On the other hand...

[annathepiper]

I had the satisfaction this morning of getting on the scale and seeing that, 9 days before the end of the month, I have hit my weight loss goal! This is personally very heartening to me, as it leads me to hope that I'll make it to the end of the month with some leeway to spare--not in terms of not having to exercise, but rather, a possible extra pound or two lost if I keep to the routine I have established:

* No more than two sodas a day
* Treadmill on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
* Don't get wacky with the snacks
* Drink water

So far so good. Let's see if I can keep it up.

Comments

[howlinhobbit.livejournal.com]

Congrats!

I've achieved, if not a personal worst in the weight department, at least a tie for a previous one. Your plan seems pretty sensible and achievable.

I remember reading here what your monthly goals were but can't remember the goals themselves. I recall that they too seemed sensible.

So the question is... what is your treadmill workout? Just a replacement for a walk or do you have one of those fancy ones that shifts speeds and simulates hills and such?

I'm not real happy about my current weight, especially since seeing a pic taken at a recent gig. Ack! I've got to get off my ass (and vice versa!).

HH

[annathepiper]

Thank you!

Basically, the goal is to see if I can lose two pounds a month this year. I should probably actually lose more, but I'm treating this akin to my daily word count goal: setting it deliberately low and somewhere I know is within my reach. I find that, with my writing, if I make my daily word count goal sometimes I'll have enough energy and inspiration to keep going and to PASS that goal. I'm hoping the same thing will happen here. :)

Our treadmill has adjustable thingies on it that let you alter the speed and the slope of the incline, but I haven't messed with them much. In times past I had a workout to selections from the Gladiator soundtrack, which was incredibly helpful because it's very easy to build up to a run in the middle of the sixteen measures of the Maximus Kicks Ass in the Arena Theme. ;)

However, I'm not quite ready to get back up to that yet. Right now I'm sticking to just building up to a well-paced walk; spazzkat and mamishka have both advised me that a good benchmark to shoot for is whether you can still hold a conversation without losing your breath while you're working out. I find that keeping that rate for about thirty minutes on the treadmill is still more than enough to get my heart rate up and to work up a nice sweat.

[kitchengrrl.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

If your goal is weight loss, then the ideal thing for you would be to play with those buttons on the treadmill and do interval training. Basically, go as fast as you can for as long as you can (this would be less than a minute for me!) and then slow down to a jog/fast walk/walk until you feel rested, then kick it back up again, and do that for the duration of your cardio time. This type of cardio-conditioning increases your breathing capacity or your use of oxygen or something like that (can't remember exactly) and also kicks your metabolism into higher gear than regular endurance training (one speed for duration) does.

As for BMI, it's a load of crap. Stick with a weight goal, or a size goal or a body fat percentage goal. Those all make much more sense.

[annathepiper]

Well, I should say that I do play with the speed a little--starting off with a warm up and then gradually increasing the speed until I hit about the midpoint of my current set of songs, and then working my way back down again.

And when I was doing the Gladiator-themed workout, I was doing the sort of up-again, down-again thing you were describing. But my goal was more to just follow the music rather than thinking actively about increasing my metabolism or stuff like that. ;) So I think I'll definitely work back up to that workout.

Regarding BMI... well, I give it at least a little credence because I'm given to understand that there's an ideal weight range that one wants to shoot for. Range, specifically, not one given weight that you need to lock yourself into. That seemed to me to be a way to at least get an idea of the sort of healthy range I want to be in, because yeah, my goal is weight loss, but I'm also wanting to figure out what a good healthy range for me is. I don't want to be too skinny, either. :)

Though I suppose, with that sort of goal, one could easily just say "do you feel healthy? Are you comfortable with your current body? Yes? SHIP IT!"

[watermelonpunch.livejournal.com]

Good luck!!!!

I myself gained a few pounds over the holidays & whatnot. Winter time thing really.

I know one of my big things... I'm a sugar fiend... And the past few months is that I cut down on the candy and wound up upping the sweets in other forms. Like cookies! And those are more fattening than candy. I'm better off with the candy.

Drinking more water is probably the best thing.

And cutting out the soda as much as possible.
Soda is so incredibly bad really.
Thank goodness I barely drink soda at all. In fact I usually don't even have it in my home. For me, soda is a once in awhile treat. I think too many of us make a habit of having it as a general beverage, when really, its make-up is that of a rich dessert!

I've been on this weird fruit juice kick. Like all of these exotic kind of fruit mixtures.

And I get exercise without even trying when the weather is nice... But in the winter - I can't even seem to make any type of habit of physical activities.

For example, today I'm snowed in, there's a blizzard outside.
Ordinarily I would go outside and walk for a few hours and take photos of the snow... But I don't think I'm even going to do that today because it's SO FREAKIN' COLD OUT. Snow is one thing, incredibly low temperatures are another. If the temp is above 20°, I enjoy walking out in the snow... But right now it's only 10°! Grrrr. So I'm hesitant to go outside any further than my porch.

[annathepiper]

Oh, yeah, I'm totally with you on the whole cookies and candy thing. There's an evil vending machine full of snacks in the kitchen at work, and it is a trial and a tribulation to me on a daily basis to actively resist the chocolately goodness therein. And it's not even GOOD chocolate. It's your usual selection of crap chocolate candy bars. ;) But lately I have managed to resist, even when going so far as to get seventy cents in hand and to actually go TO the vending machine. At that point I look at it and think, "Gosh, I don't actually want anything in there."

The holidays put a sore dent in my resolve; I'd already decided to cut down soda beforehand, as I'd posted about before. But my brother stocked up on diet Mountain Dew while solarbird and I were there. And his wife kept making cookies. And there was fast food all over the place when Dara and I went out to visit friends and stuff and AGH fast food. :)

You're absolutely right about how folks seem to get into the habit of drinking soda with everything; certainly I've been doing that for years. Part of my 'drink more water' plan has involved deliberately not drinking soda when I have a meal, even if it's just my usual morning granola/yogurt bar. I'll have water instead. And usually milk with dinner.

I love those tasty juice mixes as well! I'm extremely partial to the old classic of strawberry-orange-banana, but strawberry-kiwi is also quite tasty.

Been hearing about the blizzard conditions from other folks on that side of the continent--and I've seen a couple of pictures, too. Man. Sympathies about the being snowed in thing!

[kitchengrrl.livejournal.com]

If you're avoiding soda for the calorie factor, then you're better off sticking with diet soda than substituting fruit juice. The juice has pretty equivilant sugar to most sodas, it's just not the evil high-fructose corn syrup sugar, unless you're buying a pre-mixed bottled blend, in which case, it is. :P

And I'm completely with you about the temptation to eat even crappy sweets when you want something sweet. It sucks. For whatever reason, I have finally been able to turn off that part of my brain. I'm certain that it had to do with the a mind-body connection comment aikigreg made to me a few months ago. He mentioned in relation to something else that I've got such a strong mind body connection that it really surprised him that I'd never been able to harness it to my advantage for exercise and fat loss. So I decided right there that I would. And ever since then, I've had a significantly reduced amount of cravings, fighting with food, need for sugar, etc., and my lifetime aversion to exercise has DISAPPEARED. I actually get really disappointed when something prevents me from working out now, and I make efforts to find a way to work it in. This is totally new for me.

I wish I could tell you how I did this, other than just deciding to do it, but I can't. But perhaps doing some controlled meditation or something would work for you.

Either way, good luck keeping the chocolate at bay and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

[annathepiper]

I don't avoid soda for the calories per se--if nothing else because I've been drinking diet soda for ages now, and at least in theory they aren't supposed to be packing much in the way of calories. And actually, technically, I'm more avoiding the caffeine than the soda, since it's the caffeine that was making me extra-special twitchy and hyper. Plus, five to seven cans of soda a day was just not healthy in general.

And I'm not trying to eliminate soda entirely out of my diet, necessarily. Just want to keep it severely in check. :)

Good on you for making that resolution and pursuing it!

And thanks, both about the chocolate and the birthday!

[watermelonpunch.livejournal.com]

See, now I put chocolate into the same category as cookies & cake and that sort of thing.

Candy for me is stuff like candy corn, rock candy, hard candy, jelly beans... that sort of thing.
And I definitely think I'm better off eating that sort of thing rather than chocolate, cake, or cookies.

But over the holidays I indulged in a lot of cake, chocolate, and too many cookies since.

I'm better off with my rock candy.

At any rate, vending machines are evil.
They don't have much that's really worth eating, and they're overpriced... Yet they lure & entice because generally they're found in places where you're at, where you can't just pop out to a proper store at any time.

[lubedpumpkin.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

[annathepiper]

Thank you. :) January's easy; it's going to be February and March that'll be hard, with the temptation of those pernicious and evil and tasty candy hearts in the little pink boxes. And the CADBURY EGGS. ;)

[lubedpumpkin.livejournal.com]

Oh god, the cadbury eggs..... now they make the snickers and the caramel ones.. OHH man..


I"m still partial to the original :)

[annathepiper]

The original Cadbury eggs remain my favorites, but the ones with the chocolate centers... *swoon* Almost as dangerous.

[cafiorello.livejournal.com]

Congratulations and keep up the good work!
Cathy

[annathepiper]

Thank you! I've already started to get happy side effects even aside from the actual weight loss; I have felt very good and much less prone to feeling spazzy without all that extra caffeine in my system. :)

Now if I can make it past Valentine Day season (all those cursed evil tasty boxes of candy hearts) and especially Eastern (Cadbury Eggs = small accursed bombs of chocolate and creme-filled calorie goodness), I'll feel really accomplished!

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Yay Anna!

[annathepiper]

Thanks! I was looking at BMI charts a little while ago and noted that apparently I want to get myself down below 145 for optimum range of where I need to be. Which is about in line for what I was shooting for anyway, so that's all good!