60.2 Pounds Lost, almost 7.5 months of work! I hit my goal!

Ironically, Yesterday a friend on fb sent me a message and asked this question, which I came across this morning and spent a few hours responding to. It is a long read, but full of great information. I sent her my reply, and then went and weighed myself only to find out that after over 7 months, I reached my goal of 60 Ponds Lost... Names have been changes to protect anonymity... Enjoy, and check out my profile picture for the Before / After Photo, It is really worth having a look!





pandaweevil,

I've been watching your progress on fb - congrats. How did you get started? I am in need of losing some wt too. I just resigned from my job and will be staying home full time and doing a little on call work with my current company.

Your fb friend

Dear fb friend,

Thanks for asking. First of all, All things are possible, when you put the Lord in the center of them. That said, in January of 2009 I decided to lose weight. I did not exercise, just changed my diet. By April of 2009, I had lost 15 pounds. The weight loss was very, very slow because I was not exercising. Then I got discouraged by how slow things were going, and I still did not want to exercise. I gained all the weight back in about three weeks time, plus some more, literally watching my self at one point expanding seven pounds in seven days. It was so very sad, and I was very much not happy about it, and the weight gain felt out of control! In May of 2010, I came out of a 2 & 1/2 year depression. That was a huge part of why I did not deal with my weight issue, because I was so very depressed. (I have Bipolar and Anxiety disorder in case you did not know.)

On July 18th of 2010, tsimehc2000 (My cherished husband) convinced me to loose weight with him. (Mostly because I hit 199 pounds and have only been over in the 200s while pregnant!) It is so much easier when you have someone who knows what you are going through to be an emotional support, and encouragement, and inspiration. tsimehc2000 is that and so much more for me! Again, I started out only dieting. (At the time I absolutely hated to sweat!) I did it differently though, actually cutting out the junk as much as I could at the time, and doing portion control, and going by serving sizes on the packages of what I ate. I lost about 7 pounds, (before I started struggling again.) but then I saw how much better tsimehc2000 was doing playing the Wii Fit games. (Exercising.) So I reluctantly agreed to exercise. That made all the difference! When you are really overweight, you need to start out slow, and only ask of your body what it is capable of at that time! We started out doing the Wii Fit, then Wii Fit Plus, and then going onto the Biggest Looser for the Wii. (That one hurt tsimehc2000's knees and legs, so we quickly switched to the EA Active Sports. (for the X Box I think, but the kinect had not come out yet I don't think.) We exercised by playing the games for about three months, (which took us about mid way through October of 2010.) and I personally lost about 26 pounds. I really wish I would have measured myself at the start, (and not just taken before or starting photos) but I was too ashamed, and scared to actually know the numbers. I really should have measured around my belly button, because I know even w/ out measuring, that is where I have lost the most inches!

Towards the end of September of 2010, tsimehc2000 found myfitnespal.com. it is a free online stie that helps you manage what you eat. They also have a message board too if you like that sort of thing. You put in your current weight , and weight loss goals. It calculated a guide of daily calories for you. You can also enter your exercise. It is like a food diary. It takes some getting use to, but you learn pretty quickly. For example, you would enter a peanut butter and jelly sandwich by entering the kind of peanut butter and serving size you are going to have, the bread and serving size, and jelly and serving size. tsimehc2000 and I also started measuring out our foods. We use measuring cups and measuring spoons, and bought an inexpensive scale for weighing out food in ounces, like cooked meats. It truly is not as overwhelming or as much work as it sounds. You get use to it pretty quickly as I said. I would recommend entering the food in Before you eat it so you can see how it will affect your day, and then decide if you really want to eat it. Once you eat it, you cannot change it, or you are just cheating yourself. If you are interested, you can join myfitnesspal.com, and friend me. My user name there is pandaweevil I would love to encourage you, and see your progress!

In mid to late October of 2010, tsimehc2000 bought for us an exercise program called Power 90. Tony Horton puts it out through the Beach Body Company. It is a 90 day program that includes cardio, strength, training, and abs. It is really great! We completed it at the end of January 2011, and I personally lost 26 pounds, and 18.5 overall inched doing it! It was this program that helped me loose all that extra arm flab that I have had since I was in my early teens! tsimehc2000 originally wanted to do P90X, (Power 90 Extreme) but saw there was a fitness test that was recommended. He knew we could not pass it, so he opted for the Power 90 which was put out first. We took after photos which we also used as before photos for the P90X.

P90X is a very hard exercise routine, and focuses on muscle confusion. That is when you change your exercise program, so your body does not get use to it and plateau. It is also a 90 day program. It has three weeks of one exercise routine. the last day of each month is a "rest and recovery" week, which means lots of cardio, and stretching. Each month has one. We are about to start our second month on Monday, so we are going onto week five. (Actually tsimehc2000 is starting the Insanity exercise program next week for a better exercise challenge.) This program, P90X like Power 90 deals with cardio, strength training and abs. It is really a great program.

I would also recommend setting yourself some goals. Last July 2010, when I started this, I decided I did not want to settle. I wanted to get back into my junior size 5 jeans from when I was a teenager. (They are very tiny and intimidating, and so worth it! They really accentuate my hour glass figure.) I figured that would take about 60 pounds lost to achieve it. I set a goal of having 60 pounds lost by 2-25-11. That is our son Lecko Gecko's Birthday. That gave me just over 7 months. I knew from past weight loss experiences, that my doctor recommended that I loose about 2 pounds per week. I figured I could loose an Average of 2.5 pounds per week, for a total Average of 10 pounds per month. I also knew that my body personally, does plateau at times, and gets use to the weight loss. Then it picks back up again. My longest plateau was in January of 2011, and lasted 10 very long days! I lost as of yesterday a total of 59.7 pounds! I do not count it a failure that I missed my goal yesterday by 0.3 pounds, rather, I am proud of my accomplishment. Not too bad for setting my goal over 7 months ago. I am currently a nice trim size 6 in misses, and a nice trim size 7 in juniors jeans! (Shaking my head w/ a goofy smile!) I am still not use to saying that! I started out an in denial overflowing size 18, though I would only buy size 16 jeans. It was summer time, so I could get away with wearing skirts a lot. As I stated, my other goal was to be in my size 5 junior jeans, but by poomagoinker's birthday on 3-21-2011. I am on schedule for that goal. It looks like that will take another 10 pounds lost, so I am looking at about 70 pounds total weight loss when I complete both my goals. I am so close, just not quite there yet.

I hope I have been helpful. Please let me know if I can further assist you. By the way, I am on lots of meds for the Bipolar. I did last month with my doctors help and consent, got successfully off of my Anxiety meds. That took a bit over a year to accomplish though. Anyway, when I saw my doctor in January of 2011, he was floored that I at that time had lost just over 50 pounds. Two of the meds I take for the Bipolar are known for weight gain. He just could not believe that I lost that much weight while taking both of those meds at the same time. So I know for a Fact that if you truly want to accomplish weight loss, I did it and You can too! Getting control over my weight, eating, and health has befitted me emotionally, physically, psychologically, and spiritually, as I am a Christian.. Because of the weight loss, my sense of self worth, and self confidence has really changed!

Have a Blessed Day!
pandaweevil