greenfreak
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Member since 9/06 11483 total posts
Name:
greenfreak
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15 pounds so far... what I've learned about myself
One of my best friends is getting married in May 2012 and asked me to be a bridesmaid. My weight issue didn't kick in until she showed me a dress she was considering for us - mermaid style. 
It took about a month to just get into the frame of mind to seriously try. Then I went crazy counting calories. Did that for about a month, logging what I ate every day. Focused on more proteins, less sugar, less carbs. Was doing all sorts of exercising, ab lounger, lifting weights, walking on the treadmill. Then I fell off the wagon for about a week.
When I got back on the wagon, I had lost weight but pretty slowly, then nothing for 7 days. I decided to reassess and do more reading on exercise and food.
I read about heartrates and how they determine what your body is going to "do" with the exercise results. I want to focus on fat loss first, building muscle later. To do that, at my age of 38, I should exercise at 60-80% of my maximum (safe) heartrate. That's 109 to 145.
So I stopped all the extra stuff like the ab lounger. I stopped counting calories because, by now, I know what foods I should be eating and how to eat "bad" stuff in moderation.
I walked on the treadmill, upping the speed and/or elevation until I reached about 150 beats per minute. (I did push myself a little bit past what was recommended). Once I was at that rate, I stayed in it for at least 25 minutes. Then I would bring the elevation/speed down until my heartrate reached about 100-120 slowly. That takes about five minutes. 30 minutes of exercise, twice a week, that's it.
Two weeks ago, I had lost nothing in 7 days. After one week of doing this new exercise/food plan, I've lost four pounds. Four real pounds, not water weight. My total lost is fifteen pounds since mid-January and I am already a 1/4 of the way to my total goal: 60 pounds.
In general, I eat a lot of chicken, tuna, and eggs for protein. Wasa crackers with low fat peanut butter or no sugar jelly for snacks. Bananas, at least one a day. Hard boiled eggs and toast for dinner (I love breakfast for dinner). Squash and asparagus for veggies, with different low-fat dressings as marinades. Water crackers with low-fat jalapeno cheese. Weight Watchers ice cream, WW banana/choc chip cookies I bake once a week.
Sorry for the long post, but I'm not on LIF much anymore (I got a promoted to manager at work and don't have time anymore!) so I wanted to put it out there for those of you who are in the discouraged place I was two weeks ago. If what you're doing is not working for you, reassess and try something new. Be proud of how you feel about what you're doing as well as what the scale says. 
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