Hi Liz,
I lift weights consistantly and I do cardio 5-6 days a week. It has taken me well over two years to go from 193 lbs to my current 143.
Here are some questions I answered on my 100 days of exercise challenge thread:
What were some of the challenges in the early days?
Actually, I went about most of my early days relatively easily. When I weighed 193, it didn’t occur to me that I could control my weight. I didn’t know how to do it. I didn’t really know how all my calories added up over the day. So it was a very intellectual process for me...I just limited myself to the amount of calories that allowed me to lose 1 lbs a week (my resting metabolic rate plus my exercise cals minus 500 cals). Logging all my food was an incredibly eye opening experience for me.
Did you ever have times when it was difficult to stay motivated?
I can’t even count the number of times I had difficulty staying motivated! My motivation ebbs and flows like the tides. Some days (today is one) I feel great, happy that I am doing this for myself and content to allow myself to remain a bit on the hungry side. Other days (like Wednesday) I spend all day feeling starved, and I am tired and just want to skip my workout and go home. But there have been two real tricks to keeping myself on track:
1. every time I fall off the wagon, I pick myself back up and jump back on. It is imperative that you do this. It doesn’t matter how far you’ve gone off track, getting back on track now is still better than waiting to get back on track. And waiting is still better than not getting back on track at all.
2. when I don’t want to exercise, I make myself go. I tell myself, “if you really hate it after 10 or 20 minutes, you can leave.” Well, I’ve only actually left really early a few times. Usually once I get to the gym I am fine. And I force myself to go by concentrating on the fact that working out will make me feel better. I am an exercise addict to the core. I love the way it makes me feel. I crave the boost it gives me. So when forcing myself seems impossible, I concentrate on the feelings I’ll get afterwards and the fact that if I’m really miserable once I get there, I can leave.
What has worked best to keep you going forward?
This one is really tough. I feel like the things that keep me moving forward vary. Some days I am motivated by my victories. I celebrate every .2 lbs I see drop on the scale. I’ve bought myself new clothes along the way to celebrate, and right now I’m working towards a digital camera for myself. I’ve made a list of all the reasons why I want to lose weight, and how it will change my life. I have it where I can see it every morning. I don’t always read it, but it is always there. (I know I probably should read it). Right now my body is fighting me for every ounce, and my motivation is that I really want to test my limits and be able to celebrate an acheivement.
What do you love most about exercise?
There are two main reasons I exercise. One of which I just mentioned before, which is that exercise makes me feel happier. For instance, on Wednesday I told you that I wasn’t motivated to workout. I felt really tired and I just wanted to go home and be a couch potato. But I forced myself to go to the gym, I did my rountine, and when I left, I felt much better. My headache was gone, I felt much more energized, and I slept like a baby.
The second reason is that strength training is pain prevention for me. This is what keeps me going back when I’ve gotten off track for more than a few days. My knees greatly benefit from the strenthening of my quads, hips, hamstrings and calves. My back greatly benefits from the strengthening of my back muscles and abs. When I haven’t worked out for 4 days or more, I start to feel pain in these areas. That motivates me to return right away!
What other factors have helped you lose such an impressive amount of weight?
I think that having a supportive relationship helped me a lot in the beginning. I had pretty low self esteem and he just adored me and made me feel great about myself. Having that relationship helped me to believe that I could do this and believe in myself.
Having access to the internet, and being able to look up the nutrition contents of foods, looking up recipes online. Most of the recipes I make regularly came from an online forum of dieters. Having the food diary of course helped too, as I mentioned before.
Reading other people’s success stories. This is a great pleasure of mine, and especially at the beginning it helped me to believe that I could be successful. That is always my favorite part when I read Shape or Fitness Magazine.
Let me know if you have any other questions! My daily routines are posted on my 100 day exercise challenge.
Take care and good luck transforming yourself.
