Weight Loss/Exercise Updates? Post Yours Here!

[Uabassoon]

It's been over a year now since I lost my weight, and I'm proud of myself for keeping it off. I really never thought I'd be able to maintain my weight. I lost a little over 50 lbs on WW. I hit my goal weight in March of 2005. I'll admit I don't excercise as much as I should, especially now that rugby season is over. However my eating habbits have changed so much. Hopefully I can keep the weight off for good! I don't want to let myself get back to where I was.

[Uabassoon]

Here's and old picture of me with DJ Irene (my favorite DJ).



And here's a recent picture of me. I'm the short one in the brown shirt and blue jeans. I look so different!

[carole]

WOW laura you look fabulous a complete different person, good on you, another wonderful success story,most inspiring.

[RobiLee]

Laura, congrats on your success. You look great!

I did it! The girls and I got a 30 min. walk in this evening! We stopped 3 different times for people who wanted to see and pet the dogs, so actually I better make it a 20 min. walk .

Ok, I need you guys to give me a kick in the butt in the morning so I can do it all over again!!

Thanks for the encouragement and help!

[christa]

It's been over a year now since I lost my weight, and I'm proud of myself for keeping it off.

You should be proud! You look fantastic!

[christa]

Laura, congrats on your success. You look great!

I did it! The girls and I got a 30 min. walk in this evening! We stopped 3 different times for people who wanted to see and pet the dogs, so actually I better make it a 20 min. walk .

Ok, I need you guys to give me a kick in the butt in the morning so I can do it all over again!!

Thanks for the encouragement and help!

YAY YAY YAY!!!

Oh wow, that is great!!! I'm so proud of you!

[jazzcat]

I know I never post here anymore, but I read almost daily and I had to chime in on this one.

Robilee, I have to tell you that when I first started working out in Feb '05, I couldn't do 5 minutes on my recumbent bike. And after those 3.5 minutes on the easiest setting, my legs would shake and I felt sick. But you know, eventually I was able to increase the time and the difficulty. Now I do over 2 hours a day on it (well, not every day anymore) and I've lost 67 lbs. I feel great and no longer pant walking to answer the door.

I've recently decided that I want to lose about 25 more. I want to be the same weight I was at 30 when I turn 40 next year.

Wow Micki, I haven't seen you here in so long. It's great to see you back! Congrats on the weight loss and getting so healthy! I hope the furkids are well.

Laura - you look wonderful!

[carole]

Well done Robilee, i too went for another walk, be it only 20 mins but it is better than not doing anything, maybe we can encourage each other on as we seem to be in the same place right now.

[christa]

I have shared this list with some of you before, but thought that it might be a good idea to post again. If you want to start eating healthy, you HAVE to adjust your grocery shopping list! Thought I'd give you a few ideas!

Milk: If you drink milk, make sure it’s SKIM! We always drank 2% before so we made a gradual change, drinking 1% for awhile and eventually, the skim milk tasted just as good as the 2% ever did! If you don't like milk or can't have dairy, try "Silk" . . . I hear it's good!

Butter: No full fat butter. "Smart Balance" is my favorite. There are other low fat butters in the grocery store. Just check the label. Anything is better than full fat butter. I don’t really even use butter much anymore, so I only buy the small tubs.

Lunchmeat: If you eat lunchmeat, remember that the deli cut meat is less processed than the packaged meats. And try to get something that is 99% Fat Free . . . we eat turkey!

Cooking Oils: Use Olive Oil when cooking rather than corn oil or Crisco. It has a high content of monounsaturated fat, which control “bad” cholesterol levels and raises “good” cholesterol levels. You can also get Olive Oil PAM, which I cook with all the time. And if you want to be even healthier, you might want to try Enova Oil, which is made from Soy and supposedly, less is stored in the body as fat.

Some things that you might want to add to your grocery list:

Dairy:
Skim/Fat Free Milk/Soy Milk
Eggs or egg substitutes
Cottage Cheese (fat free)
Fat Free Sour Cream
Lite or Carb Smart Yogurt
Shredded Cheese (fat free/low fat if you can afford it!)
Hard cheeses sparingly

Meat:
Ground Turkey & Ground Chicken --> replace all of your ground beef with ground turkey & ground chicken! A much healthier choice!
Chicken Breasts or Frozen chicken breasts (great for meals through the week)
Turkey Tenderloin
LEAN beef - like steaks
Fresh or Frozen Fish fillets (Cod is our fav!)

Produce:
ANYTHING GREEN!!!
Sweet Potatoes (instead of regular potatoes!)
eggplant
squash
cauliflower
peppers (any color)
mushrooms
apples (GREAT source of fiber!)
bananas
fresh or frozen (w/o syrup) berries
peaches
grapefruit


Frozen/Canned Veggies:
Sweet Corn
Sweet baby peas
Sugar Snap Peas
Green Beans
Pepper Stir fry
Veggie Stir fry
Diced Tomatoes/Sauce
Black beans
Dark kidney beans

From the baking aisle:
PAM (I like the Olive Oil Pam)
Enova Oil or Olive Oil
Whole Wheat flour

Other stuff:
Peanut Butter (get natural if you can afford it!)
100 percent fruit spread (like All Fruit)
100 percent Whole Wheat bread (I love Sara Lee)
Almonds (a handful makes a great snack!)
Whole Wheat or Low Carb fajita wraps
Brown rice
Whole Wheat Pasta
Low Sugar marinara sauce
Oats
Tuna
Tofu
Nutella - for those chocolate cravings (just watch how much you eat!!! A dab will do ya!)

Have any questions or wanna know if something can be added to the list? Let me know. Thought this might be helpful for some of you.

[mruffruff]

So where's the chocolate?

Actually, I know where it is.......I'm sitting on it!

I've just started counting calories and eating less. Like half of what I used to. I'm keeping to 1500 calories a day and it's not too difficult so far. I keep a list of everything I eat. Even the 3 soda crackers after work.

I have no idea what I weigh. I don't have a pounds-lost goal. I'll know I'm successful when I can tie my sneakers and breathe at the same time.

I'm really impressed with all of you who have come so far. It certainly is not easy, but all life changes take effort. You have encouraged me. Thank you!

[Pawsitive Thinking]

The secret of my success!

http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?t=105353

[christa]

So where's the chocolate?

LOL . . . funny you should ask! I have always been ADDICTED to chocolate! But for the past year, I have begun to have MIGRAINES so chocolate is starting to become a trigger for me. I am having to cut back big time!

Hubby & I did find an awesome product called NUTELLA! You can find it on the top shelf near the peanutbutter. Actually, it is a nutbutter, I think it's made from hazelnuts . . . but it has cocoa in it. It tastes JUST LIKE chocolate icing . . . but it's so rich, just a dab will send you over the edge! I can hardly eat but a little, so when I'm craving chocolate, I get a dab of Nutella and it curbs my craving!

You all might wanna try it. I'll put it on the list.

And BTW, mruffruff, you don't HAVE to have scales in the house . . . you can tell you're successfully getting healthy & loosing weight when your clothes start falling off of ya!!!

[christa]

The secret of my success!

http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?t=105353

Definitely some great motivation you got there! Keep it up!!!

[christa]

Ohhhh, I'm in pain today! I did leg day with hubby yesterday and he killed me! I'm usually sore when I do legs by myself but he just pushes me a little harder than I would myself I guess. That's what I need.

Anyway, I hadn't done squats at the squat rack since I'd been sick so I'm back at that. (squats are the best thing in the world you can do to get your butt into shape!) I did the bar (which is about 20 lbs) and I added a whopping 10 lbs, LOL . . . a little at a time! Then I did walking lunges - ouch! Leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises, & deadlifts . . . so needless to say, I can hardly walk, LOL.

Hope you all found time to work out today! I'm getting ready to go hit the eliptical machine . . . if I can walk to my car, LOL!

[Logan]

I started dieting last August with the goal of losing 48 pounds. I lost 30 and plateaued and sort of "fell off the wagon". I still don't have a regular exercise program and I know that would help. I'm stuck and have probably gained a few pounds back, but I know I am in a much better place than I was a year ago. Maybe putting a bathing suit on next week will give me the nudge I need to get the next 18 off, plus a little more.

My stepchildren swam in an open water meet on Saturday and there were people there, older than me, participating. I have made it my personal goal to participate in the 1K swim next summer. I really want to do this, but I am going to have to tell my family to get used to some "me" time while I train for it. It can't do anything but help me in the long run!

Congrats to all of you for trying and succeeding!

Logan