so...my weight loss journey is over and the weight maintenance journey has begun. i've lost sixteen pounds in the past six months, taking it slowly and gently, and gone from a tight size 8 to a loose size 4.



this is the only photographic evidence i have of my weight loss:









the first was after i'd lost about four pounds, and the second is at my current weight. same pair of pants.



to celebrate, i bought myself a bikini for the summer. the best part is that i actually think it looks good.



like i say all the time, eating healthfully and exercising regularly has had a hugely positive impact on my life. i will continue to do it for the rest of my life.

i find that i can't control how much i eat, but i do have some control over what i eat. i generally don't eat processed foods, but i especially stay away from them when my appetite is insatiable. i also make sure to keep exercising and step it up if i feel up to it. usually my weight fluctuates a little bit during 'that time' but it always goes back to normal once the period ends.

i love hiit - i think it feels great when you have enough energy for it. i did it quite regularly for a while and found that it VASTLY improved my endurance and made the rest of my workout a lot easier. however, i did not notice much change in terms of my weight or muscle tone.



i stopped focusing so much on it because i realized that my goal wasn't to be a better athlete. i had much better weight loss and muscle tone results doing my normal mid-intensiy cardio workout. i still do it sometimes, though, when i have a lot of energy to burn. this is what i used to do (i actually learned it from this webiste):



30-60-90s



warm up by walking briskly.

jog for 30 seconds.

sprint for 30 seconds.

jog for 60 seconds.

sprint for 60 seconds.

jog for 90 seconds.

sprint for 90 seconds.

walk for 60 seconds.

repeat.



each cycle should take seven minutes. i got up to being able to do three without puking from exhaustion

similar situation here. i'm about 5' 7.5", having grown a little under two inches since high school. in high school i weighed about 150 pounds, which was borderline overweight for my height. fortunately, i went through some hormonal changes once i got to college, and i think i have genetics on my side, but nonetheless i've been on a very slow and gradual journey to my ideal weight (which is really just a number i chose based on bmi).



i don't talk about losing weight with people for the very reason you mentioned. i guess my weight loss is more of a private matter for me. nobody really needs to be privy to how i feel about my body unless i solicit the information.



now that i'm only four pounds away from my goal, i can look back at my journey and pinpoint the times when i was most and least successful. the thing that i found is that i lost BY FAR the most weight when i didn't give a poo about losing it. one of the steps toward reaching that point was when i realized that my diet and exercise life didn't have to be a public affair, much like one's sex life. at some point in my journey, i realized that a healthy diet and exercise was making me feel great and getting rid of pain in my body that i've had my entire life, and that was enough reason for me to keep doing it. but i digress.



i think the reason that people tell you that you look great is because you do. whenever i get into that situation (which is rarely because very few people know about my diet and exercise life), i just thank them and smile, because i know it's true. after all, i've been giving my body some major love by treating it so well. but i still head to the gym on monday!

when i lived in rural alabama, our grocery store sold tiny cans of pork brains in milk gravy...3000mg of cholesterol per can.

good job! i totally agree that healthy weight loss requires psychological changes along with the physical changes. congratulations on getting to that point!

like others said, i don't understand why you'd drop whole grains from your diet. they're the best thing for weight loss because they contain so much fiber. pasta and white rice are nothing more than empty carbohydrates. and beans are great too...an excellent source of protein with no saturated fat and much more fiber than meat of any kind. and make sure your meat portions really are modest - one serving of meat is no larger than a deck of cards.

my favorite is the shoulder press, mainly because i can't do it. it is the only machine that i have set to the minimum weight that i struggle with. when i started, i couldn't do more that 6 reps at a time, and now i am up to three sets of 10 reps, aiming for four. i generally like back- and shoulder-strengthening exercises because i've had chronic pain for as long as i could remember, and i figure that's no way to live at 18. since i started weight training, my posture has improved a lot and i no longer get backaches. needless to say, i'm pretty glad about that.



i also like the back extension - i'm up to 115 lbs on it.

also remember that your body weight can fluctuate within a 5-pound range over the course of a day. are you weighing yourself at a consistent time of day and in consistent conditions?

i like silk soy yogurt or a handful of pistachios, almonds, or cashews. oh my god i love cashews.

thank you for posting this. i feel like for years people have stereotyped all vegans and vegetarians as 'free all the animals from the zoo' nutcases, which could not be further from the truth (growing up in a vegetarian family in the suburban midwest definitely definitely contributed to this impression).



the environmental impact of these animal-based industries is huge. many of them that operate on a large scale are the most inefficient and environmentally harmful industries short of (and in some cases surpassing) petrochemicals. from an environmental standpoint, veganism makes a surprisingly large amount of sense.



i'm glad to finally see that more and more people are opening their minds and realizing that veganism is not one [radical] lifestyle, but is approachable from many different viewpoints and through many different practices that don't force you live like a monk. more importantly, you don't have to go militant to have an impact. small, conscientious choices have a larger impact than we think.

i agree. once i got over the initial proverbial hump and pushed through a few sessions when i absolutely did NOT want to be anywhere near the gym, i suddenly began to feel the desire to go to the gym and work out. i can't stay away from there for too long. now my other interests and goals have been affected by my progress at the gym. the way i see myself living out my life is completely changing.

there are two very likely possibilities:



1. you could be building muscle



2. the circumstances in which you weighed yourself could have been different. you could have used a different scale, worn something different, eaten a meal, etc. out body weight fluctuates through about a five-pound range every single day.

i want to look good in a two-piece.

and generally look better in the things that i do wear.

i was actually going to ask if any of you were on last. fm. i'm a last. fm head. thanks for the group link...i think i'll join.



edit: my last. fm profile

wow...that has stopped me cold from ever eating gummi bears again (only because i eat like, 800 calories worth whenever i have them).



enlightening to say the least.

i know we've talked about favorite music to work out to, but i wonder what everybody's favorite everyday music is? i'm always curious to find out what kind of music people like.



as for me, i like lots of loud, grungy '90s indie rock like pavement, apples in stereo, pixies, dinosaur jr., and my bloody valentine. i also like late romantic and early modern european classical music like: tchaikovsky, wagner, debussy (my absolute favorite), and stravinsky. i love the beatles, the stones, hendrix, led zeppelin, donovan, and pretty much every 60's rock band. as for bands still around today: barenaked ladies and broken social scene are two of my favorites.



what's your favorite music?

-lose 10 pounds to achieve my goal weight

-keep it off and keep exercising when i go back to school

-allow myself to get closer to people

-read more

-stop noodling around and start seriously writing music

-start compiling an outline for my book

i drink all kinds of tea: green, white, black, herb, fruit...



i find that black tea cleans me out the most (the effects from a strong cup last almost an entire day), but it also makes me tweak out if i drink too much. herb tea is tasty, but doesn't offer nearly as many antioxidant benefits. White teas are my happy medium. They generaly are mild in terms of caffeine content but still have a fair amount of antioxidants.

i've been a light eater since birth. there have been very few points in my life where i've actually eaten 2,000 calories a day (boarding school cafeteria food). when i did, i gained weight to the point where i was borderline overweight.



i average about 1400 calories per day, but have always remained robust and slightly lethargic...i wonder if i'll live to be 160, or at least reap some of the benefits of CR?

i did the same thing as tigerlily and restricted my chocolate consumption to high-percentage dark chocolate. it's been working very well for me. I am definitely a chocoholic and i don't even touch milk chocolate anymore. one bar of dark chocolate lasts me for about three days, and, as a result, i am consuming far fewer calories, getting some great antioxidants (the darker the chocolate, the more antioxidants!), and satisfying my chocolate cravings.

i eat a container of soy yogurt (i'm lactose intolerant) before i go to the gym, and have a full, balanced meal afterward.

one thing i used to do without thinking was eat while i was cooking because i was "just so hungry that i couldn't wait". for example, i would often have a bowl of cereal while cooking rice-a-roni or something. choose one serving of food, eat it, and wait a few minutes before getting something else if you're still hungry.



simply thinking about what, how, and why you're eating is a great first step.

i have replaced my juice and soda habit with a water and club soda habit.



i also used to get almost daily cravings for things like pop tarts, potato chips, and candy.



i've really learned to control my eating impulses in general. i think more about what i eat, when i choose to eat, and whether i'm really hungry or not.

likewise. my hair weighs at least a pound dry; it probably weighs three times that when it's wet. maybe if i was bald i'd lose weight in the shower...

i never saw any correlation between a nuclear smokestack and drug paraphernalia. very funny though...

i think a few years ago somebody wrote an entire book about burning calories through fidgeting. if i can find the title, i'll post it.



i remember reading somewhere that even sitting and reading a book burned more calories than sitting and staring into space/watching tv (of course this amount is almost trivial, except in the long term). it makes sense. after all, the energy to stimulate your brain has to come from somewhere...

i agree...it's all about losing the weight slowly and sustainably. traineo is a great resource of information for sustainable, healthy weight loss.



congrats on the 10 pounds! that's awesome (i'm not quite to ten yet, but on my way...).

looks like your mornings don't start too early? you could wake up an hour earlier and do a brief workout every morning...

eeeeewwwww burger shake!



i think you definitely burn some of the weight of the burger off doing the aforementioned trivial tasks, but the amount is probably so minute that the average scale can't catch it.



i drink so much water when i work out that i usually weigh 3-4lbs more after working out than i did before. it all goes away within the 48 hours between gym visits, because i always weigh less the next time i step on the scale.