Still going, who would have thought :)

So, after six months more or less, I'm still going strong in my losing weight crusade and have lost 33 pounds total, my first goal I reached a month ago and now I have started my new goal, to reach 130 pounds, in order to do that I needed to lose 10 pounds after reaching my first goal, I've lost three of those and here is a before and after pic of how I looked last October and how I look today. I am really happy with all the changes I've made. I still count calories but allow myself to have a treat once in a while, had cake this monday cause it was my dad's Bday best damned cake ever. Just seven more to go :D

FIRST GOAL DONE!

Today I woke up and wished upon my pillow that I would weigh 141 pounds, even though I had weighed 142 on wednesday, but joy of joys I stand up on my scale and what did it say?, it said I weigh now 140 pounds.

So I have reached the first milestone I have set for myself, I am very happy, the lady who lives on the other side of my block called me svelt which made me very very happy.

Couldn't buy a pair of pants cause they only had one size left aaaaaand... it was too big :O, it used to be that pants wouldn't fit me cause they were too small, even the biggest one, nowadays they are too big for me.

I'm very proud cause I have managed to cultivate enough discipline to do this.

Another one bites the dust.

I so sinned yesterday :S I ate a dessert and another kind of dessert and half a scrumptious sandwich thingy dingli, so yes I am just flesh and bones,the good side, it made me feel strong enogh to continue on this road, I felt slightly nauseous and weird, also the desserts tasted horrible with all that sugar in them.

Ironically I lost another pound. So I am now down to 143 (fingers crossed I still wigh that tomorrow when the official Slimming the Soo Challange wight in happens!).

Picture Day!

It is that time of month again, here comes the pictures! 

I had to buy a new outfit cause all my clothes fit so poorly now lol, so these are the result of four months of work and healthy eating. This week I didn't manage to lose any weight but still I hold my gaze on the prize. 

Substitutes!

Now that I've managed to create a pretty healthy eating routine, I have started to come up with substitutes for all the non healthy things I used to eat, so here are some pretty cool idea for low cal substitutes for yummy but albeit naughty foods.

#1.- SANDWICHES

I used to have sandwiches for lunch twice a week, so finding out that bread is so high on calories and subsequently giving it up altogether, was not good for practical reasons, so what did I come up with?

INSTEAD OF THIS:

I AM HAVING THIS:

It's really cool the amount of calories you can cut off by using corn tortillas (40 cals each) instead of bread (100+ cals each slice)

#2.- NO BAKE LIME PIE :)

This sinfully delicious dessert is a calorie bomb disguised in awesomeness, consisting of cookies, condensed milk and lime juice, it certainly makes for a succulent treat but it also makes you turn into a blip.

INSTEAD OF THIS:

I AM HAVING THIS

That is a lime milkshake, you can make one from one scoop of light vanilla ice cream (65 cals), one glass of milk and lime juice to your taste. The taste is very similar so it is satisfying, even if the texture is of course not the same at all.

#3.- MINT CANDY

I would buy a bag of mint candy and go through it in two days or three, so last week I finally got a craving for it very badly, I thought to give mint tea a try.

INSTEAD OF THIS:

I'M HAVING THIS:

Having a good cup of peppermint tea with let's say half a spoonful of sugar takes care of the craving for mint candy totally. The taste is exactly the same, and after a cup I feel as if I've eaten twenty pieces of mint candy. Delicious.

26 down the drain :)

I haven't been writing for some weeks but that doesn't mean I've let my goal escape my sights ;).

In this time I've managed to go down to 144 pounds which is awesome, I feel so much better than I did when I was 170 it's amazing, for example I hadn't noticed that it was a little difficult for me to get up from chairs, it was not as hard as it would be for my great aunt who is more than 90 years old but I did have to make an extra effort that I do not have to do anymore and it feels... wait for it... great.

I haven't actually exercised in the last week because of the flu, so that might account for my losing three pounds this week, if my research is correct I will gain one pound or something after I start exercising again but I don't mind.

During the week before my illness I noticed that my body just couldn't keep up with doing aerobics for an hour five times a week, so I have changed my routine now, I do aerobics for an hour only three times a week and am gonna start doing strength training two times a week to tone up my arms and back, sadly I haven't figured out a routine that pleases me, I like yoga so I tried it for a week but I ended up hurting my foot very badly since I don't go to a trainer to learn how to do it but actually use videos from the net, so I'm just gonna stay away from yoga for now.

Picture time!!!

Mid week weigh in proved to be very very good for me, I have now lost two more pounds, so I am now at 150 pounds.

And it is picture time...

My clothes are kinda lose now lol, so yeah feeling awesome about that.

In this one you can see the weight loss in my face and arms, I can keep on going on about how happy I am but that is the last time I say that in this post.

Loads of change...

I haven't written in like ten days or two weeks, so this is what has happened in this time:

LOSING WEIGHT PLATEAU:

Last week I found out I hadn't lost any weight at all in basically two weeks, I was a bit shocked but not sad, cause even if I hadn't lost weight I still felt super and looked better than the week before, apparently I had hit what is called a weight loss plateau, these plateaus are nothing more than stages the body reaches, what happens is that our  bodies are programmed to become used to the amount of physical activity or the type that we do, so when you stick to the same regime for weeks on end what happens is the body becomes used to it. So after hitting this plateau and finding out what it meant I just changed my whole exercise routine and amped it up so that it was longer and a bit more challenging.

WEIGH IN DAY:

So weigh in day has come around again a-knocking, so bright and early I jumped up on my scale to read the verdict. As of this morning I weigh 152.5 pound, that means that I overcame my weight loss plateau and finally lost another pound and a half this week.

It seems that after losing a significant amount of fat pretty fast in the beginning, now it is a little bit more difficult to lose the same amount of weight, I feel that it might be that I do not have those extra seventeen pounds that worked as resistance while I worked out at my fattest; and also the fact that I do have much less fat now to actually lose. Maybe the less fat you have the harder it is to lose it, I will have to research that to know for sure.

NEW EXERCISE REGIME

This week I have increased the intensity of my work out, first of all, I have amped now the length of some of the intervals I do on my elliptical trainer, so I know do 4 one minute long intervals of intense running on it and 3 minute and a half intervals, I shall increase the minute and a half intervals one each weeks from now on until all of them last that long, I'm thinking that after that I might start changing them gradually into two minute intervals.

I have also added this two and a half mile walk aerobics video from Leslie Sansone, I truly enjoy her vids and feel that they are worth it. So now I added 32 more minutes of cardio to my regime and knocked out the skipping rope which shall come back next weeks.

I have planned to have different exercises each week, for example this week I've done the interval training on the elliptical and the 2.5 mile aerobics video.

Next week I plan to do the interval training, plus skipping rope 500 times (basically 5 mins) and to top it of I'll be doing one of Leslie Sansone's mini walks that last one mile each. So I will have one different mini mile walk for every day of the week.

So that's it for now, going strong, still in the game, and hope to write more next week with more awesome news.

Happy Day

Weigh in day has come and gone, yesterday I was a little bit sad cause I had weighed 155 lbs which is the same I had weighed since last sunday, today though I scored a fab 154 lbs, that means 1 less pound than yesterday, I'm calling water retention on that, 1 pound might not seem like much but wonder of wonders, guess who tried the other two pants that still didn't fit this sunday, ME that's who :)

And yes they now fit, burgundy pair and the black one that I have had since 2006 now fit. I now am the same size I had been since six years before, this made me so very happy.

So yes the wheels keep on rolling, and I am still up on the up, maybe I did not lose two pounds this time, but at least I lost one and did not put on weight.

Next week I'm gonna try and do 500 rope jumping repetitions, hoping for the best this week that comes!

Snacks All The Weigh Down: Thought For The Week

Snacks All The Weigh Down: Thought For The Week

A very good blog that includes humor and a victory story regarding weight loss.

Getting Emotional About Living

Getting Emotional About Living

Really liked this man's story on losing weight, seems very real.

Awesome saturday

Weigh in day has come around again, and joy of joys two more pounds are gone, away with you fat!
I think Oatmeal has become my super food, it's my saving grace and has helped me along the way, to keep me filled and without taking in so many calories.
I was pretty tired this week, but I feel it's because I've reached the ability of my body at least for now, I think I shall stop increasing the amount of exercise I do, and stay at the point I've reached, at least for a couple of weeks if not forever. Currently I am doing seven intervals on my elliptical machine, and skipping rope 350 times.
This week's advance is my belly, it's toned flatter and awesome if I say so myself, each week I can see something else become less fat or toned, the first part to slim down was my back and face.

Weigh in and picture day.

Today was the weigh in day, for the Slimming The Soo Challange, I was happily surprised to find, I had lost another pound or even maybe pound and a half, since my last weigh in on thursday, I was basically overjoyed about it. 

In the spirit of joy that overcame me when I realized this, my family and I went to celebrate to my favorite restaurant, which is of course up the mountain, and I got the picture that follows taken so I can show how I look after losing 12 pounds. 

So yeah, still got a long way to go, so far I've lost 40% of the total weight I want to lose this year, but the change keeps happening and I cannot complain. At this point my weight is 158 pounds and my bmi is 28.7.

Steady as she goes...

Well, this is the fourth day of exercising while a little sick and I can feel it, the tiredness is present and my spirits were quite low this day because of it.

The awesome point is that even if I feel pretty much like a dishrag this day on the outside, guess who lost two more pounds? ME! This certainly made me feel much better today, the body is not happy right now but it was worth it, I kind of dragged myself to do the exercising this week, but the results makes the sacrifice all worth while. My weight so far is 159 and my bmi dropped to 28.8 :)

I can only hope next week, when I am no longer on antibiotics, I will go back to actually even looking forward to my exercise in the morning, it truly is a very enjoyable activity, I feel much more relaxed afterwards, I have come to realize that while lounging in bed does make one feel relaxed, exercising makes one feel relaxed also. but in a whole different level, it's like drinking warm tea with milk every morning and suddenly someone gives you a cup of coffee with milk and cocoa and then bam! your world is just not the same ever again, being relaxed by just doing nothing is nice but exercise relaxed is just off the charts.

I also have enjoyed the fact that I have not seen so many sunrises in my life, I really get a kick out of it, here are two pics of what I see every morning while I do my 300 rope jumping stunt:

View of the east bound wall in my yard.

West part of my yard.

What I have found very fascinating is that I usually walk a bit in the yard en between jumping sets and every time I return facing the west side, the image becomes so much brilliant, as the sets start to add up, on my resting walk after the first set, the image looks normal, but after the second and third, I feel the image becomes sharper and brighter, my theory is that the pumping of blood through my eyes, that must go up as I strain myself must make me able to look better. 

Obstacles

This week is gonna be proof of my mettle, when it comes to this goal I've set for myself. I have a little infection and am taking antibiotics, this morning when I exercised, I really felt the strain, at least the infection is not in my lungs, so I won't become ill if I exercise, but still it is hard.

I was really proud this morning when I ended my routine, even though I felt slightly bad, usually when I felt slightly bad in the past, I would just stop and lay down and rest and never go back to exercising, this time I'm not stopping, unless I get sick in my lungs. Breaking patterns seem to be very important, breaking eating habits seems to be very important too, but the upside is I have found out after keeping my diet (which is not extreme, it is mostly healthy controlled eating) I actually feel bad physically if I over eat, I'm very happy about this development, as I feel it will help me keep my regime.

Weigh-in day!

A few months ago some online friends and me found out we were all trying to lose weight at the same time talking about it we came to the idea of creating a losing weight challange, and so it started, it started sometime in february and the ending date is Christmas day.

We all decided that weigh in day was gonna be on saturdays, I personally weigh myself on saturday morning and sunday morning.

So far since the start of the challange I have lost six pounds and altogether since I started exercising I have lost nine pounds, I am really excited and happy about losing all that weight. My starting weight was 170 pounds and my bmi was something like 30.1 I was right on the path of obesity and reading those results on my screen scared me a LOT.

So gotta keep strong, I don't think I do a big amount of exercising nor do I starve myself basically all I have done so far is not drink soda anymore and also stopped the cookies and sweet breads.

So my weight today is 161 and my bmi has dropped to 29.2.

Progress is happening :)

The Shock Factor and Starting Point

What was the shock factor??? it was my pants, that's right my pants did not fit anymore, my working period ended on late december and this year it started at the ending of january, I was trying to find the perfect first day outfit and tried most of my pants on, I was shocked and appalled to find that only two pairs fit, all the others did not even go up my legs.

I had tried doing the gym thing but it didn't work out for me so well, the good thing about the gym experience is that I got to try most of the exercise machines they had which also made me able to realize what was the best machine for me.

I was very lucky to have found an elliptical machine I could afford, immediately I bought it and that was the starting point for my exercise regime, I think the machine made all the difference for me, I started slow doing like 15 mins a day and then worked my way up to 20.

Using the machine like that was fine and at that point I wasn't bodily able to do much more than that anyways, I did that for a couple of weeks trying to do it fast in the middle of my 20 mins until I could do it fast for about five mins or so.

I then started reasearching for other exercises I could do, that would complement the whole elliptical training, that is how I found jumping rope and armed with a jumping rope given to me by my friend Edgar I was able to start doing it too.

I felt that I was not doing everything I could do with the elliptical trainer so I did some research and found out that the way to go was interval training (doing it as fast as you can for a minute and then slowing to a comfortable pace for two minutes constitutes an interval) so I incorporated that to my training.

I think that was a very good idea, I feel I have a very good exercise regime now I am doing five intervals in each elliptical sesion and adding 25 jumps a week, my goal is to be able to jump about a 1000 times right now I'm up to 225 jumps a day.

Early Days

I started this challange with myself some months back and I finally feel that I am on the right track this time.

My goal: to get healthy and lose weight.

Sounds easy but most of us know it is not.

For me it has been about leaving sugar behind and stopping the whole eating entire bags of cookies in three days, that was basically the beginning for me and after that adding some much needed exercise to my life.

This is a picture of myself on my last birthday:

You can see I don't even look happy and I looked pretty fat. That was probably one of the lowest moments in my body image history, I felt fat and really unhealthy all around.

But even then I had already started making changes, one of my cardinal rules is to always have cake on birthdays especially my own, on that birthday I felt so fat I just did not buy a cake.

My birthday is on october so for the last part of last year I strugled against my sugar adiction and tried so hard to let it go, since the beginning of this year I've finally managed to get it under control. Since this year started I've only drunk 354 ml of soda.

On january I bought an elliptical machine and I think it has made the difference in my goal towards health, I've been working out on it for the last three months and I've lost some weight already but mostly I've lost volume.

I used to be anemic (oh the irony) before I started this process and apparently all I needed was exercise, last month they did some blood work and yay my anemia is gone.

So far I've gained some small but very important changes through my sacrifice and work.