Weight Loss then Weight Gain (Ready to get back on it)

zandrathesweetheart

Hello all! I'm Zandra and last year I started my fitness journey (in July). I was working out 7 days a week with Hip Hop Abs and lost soo many inches. My waist was the size of a average sized female, but then something happened. I went back to work and college and stopped working out completely. As a result, I gained back the 30 pounds I had lost. To make things worse, my scale's battery died so I couldn't track my weight anymore. Well a couple days ago, I thought I was pregnant, but took a pregnancy test yesterday which said I was not pregnant. Now you know how that is in the fitness world ladies. You want to believe that you gained so much weight because of the possibility of pregnancy. To my surprise this was not the case. Now I am trying to get back the motivation I once had and lose all this weight for good! I was only 18 pounds away from my goal weight before and now I'm 49 pounds away. I am disgusted that I let school and work get in the way of my progress. My biggest problem is eating out because I LOVE LOVE LOVE PIZZA! I have been doing good the last couple days and I'm down from 201 to 199.8 so I'm very happy. I just need some more motivation to get my butt back in the game! I need recipes, tips about healthy eating, etc.

zandrathesweetheart

FYI- I am on a food budget. College students don't have money! lol

Ferrous_Female_Dog

Well a couple days ago, I thought I was pregnant, but took a pregnancy test yesterday which said I was not pregnant. Now you know how that is in the fitness world ladies. You want to believe that you gained so much weight because of the possibility of pregnancy. To my surprise this was not the case. Now I am trying to get back the motivation I once had and lose all this weight for good! .... I just need some more motivation to get my butt back in the game! I need recipes, tips about healthy eating, etc.

Pretty sure I don't know what that's like...

anyway, I would be motivated by the fact that I don't have a tiny human on the way who will suck away my life and free time.

Kerr_135

Zandra I am with you alllll the way! I started my most recent iteration of my weight loss journey in January 2013 and was doing very well! I lost a net of 18lbs in 4 months. I changed my eating habits, was in the gym 6-7 days a week and could see the waistline shrinking and the muscles coming in. I even found a way to exercise on vacation in May! The Fitness Pal Calorie Counter was a God send. I had no idea how badly I ate until I started using it. Then I discovered that what my body required to be healthy and happy and ENERGETIC was half what I believed it did!
Then in June 2013 I had an accident and strained a tendon in my ankle. A year later I still have not healed and every pound I lost (and then some) is back. I cannot and have not been able to workout since then and it is frustrating. To make matters worse I moved away from home and started a new graduate degree in January of this year. SO like you I also do not have the 'healthy girl budget' to work with and am pulling crazy study hours complete with comfort food (pizza, ice cream and Chinese takeout have been highly satisfying at low cost ).
I am ready to get back on track despite my injury as my closet is threatening abandonment! I simply can't afford to keep buying clothes to accommodate my widening hips etc. So I propose sharing the dietary tips to begin and hopefully (with further treatment) be long distance support.

zandrathesweetheart

Ferrous_Female_Dog wrote: »

Well a couple days ago, I thought I was pregnant, but took a pregnancy test yesterday which said I was not pregnant. Now you know how that is in the fitness world ladies. You want to believe that you gained so much weight because of the possibility of pregnancy. To my surprise this was not the case. Now I am trying to get back the motivation I once had and lose all this weight for good! .... I just need some more motivation to get my butt back in the game! I need recipes, tips about healthy eating, etc.

Pretty sure I don't know what that's like...

anyway, I would be motivated by the fact that I don't have a tiny human on the way who will suck away my life and free time.

agirlcalledrinn

I don't know if you know this, but I figured I'd throw it out there since the two of you are college students. Most students don't know this, but every campus has a dietician or nutritionist, and they are available to talk to students and staff and usually excited to do so! They're hired to make sure the school can tap into those government grants, and if you're at a state school they're generally required for funding overall. Also, if you're eating on campus, the supervisor of dining halls has a lot of insight, and is generally thrilled to talk with students.

As for recipes, I've been keeping a blog the whole time I've been doing the weight loss journey, of all of my single or 2 serving recipes. Mostly low cal. I think you'll like this one the best: http://rinnskitchen.blogspot.com/2015/12/yogurt-dough-pizza-bites-and-cinnamon.html
But there are lots of ideas there.

The big thing is cooking for yourself, even the pizza. It will help you save calories AND money. I mean, think about it. Our local pizza join sells at $2.25 the NY slice. But there's only a few tablespoons of each ingredient in that slice. A bag of flour costs less than that slice. And don't even get me started on pancakes! Freeze leftovers and then toast them in the oven or your toaster oven when you want another.

Another tip is getting a food scale. You don't realize just how often you over estimate portions.

Finally, remember the exercise is more to keep you from losing muscle mass than losing weight. Weight loss is 95% food choices. I recommend checking out the videos on Healthcare Triage about Weight Loss and Exercise.

Good luck! You can do it!