How to jump back into my fitness regimen?

strive2behealthy

Hi, starting December I decided I wanted to lose weight, and I successfully lost around 12-15 lbs within 4 months. I went from 5'7", 165 lbs, and right now I'm fluctuating between 150-153. Unfortunately I completely lost all motivation and stopped halfway through my weight loss goal, (I want to be 130), so I want to lose 15-20 more before I am satisfied. Obviously I am wanting a lifestyle change.

Food is a love-hate relationship. I love the TASTE of bad food, but I hate how it makes me feel. Bad food affects me greatly. I can retain sugar and sodium like no other person on this planet, and after a night of a lot of sugar or bad foods, I feel like utter CRAP the next day. Slow, sluggish, lazy, whatever.

Good foods make me feel so much more energized and ultimately put me in a better mood. I just need to focus on finding healthy foods that taste good to me. So while I push for these last 20 pounds, I'm going to be doing it in a way that makes me happy because the way I lost my first 15.. I was super strict with my dieting and exercise.

Obviously I won't be able to just jump back into everything like I never stopped, but I usually burned around 400-500 calories but I'm thinking that I should just focus on burning 300 for a week or two to slowly crawl back into exercise. This means walking at a pace that will get my heart rate up, but nothing too exhausting. What about lifting? Small reps and sets?

Also, why is it I've been sedentary and eating poorly yet I dropped 2 pounds? I weighed 153 when I was exercising/eating well, now I'm around 149/150. Muscle deterioration? Cause I feel "flabby" lol.

Amber82479

Hi! I'm also 5'7"... I'd like to get to 135-140 I can totally relate to what you're saying about eating healthy foods versus eating junk. And I agree that you need to find a balance between the two so that you can enjoy the things you love while continuing to lose weight and become more healthy. I think that starting out slowly is a great plan. Jumping in too hard too fast will only leave you hurting and then you won't be able to continue the workouts that you want to do. Start slowly and build upon each week until you're able to do as much as you'd like to do. I would also highly recommend weight lifting - it builds muscle, which will increase your metabolism and the more muscle you have, the more calories you'll burn! Depending on how you choose to lift, I'd generally say you want to use a weight that leaves you feeling fatigued when you're done with your reps. As it becomes easier to do the reps, increase the weight. I'd recommend using a weight that leaves you struggling a bit when you get to the end of a 15 or 20 rep set. As far as weight loss while remaining sedentary, I'd guess that you're losing muscle. Welcome back to the group - we're in it with you!