Healthy Weight Loss

[Gráinne]

Good morning!

Last night at the gym-21.10 minute mile. I shaved off about 4 minutes in a couple of days, and 10 minutes since last week. 18 minutes, or even 15, doesn't seem so undoable now .

I also got my pace up to 20 minutes for about half of the mile, before my calves hurt and I had to slow down. But it's coming!

Then, because I was feeling so badass to the core, I went over to the free weight section and did my arm routine with 10 pound weights. I'd not done that before. I couldn't do as much, but that's sort of the point-to push it a little. Otherwise, you're not building your muscle.

My goal isn't to be a musclebody-I know you have to have a certain body type for that, and put in serious weightlifting even then, but nicely toned would be great . My gym offers a "women's side", but I actually prefer to work out with the football players and serious bodybuilders, as if that motivates me. I got a thumbs-up yesterday from one.

Andrea's right, when I miss a day, I don't feel as good. I also know I can mix it up a little with swimming and Zumba, but I also want to focus on that pace thing, which is easier to measure on a treadmill.

When the rest of my life feels like it's falling down around me (literally), it's nice to have something to look forward to and to actually go right.

[Sachita]

I was working out and walking everyday. had some funky problem with the top of my feet. That healed. I'm back walking. I'm not so sure about the gym any more but I did join the YMCA to swim.

I finally broke down and seriously cut back on all grains. I still might have a bit of rice soba or very small amount of rice now and then. I'm mostly juicing, which I always do but now all greens. I am amazed how I feel after one week of not eating wheat or grains. I'm eating chicken, lamb, beef and even eggs. I've increased my veggie intake quite a bit. So instead of have rice or a potato with meals I just eat more veggies or mushrooms. In a week i lost 5 pound just by not eating grains and I totally stopped sugar. Of course there is sugar in carbs and I stopped table sugars/sweets. I actually went through a bit of withdrawal over the sugar thing.

I also notice that when I do eat grains or any sugars it sets the pace for the rest of the day. I'm amazed that in a week my blood pressure and blood sugar lowered.

[Dance-with-me]

I've been using the massive chaos in my life, the fact that I'm feeling limited to just my bedroom in my home until my ex and family are finally out of there, and the fact that I'm trying to stay away from home as much as possible, as my reason to not exercise. I need to be called on that b.s. and stop using my baby-elliptical as just a place to hang bras and dry panties!

[Kelt]

I came across this article in Lifehacker and wanted to share it. As Jo was saying earlier, developing habits that you can stick with beyond the loss phase is a good idea. This has some ideas that might be helpful. I am pasting the summary article here and will link to the full report at the bottom.
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This Study Shows How to Lose a Lot of Weight—and Keep It Off
Melanie Pinola
If you want to know the secret of successful weight loss and management, take a look at the results from The National Weight Control Registry. The participants in the study lost an average of 66 pounds each and kept it off for 5.5 years. Here's how they did it.
The National Weight Control Registry is a database of about 4,000 people who maintained at least a 30 pound weight loss for at least one year.

Although there were variations in how quickly they lost weight and how much, there are four things NWCR members have in common:

90% of them say they exercise, on average, about 1 hour per day
78% eat breakfast every day
75% weigh themselves at least once a week
62% watch fewer than 10 hours of TV per week
These may seem like obvious common sense essentials for weight loss, but they're still important findings. The fact that 89% of the participants used a combination of both diet and exercise reinforces the importance of both.

The dedication to a significant and extensive amount of daily exercise is also notable. Twenty-eight percent of participants used only walking as their exercise. The researchers also put pedometers on a sample of the participants and found they walked about 5.5 to 6 miles a day—far beyond the minimal guidelines.

Frequent weighing is also interesting, since some people think weighing too often is counter-productive when trying to lose weight. Weighing yourself at least weekly could be an "early warning system" to keep you on track for the long term.

See the whole study via the link below:

The National Weight Control Registry | The Permanente Journal