Grad school 20

nseelam

Hello all!

My name is Natasha and I'm about a two weeks into my weight loss program. After a crazy first year in graduate school in a rigorous science program, I found that the weighing scale wasn't too kind to me (20 lbs eep : (! ), so I'm looking to get back into shape.

In general I was a very active person, exercising 45 minutes a day and eating very healthily until the past year. The program I was in was horrendously strenuous and I was sleeping five hours a day or less, eating junk to keep moving, and working constantly.

Now that I own my soul again (still in grad school, just the craziness of first year has dwindled), I'm aiming to get back on course. I've signed up with a personal trainer and follow a strict diet and exercise plan (diet aiming 1200-1400, but I find it hard to eat that many calories - at least in healthy food hah. Exercise about 35 minutes running at 4.8~5.2 mph average + 30 day shred + maybe some weight training 6x a week with a rest on Saturday or Sunday).

As background, I've lost 65 lbs a long time ago in high school when I was horrendously overweight, so I'm fully confident I can do it again. I never hit my vanity weight, so I'm bizarrely excited to start this plan the healthy way, and make a sustainable lifestyle!

Do drop a line, words of encouragement and even criticism (no matter how harsh) is welcome. I'm very open and receptive to advice, and unafraid of a little hard work!

Other grad students, I encourage you to join me and chat!

tennisgirl444

I have a similar story! (Also in grad school), although I have a lot more weight to lose! It's been hard to maintain during grad school, let alone lose.

allieO3390

Hi! I completely understand! I just finished my first year of vet school and while I was overweight before, the first year didn't help me any. Haha I've been logging since February and have dropped 30 and have 30 more to go. Feel free to add me.

MarilynMadness

So proud of you guys to hear you're sticking it out through grad school. I was supposed to start law school this year but withdrew my acceptance before I could start. I'm actually afraid I wont be able to handle it (darn anxiety). Mind if I add you all?

ZBuffBod

Hi Natasha,

Sounds like you are doing what you need to do to get back on track. :flowerforyou:

I do feel your pain though. I am in the middle of writing my dissertation and it is a struggle trying to balance everything to ensure I am DONE in December. I am not trying to give these folks more of my money than I need to (LMHO).

I will send you a friend request and hopefully we can motivate each other to good health.

tycho_mx

I actually lost weight during grad school! Went from 185 lb to about 175. Not much over a year, but was completely unstructured.

It derived from having less income to splurge eating (e.g. less beer). I did force myself to work out by trying out and joining a varsity team. That also allowed me to access other resources like a sports nutritionist, etc.

It's all in task and time management. I was in science/engineering so I had a lot of material to cover, and I was a TA/Lab assistant as well. But joining an exercise group (not necessarily a team) forced me into some accountability.

Good luck.

tennisgirl444

I can't imagine losing weight easily in grad school! I force myself to play tennis once a week but any other time out of my schedule is hard to get. But I think focusing on food will help a lot- mine is mostly just being on the run, being stressed out, weeks without having time to grocery shop, etc. etc. leads to picking up take out, overeating, stress eating, etc. Planning will definitely help a lot and being selfish with some self-care time will too. We'll see how it goes!

Feel free to add me if anyone is looking for some more support on here! I could always use some.

tycho_mx

Well, I did it through reduced income And I learned to cook. But since I was lazy and the "flavour" of junk food was not comforting (international student), I ate lots of fruit. Never had I figured bananas could be so expensive!