munchmunch

A quote that I take to heart is this: "Its not about motivation. Its not about inspiration. Its about commitment. A commitment to yourself and a goal." And the mantra I have that goes hand-in-hand with that quote: "I'm worth it." We are all worth it, even during the busy holidays. So here is our holiday check in for X-mas eve and X-mas day, lets give ourselves and those we love a healthier us (you and me). Even for those of us that do not celebrate these specific holidays, we all feel the outside stressors and can get sucked into the the busy time-warp of rushed shopping, travel, and celebrations (and large meals? lol).

What did you do today to give yourself a healthier you?

( Today, I got up at 5am and... )

Happy Holidays! Happy Belated Yule!

my parents are bringing home a bunch of pizza soon. i know i dont want to eat it but i dont know if i can control myself. panic! help

Happy Yule everyone! Tell me what you got out today and did? Did you try something new? Was it a gym day for your or did you enjoy a chilly walk on the first official day of winter? Whatever you did, congratulations! And if you didn't, maybe this thread will inspire you to move and share with everyone!

( I woke up early this morning, about 4am and... )

Someone asked these questions; I answered, but I thought it would be nice to post them in here for the community to see as well. And I hope it helps those who are considering doing a half marathon for the first time.

Who here has ever run a half marathon?

ME! Dec 5th, 2009 (not that long ago :)). I did a combination of walking and running.

How much did you weigh (or how much weight did you have left to lose) when you ran your first one?

I weighed between 331.8 (two weeks before the half) and 326.4 (the Monday after the half) - I forgot to weigh myself the Monday before my the half.

How long and in what way did you train for it?

I trained for 7 months (month one pretraining for the official traning in month 2) with a group of friends. I figured that I would probably be "by myself" while doing the half, but it helped that I had other friends out there training on the same day I was training (on Saturdays). They didn't necessarily have to be right with me. So even though there were others out there training on the same day as me, I was pretty much by myself and I wanted it that way. I walked 2-3 days out of the week beginning with one mile one day and then 2 miles the second day (eventually I kinda had to adjust how many miles to walk on certain days, but meet the total mileage for the week minus my Saturday walk). The first Saturday walk was two miles, then the next Sat was 3, and the next 2, and then the next 4. Every other Saturday, mileage would increase by one until I reached 11 miles two weeks prior to the half marathon. I did my weekly walks and the Sat low mileage walks mostly on treadmill. Whenever our walks increased by one, I was always out there with friends but "by myself." We were supposed to do cross training in between walks but I never did really have the time for it. I just focused on walking my miles.

What is your best advice for getting past a mental motivation block?

Basically, I just told myself, I would get through one mile at a time. When one mile was done, I knew I could move on to the next. I carried water on my back all throughout my training as well as Luna and/or Clif Bars. Having food and water is VERY essential during training, especially long miles. I also did a lot of mental image of crossing that finish line. I built up the excitement. Doing a half marathon is completely different from training. There's so much motivation, adrenaline, excitement, entertainment, support, and encouragement out there. When you cross that finish line, you will feel so much emotion. I about bawled like a baby when I crossed Dec 5th. It was out of relief that it was done and amazement that I, over 300 pounds, did my first half marathon. I knew it was possible, but I couldn't believe that I actually did it. From mile 1 to 6.2 miles, I kept 20 mins 18 sec mile pace. From 6.2 miles to 13.1 miles, I was going 23 mins 20 seconds mile pace - which is pretty darn good for me!! When I trained for my 11 miles, my time predicted I would finish the half in 6 hours. I actually finished in 5 hours, 5 mins.

Hi. Can anybody tell me a little about the C25K thing. Ive seen it being talked about around the net and i was wondering about it. Is this good to get started on? Can I do this using a treadmill?  thanks :)

Hey everyone. I'm not exactly a stranger to this community, ahaha. My weight loss attempts have been comprised of some twenty pound victories here and there (all gained back) and one major victor about two summers ago. I'm currently undergoing the one attempt that I actually feel good about, comparable to that one time in the summer. However, what happened that one time was that toward the end, I began to restrict and fast and binge...just a terrible cycle. So now that I know that I'm prone to that, here I am two years later starting again.
( Getting a bit personal... )

I'd been doing fairly well with not emotional eating, until today. I went to Target, and as I was checking out, I was making small talk with the cashier. As she handed me my change, she asked me when my baby was due. I'm decidedly not pregnant. I've been a mess all day. Who does that?

Hi again. I'm Katy. I have to confess to falling off the wagon. See, it's hard, since my husband cooks and he just doesn't care about eating healthy. We live off of hamburger helper in the winter, and hamburgers in the summer. So I guess my point is that eating healthy around here is next to impossible. Instead I've decided to do three things

1. Only eat when I am hungry. Cut out the emotional eating, but also don't be lazy about getting food when I am hungry because then I get "ZOMG IM STARVING NOM NOM NOM!!!!" Also, only eat until I'm full. I'm terrible about "must finish everything on my plate because there are starving children in Africa!"

2. Run - I started the C25K program yesterday. I feel really good about it. It wasn't too hard at all. Of course we'll see what happens when the runs are longer than the walks next week. I came home and stretched for like 15 minutes and wound up feeling a little tight but not too bad.

3. Pushups - I found an iphone app that lets you say how many pushups you can do and then it tells you how many you should do in sets to get to 100 in 6 weeks. I'm doing them on my knees because I can only do two on my toes (d'oh!). This is TOUGH! My poor arms feel like jelly.


Anyway, here's the stats:

SW: 240 (beginning of last summer)
CW: 214 (down 10%!!)
1: 193 (by the end of winter quarter)
2: 174 (by the end of spring quarter)
3: 157 (by the end of summer)
GW: 140 (by the end of fall quarter)

Technically at my height I should weigh 125 - 135, but I decided 100lbs was a much cleaner goal so I'm aiming for 140.

I have a really bad habit of getting to 170 (the line where I go from obese to overweight) and then quitting and gaining it all back. I can't do that again!


Anyone want to be friends? Especially anyone doing the C25K thing, or the pushup thing, or with similar stats?

Well... I'm doing the 100 pushups program that promises to get you doing 100 pushups in 6 weeks. I'm doing them on my knees and then when I'm done I'll go back and do them on my toes because I can't do enough to get through day one on my toes. But oh man is that tough!!!

I RAN! Seriously. Got off my butt and RAN. I haven't been able to do that in I don't even know how long. The last time I ran seriously was 2004. And I lost like 70lbs doing it, which I promptly regained plus more when I got sick and the meds I was on caused weight gain. I did week 1 day 1 of the C25K program. Furthermore, I feel better than I have in a while, and I didn't have an asthma attack!

Tomorrow, we attack the pushup. And sit-up.

I'm continuing my diet and exercise plan. But I have some concerns about skin. I know that I may have saggy skin when I reach my goal weight, but I'd like to avoid as much as possible by using skin firming lotions while in the process of losing weight. Have you had a good or bad experience with some of the skin firming products available?

Height - 5'10
HW - 325 lbs
LW - 230 lbs
Current - 310-ish lbs
LT Goal - 180 lbs

Hi everyone! I hope I'm doing this right. Christine here. I'm 36 years old, married, dog and two cats, no kids (yet). I've been overweight (or at least convinced I was overweight) for most of my life. At one point, I had lost close to 100 lbs., but I got cocky and failed to realize that when you move from a city where you're walking around to get everywhere every day, to a city where you drive everywhere and it's like the restaurant capitol of the world or something, you can't eat the same as you used to, and you HAVE to work out. So I ballooned. Then I got married to a wonderful man who loves me as I am and who eats way more than he should, which of course allows ME to eat way more than I should, so I ballooned some more. Ugghhhhh. So I'm 36 and while my last full check-up showed that I am very healthy, just fat - I don't want to keep taking that for granted. I don't want to die early of heart failure, or anything else for that matter. There are no guarantees, but why flirt with it when you could just take care of yourself and actually live life again, right? I also would *like* to have a child, and would rather be healthy in doing so.

Anyway. I've never been too great with diets - I seem to have a "thing" where the minute someone (or something) tells me what I can't eat, I want to rebel! I have done the South Beach Diet w/my husband, though. Unfortunately we did Phase I for four weeks instead of two (we're both pretty big), and that kind of destroyed my metabolism for a good long while. What I am doing now is just tracking my calories every day (militantly), keeping my intake below 1800, and cutting the junk. My work has me on the road a LOT, and that's been a big issue for me eating-wise. Fast food is such a slippery slope - one that I would justify by saying "Oh, it's not like I'm eating the Big Mac Value Meal with the large fries and Coke - look, it's just chicken strips and a milk shake!" So for me, I just have to cut it completely. The only "fast" food I'm allowing myself anymore is from Starbucks, and that's just coffee, no sugar, and their yogurt or smoothies. I am using a private Twitter account to journal my food from the road - I really like that. I'm also allowing myself one cheat day a week where I don't have to worry about it - not going hog-wild, but it really does help my self-control if I know in the back of my mind that if I wait just a couple more days, I can have something REALLY good on Saturday if I want.

Work-out wise, I've started small because I really let myself get woefully out of shape. I've been taking my dog for walks at least once a day, usually more like twice. So I'm getting a half to one and a half miles a day walking. The first few times it seemed like it took forever and what a pain in the butt, etc. But now it's taking less and less time, and I really do enjoy it. I need to add a more "real" workout into my regime now, though. I have a gym membership, but I let myself get so out of shape I've been feeling too bad about myself to go there. We have an exercise bike, Wii Fit, DDR, Wii Gold's Gym Boxing (I HIGHLY recommend this game, btw), and some other things around the house. I either need to suck it up and start going back to the gym or commit to 20 minutes a night at home.

Oh ugh - I just let myself ramble. Sorry.

So I'm really excited about a community where we can talk about what we're doing to get healthy/lose weight in a similar context. It gets a little frustrating to watch other communities where people are stressing about ten pounds. I hope one day to be that person, but right now, it's a little bit eyeroll-inspiring to see. My livejournal is an account I opened solely to track my fitness "journey" and thoughts about weight and eating and whatnot. Feel free to friend if you want, I'll friend ya back! Okay, that's it for now.

I hope I am doing this right...I sort of just joined and not sure how the tag stuff works. Do I tag or do a link thing? Ah poop oh well. Heh

Height - 5'9"
HW - 305 lbs
LW - 190 lbs
CW - 300 lbs
LT Goal - 160-170 lbs

Hiya. I'm Jen, 23yrs old, with boyfriend. No kids yet.

I want to stay motivated with my weight loss journey and also help others when they hit roadblocks. There are so many things that can set a person off course, even if they try their hardest. Also being the biggest friend in my circle, many of my smaller friends just don't understand what I am going through and have never been big enough to understand. I believe being accepted into this community I will be among women (and men if they are on here too) that can relate more to myself than the average joe shmo.

I have been going to the gym consistently for a little bit and I feel great. More tired and exhausted from the resistance exercises, but all in all I am almost in the mindset of incorporating the gym into my everyday routine. It's been so hard to just to even want to go to the gym, and then after I exercise & get ready to leave I feel so good. Endorphins (Endolphins I want to call them) are swimming in my body, and I want more.

Why has it taken so long just to get serious about losing weight? Why do I make up excuses not to go? Back in high school I lost a considerable amount of weight and did not keep it off. Is it emotional eating? Do I have something in my mind that is sabotaging my dreams of losing weight? I could just be plain lazy. Part of me is also afraid because the fat on my body has always been a "comfort" in a weird way. I must dig deep and resolve some internal issues while transforming my external self.

That's the way it goes I guess.

i find it so hard to resist eating a bunch of junk. how does everybody find the strength? any tips or advice? i really need some right now. :(

I guess i'm mainly posting for some support/encouragement, today I went to the dr for a MRI w/contrst on my back, and after injecting me with the dye, the lady tries to slide me into the MRI machine and we both realize that I won't fit. I weighed in at 283 at the dr's office the other day :( My fiance blames all of my medical conditions on my weight...or at least a huge contribution to them...(I have Rapid-cycling Bipolar II disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, a Panic disorder, Fibromyalgia, and Rheumatoid Arthritis) I just feel really terrible about myself today :(

This was a (Captain Obvious here) a face pic when I was roughly 425 lbs. February of 2007


This was taken at the beginning of December of 2009



February 2007 425 lbs


October 2008 250 lbs

Phew. After three and a half weeks laid up with sinus infection followed by tonsilitis and what is yet still undiagnosed nastiness in my throat, I finally bit the bullet and felt good enough today to go to the gym for a quick run.

I still made a pretty decent mile time, but jogged a little slower than normal. Made it through a half mile before slowing down to walk a bit.

I'm also down 4 lbs in this week from last Monday (so only up 3 since before Thanksgiving now!)

Wow! I've been struggling so much throughout this year! I just can't wait to start a new one. I don't want to really make "new years resolutions" I just want to make resolutions.

I know I definetly want to run a 5K, and at 5'8", 20 years old, and 220lbs, I know it's definitely possible. I see all the lovely ladies here posting photos of their 5K and I want to be one of them! My goal is to do the CIBC run for the cure in October 2010...although it's far away, that's my goal. Hopefully I'll get the chance to run a 5K before then, but I'm going to start my training today.

I've already contacted my district manager to see if I could be Team Captain of Team LaSenza, so I definitely have an obligation now. Not to mention the run is for a good cause.

Anyway, I was hoping if...
A) anyone had some suggestions for training for a 5K
and B) anyone had some suggestions for keeping my weight loss on track!

Thanks!

I am looking to do my first (official) 5K in March and was wondering if anyone else was going to be doing That Dam Run?