What are your goals?

What are your goals for your weight loss?

We all want to be healthy. We want to be there for our kids, for our grandkids even. We want to prevent diseases like diabetes and colon cancer. We want to get off blood pressure, cholesterol, and high blood pressure medications.

But that is so general. Just "losing weight" is so nonspecific, sometimes it can seem overwhelming. What are your more solid goals? What events do you want to do that maybe you couldn't before due to your weight or lack of exercise? What clothes do you want to wear to an event that you couldn't before?

What are your little goals? Tiny wins that help you feel like you're making progress, aside from the scale?

My big goals are, in no particular order:

1) Disneyworld. I want to be fit enough to walk the average 10-15 miles per day for the week we are taking the kids to Disneyworld in the fall. I also want to feel good enough about myself to be in a lot of pictures. I don't want to be absent, as I so often am.

2) My anniversary. I would love to be the same weight I was when my fiancee and I met when we go out for our anniversary lunch/dinner. I want to wear the same dress I wore that day.

3) My high school reunion. I know it is superficial, but I was always the fat kid. Soon it will be 15 years since I graduated high school, and I want to look better!

Small goals?

1) Having my boobs stick out farther than my belly.

2) Every. Single. Belt loop.

3) Crossing my legs with ease.

4) Shaving without difficulty.

5) Going from the basement to the 2nd floor of our house, or even the attic, without getting winded.

Some of the small goals I have achieved and continue to achieve. Some I am still working on. I'm sure I will have more as time goes on.

Having specific goals makes almost every day a victory!

On Exercise

So, what do YOU do for exercise?

So far, I haven’t. I’m serious. I will openly admit to being LAZY. I would get winded going up the stairs to my house (we have about 18 total from street to porch). Although after losing those 20 pounds, I’ve noticed that doesn’t happen as much anymore. And GODDESS FORBID I have to go right upstairs for something! So I haven’t intentionally exercised in a long while.

I wasn’t always lazy, but it is a pattern for me. In high school, I was definitely lazy. But once college came, I exercised three times a week, minimum. It felt great. I got lazy again when I moved and got into the crappy retail job. I preferred drinking and partying and smoking Marlboros to exercise. Then I moved again and got cancer and obviously couldn’t do much more than walk around the block. But I did it. I had motivation and knew I needed to try to keep my strength up. Once I was done with the chemo, I slowly walked more…I did more DVDs…I started running, even. I never thought I would be a runner! But as my muscles started getting stronger, I kept working them. I got a gym membership, and actually USED IT. I could run for 30 minutes or more on a treadmill (20 minutes in the hilly neighborhood where I live—I wasn’t THAT good a runner, lol). For a former fat girl, I felt pretty accomplished. Hiking was fun, since I didn’t have to stop eleventy times during the excursion. Walking (and running and biking) my dogs was great.  But once I got fat again, I fell into my same patterns. I made excuses, just like with the food. And guess what: not only is it harder for us fat folks to exercise because we are out of shape, but it is just plain harder to move 250 pounds than 155!

So I made a choice. At 245 pounds, I couldn’t imagine exercising. Thinking about exercising made me tired. So for my sanity, and to help keep me from being discouraged, I chose to diet only. But only for the first 20 pounds. I figured that after 20 pounds of weight loss, I knew I would feel better and have more energy. So this week I will be doing exercise DVDs in the evenings after my daughter goes to bed. Nothing crazy here, I’m just starting! But 20-30 minutes (maybe a bit more for stretching or whatnot) of a DVD at least 4 times per week. I have yoga, tae bo, leslie sansone “walk away the pounds” and probably a dance/zumba one. Variety is good, but I will probably pick an aerobic one for 3x per week, and the yoga 1-3x per week. Stick with the same one for a week, then move on.

In another month (6/1) I will start walking in the mornings as well…if I can get my butt out of bed before the 2.5 year old alarm clock starts yelling “mooooooooommmmyyyy!”

When I start getting into a walking routine, I will give myself probably 2 weeks before starting a running routine. I loved the program “couch to 5k”. It can be downloaded as a podcast (and perhaps something more advanced now, since I haven't done it in 5 years) and helps you walk/run in timed intervals. Starting with mostly walking, and ending with jogging/running approximately a 5k in 35 or so minutes. I plan on using that to get me up to running a 5k by 9/6, raising money for the ARC of Onondaga. I’ve also heard rumors of a 5k color run happening in October. Depending on the course, I could probably even bring Aine to that one (needing a stroller, of course…hence the “depending on the course”).

So no, I don’t exercise. But I have a plan. And now that I’ve announced the plan to the world, I kind of have to do it, don’t I?

For those of you out there who think you’re too big to exercise, or it’s embarrassing to go to the gym, or try to run a 5k (or run in the street in general), I say this: just do it. If you feel like you need to lose some weight before beginning an exercise program, that’s fine. Do what is comfortable for you, and set your goals. Choose something that sounds reasonable, and stick to it. What will make you feel like you’ve REALLY lost weight? 10 pounds? 20? 30? What will inspire you and help you FEEL better? But keep in mind, your diet will be slower after the first month or so without the exercise. So make it realistic. Then get your butt out there! It sounds crazy, but the more you exercise, the more energy you will have. Maybe not at first, but it accumulates. I know, because I did it. I was a lazy person who learned to like exercise! Now I’m lazy again, and having to convince myself to start again. Because I know I will see the benefits.

PS: I know I need to do weight-bearing exercises and toning and such, but joining a gym is fairly impossible for me at this time. So…I will try to incorporate some into my workouts at home. We have an exercise machine and weight bench packed away in storage, so maybe I can find a place to put it in a few months as I get more energy.

One month later...

So, I've been dieting for a month. I did photos and my measurements on 3/31, so I'm going to do photos today and I did measurements yesterday.

Comparing April (ok, 3/31) to May (5/1)

April	May	Change
Chest: 44"	Chest: 40.8"	-3.2"
Waist: 45"	Waist: 41.2"	-3.8"
Hips: 51"	Hips: 48.3"	-2.7"
Upper Arms: 16"	Upper Arms: 15.6"	-0.8" (total)
Thigh: 30"	Thigh: 28.2"	-3.6" (total)
Body Fat: 28%	Body Fat: 27.5%	-0.5%
BMI: 39.6	BMI: 36.6	-3pts

I've lost 14.1" and 19 pounds total!

 

 

Sorry for the poor quality of the "after" photos--I was in my work bathroom, rushing so people wouldn't see me taking pictures in my undershirt! (Success, btw, nobody came in). I see the most change in my waist/belly and chin in the front facing photo. I haven't FELT thinner, but looking at these photos, I can see it.

 

Plus, in April, I was on notch 5 of my belt. Now I am at notch 7. At my highest weight, I used notch 2-3. I feel great, and hope to see even more improvement for my June photos!!

Ups and Downs

So, I started off this weight loss journey with a bang! Lost like 8 pounds the first WEEK! I knew it was probably water weight from actually eating lots of veggies and drinking the right amount of water, but it was a big motivator!

 

Week two I lost another 3 pounds. Wow!

 

Week three I got the flu. I lost 7 pounds. Well, duh, I was surviving on broth and saltines. 500 calories a day if I was lucky. I knew there was a chance that number would go up when I started eating real food.

 

Then there was a transition week. I felt better...ish. I wanted only comfort foods. I wanted snacks and pizza and chicken fajitas. I gagged over salads. I splurged for several days. I always started the day with good intentions, but by lunchtime all I wanted was junk. I could usually hold off and only have maybe one cookie, but because I wasn't eating my salads I was hungry! By dinnertime, I made poor choices.

 

My current diet suggests 1200-1500 calories per day. Those days I was over 2,000. I posted about how I felt the other day...defeated, but eventually hopeful. I stepped on the scale and it read 231. Damn. Went to the doctor's, and their scale read 232. (But with jeans on and stuff in my pockets)

So I got back on track. I'm still slipping up, still struggling more than I did the first two "honeymoon" weeks. But today's scale read 226.4! The 231 just 4 or 5 days ago was probably a lot of bloating from eating more cheese, fat, and sodium than usual.

 

I cant wait to see 225. That will mean a 20 pound loss. I already feel better, but I have a long way to go.