lose 25 pounds

I lost 10 pounds in 2005. Let’s see if I can lose 10 more in 2006! :)

I’m proud to say that I’ve lost about 12.5 pounds since the beginning of July. I’ve been sick and recovering from illness, so I haven’t lost much lately, but am going to start exercising again to try to stay at the same weight and hopefully lost a little more.

Now that I finally started to exercise and watch what I eat more seriously, I’ve started to lose weight at the rate of 2 pounds a week. I’ve been using a program called http://www.ishape.com">iShape to help track what I eat and to help set up an exercise regimen. It’s especially helpful in guiding me in terms of what to do for strength conditioning.

I have a little more muscle tone and am feeling much better. Sometimes I creep back up a pound or two but overall my weight seems to be going down little by little.

The biggest challenges I seem to face are eating out and going on vacation. That’s when I hold steady or my weight creeps back up.

I had stopped exercising and now am starting up again. I joined a new gym which has awesome kickboxing and cardio kickboxing classes and I’m starting to go back to kung fu class. I also tried out a pilates class today. I don’t have a set routine yet although I seem to be piling all my exercise up on Tuesday and Thursday, but I’m trying to do something every day.

Also, one of my instructors has given me homework to do 10 pushups and 10 situps every morning, which I’m trying to do but sometimes forget about. She says in July she’ll order me to do 20 of each in the mornings….

I actually gained a few pounds since I was traveling and eating very rich food. Hopefully, the exercise will help me to lose the weight. I’ve also stocked up on strawberries and cherries so I have some healthy snacks at home.

I’ve just changed my goal from losing 45 pounds to 25 pounds. I had my first physical exam in a decade and the doctor said that it would be good for me to lose 20 pounds. Obviously, I want to lose more, but the smaller number seems more manageable although I know I want to lose more than 20, and it may be better to focus on getting to a healthy weight and then figure out what the ideal weight is.

Some slight progress. Magically, my weight dropped down 3 pounds to my normal weight, so I suppose some of the weight I saw was the excesses of eating well during vacation. I’ve set a few guidelines for me to stop losing weight:

1. Reduce portions – I tend to overeat so I’m taking smaller portions and eating until I’m half full and then waiting to see if I need more. That worked very nicely last night when I discovered that I only needed half the rice I normally eat to fill me up.

2. Give up soda – I might allow myself to drink it once a month but that’s all.

3. Drink more water and tea. I love chilled hibiscus tea, so hopefully that will be my soda substitute for when I don’t want to drink plain water.

4. Eat breakfast so I do not binge later in the day.

I looked at the scale and my heart sank because I now weigh the heaviest I ever have in my life – even after completing a half marathon. So, I’ve decided that I’m going to try to get back to my ideal weight.

I think I’ll start by cutting back on portions and exercising more. I’ve been eating more because I’ve been exercising more but then lately, I’ve been slacking off on the exercise….