Heavy lifting
Damn, y'all, I have gotten BIG. Like, as in, my lipid panel is terrible and I now have a gut that hangs over my jeans. Awesome.
I need some advice from anyone who has taken up an exercise regimen and actually stuck to it, especially with a crazy schedule. I'm basically out the door by 7:30 am and not home until at least 6 pm. Then I start homework and go to bed around midnight. Rinse, repeat until the weekend. The schedule can change if I manage to get up earlier on weekends to do homework so I have less to do on weeknights (didn't pull that off last quarter; need to do it in the future).
I'm trying to figure out ways to hold myself accountable to a diet and exercise plan once I start. I'm considering sucking it up (and in! HA!) and posting my weight every week to the blog. That way I can feel like, hey, I'm putting it out somewhere and then it's not just me and my little WWOnline forum that I'm lying to, oh how I am Pinocchio. The shaaaaammme. Why yes, this Snickers bar is only 2 points, WHADDYA mean it's 16, cruel online tool that wants me to eat carrots????
But then again, I hate the thought of defining myself by weight, but I'm reasoning that I'm not defining myself by weight, rather I'm using this as a tool to help me lose weight, because help me Jeebus, I'm going to have a heart attack by 35 at the rate by LDL is soaring.
In the short term, my plan is:
1) Drastically cut down on fast food (mostly accomplished). When we do eat fast food, I go for a bean burrito or a grilled chicken sandwich. Burgers are a thing of the past.
2) Try to get up to the exercise room at least 3 times a week.
3) NO DAMN DONUTS.
I'm going to set my goals small for now, but hopefully I can keep building on them. If anything has worked for anyone else out there, then I'm all ears.
I need some advice from anyone who has taken up an exercise regimen and actually stuck to it, especially with a crazy schedule. I'm basically out the door by 7:30 am and not home until at least 6 pm. Then I start homework and go to bed around midnight. Rinse, repeat until the weekend. The schedule can change if I manage to get up earlier on weekends to do homework so I have less to do on weeknights (didn't pull that off last quarter; need to do it in the future).
I'm trying to figure out ways to hold myself accountable to a diet and exercise plan once I start. I'm considering sucking it up (and in! HA!) and posting my weight every week to the blog. That way I can feel like, hey, I'm putting it out somewhere and then it's not just me and my little WWOnline forum that I'm lying to, oh how I am Pinocchio. The shaaaaammme. Why yes, this Snickers bar is only 2 points, WHADDYA mean it's 16, cruel online tool that wants me to eat carrots????
But then again, I hate the thought of defining myself by weight, but I'm reasoning that I'm not defining myself by weight, rather I'm using this as a tool to help me lose weight, because help me Jeebus, I'm going to have a heart attack by 35 at the rate by LDL is soaring.
In the short term, my plan is:
1) Drastically cut down on fast food (mostly accomplished). When we do eat fast food, I go for a bean burrito or a grilled chicken sandwich. Burgers are a thing of the past.
2) Try to get up to the exercise room at least 3 times a week.
3) NO DAMN DONUTS.
I'm going to set my goals small for now, but hopefully I can keep building on them. If anything has worked for anyone else out there, then I'm all ears.
7 Comments:
Regular exercise has never done the trick for me--I've often gained weight during my most self-disciplined gym periods, because you don't really burn THAT many calories at the gym (watching the calorie counter on the elliptical is just plain depressing...) and it made me hungry All. The. Time.
Best thing for me has usually been to cut back on eating in little way. Smaller meals, smaller portions, munching veggies or other low-calorie foods and eating and drinking stuff that isn't calorically dense.
Well, I can give you a whole list of things I've tried, but nothing ever worked other than my gastric bypass surgery. And sorry sweetie, but you're way too skinny for that.
Two things that might help: try to be a pedestrian as much as possible. My sister lives in NYC and this is how she stays in shape. Don't you take the bus to work? Could you walk to a slightly farther bus stop just to add in a few more minutes of exercise? That way it's more little increments and not that whole "I'm going to the gym for one hour, X days per week."
The other thing, and I know this is going to suck because you love your vino, but alcohol is one of the worst culprits at making us (particularly women) hold on to our weight. I don't know how much you're drinking these days, but it might help to cut it back as much as you can. Without losing your sanity, of course. I do realize that we all need a good de-stress drink every now & then. :-)
Best of luck. And if you post your weight on your blog, you are a far, far braver woman than I.
I'm having a variation of the same problem. I stopped playing tennis 3 times a week last spring and I got to school, go to work, come home and collapse into bed and eat like crap in between. One thing has saved me from becoming absolutely huge and that is the dog. She has to be walked 2 times a day. I haven't been to the gym in mos and I haven't picked up my racket in 2 weeks but the dog forces me to get some exercise. Good luck!
There you go, just leash-train the cats and you're all set!
Ditto what Cindy said...try walking as much as you can, and taking the stairs instead of the elevator if you don't already.
I went to college in a place where I had to climb essentially two flights of stairs to classes (because of the hills). My thighs have never looked so good, and I avoided the freshman 15 that way.
Also, we cut all soda out of our diet and Ernie lost a good bit of weight. And cut all fast food out, because even the stuff you think is "better" usually isn't.
I'm the opposite of Jonathan. If I can get regular exercise in, I find that I lose weight and don't have to be quit so stringent about my eating. As long as I get the exercise in, things seem to work out in my favor.
That being said, I don't particularly like exercising, so I have to find things that don't feel like a chore. Like others have said, I try to walk more when I can. If the weather is nice, I'll walk from my house to the train station, or from 30th Street train station in the city to my office. It takes about 20-30 minutes for each of those walks, but I had to go to those places anyway, so it doesn't feel like a waste of time. Also, it helps if I remind myself that I'm doing something good for my body and for the environment. It makes me feel kind of guilty if I choose to drive instead of walk now.
At the gym, I have to trick myself into making things more fun, or else I quit very easily. I love taking classes like yoga and pilates. Pilates kicks my butt sometimes, but in a good way. I try to get in one class a week. The other days, I usually do the elliptical machine. My trick is to time it so I get on right when a show is starting that I like to watch. This way I'm MUCH more likely to stay on for a full 30 minutes. For some reason, I get really into Deal or No Deal - so on Monday nights I'll get on the elliptical 15 minutes into the show, get hooked, and then stay on for the remaining 45 minutes because I have to see how it ends. :) Little things like that make a big difference for me. Otherwise I get bored and tired and I won't stay on very long at all. But if I'm distracted by something interesting, the time goes by quickly.
When I was in grad school, I used to bring a stack of notes with me to the gym and review them while I was on a stationary bike or treadmill.... not so much fun, but it's what I needed to do sometimes to fit both into my schedule.
Are there any activities that feel more like fun and less like a chore for you?
Milton got diverticulitis. He can only eat meat and white bread right now until the infection goes away. He has, however, lost almost 20 pounds.
I do not recommend this method.
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