<p>I may step on some toes here, but… Why do we (as a society) expect everything to be easy? NO, it isn’t easy to start and stick to an exercise regimen. It isn’t easy to get out of bed everyday and go to work, either. You just friggin’ DO IT! The extent to which we make demands on ourselves varies, and I don’t expect anyone else to want to do what I do, but it is NOT easy for me to do what I do. Most mornings I have a debate with myself while I am still in bed about why I don’t really want to get up and go run. Every now and then (especially in the winter), I DON’T get up. I don’t just spring from bed like I did 30 years ago and hit the road. My elite running group frequently has the mantra “Running is Stupid.” But we want to achieve certain things so we do it anyway.</p>
<p>The same thing applies to going to the gym 3 times a week or taking a 45 minute walk every day. It’s your body- take care of it for God’s sake! You shouldn’t need hand holding or the equivalent of dipping your baby toe into the pool to see if it’s too cold. There are SO many options these days for health and fitness. Geez- there are even women-specific gyms so you don’t have to display your flabby thighs in front of men! I’ve seen too many incredible turn-arounds by people who have had massive heart attacks or have been diagnosed with other life-threatening diseases who managed to get their giant butts out the door to do SOMETHING. People lose 80-100 pounds and here we are getting “there isn’t anything I like to do?” On Twitter this would be tagged as #whitepeople’sproblems</p>
<p>I am down 1.5 pounds this week! That’s a total of 2.0 pounds in a little under 2 weeks. I’m thrilled. I wonder how much total weight will be lost on this thread? </p>
<p>cpt, I am not surprised at your results. Reading what you’ve been eating this week, I was not optimistic. I would take this as proof that the eating plan you tried, with one free-for-all meal a day, is not working for you. Why don’t you try something else? Could you reduce carbs while increasing protein and good fat? I have still been eating 40-55% carbs, although I hope to reduce this. But I’ve greatly reduced bad carbs and focused on fruit, vegetables, and whole grains. I still drink 8 oz of Coke a day. Can you plan to include some of the foods you love each day, while reducing the amount of bad carbs? And I wouldn’t use that ridiculous calorie goal. Why don’t you get advice from some of the more knowledgeable people here on a more appropriate calorie target, with a goal of losing very slowly? I am eating 1500 calories a day, but I am much taller and more overweight than you are. I will undoubtedly have to reduce this as time goes on.</p>
<p>MOWC, I know you mean to be helpful, but I don’t think post #701 belongs here. Two weeks ago I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I was going to remain overweight and out of shape, despite being fully aware of the potential consequences. I knew very well what I needed to do, but could not find the motivation to do it. I said worse things to myself than you said to all of us in post #701, but still wasn’t able to “just do it.” Then EPTR came along and started this thread, and now I’m down 2 pounds, which I suspected before I weighed myself because I can tell that my body has shrunk a bit, and I’ve made what for me are profound changes, although I still have a long way to go. There are others here with similar accomplishments, and some who are still trying to find their way with help and support. </p>
<p>Can you leave this thread to those of us who are not perfect in every way?</p>
<p>Congrats, MYmomof2! And sorry for the weight gain, cpt. I agree that eating fast food or one big meal a day isnt likedly to be a successful strategy. Plus fast food has a lot of salt, and the weight gain coudl be water.</p>
<p>Many things I’ve read say that we should eat small quantities 5-6 times a day. I eat a mid morning and afternoon snack when I am at work. In the last few days I have let my calorie count go up a bit, as we had someone over last evening and had to order in a pizza, and I did have a few more evening snacks than I should have. That said, I didnt gain this morning, and despite going out of town 3 times in the past few weeks, I’ve lost 5 lbs over this past month. Its been up and down, and the brief trial on lo carb led to a weight gain of 1.5 lbs, but thats gone. In general, I am keeping calories in the 1300/day range, per livestrong’s recommendations. When I did Jenny Craig, it had me initially in the 1200/day range, then upped to 1500/day. So IMO, staying in the 1300ish range is reasonable. I think you and I are close in size, cpt, so maybe trying this will work for you. Give it some time. Good luck!</p>
<p>**I should add, I had a few 1700/day days, and wont mention the calorie count of the few lo carb days, and I am still , overall, losing!</p>
<p>I weigh the same as I did last week and the week before. Given that I’m still nursing a back injury, I’m okay with that.</p>
<p>cpt, my 4’-11" sil, eats around 1300 calories to maintain weight, I can’t imagine her trying to live on less than 500. I think a 2 pound a week goal in any event is unrealistic. I think you are better off trying to figure out a diet that you can live with forever, that means eating something close to the maintenance weight for your height and wished for weight.</p>
<p>I prefer the snacks approach too. I really don’t eat a breakfast or lunch per se - it’s more like four to five snacks until dinner. Livestrong has me at 1,800 calories per day which is working well for losing fat. This week has been a relatively low-exercise week for me. One run, and four days for weights for 20 minutes. Today is tennis day and tomorrow will be a light workout - maybe stretching or floorwork or weights or tennis. There are times when a light week is a good idea to help the body settle after regular workouts.</p>
<p>You have to find the calorie range that works for you and get the right nutrition combination in terms of carbs, fats, fiber, sodium, cholesterol, sugars - it’s like a linear algebra problem. I sometimes think that I should write a food app.</p>
<p>Cpt - Yes you can! I know you can - it just won’t be as quickly as you might want. Please don’t give up, and don’t do anything nutty (by the way, I am pretty nutty, so if I say something is nutty…)</p>
<p>You were using this week as a trial of sorts. It didn’t work. Let’s get back to the drawing board and figure out something that will work for you. </p>
<p>I have said this before, but sometimes it is harder to figure out what to do when you are only 15 pounds overweight. You are not eating that many extra calories - so it is tough to pare down what you are eating. </p>
<p>Tip #1 - Stay away from that lobster sandwich from Panera!!!</p>
<p>I’m going to weigh in tomorrow because I was a day late last week. I have a feeling I’m about the same as last week. If i am, I am going to start tracking because I haven’t done that yet. I did log on to Livestrong and my goal to lose 1 lb per week is 1250 calories a day. I am short and being punished for that! lol.</p>
<p>No, none of this is easy. I remember seeing Dr. Phil on TV once talking about weight loss (yes, I know he’s an A** but he made a good point). Someone on the talk show said to him “Why can’t I lose weight? I try and try and nothing comes off?” His answer was interesting. He said “You must think that you are really okay the way that you are. When you really want to lose weight, you will.”</p>
<p>I think he has a point. As long as we KNOW how to lose weight, we should be able to do. It’s about choices. We all know what we are doing when we chose unhealthy foods. It’s a choice. And I think that’s okay. One person may want to lose but not mind if it’s a very slow process because they are not willing to completely change the way they eat or exercise. Another might want fast results and be willing to revolutionize their habits in order to see that happen. For me, I like fast results but I still had two beers with a friend last night. I knew that it would hamper my efforts for the week and I did it anyway. I’m not going to beat myself up about it but I’m also not going to complain when the scale doesn’t reward me much this week. </p>
<p>We’ll keep encouraging each other. Some of us will see slow results and some will see fast. Some of us will plateau. I think we should keep track of how many lbs the thread loses! Good idea NYmom!</p>
<p>Funny how yesterday’s day of bad eating affected my desire to get out of bed and exercise. Lessons being learned. But I did get out of bed and stuck to the commitment I made last night – take the dog to a trail and walk farther than we’ve been. It was great to mix it up, but the trail isn’t as long as I thought it was (only a quarter-mile longer than our regular route) and the time went by pretty quickly. Next time, I’ll walk it twice.</p>
<p>Oh, there is no way that I am going to try to live on 500 calories a day and no one or source says that is safe. I’ve been working on this for 3 weeks now and have gained weight. What Livestrong is saying is that for me to lose the weight, I have to do more activity than I was. And I have. I’ve added 300 specific calories of activity. I’m not sure what to do next. I am depressed and discouraged right now.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, guys (generic term here). I am not heavy looking but, yes, I am a bit overweight even by the charts, about 5 lbs worth by them, and about 10-15 for my comfort level. But it isn’t budging. I have worse problems than this, but this is making me want to cry. I wish I’d at least stayed level. I now weight more than I ever have in my life as of this morning except during pregnancies.</p>
<p>Weight vs Calories chart. Sometimes it is frustratingly slow (see when the lines are almost flat). You can see that my calories were all over the place for quite a while but they have more or less stabilized around 1850 calories per day. My target is now about 1,800 calories per day. As you can see in the chart, I can go over by up to 500 calories and I won’t worry about it too much but I try to keep the average around my target.</p>
<p>cpt, I’m sorry that you’re discouraged. IIRC, the 500 calories was in order to lose two pounds a week, right? That’s unrealistic when you’re as small as you are now. While I’m sure I would jump for joy if I was your weight, what matters is how YOU feel, and if you want to lose 10 pounds then that’s what you want. But you have to know intellectually that you won’t drop that in a month so you’ll have to adjust your expectations. But I know you can do it! If you have been able to maintain what sounds like a really healthy weight for you all your life then you can drop a few when you put your mind to it. (((hugs)))</p>
<p>No, I can’t. When I see people looking for reinforcement to keep doing the same old things- like drinking Coke for breakfast, I have to comment. I certainly appreciate small changes and how hard it is to really make lifestyle adjustments. We’ve all been there. I think there is “support” and then there is “blowing sunshine up your a$$”. </p>
<p>In our other thread, which some of you think was too “hard core” for you, we saw HUGE accomplishments over the last 18 months. Interesteddad could barely make it down his driveway when he started his health/fitness program. He did it without joining a gym, without a personal trainer and without the encouragement of his family members. So, no, it’s not about being “perfect”. NONE of us are perfect. I lost 28 pounds in 2008, and I certainly didn’t do it by being “perfect”, but I also didn’t do it by doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.</p>
<p>If you aren’t losing weight and you think you should be, you should look at the medications that you take. I just read something the other day that said even Zyrtec and Allegra for allergies, which doesn’t seem like it would have anything to do with your weight, can cause weight gain. There’s a whole lot more to the equation, it seems, than just calories in, calories out.</p>
<p>I thought my weight would be up today because two nights ago I had sweet potato fries and last night I had a roasted sweet potato/white potato medley (delicious) but it wasn’t. I was pretty excited about that and will be adding more occasional potatoes to the rotation.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>1.6 lbs (from last Friday’s weigh in)</p></li>
<li><p>0.7 lbs (drop in rolling 7-day average weight)</p></li>
<li><p>0.9 lbs (average per week loss over the last four weeks)</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Weight is up 2 lbs this week. 2 glasses of wine, + tiramisu with son out to dinner. Now at top of range. This is my life. It is hard. It does require discipline. But I don’t really mind it all that much. I’ll have miso soup for dinner this week, and back off from Haagen Dazs and Sauvignon Blanc.</p>
<p>I would say there needs to be a middle ground between blowing smoke and tough love, in the discussion. Some of us, when yelled at, don’t respond. We get mad and sneak away and say to heck with all this. </p>
<p>A gentle tone works best for some. When people say they don’t like exercise, maybe a productive response is, “Well, if you really want to keep your weight in a healthy realm, you are going to HAVE to find some kind of physical activity that you are willing to participate in. Otherwise, you’d be better off to accept the health setup you are giving yourself.” </p>
<p>Some of us are never going to get up and run 10 miles, even though we know it would be good for us. We’re never going to be interesteddad, or MOWC, no matter how good that level of fitness sounds. But we might get up to walking 30 minutes 3 days/week, going to yoga once a week, and gardening. Which would be better than sitting on the sofa.</p>
<p>The best place to know to get information on how to make habit changes, which is what we are talking about, is Leo Babauta’s “Zen Habits” blog. His big thing is, change a little bit at a time. Yes, he’s a rabid fitness vegan minimalist:), but he gives pretty good advice.</p>
<p>I don’t think running 10 miles is a particularly “good” form of exercise for the over 50 crowd. Distance running has a very high injury rate and isn’t the best bang for the buck as far as fat loss goes. If you are runner, great. But, if you are sitting at home contemplating the exercise possibilities, running probably shouldn’t be at the top of your list, especially if you aren’t already quite fit.</p>
<p>I live with an exercise fanatic (marathon runner) and that just isnt me. I was taken out on a 3 mi run/walk when visiting friends in FL that was more than I cared to do, and felt pushed to do what I really didnt feel ready to do. I used to run when I was younger, and I will exercise at the gym, but I wont do those multiple reps and push myself past what I am comfortable with. I will run/walk on the treadmill, bicycle and chat with the person next to me, and use the weight training stuff. This is usually a weekend activity. Other than a walk, I rarely get to exercise during the week. I am perfectly ok with that. I would like to lose weight and be a bit more trim/fit, but I dont need to look like a bodybuilder, and I will probably ever do anything n a gym that will cause me to grunt out loud. And I dont like nursing injuries. I guess I am a wimp, but I am ok with that too.</p>
<p>I am quite happy to grunt in a gym:). I have discovered over the years that running gives me shin splints. Genetically very muscular calves. It’s too hard to make myself get to the indoor pool, I’m traumatized from swim team as a kid and chlorine overdose. But low-impact aerobics I look forward to, yoga I look forward to, walking, hiking, gardening, and weight lifting are all sustainable. </p>
<p>Do I do these things because they are my favorite activities? Not at all. I’d rather watch movies and eat chocolate cake and drink wine all day. But I like the idea of living a long time. I also like the energy level I have when I am more rather than less active, to a point. The weight and appearance bit is secondary.</p>
Given that I’m still nursing a back injury, I’m okay with that.</p>![http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/43/weightcalories.jpg/]ImageShack®](http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/43/weightcalories.jpg/%5DImageShack%C2%AE){kind=link}
