Author Topic: Who Wants to Lose Weight?  (Read 10862 times)

Offline shmashwitdaclub

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Re: Who Wants to Lose Weight?
« Reply #15 on: January 5, 2011, 10:03 AM »
I have been dieting/exercising for about 1 year and a half now.  I started my journey because I was in a buddies wedding as his best man.  While I looked like his bodyguard up there in the tux, I looked like pretty darn thick - weighing in at about 268.

Fast forward through a year and a half of running on my elliptical while watching shows streaming through my X-Box 360 via Netflix, eating a 100 cal yogurt and banana for breakfast, a turkey and cheese roll up with the occasional veggies (lettuce tomatoes) thrown in when I had them in the fridge for lunch along with another yogurt and either 2 little oranges, an apple or another banana, and for dinner trying to cook healthy meals for my family of 4.

So - no pop, no cookies, no desserts, no mayo, no bread (even rolls at dinner).  I tried earlier on to drown myself in water by drinking so much - in need to get back to doing that.

Doing all of the above - getting up to running typically 2.5-4 miles on my elliptical, with some push ups and 40 lb curls per arm arm and other weight exercises - I dropped to 225 in a year and a half and kept it off.

Everything was all fine and dandy til the holiday season this year - I went buck wild on all of the cookies and sweets in the house - I gained 10 lbs!!!  My sister in law made us this huge basket of cookies of all varieties - they were so freaking good!

Well, when the cookies were gone I started to feel the destruction they had caused on my body.  I am a teacher and was on my 2 week winter break and I really didn't work out at all, got off my schedule, and off my diet.  So at the end of the 2 weeks I weighed my self and saw the bad news.

I think a lot of it was me retaining water like a buffalo.  So I started up on my diet/elliptical routine.  Day 1 went fine.  Then on day 2 my elliptical that I had owned for 2.5 years snapped at one of the welding joints!  I called Schwinn and they are sending me out a new piece for only $21 shipped - pretty happy about that considering the size and weight of the piece that broke.  So, on day 3 without the elliptical to use my wife and I did this Jillian Michaels 30 day shred DVD - man oh man did that whip my ass!

Anyway - weighed myself this morning and the extra 10 lbs are magically gone - and I am back down to 225.  I am still shooting for 200 - and that is what I am going to keep working towards in 2011.

Offline shmashwitdaclub

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Re: Who Wants to Lose Weight?
« Reply #16 on: January 5, 2011, 10:31 AM »
speaking of losing weight.  My feet were killing me last night during that DVD. 

It was very timely for me to find this deal http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=1152470&t=2542467

got a pair of awesome running shoes plus a free bag you can add to your cart during checkout for $64. 

just wanted to share.

Offline speedermike

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Re: Who Wants to Lose Weight?
« Reply #17 on: January 6, 2011, 08:53 PM »
Wow.  Great story.  I've been pretty crappy about getting anything going.  I have cut my junkfood intake drastically, but haven't been getting out and moving enough...tom'w...tom'w...
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Offline MistaBinks

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Re: Who Wants to Lose Weight?
« Reply #18 on: January 6, 2011, 09:07 PM »
Great thread speedermike,

If you don't mind, I'd like to crash your thread and keep up with your progress and share my own progress. I think posting here would help motivate me to avoid skipping workouts or indulging too much on bad foods.

Offline shmashwitdaclub

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Re: Who Wants to Lose Weight?
« Reply #19 on: January 7, 2011, 12:57 PM »
Wow.  Great story.  I've been pretty crappy about getting anything going.  I have cut my junkfood intake drastically, but haven't been getting out and moving enough...tom'w...tom'w...

thanks!

still waiting on that part for my elliptical, and the running shoes I believe are supposed to be here today.  Hopefully they will be like Forrest Gump and be "mah magic shoes" because lately my feet have been hurting.

As for progress?  I have done that Jillian Michales 30 lb Shred video with my wife for the past 3 days and I am sore - but I love it!  I can feel my body shrinking in areas and pushing myself to do workouts I have never done - I will be keeping it up.  The first 3 days really tore me up - but today I am feeling a whole lot less sore.  I think when I get my elliptical fixed I will incorporate the running into either a warm up or cool down.

Offline JesseVader08

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Re: Who Wants to Lose Weight?
« Reply #20 on: January 8, 2011, 02:47 AM »
I finally smartened up just under a year ago and lost about 35 pounds, using a combination of eating right (better balance of more protein, less carbs and less fat) and exercising (mostly walking/hiking).

But about 10 pounds has slowly crept back on during the last 3 months.  So I have to stop that now!  I was guilty of going back to some older bad habits but have been doing better getting out and walking again.  Unfortunately, I hurt my knee a few days ago and it's definitely slowed me down.

Anyway, has anyone tried that P90X program?  I'm not sure I'm in good enough shape to tackle it, but shmash's mention of that Jillian Michaels video has me thinking about it again.

Offline MistaBinks

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Re: Who Wants to Lose Weight?
« Reply #21 on: January 8, 2011, 05:21 PM »
P90X can be very challenging if you are not used to that kind of training. There is another program from the same company that I highly recommend. It is called Power 90 and it was the predecessor to P90X. You can find it at a decent price on ebay and craigslist.

Offline shmashwitdaclub

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Re: Who Wants to Lose Weight?
« Reply #22 on: March 15, 2011, 02:22 PM »
So how is everyone doin here?    ;D   

not so great myself   ::)

I have probably put on a few lbs.  nothing too terrible - I am sure I could shed them right back off once I get in my groove, but I have been extremely busy and stressed at work so I have been putting off working out.

Since the start of the year I have had my elliptical break twice in 2 different spots so I have been having to wait on Nautilus to send me replacement parts (fyi their customer service really is great - no joke).  But even though it has been broke I could have done that work out DVD - which still whips my ass - but the motivation for that just hasn't been there from all the stress.

hopefully you all have better news   8)


Offline CHEWIE

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Re: Who Wants to Lose Weight?
« Reply #23 on: March 15, 2011, 03:55 PM »
I'm 5'7", 165lbs at the moment. 

Might not seem like much, but I have felt "fat" since I eclipsed 150lbs about 6-7 years ago.  In high school, I weighed about 175 lbs and felt really fat.  I dropped 35lbs in one summer before college, which was really hard but at age 18 that's a lot easier to do than it is now that I'm in my 30s.

The past 18 months, I've been going to the gym about twice a week, I lift for about 30 minutes then do a 3 mile run in about 23.5 minutes.  I started out at 170lbs when I started back in the gym routine, and really haven't lost that much weight because that really hasn't been my goal, but am lifting a lot more weight than I ever could and a lot stronger.

However, I've still got a bit of a gut... I blame my eating habits.  I love fast food (though it's usually roast beef or grilled chicken sandwiches), and I have this awful habit of eating chips at night right before bedtime.  I can easily eat half a bag of Doritos 3-4 nights a week - if not for that, I think I'd be able to drop down to 150 pretty easily, or even down to 140 if I wanted to.  At one time I dropped down to 125 in college, when I was running 5 miles at a time several times per week.  But I know I can't do that anymore, I just don't have the time.  Plus it seems like every couple months I am getting sick with something that sets me back and I miss a week at the gym... heck, I've had two bouts with pneumonia since November - it really makes it harder to run like I was and I've actually cut back to 2 miles at a time most days now because I just can't handle more at the pace I like to run.

Anyways, my goal is by June to be down to 150 lbs.  If I don't get there I won't be too upset, but I should get close... I have always believed that the way is to eat less (and better), but stay active.

Offline EdSolo

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Re: Who Wants to Lose Weight?
« Reply #24 on: March 16, 2011, 07:05 AM »
I'm 5'7", 165lbs at the moment. 

Might not seem like much, but I have felt "fat" since I eclipsed 150lbs about 6-7 years ago.  In high school, I weighed about 175 lbs and felt really fat.  I dropped 35lbs in one summer before college, which was really hard but at age 18 that's a lot easier to do than it is now that I'm in my 30s.

The past 18 months, I've been going to the gym about twice a week, I lift for about 30 minutes then do a 3 mile run in about 23.5 minutes.  I started out at 170lbs when I started back in the gym routine, and really haven't lost that much weight because that really hasn't been my goal, but am lifting a lot more weight than I ever could and a lot stronger.

However, I've still got a bit of a gut... I blame my eating habits.  I love fast food (though it's usually roast beef or grilled chicken sandwiches), and I have this awful habit of eating chips at night right before bedtime.  I can easily eat half a bag of Doritos 3-4 nights a week - if not for that, I think I'd be able to drop down to 150 pretty easily, or even down to 140 if I wanted to.  At one time I dropped down to 125 in college, when I was running 5 miles at a time several times per week.  But I know I can't do that anymore, I just don't have the time.  Plus it seems like every couple months I am getting sick with something that sets me back and I miss a week at the gym... heck, I've had two bouts with pneumonia since November - it really makes it harder to run like I was and I've actually cut back to 2 miles at a time most days now because I just can't handle more at the pace I like to run.

Anyways, my goal is by June to be down to 150 lbs.  If I don't get there I won't be too upset, but I should get close... I have always believed that the way is to eat less (and better), but stay active.

As you probably already know, fast food is a killer, even the "healthier" items.  Check out the nutrition on Arby's page for their roast beef and deli sandwiches.  As I recall, they weren't too much different than a Big Mac.  As for the chips, part of that is the eating before you go to sleep.  One thing you might want to look for is the fat free or nearly fat free versions.  They can be a bit hard to find depending on the grocery store.  They have Ruffles, Lays, Doritos and Tostidos.  The Ruffles and Lays are fat free, I can't remember if the other ones are completely fat free or were 1 gram of fat per serving.  They actually very close in flavor to the full fat versions.  Just look for bags that are white on the bottom and light blue on the top.

Offline shmashwitdaclub

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Re: Who Wants to Lose Weight?
« Reply #25 on: March 24, 2011, 11:33 AM »
update for kicks in an attempt to bring people back to the discussion:

Nautilus sent me the new part I needed and it didn't fit.   :-\  The diameter of the hole in the connection piece was too small - I could file it down but I am looking for them to fix the problem.  They had no problems with sending me another replacement part, so right now I am waiting for that.  All in all though, I still say their customer service department is great.


Offline I Am Sith

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Re: Who Wants to Lose Weight?
« Reply #26 on: March 25, 2011, 07:56 AM »
So unfortunately I didn't meet my first goal of getting to 200lbs by my birthday.  All I have are excuses on my part though.  Work has been extremely busy the last three months and my workout regime has been in flux because of it.  At one point in February I had gotten down to 205lbs and thought I was still going to be able to hit my goal.  Unfortunately I went the other direction.  So now I'm sitting at 211lbs (still down from where I started).

I'm hoping that with Spring about to happen at some point in the Midwest, I'll be able to get more active outside if nothing else.  Between walks around the block with the boys and yard work, I'll at least be in motion more than I am now.  I'm still working out when I can find the time and the eating habits have improved.

At this point in time, I don't think that the ultimate goal of 185lbs by Memorial Day will be in hand, but I'm at least still doing everything I can to get there.  More to come, but just thought I'd give an update.
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Offline I Am Sith

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Re: Who Wants to Lose Weight?
« Reply #27 on: June 22, 2011, 09:37 PM »
So it's been a while since anyone has posted, so I figured I'd give a short update.  After my last post things didn't change much.  I actully went back up to 217.  I finally got fed up with myself and started hitting the elliptical and weights every night after the boys went to bed.  I was also able to get my wife to workout with me too, so I have extra motivation.  It's been about three weeks and I'm back down below 210.  I'm hoping to get to 200 by the middle to end of July.

So anyone else still plugging away on their workouts?
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Offline EdSolo

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Re: Who Wants to Lose Weight?
« Reply #28 on: June 23, 2011, 07:09 AM »
I'm down about 26 pounds in the past 12 to 13 weeks.  We had a contest at work that ran 10 weeks.  I believe some major cheating went on since everyone was on teams of four and there were prizes for the top three teams and also for the top three individuals that weren't on a winning team.  The top two individuals lost 22% and 18.5% and were on the same team.  However, there team was fifth (out of 101 teams).  Essentially means the other two members on their team lost NOTHING.  Don't see how that happens unless the other two didn't weigh in at the end and they just split the top prize money four ways...essentially it would have been $100 per person than if they were the second place team.  Not sure how you lose that much weight in 10 weeks.  At 200 pounds, that is over four pounds a week.  Seems like Biggest Loser numbers to me...don't see where you have that kind of time to workout with a full time job.

Offline I Am Sith

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Re: Who Wants to Lose Weight?
« Reply #29 on: March 15, 2012, 10:15 PM »
I figured I'd give this a bump again to see if anyone is working out.

I ended up getting back down to about 205 at one point last year.  However, the second half of last year was not very kind to me and I ended up going right back to where I started.  I'm finally finishing up my Masters and things are getting a little better at work, so I've been hitting the workouts again for the last several weeks.  I'm only at about 210, but I've gotten into a groove.  I ended up getting a mountain bike for Christmas so with the weather being nice for the last week or so, I've been out biking with the family.  I'm also able to get on the elliptical on a regular basis and lift almost every night.  I'm going to set my sights on 200 again list last year, but hopefully I'll actually get there this time.

If I can get to my goal weight and start feeling somewhat healthy again, I'm actually considering trying something like P90X.  However, I'm curious, is there anyone on the boards who has tried this and is also almost 40?  I don't want to spend the money on something like this if there's no way I'm actually going to be able to do the workout.  Please let me know your experiences so I can make an informed decision.  Thanks.
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