How you lost the weight.

[Chrisada]

I was wondering if some of you who have lost a lot of weight would mind sharing your secrets with everyone. Specifically, what made you finally make that decision to lose the weight, how you lost it, and what you have done to maintain that weight loss.

Ok, I'll start. DS1 reached the one-year mark when I was just over being fat from having a baby. I needed to lose a lot of weight. About 60 lbs. Finally, to be blunt, I decided I did not want to be that fat mother who never lost the baby weight. I wanted to be hot again. I wanted to be a head turner again. I didn't want to get diabetes like my father and his mother. I did Atkins and joined the YMCA. I probably had about 15 lbs. to go when, bam, I become pregnant with baby number 2. And immediately gained all the weight back. Niiiice.

So now he is nine-months and I have not been able to stick it out. Finally, last week it clicked. It's time to lose the weight again. So I'm back to not eating sugar and bread and exercising a lot. I eat a lot of chicken, fish, salads, and drink water all day and take fiber pills to keep me full. I'm also keeping a weight loss blog on here to keep myself accountable. I plan to surprise everyone with my weight loss at DH's graduation this May.

Your turn!

[scrub-jay]

I lost 55-60 pounds on Weight Watchers. I did Atkins for a while prior to this and lost about 15-25 pounds, but that came back on so fast when I went to college. I found I really enoyed the no-nonsense meetings that WW offered and the team mentality. I hesitated for a long time before joining WW because I thought you had to "buy" their meals - but it isn't one of those programs. You work with your food, your choices and just remain accountable to yourself and the scale. It was motivating to see each 0.1 lbs drop off...especially when it was more!!

I remained dedicated and stayed at my goal weight until I got pregnant. Somehow, eating barely anything (water-Gatorade-broth) I still gained weight -- as soon as this baby is out, I'm jumping back into WW meetings. (They do adjust their plan for nursing mothers).

Good luck! I know you can do it!!

[migirl]

I love to eat too much for me to follow any kind of restrictive diet, so for me ... consistent, high-impact exercise is the key to weight loss/maintenance. Lately I've been running 3-4 miles a day. With both pregnancies I think I had maybe 15-20 pounds to lose after delivery, and both times I ended up below my pre-pregnancy weight (so, yes ... I'm currently smaller than I was before I started having babies!).

[Chrisada]

I love to eat too much for me to follow any kind of restrictive diet, so for me ... consistent, high-impact exercise is the key to weight loss/maintenance. Lately I've been running 3-4 miles a day. With both pregnancies I think I had maybe 15-20 pounds to lose after delivery, and both times I ended up below my pre-pregnancy weight (so, yes ... I'm currently smaller than I was before I started having babies!).

Umm... jealous! I always dream of being a runner. Do you run with the boys? My problem is that if I don't restrict myself when trying to lose then I will eat up the whole damn house. One cookie turns into two, three. etc. And the next thing you know it's a run to Trader Joe's just for their peppermint chocolate cookies.


Crystal, I know so many people who swear by WW.

[scrub-jay]

Umm... jealous! I always dream of being a runner. Do you run with the boys? My problem is that if I don't restrict myself when trying to lose then I will eat up the whole damn house. One cookie turns into two, three. etc. And the next thing you know it's a run to Trader Joe's just for their peppermint chocolate cookies.


Crystal, I know so many people who swear by WW.

OMG - I am one of those ppmt joe-joe fanatics btw! The parts of WW that worked for me the best (with or without the program):

(1) Tracking my intake - they use "points" but honestly I find tracking itself helpful, whether it be points, calories, carbs, w/e. It does hinder my eating the whole bag of cookies.

(2) Drinking lots of water.

(3) Exercise. (Calories in, calories out...)

(4) Getting enough sleep.

One thing I especially liked about WW:

(1) Once you hit your goal weight - all meetings are FREE. You become a "Lifetime member" and you never lose that status. If you go 5 above your goal weight you have to pay for the meeting until you weigh in within your goal weight range again. I think with lifers you have to weigh in once a month to remain free. Just nice - there is an end in sight to the financial commitment AND you keep your support structure.

[migirl]

I always dream of being a runner. Do you run with the boys?

Okay, first of all ... I hardly consider myself a "runner". Even the thought of classifying myself that way makes me laugh. Like I said, the only reason I do it is for weight loss/maintenance reasons. Otherwise, I *hate* running.

I don't run with the boys, we're lucky enough to have a treadmill in our basement so I get up early every morning (5am) to run before the kiddos wake up.

[Chrisada]

Okay, first of all ... I hardly consider myself a "runner". Even the thought of classifying myself that way makes me laugh. Like I said, the only reason I do it is for weight loss/maintenance reasons. Otherwise, I *hate* running.

I don't run with the boys, we're lucky enough to have a treadmill in our basement so I get up early every morning (5am) to run before the kiddos wake up.

Girl, four miles a day. You are a runner!!!! I seriously aspire to this.

[scrub-jay]

Girl, four miles a day. You are a runner!!!! I seriously aspire to this.

No, seriously!! I second this!!

[MarissaNicole]

I can totally relate with the eating more when I am exercising. That is EXACTLY my problem, and in fact when I increase my exercise I end up GAINING weight.

Always in the back of my mind I was afraid of getting pregnant/having kids because I wanted to be happy with my body first. I know seems silly...

And since the eating thing is more my issue (rather than exercise), I decided to join weight watchers last year. Like Crystal I am a big fan. I lost 15 pounds last year, and unfortunately I put 5 of it back on in the last 2 months, but I am hoping to take off that 5 and hopefully another 5 this year.

[ladymoreta]

I was able to lose about 25 pounds with Weight Watchers website. I never went to a meeting, but I found just tracking my points and keeping within the allowable amount worked wonders. I kind of stalled about 20 pounds from my goal weight, mainly because I wasn't exercising. It was so easy to maintain, though, unlike other weight loss programs. I occasionally fluctuated 3-4 pounds, but it seems like it came back off really quickly.

I am going to try the Lose It application to lose the rest of the weight after delivery, but if I need to, I'll sign back up for WW. The website-only option was pretty cheap, and it's kind of fun to check off things during the day (like exercise, veggies, vitamin, etc.)

[DCJenn]

My most effective tool has been the www.myfooddiary.com which is 9 bucks a month. Their database is HUGE and you can also build in your own recipes. I tried WW and ediets as well, mostly because I like to see exactly what I'm eating. They were fine programs but the thing that I really like about myfooddiary is that it doesn't just calculate calories and fat, etc but ALL of the aspects of nutrition- vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc. It's been very helpful in forcing me to get the RDA of calcium and iron which I was sadly lacking. I mean you can only eat so much spinach or yogurt.

Jenn

[MissCrabette]

I constantly fail at keeping myself motivated enough to work out for more than a 2 week period. I found that keeping track of what I ate was a real eye opener for me. Jenn, if you ever get tired of paying the $9/month, Sparkpeople is free and has a huge database as well.

I should probably hop on the diet and exercise bandwagon, but I keep making excuses. I'm moving in a little over a week and looking at a major move in March and I'm feeling SO overwhelmed.

[MarissaNicole]

The stress diet, which means eating nothing because you feel so sick all the time. As a bonus, due to either the stress or the antidepressant, I've lost about 40%-50% of my hair.

I don't recommend it.

I'm sorry Cassy, I've been thinking of you....



MsCrabette, I'd try and excercise and the healthy eating for stress relief, but don't put any pressure on yourself if it doesn't happen, because the last thing you need is added stress!

[scrub-jay]

My most effective tool has been the www.myfooddiary.com which is 9 bucks a month. Their database is HUGE and you can also build in your own recipes. I tried WW and ediets as well, mostly because I like to see exactly what I'm eating. They were fine programs but the thing that I really like about myfooddiary is that it doesn't just calculate calories and fat, etc but ALL of the aspects of nutrition- vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc. It's been very helpful in forcing me to get the RDA of calcium and iron which I was sadly lacking. I mean you can only eat so much spinach or yogurt.

Jenn

Oooh! That is really nice. WW is sorely lacking on the overall nutrition- side of things, other than recommending that everyone take a multivitamin. Nice, I'll have to check this out.

This year I refused to set any New Year's Resolutions, because try as I may, I fail every year. However, when the first week of the new year started, I decided I definitely needed to get healthier. I HATE exercising with a passion, and LOVE food with an equal or greater passion. I know I'll never change that. But I have to start somewhere.

So far, I've been able to get up every week day and do at least 20-30 minutes of cardio in the morning. For lunch, I've moved from frozen foods or fast food, to healthier, lower-calorie foods like Healthy Choice soups. Dinner is the one meal I look forward to in the day. I love cooking and enjoying a meal with my hubby. So for dinner, about all I'm willing to do is portion control. And overall I'm just trying to be more active in the evenings after work. A little less tv, a little longer walk with the dog.

I realize I'm not going to see any drastic changes in my body with these small changes, but I'm hoping I can keep it up unlike I have in the past. And I'm hoping I'll at least feel a bit healthier.