The Great Loose Weight Thread

[blackjohn]

what kind of bridge did you go over? was it one of the enormously tall ones? the last time i crossed one of those on foot, it was so old, the wood planks were rotting and if you weren't careful you could step in between them. that was a nightmare =p

Relatively new footbridge, date on the side read 2002. Practically no arch to it. I remember once in Scouts we crossed this really scary railroad bridge on foot. The planks were rotten, and the river below was visible at practically every other step!

[The Doctor]

One stone gone, one to go.

[Mad Matt]

One stone gone, one to go.

I've heard they can be painful to pass, mate. Best of luck!

[blackjohn]

Interesting observation. Pushing a lawnmower is great exercise for legs and arms. Fencing, on the other hand, is really great for the upper legs, especially the rear facing portion of the upper legs.

[blackjohn]

Whoa! Goddangawfully hot for a big walk around a city block, but hey, I could use the exercise!

[blackjohn]

Time to get serious again on the calorie counting.

What word Tom? Any progress?

Just got back from another big walk around the block. Dang, talk about drastic change in the weather. It's so nice outside, I wanted to walk straight back to my car and head home and lay out on the hammock with a rum punch in hand.

[roytheodd]

So here's my dilemma. I started Weight Watchers in February. I'm having great success with the program, to the tune of having lost 6" in the waist. I am new to re-enacting and I really want to start buying clothes, but I know I'll just shrink out of them and I can't predict my final reduced size yet (it's about 90 pounds away). My solution has been to spend money on shoes, a hat, a sword, and all the stuff that my waistline won't affect... but I'm getting all babyish about it and I want pirate garb now now now. Yarr!!

I'm not really complaining though. Having lost so much weight I feel a lot better. I can only imagine how good it'll feel to get to the finish line and slip into some normal-sized clothes. I have complete faith that counting point values will steer me to my weight loss goal. It's nice to see so many others having success too. I visit another message board where a lot of the people are trying to lose weight, but I'm the only one who's still counting points and losing anything. It's encouraging to read the last few pages of this thread and find others who are going great guns.

[Jack Roberts]

For now, depending on your stance on historical accuracy, you could get (or make if so inclined) some draw string pants, (Very easy to make, although not accurate, historically speaking.) and a big shirt. You would then have some basics and could worry about acquiring the rest of the outfit later when you finally reach your goal. Waist scarves and head rags are extremely easy to make. Just pieces of cloth tried around your noggin and waist. Add any belt you own over top of the waist scarf and you have a basic outfit.

Good luck with losing the rest. Congrats on what you've lost already. I myself am trying to lose a few pounds. Have fun pirating!

[Asukaru]

My gym buddy's been kinda busy so I haven't been going as often as I should. I have been trying to walk more on my breaks, and around the track when I can't or don't want to go to Ballys.

According to WW I haven't lost any pounds yet, but I have been loosing ounces. Oh well, a loss is a loss right?

[LadyBarbossa]

Haha... jumping into this thread for the first time.

I'm bound and determined to lose the weight. Need to for a variety of reasons. It's not been easy for me to do so in the past. But, currently, I'm slowly working into it. Slowly being the key word.

Oddly enough, I've had people tell me I'm loosing the weight and look it. But the scale says otherwise. Annoying. But, clothing is proving that a we bit though, too.

I know I'd like to go to the college gym a bit more. Conflicting time schedules have generally defered me from going. But, I do need to do something other than just cut and cut and cut on the food. Cause that doesn't help. But, I'm not doing too bad. I can almost mount up from the ground now. Not easy as hell as my knees and hips are not all that flexible, but they are FAR more flexible than they use to be.

Ok.. so here is my goal... to be at least a size 16 again in shape. I had that in High School and honestly, I think I looked pretty good.

Here's an old pic of me in HS:

So... one habit I need to break is... soda. I'm HUGE on Dr Pepper. Granted I drink nigh a liter a day. So, breaking my habit of that is not easy. All water all the time just makes me ill. Do drink some teas, mostly ice tea. Some propel. But I do drink quite a bit of water, too.

Any ideas, mates, on how to lose weight for someone who has a hellish time just losing more than 10 lbs any more. I'm constantly on the move, too.

~Lady B

[LongTom]

Time to get serious again on the calorie counting.

What word Tom? Any progress?

Ugh. Don't ask. 4th of July celebration days last week (including a trip to the county fair; cotton candy is not diet food...). Then today I'm back from 4 days' vacation with the family and my parents, and I'm up even more. Very frustrating to find I can never let my guard down on the calories. Monday I'm back to the full exercise routine and eating like an ascetic.

Grrrrr.... Once more into the breach...

[LongTom]

Haha... jumping into this thread for the first time.

...

Any ideas, mates, on how to lose weight for someone who has a hellish time just losing more than 10 lbs any more. I'm constantly on the move, too.

Welcome aboard, LadyB!

The Calories Per Hour website has a lot of good information on diet and exercise. They recommend a "slow and steady wins the race" approach. They say not to bear down too hard on the calories, but to keep things just a little under your daily needs. A modest calorie deficit should keep you losing over the long run, while a huge calorie deficit will crash your metabolism.

I was having my best success when I was carefully monitoring things more or less by their plan. I stopped losing when I got lazy with the bookkeeping. I was probably pushing the calorie intake level lower than they would have recommended, but the important thing is I was logging everything that went in my mouth. It's amazing how a bite of this and a handful of that can completely undo a diet. It sure did for me in the last few weeks! Blast and damnation!

A liter of Dr Pepper is about 420 calories. (That's around three 12-oz. cans, by the way, if that signifies anything to your estimate.) That would be an easy lump of calories to lose. (Damned difficult to give up, but nutritionally insignificant, compared to, say, reducing the portions of all your "real" food.)

Good luck on the battle. I'll be cheering for you.

[Mad Matt]

Start off by switching to diet. Tastes nasty to begin with, but eventually you won't notice the difference. So long as you don't go back and drink a REAL Dr. Pepper, that is. I've almost completely quit drinking regular sodas. I normally drink Diet Pepsi, Diet Pepsi w/lime (flavored stuff like that helps hide the taste and I like the Diet Pepsi/lime better than the Diet Coke/lime) and Coke Zero. Those, water, gatorade and milk are the things I normally drink. You can also look into the vast varieties of Crystal Light drink mixes, too.

[blackjohn]

Time to get serious again on the calorie counting.

What word Tom? Any progress?

Ugh. Don't ask. 4th of July celebration days last week (including a trip to the county fair; cotton candy is not diet food...). Then today I'm back from 4 days' vacation with the family and my parents, and I'm up even more. Very frustrating to find I can never let my guard down on the calories. Monday I'm back to the full exercise routine and eating like an ascetic.

Grrrrr.... Once more into the breach...

Hahaha... ascetic... I know that one. When the times get tough, it's gruel for breakfast. I've got the "eating right" down pretty good. I just need to discipline to carry through with the exercise. So... I did the 20+ minute walk around lovely downtown Silver Spring again today.

[LadyBarbossa]

Thanks guys, for the advice and help. :)

My health is important to me. So, with that factor as well as losing the weight cause I ride horses, as well as I just want to get back down to a shapelier me before I turned 20. I'm surprisingly healthy for my weight and all, but I don't want to take the chances any more and need to lose that weight.

Heading to the Gym tomorrow after working with the horses. Figured that with my workout with the horses and Chores & cleaning the stall daily... should help with excersize.

I gave up on the diets cause of the aspertame (?) gave me headaches. So, Dr Pepper generally became the only soda I drank. After finding out what Coke does to your gullet... yeah.... rare occasion I'll have my coke with rum only.

~Lady B

[Asukaru]

I had the same problem you had Lady B. I've been a Dr Pepper drinker all my life... used to drink soo many soo often I lost count. I can't believe my teeth and my stomach's not in worse shape lol

What I started doing was having a Coke Zero or some other diet soda on my desk at work to drink if I had a craving. However I hate the taste so much that I usually avoid it all together and drink water instead.

My one trip up that I'm discovering is my grandmother's cooking. She's a farm girl from the South, so her ideas for dinner are usually very greasy and very fattening, and just not healthy at all. She's also one of those people that gets offended it you turn down her food, or food that she's bought for you. Which is funny, because here she always complains about her grandaughters weight (not just me, but my cousins also) and yet she's the first to pile the food on.

[blackjohn]

Ditch the sodas... one of the best things I've ever done...

Another walk today. Dang, weather is pretty nice. I hope it holds for the event this weekend.

[Red-Handed Jill]

Yeah - I'm more of a water drinker. Sodas once in a great while, if at all.

Lady B - working with horses and cleaning stables is GREAT exercise! Good on ya for going to the gym as well.

[blackjohn]

I'm glad to say I've convinced my kids to be water drinkers. At a very young age I began a "water, it's the best thing for you" campaign with them. Son #1 seems to have signed on to it. Son #2 still seems to prefer his milk or juice.

[blackjohn]

I could get used to this walking thing... and the interesting bit about walk around in the DC Metro area, you see all sorts of people in all shapes and size and colors, and there are all sorts of wonderful foods to smell in all shapes and sizes and colors!

[Asukaru]

It's kinda hard to just completely ditch the sodas when you've drank so many for all your life... I can't think of anything to really compare it to but it really sucks. Which is why I've been keeping that can of diet soda on the desk for just in case I have a craving, and sticking to the water as much as possible.

I had a real work out yesterday, after coming home from the gym I discovered that my room was invaded by ants. Who knew cleaning all that up would be another work out in itself?

[blackjohn]

It's kinda hard to just completely ditch the sodas when you've drank so many for all your life...

I believe you. Any habit can be tough to beat. That's why I figure I'd steer my kids away from soda at an early age.

I've beat my coffee habit at least two or three times now!

Settling for a happy medium, I still drink coffee, only black now, and I try my best to avoid $tarbuck$.

["Broadside" Long]

I'm a Dr. Pepper and coffee addict as well. In fact, I would drink just about anything to avoid drinking water. Strange as it sounds, I just didn't like water. But I have come to the conclusion that, like most people, I was in a state of chronic dehydration. So I now force myself to drink A LOT of water everyday. I'm getting better and I've noticed that I have much more cardio endurance when I'm properly hydrated.

If you kind folks would have me, I'd like to take the challenge to better myself and jump aboard this here thread. Weight is a big issue for me right now. I just turned 35 and have noticed for the last few years that my weight has been slowly creeping up along with my age. This is severely depressing to me.

At my heaviest I was close to 220. Now, at around 197 lbs, 5'10" with a 39.5" waist I still look fat. I also have high blood pressure and high cholesterol so this could literally be a matter of life or death for me. As a consequence I have studied fitness extensively and I am in pursuit of real fitness not the appearance of fitness (i.e. beach muscles).

As a result of studying real fitness, I have pared away the excesses of the modern philosophy of fitness and tried to mimic the daily activities of our ancestors and "primitive" cultures of today some of whom are incredibly fit. I don't go to a high tech gym and therefore avoid the expense, musclehead who tries to tell everyone how they should perform a certain lift and the others who seem more concerned with being seen with the latest sports apparel, etc.

In other words I have taken a decidedly "low-tech" approach. I use tried and true compound exercises that incorporate as many joints as possible to achieve real strength as opposed to isolation exercises (bicep curls, etc.) that give the appearance of strength. I literally workout in my garage using old car parts. I also use push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and other bodyweight exercises. You will be amazed at the shape you can get into just using bodyweight exercises.

But one thing I have discovered is training like a boxer. Just take a look at one of those guys and you'll see why! Plus, it's cheap and it works. I got a cheap punching bag, gloves, and a jump rope all for around $100. In the course of one month I have lost 1 1/4" off my waist. Jumping rope 10 minutes a day for one month has added 5/16" to each calf in! I feel lighter on my feet and there is no better way to relieve daily stress than pounding a bag at the end of the day. I'm not a trained boxer BTW so technique doesn't matter much to me, I just wail away. It can be a very transcending experience. I recommend it highly.

Sorry this is so long and I know I sound like an infomercial. Also, I DO NOT mean this as an indictment of anyone else's fitness philosophy, it's just the path that I have chosen. I told myself I wouldn't wax philosophical, but to those of you who read this far...thanks for listening.

Broadside

[depinux]

Roughly about 4 weeks ago, I was recommended the book, the abs diet, by mad matt so I ordered it from my local library, read and started it within a few days of getting it. Now I will admit I haven't been able to stick to the routines of eating about 6 meals a day, after all they frown upon eating in the kitchen while you are preparing food for people :-p But I've been doing my best in trying to change my eating habits and I've been exercising every other day with weights, and just doing some basic cardio those days I'm not using weights. As I said before it's hard for me to stick to this as I work in a kitchen at a children's camp where we don't exactly serve the healthiest of meals, ha ha. But I've been doing my best and, while the scales don't show any weight difference (I don't bloody trust those things, especially the one i have) I'm starting to feel the difference. I feel I'm on a good path to becoming healthy and I'm looking forward to the future. Thanks mad matt for the recommendation!

["Broadside" Long]

Good for you, mate. Everybody has set-backs. Forget about 'em and just keep moving forward.

BTW, I don't trust scales either or the BMI (Body Mass Index). Scales don't reflect the fact that you could be losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time. I think a lot of people just see that the scale isn't moving down and get discouraged when they're really making progress!

BMI is sorta the same thing. You could be in great shape and still be considered overweight according to the BMI.

I trust the way my clothes fit better, the way I feel, and that little peek of muscle that I couldn't see before!