Hi MTM Land’ers,

I have just become a new premium member and am greatly enjoying MTM, the podcasts, the SMSM program and of course, this community.

I started my journey earlier this year and have now lost 70 lbs with my ultimate goal losing a total of 100 lbs. On average, I am losing between 1-2 lbs per week while keeping a food diary, not deprivig myself of anything (within reason of course) and plenty of exercise. I hope to achieve this goal by late winter, but won’t sweat it (no pun intended) if I don’t

Looking forward to interacting with all of you to share experiences, successes and challenges.

Regards,
loselbs (aka Dave)

Hi Dave, welcome to the forum!

And CONGRATULATIONS on the 70 pounds!!!  That is so great.

I have never been able to keep a food diary for more than a couple of days.  How do you do it?  And what do you do for exercise?

Once again welcome and congratulations.

Hi mb94558,

Thanks for the welcoming words. Actually, keeping the food diary wasn’t too difficult because I was using software to help me track it. It’s called CalorieKing Nutrition & Exercise Manager. It’s helpful in that you can keep a record of what you eat in a day, then copy it to another day automatically should you eat pretty consistently. My breakfast and lunch is usually the same so it saved me a lot of work. Additionally, it has a food database of 50,000 foods (basic ingredients along with tons of restaurant and fast food nutritional info too!). You can even add your own recipes along with keeping track of your exercises.

The software is great however I am not a fan of their website (MTM all the way for me) so I don’t use any advanced features. To me, keeping track of my food intake greatly enhanced my ability to control portion sizes along with better food choices. I would suggest that this is a vital component of long term weight loss and management, othewise it’s too easy to fall back into a trap. I will gradually reduce my use of it over time however it only takes me a few minutes to update a day’ worth of eating.

For exercise, cycling is by far my favourite (and I did a 50K race this summer) and I usually do a solid 45-50 minutes about 6 days a week. However, with the cold weather arriving here in Ontario, Canada, I have reverted back to my treamill and do a solid 60+ minutes of LSB with interval jogging in between.

The combination of portion controls with 6 days worth of exercise every week has enabled me to consistently lose 1-2 pounds a week. And I am still dropping. I hope to achieve below 200 bs by December 1st and hope to get to 175 lbs sometime in early 2008.

Scott has been fantastic with his inspiration and entertaining ways and even though I have just become a Premium Member, I decided to start the SMSM program to help me lose my last 30 lbs. There is tons of useful information contained there and it’s been a great help so far.

Regards.

Hi Dave,

I have heard of Calorie King, it is the book I used.  I have glanced at the website in the past but now will take a closer look.  I eat very much the same thing for breakfast and lunch too (and sometime have a lunch meal for dinner).

Do you have a trainer for your bicycle?  I think that is what it called-a liftup stand to ride the cycle as a stationary indoors. Paula here on the forum has one and so does my brother (he is up in Saskatoon).

Dave, you really are an inspiration.  You have kept it up all year and been consistent with it.  If your “below 200” is about 5 pound (which I think it it by what you wrote), I think you can certainly achieve it.

Enjoy the SMSM and all the Premium info and have a great week.

Hi again mb94558,

No, Idon’t have a lift stand for my bicycle, I will just join a neighborhood fitness club over the winter and use their stationary cycles and elliptical trainers. That will give me plenty of good and intense workouts

Yes, I meant below 200 LBS (typo on my part) and I also think it’s achievable.

Have a great week as well and thanks for the good words.

Hi Dave,

I had to go back to your original post to see what you meant.  I did not even notice it when I read it-my brain must have just put the missing “l” in.

Hi Dave,

Welcome to the forum, and congrats for becoming a Premium Member! Im keeping my fingers crossed that Santa hears my pleas, I so want to be a member too.  Your 70 LBS weight loss is awesome, and you should be very proud of yourself!! You have wonderful goals, and I cant wait to read more of your threads.

I wrote down that Calorieking information and cant wait to check it out for myself, thanks for sharing!! 

Hi Dave! Welcome to MTM! Congrats on losing 70Lbs!! That is so awesome. And also it was great to hear your story on last weeks MTM show. You are a huge inspiration to so many of us here. Thanks for your letter. I look forward to reading more about you. Are you going to join the 100 Day Challenge?

Hi Emmi,

Thanks for the kind words of welcome.

I’m not sure whether I will do the 100 day exercise challenge, primarily because I’ve been exercising quite a bit since I started my new life, however I will fully concede that I don’t know much about it.

I know I am doing the SMSM program to help me lose my last 30 lbs so maybe it will be good to join. I am going to post to the “Journey of your Journey” forum for my last 30 lbs to get additional perspectives from everyone and to help offer my own experiences should people ask

Regards,
Dave

I will look for your thread there. I’m sure people will have many questions for you.

Welcome Dave! And congrats on all your success thus far, and for your letter being featured on the show! I had just finished listening when I read your thread. Very cool.

Bree

Thanks Bree. It’s great to be part of the MTM community.