow in the proper direction as before. The point is that you can keep working out a part of your body that needs time to repair itself in order to work better. You’re eventually going to hurt your overall training by doing that.
There is a lot of controversy in the fitness field with regard to frequency of weight lifting. The definition is the easy part. The proper frequency of weight lifting sessions is to workout, allow enough time for full recovery to take place, along with muscle and strength increases, and then workout again.However, putting the above into practice is much harder. Some people say you can workout almost every day as long as you are working different body parts each session, so that each body part gets no more than two or three training sessions per week.Others say you should never workout two days in a row, even if you train different body parts each session. The thinking behind this idea, one that I happen to agree with, is that weight training places a very high level of stress on the body as a whole. Whether you are working chest, legs, back or arms, your body as a whole is put under a great deal of stress. So if you workout on consecutive days, you are still putting your overall system under a great deal of stress and not giving it any time to recover. Eventually, you will overtrain, leading to loss of muscle, strength, and eventually you'll even get sick due to a run down immune system.
JaneFW:Jiva, I'm not trying to tell you what to do, and I hope you're not offended, but from someone {me} who has been there and learned the hard way about muscle tears, you really should give your muscles a rest. This is from IronMagazine.com:Why more isn’t always better The trick with weight training is that you need to actually rest more than you need to train. When you train with weights, you are breaking down the fibers in the muscles of your body. These tiny tears in your muscles will need to repair in order to grow larger and stronger muscles. Each time you train with weights, you are allowing the opportunity for this re-growth to begin; however, you need to give your body time to complete the process. The best advice on how often to train with weights is to skip the day after lifting for a particular muscle group. For example, if you lift for your upper body one day, you should not train it on the following day. But if you want to lift for your upper body one day and then the lower body the next day, that’s fine. So long as your muscle groups are getting about forty-eight hours of rest in between workouts, this will allow your body to build muscle. What happens when you don’t rest When you’re not resting after you train with weights, you are not allowing the fibers to rebuild. Instead, you are continuously breaking down the muscle fibers, which can cause injuries. Some of these injuries can be so severe that you might have to rest for a much longer time to get things back to normal – or even have corrective actions taken. Tears in the muscles can take a long time to grow back and then may require therapy in order to grow in the proper direction as before. The point is that you can keep working out a part of your body that needs time to repair itself in order to work better. You’re eventually going to hurt your overall training by doing that.and buildleanmuscle.comThere is a lot of controversy in the fitness field with regard to frequency of weight lifting. The definition is the easy part. The proper frequency of weight lifting sessions is to workout, allow enough time for full recovery to take place, along with muscle and strength increases, and then workout again.However, putting the above into practice is much harder. Some people say you can workout almost every day as long as you are working different body parts each session, so that each body part gets no more than two or three training sessions per week.Others say you should never workout two days in a row, even if you train different body parts each session. The thinking behind this idea, one that I happen to agree with, is that weight training places a very high level of stress on the body as a whole. Whether you are working chest, legs, back or arms, your body as a whole is put under a great deal of stress. So if you workout on consecutive days, you are still putting your overall system under a great deal of stress and not giving it any time to recover. Eventually, you will overtrain, leading to loss of muscle, strength, and eventually you'll even get sick due to a run down immune system.
Perhaps if you really feel you need to do weights every day...alternate what part of the body you are focusing on. Like legs one day and arms the next, etc. I have also heard that you need to rest the muscles. Also I have read on a website (I'll post it if I can find it) that your muscles will get used to the repition of the weight training. So change it up a bit. Like don't do the same routine (every day or every other day) to firm your arms. Find a different variation so your muscles don't get used to it and stop the toning you are working so hard to get. And you have a lot of discipline for this 3 hours a day work out. I WISH I could do that I guess b/c I think it'll speed up the process faster. But there's no way. I have a hard time finding 1 hour. Now if I had a treadmill at home that would be different b/c I wouldn't have to worry about working around the kids' schedule just to get to the gym.
How in the world do you make kale, spinach, beets, and peas taste "so good"? I would *love* to eat healthier because I agree that it is God honoring to take care of myself. But as soon as I even try eating something like spinach or most other veggies, I lose my momentum and head back to the chocolate bar. :-{ Is there something wrong with my genes? (Don't even mention the problem I've got with my *jeans*!) I'd be happier and healthier if I'd lose some weight...
Ha ha ha. Yeah, nothing takes as good as a chocolate bar .. sadly.
I've been able to re-educate my taste buds quite a bit, I think. I mean, a month ago, I wouldn't have touched an avacado with someone else's taste buds, let alone mine, but I'm learning to think of it in terms of "good fats with a slightly bland taste" rather than "horrible, mushy green thing". So, that's definitely an improvement. Just leave the guacamole off my plate, please, because I still can't eat that.
I do like veggies, tho'. I *love* beets - and since I have found out how easy it is to cook them, I'm totally sold on adding beets to everything. In fact, the hardest part for me is that no-one else in the house will eat them, so I have to get them eaten fast so they don't go bad.
I do sometimes use a little dressing, and I like balsamic, so I find that is a strong enough taste to take away the blandness of some of the veggies/salad that I actively don't like - such as spinach, and some of the leaf salads that I cannot name, but they are nasty tasting, lol. Sugar snap peas are delish, tho', and I like radish and celery and cucumber - so those are not a problem.
Trick is, I think, to find the veggies/fruit etc. that you LIKE. There must be something, right? Then whatever you do like that is healthy, just work it into your diet, and prepare it healthily and eat plenty of it! So, if you like sweet potatoes - you can eat one with a little salt and maybe half a teaspoonful of butter, or with salsa, or beans or something. Sweet potatoes are infinitely better than white potatoes, but the way they get messed up is when they are covered with sugar and marshmallows. Ugh. <shudder>
There are some really good recipes in the YAWYE cookbook, and I'll have to post some here when I get a chance. Lots of beans casseroles and veggie-oriented meals.
JaneFW:Jiva, you don't do weights every day, do you? You should take 24 hour breaks between using weights, just in case you don't know, or your muscles will not heal.In answer to Libra - YES, I am on this ship!! Ha ha.Since January 1st I have been working hard on working out and eating better. I have switched over to fruit/veggies/salad and protein. Have you ever seen the British show You Are What You Eat? Oh my gosh. The presenter is Scottish and she goes to all of these houses and teaches the adults (and children) how to eat better and exercise. These are people with appalling diets of course - people who live on fries and burgers, etc. I can't even conceive of some of the diets they have, even though mine used to be bad, it wasn't quite that bad.Anyway, she has lots of great ideas, so I got her book and I have been investing in huge quantities of spinach, kale, beets, sugar snap peas, celery, cucumber etc. and I eat all of that mixed with some avocado (not too much) and either tuna or chicken. It is SO good.As I posted someplace else, I have set myself a year to train for a mini-triathalon, and I'm doing some 5k's along the way. I was supposed to take part in the San Antonio Race for the Cure last month, but I got a torn muscle that the doctor thought was a hernia, so I had to pull out. I was very disappointed, particularly as I was doing it in honor of my mum (who died of cancer almost exactly a year ago to that date.) Anyway, I like having a plan, because it's a definite aim and a focus. It's also God-honoring, imo, to take better care of this body that he gifted to me.
I'm glad you're on board Jane. What kind of beets are you eating? I LOVE beets and put them on my salads and I get the pickled beets (I think that's what they are called) and about 4 slices of those are about 20 calories. But I don't know if b/c they are pickled if that is counter acting anything or not.
I'm doing a lot of salad too. Does anybody have any tips for salads? I've learned to eat that really dark green leafy stuff instead of just the iceburg b/c I know it's good for you. I used to pick it out. Also, I'm really conscious now of not overdoing my salad with things like dressing and cheese. I LOVE McDonald's Southwest salad. It has chicken (I chose grilled) and nice greens and black beens and corn and has a nice spicy taste to it. I've also gone from fried chicken to grilled (used to never want the grilled but since I'm watching now I figured this was an easy change to make). So, if you guys have any other salads you like put those down. I also like steak salads when I go out. But I'm trying to eat one salad a day so if I have a steak salad then I usually leave that for my dinner and have something else at lunch.
Ohhhhhhh, and who loves Special K cereals? I do!!
Yes yes SALSA! It is sooo good for you and very low in calories. And I bought baked Tostitos and I can eat a few of those without feeling guilty. Another snack I enjoy is Quakes. It's like rice cakes but smaller and fluffier or something. They have all different flavors and I've even used the cheddar cheese ones to substitue crackers for a chicken recipe. They are all so yummy. They even have chocolate!!! Sometimes if I think I'm hungry I go have a few of those (even less than a portion on the bag) and drink a glass of water to hold me over. Ohhhh, and I am drinking a lot more water too!!!! That is a big thing for me that I know I didn't drink enough and I have a bottle and I literally watch how much I drink now a days.
I am doing this with my doctors help, Every day it’s a new weight workout, and some days I’m laying on the floor when I use them. Other days I’m laying on the coffee table using them, much to my husbands curiosity. My doctor said that because I’m alternating I don’t have to worry about hurting myself. 3Ib. weights are extremely light to me, although I couldn’t say that 6 weeks ago when I started. Back then I would get dizzy and have to stop the workout after 15 minutes.
About the diet: I use this website when i am planning meals, and shopping. http://www.whfoods.com/
It has the nutritional information plus recipes.
FOR THE MARINADE
1/2 tablespoon honey
1/2 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon cilantro FOR THE SALAD
3 cups chopped lettuce
4 ounces grilled boneless skinless chicken ***, chopped
1/4 cup halved cherry tomato
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped poblano peppers (or any mild green pepper)
1 1/2 tablespoons canned sweet corn
1 1/2 tablespoons canned black bean
2 tablespoons shredded fat-free cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon shredded carrot
3-5 baked Doritos, crushed
FOR THE DRESSING
2 tablespoons fat free ranch dressing
1 tablespoon nonfat sour cream
Fixings
1-2 chopped avocado quartered lime (to squeeze over the salad)
(to squeeze over the salad)
Directions
1 Mix together marinade ingredients in a small bowl -- add chicken and coat it in the marinade. Set aside.
2 In a pan spritzed with nonstick spray, cook tomatoes and corn over high heat until slightly charred.
3 Place lettuce in a bowl, and top with marinated chicken, tomatoes and corn, chopped pepper, and black beans. Sprinkle with cheese and chips. Add the chopped avocados.
4 In a small dish, combine all of the dressing ingredients with 1 teaspoons water.
5 Mix in the dressing
