Weight loss group

[Laura]

[SIZE=12pt]How are you all doing? Challenges? Losses? Favorite indulgence??[/SIZE]

I hit my 20 pound goal...whoohoo! It's taken 11 or so weeks, so it was slow, but steady. I'm down to 157.8 as of this morning, with a starting weight of 178.6. Snacks are my big challenge and I'm leaning on apples a LOT. My fuits and veggies are WAY up and carbs & fat are down...well, except for the pork ribs I made the other night...mmmm, they were good, but they were grilled only with spices, no sauces and served with fresh grilled and steamed veggies

My indulgence is Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Kisses that I keep in the freezer. I just started my third bag, but that's over 11 weeks, so I think I'm OK~LOL Steve bought a stair stepper the other day..evil man

and called to say "I'm bringing you chocolate (my dark kisses) and a stair stepper...is that weird or what?" Crazy guy. I HATE that machine by the way, it's is EVIL!!! Youch my butt and thighs hurt and I've only been on it once!

Remember you don't have to give your weight. You can tell us your loss goal (small loss goals are easier to reach!), what you've lost, your challenges, favorite recipes or vent about your family's eating habits...come on, join in!

 

[BlueStar]

How ironic you would post this....I just joined an athletic club yesterday and I start on Tuesday. Current weight is 170.5 and target goal is 125-130 and toned up and tan by Spring. I am trying to change my diet and drink tons of water too. My membership comes with 6 personal training sessions, 60+ group classes a month I can go to, nutritional counseling and more. I am so excited to finally be doing something for ME!! I think it would be a great idea to have a group on here that is working on weight loss. It would be great to have daily support from our forum family!!

ahhh yes indulgents...pasta and chocolate...could it get any worse?????

 

[Laura]

How ironic you would post this....I just joined an athletic club yesterday and I start on Tuesday. Current weight is 170.5 and target goal is 125-130 and toned up and tan by Spring. I am trying to change my diet and drink tons of water too. My membership comes with 6 personal training sessions, 60+ group classes a month I can go to, nutritional counseling and more. I am so excited to finally be doing something for ME!! I think it would be a great idea to have a group on here that is working on weight loss. It would be great to have daily support from our forum family!!

ahhh yes indulgents...pasta and chocolate...could it get any worse?????

That is AWESOME!! Good for you for doing something positive for yourself

We're way too far out to go to a gym (30 miles each way), but chasing crazy horses, cows and kids helps

Whole wheat and whole grain pasta takes some getting used to, but we really like it now.

 

[Connie P]

WELL................................. I've gained two pounds and haven't changed my eating habits at all. .................. which is EXACTLY why I've gained two more pounds!.

OH! Someone help!!!!

 

[Charley]

The bad news...I haven't lost any more.

The good news...I haven't gained any more.

I have about 10 lbs to go to get to my first goal. It is so hard to have candy in the house for Halloween. And....mini hershey bars go sooo good with coffee!

I really am trying.

Laura....Congratulations!!

 

[Dontworrybeappy]

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[Dontworrybeappy]

Since March of this year (2008) - I have lost (so far) *85* pounds! I'm going for the other 15 to make it an even 100. Have gone from a size 28 to a size 14 - from 3XXXL or 4XXXXL to just plain L or even some M's!

from:

to:

 

[CrescentMinis]

Wow, Karen what an inspiration you are!

I've lost 11 lbs. recently with about 40 to go to my goal. My DH is on his way home now and is trying to talk me into going to the club with him but I am wiped out today. And hungry!!!!

No excuses though, I asked him to help me, so I better get off the computer and go.

 

[miniaddiction]

WOAH KAREN!!!! Look at YOU!!!

Awesome work girl, huge CONGRATULATIONS to both you and Laura!

 

[Relic]

Dontworrybeappy that is an amazing before and after way to go..that could almost get a person in the mood to get slim and trim. Can you share how you did that. l'm always going to loose weight then get side tracked or just plain lazy and don't exercise.

l WANNA BE SLIM TO.

 

[Laura]

WOW Karen, way to go!!!! I had a few pieces of candy tonight, but they weren't as good as I remembered....but birthday cake from my favorite bakery, I could still eat that several times a day...it's SOOOO good! Thank goodness we're done with birthdays for a few months!

 

[FairytailGlennMinis]

WOW!!! GO Karen! That is MAJOR progress!!

I have lost 6lbs so far. I am going for the slow and steady approach since I have an autoimmune disorder I don't want to set off. I haven't had so much as a single piece of Halloween candy, but I did break and had two cokes yesterday....bad bad me. Cutting out soft drinks, candy and sweets has been easy...cutting out the white bread and rolls--that is what gets me. I use only the double fiber wheat bread and not much of that. So...9 lbs to go for my first goal.

 

[bcody]

Wow Karen! That is great! You look wonderful. Laura, you have done so well. I have only lost 2.5 pounds. Very slow going here and am trying not to get discouraged. My 5 year old daughter had her tonsils and adnoids out this week, it has been very tough having to stay home and not even go out and train the dogs! I have not gone for my walk for 4 days. The good thing is only my son could go out for halloween (At least from a candy amount point of view.)

 

[minisch]

Wow Karen ! You go girl! I've lost some weight, don't have a scale so I don't know how much, but just getting up and moving and stretching, riding my bike, made a huge difference in my attitude too. I have made the diet cabbage soup, not eating fast foods, and watching what I'm eating. I'm going thru alot in my personal life right now so that helps......

 

[Dontworrybeappy]

Dontworrybeappy that is an amazing before and after way to go..that could almost get a person in the mood to get slim and trim. Can you share how you did that. l'm always going to loose weight then get side tracked or just plain lazy and don't exercise.

l WANNA BE SLIM TO.

Would you call me slim now? (I sometimes don't feel much different than before...)

I don't like to really "advertise" the program I used, as I know that different things work for different people - for me my problem wasn't as much what I was eating but HOW I was eating - I would skip meals and then eat a whole day's worth of food in the late afternoon and evening.

My body was always put in "starvation mode" where it wanted to conserve the resources and hang on to every extra calorie for the next series of skipped meals. Of course, what I ate wasn't always the best choices either - lots of cheese (and too much Ice Cream!) - my fast food of choice was quesadillas - 2 flour tortillas (400 calories) and then a ton of cheese... and adding sour cream if it was handy! The calories of fat alone there would stack up too quickly! (I never counted calories before this diet program!)

My hubby was a chef when I met him and he almost always cooks dinner - he used to always add a starch (cheesy potatoes, rice, etc) AND a bread! I finally quit eating bread (but not tortillas!) before I went on the diet but with everything else it didn't help much.

Anyway, after being diagnosed as diabetic and put on meds for that and cholesterol, I tried giving up sugar and some other things - in 3 months I lost 10 pounds and gained back 5. Quite disappointing, as I was really trying hard as far as not eating the bad stuff - but I was still doing the starve-feast thing.

Finally I decided to do a pre-packaged meal program. There are many out there, but I decided on MediFast, because they were advertising faster, larger results and I figured I needed some good results to get me motivated. Well, it worked! So I stayed on it, as it was working for me.

The plan includes FIVE MediFast meals plus one "lean and green" meal per day... that was the hard part for me, remembering to eat that often! There are shakes, hot drinks, cold drinks, soup, chili, oatmeal, pudding, bars and snacks. Once I got the hang of eating (or drinking) that often it wasn't hard to stay on program.

I've been "cheating" a bit more lately, so the weight loss has slowed down - I keep thinking "I've lost 85 pounds, I can have this" - but I haven't been gaining, so I'm trying to buckle down and lose the last 15 so I can have that nice round number of 100!

By the way, my last 3 tests show me as NOT diabetic... I'm off the meds, my cholesterol is VERY low (and I'm off the liver-killing statin drug for that!) and my blood pressure went from almost high enough for meds to so low they take it 2 or 3 times to check! (that's how it used to be when I was in high school - over 30 years ago...)

Then I'll go to transition and maintenance, but I think that I will probably stay with the shakes for a couple meals a day just because they are easy and nutritious and that way I won't fall back into "it's too much trouble to fix breakfast so I'll just have a diet soda!"

So anyway, there's my story - anyone that wants to email or PM me, I'll give you the name and email of my "coach" - she's pretty cool. But I'm not trying to "push" this program because different things work for different people!

 

[Laura]

Dontworrybeappy that is an amazing before and after way to go..that could almost get a person in the mood to get slim and trim. Can you share how you did that. l'm always going to loose weight then get side tracked or just plain lazy and don't exercise.

l WANNA BE SLIM TO.

Would you call me slim now? (I sometimes don't feel much different than before...)

I don't like to really "advertise" the program I used, as I know that different things work for different people - for me my problem wasn't as much what I was eating but HOW I was eating - I would skip meals and then eat a whole day's worth of food in the late afternoon and evening.

My body was always put in "starvation mode" where it wanted to conserve the resources and hang on to every extra calorie for the next series of skipped meals. Of course, what I ate wasn't always the best choices either - lots of cheese (and too much Ice Cream!) - my fast food of choice was quesadillas - 2 flour tortillas (400 calories) and then a ton of cheese... and adding sour cream if it was handy! The calories of fat alone there would stack up too quickly! (I never counted calories before this diet program!)

My hubby was a chef when I met him and he almost always cooks dinner - he used to always add a starch (cheesy potatoes, rice, etc) AND a bread! I finally quit eating bread (but not tortillas!) before I went on the diet but with everything else it didn't help much.

Anyway, after being diagnosed as diabetic and put on meds for that and cholesterol, I tried giving up sugar and some other things - in 3 months I lost 10 pounds and gained back 5. Quite disappointing, as I was really trying hard as far as not eating the bad stuff - but I was still doing the starve-feast thing.

Finally I decided to do a pre-packaged meal program. There are many out there, but I decided on MediFast, because they were advertising faster, larger results and I figured I needed some good results to get me motivated. Well, it worked! So I stayed on it, as it was working for me.

The plan includes FIVE MediFast meals plus one "lean and green" meal per day... that was the hard part for me, remembering to eat that often! There are shakes, hot drinks, cold drinks, soup, chili, oatmeal, pudding, bars and snacks. Once I got the hang of eating (or drinking) that often it wasn't hard to stay on program.

I've been "cheating" a bit more lately, so the weight loss has slowed down - I keep thinking "I've lost 85 pounds, I can have this" - but I haven't been gaining, so I'm trying to buckle down and lose the last 15 so I can have that nice round number of 100!

By the way, my last 3 tests show me as NOT diabetic... I'm off the meds, my cholesterol is VERY low (and I'm off the liver-killing statin drug for that!) and my blood pressure went from almost high enough for meds to so low they take it 2 or 3 times to check! (that's how it used to be when I was in high school - over 30 years ago...)

Then I'll go to transition and maintenance, but I think that I will probably stay with the shakes for a couple meals a day just because they are easy and nutritious and that way I won't fall back into "it's too much trouble to fix breakfast so I'll just have a diet soda!"

So anyway, there's my story - anyone that wants to email or PM me, I'll give you the name and email of my "coach" - she's pretty cool. But I'm not trying to "push" this program because different things work for different people!

Karen,

That is AWESOME, I'm so proud of you.!!

 

[mgranch]

Funny thing running into this post today!! This morning I weighed in at 192 lbs!! That is only 8 lbs from being 200 lbs!! I have always weighed around 155 so am totally out of control!! I am so depressed, hate how I look and feel and everything hurts from the extra weight!! My back and knees are totally protesting!! LOL I need moral support and here you all are!!

 

[dreaminmini]

Well, I'd like to join this little group if that's okay. I would love to lose quite a bit of weight. At least 60lbs. I would love to lose at least most of the weight over the winter so I can go back to driving in the spring a much lighter person. Surprise my little horse!!! Then we could really motor

It gets frustrating...I have made many good health choices over the last year and a half but can't seem to shake the weight. I quit smoking 18 months ago, I've cut a lot of salt out of my diet, switched to whole grains. But no weight seems to be coming off. I walk my dog at least half an hour a day and sometimes walk partway to work for another 20 min of exercise. Now I'm trying to increase my veggies and fruit so we will see. Any suggestions or helpful hints would be greatly appreciated. Might try that cinnamon they are using to take weight off the minis

 

[Laura]

[SIZE=12pt]Of course you guys can join, this is not a members only club, it's a "we're all in this together" club

I have found that by cutting out white foods (white bread, rice, regular pasta) and watching my fat and carbs, that has really helped take off the weight. [/SIZE]

 

[Bess Kelly]

Wow -- the weight losses are fantastic! I love the "Biggest Loser" Show. Talk about hard work. And Karen, you are quite a great example of willpower and success and the results of that effort with those medical improvements.

Kudos to you !!!! Correctly, you state "everyone is different" in what works .... or what fits our schedule/life style really.

We all know (hate to admit it tho

) that sugar -- in most any form -- is a villan. Sodas are as much an issue as a candy bar........so, sugar has to all but disappear. The white breads/rolls, white pastas, fats & oils. Basically, anything that tastes good

in an indulgent sort of way. Actually freshly prepared foods taste great!

So, almost no canned or such prepared foods. Stop frying & just grill, bake, saute, etc., etc.

One of the biggest issues is the AMOUNT eaten. You know how we tell everyone to WEIGH the hay, concentrates they give the minis???? Well, same for us humans. Calories in must be less than calories out to lose. If you are IR, check the cushings site and follow directions...

.... yes, low starch, sugars...if you want "fats" use those that are found in botanicals (EXCEPT palm, coconut) so that means canola, safflower, olive, avocado, etc.

So -- portion control, regularly scheduled meals (no skipping) and 15 minutes in the round pen at a walk, trot, walk

(did I SAY that?) Think about it -- I'm trying to put this in terms we relate to, not ridicule -- (I am working at dropping a couple pounds, too) but we need to look at this like we do with our horses. Problem is, we can walk into the kitchen and get more! OH!

I am sure glad that I LOVE steamed veggies!