40 pounds lost in 1 year - over halfway there!

missrenahope · February 2014

In January 2013 I set out to finally start losing weight. I honestly doubted that I would be successful, seeing as I would be graduating high school and starting college all in the same year. I had tried before, but I never seemed to stick with it. I have also been heavy all my life, so having that in the back of my mind really discouraged me at first. I definitely proved myself wrong! Since last year, I have gone from 212 lbs to just around 170. I am 5"1 so I would ideally like to finish around 130.
I still eat what I want - I just make better choices regarding when I eat and what I eat. Most of all, I've fallen in love with going to the gym. I do a mixture of cardio and lifting and the occasional spin class.
I hope this inspires some of you in the way that other people's progress pictures inspired me last year. If you have any questions, please ask, and also feel free to add me! I am back to logging every day.
I'll post again once I meet my goals!

tworthen79 · February 2014

You look amazing!! Keep it up.

LindseySprake · February 2014

Wow well done and congratulations!!!!. :flowerforyou:

tonibelle13 · February 2014

Looking awesome! Can I ask what kind of lifting and cardio you've been doing? You and I are almost exactly the same height (I'm 5'2") but 170 looks way better on you than it does on me. I spent a long time killing myself with cardio, hating it, and getting nowhere, so I've just started lifting. Hence, my curiosity on your routine

verptwerp · February 2014

losing 40 pounds make an amazing difference ....... good job !

XxFitnessJunkiexX · February 2014

Way to go!

UnApologetically_Me · February 2014

You look so freakin good...Love it...I am gonna add you...

missrenahope · February 2014

Looking awesome! Can I ask what kind of lifting and cardio you've been doing? You and I are almost exactly the same height (I'm 5'2") but 170 looks way better on you than it does on me. I spent a long time killing myself with cardio, hating it, and getting nowhere, so I've just started lifting. Hence, my curiosity on your routine

Thank you! And absolutely. I feel you on the cardio, I got to hating it too. Eventually I convinced myself to see the cardio portion of my workouts as a warmup, even though I go longer than a warmup. Essentially, I only do between 20 to 30 minutes of cardio every day except the day I do spin, which is an hour. I learned in a class I took last year that you only need 20 minutes of aerobic activity to receive benefit. I go hard for 20 or so minutes on ellipticals, stair climbers, or arc trainers. Resistance is key, I bump that up but not to the point where it hurts to push. After that I do weights. I try to stick to certain areas of my body each day. When I do an exercise, I do 3 sets of 10. Sometimes I push for between 12-15 reps but I don't feel let down if I don't. Week by week, I will try to increase my weight a couple pounds. I do 5-6 lifting exercises daily. At first I relied heavily on machines, but now I am more comfortable with free weights and am seeing MUCH better and faster results this way. I hope that helps!