lenguatron

I’m 30 lbs down from where I started on January 1st of this year. I’m now hanging steady at 156 lbs, and looking and feeling considerably better. Hooray!

It’s hard work, but anyone can do it. Maintaining is not as hard as losing, but does take a minimal level of discipline.

Sparkpeople.com has been a tremendous help. The best thing about this site is the nutrition tracker; it does all the hard work for you when it comes to counting calories, fat, carbs, sodium, etc. A close second is the community—the people of Spark People are wonderful, and all sharing in the same struggle and goal.

Best wishes to everyone with this goal. My advice: Do it the healthy way. Treat your body well, and your body will more than return the favor.

You know you want to get there, but when you find out how good it feels, you’ll know you want to do what it takes to stay there!

Cheers,

Mary

Well, it hasn’t been a completely smooth road, but I am headed in the right direction. I’m down to 169 lbs from 185 lbs, and have lost about an inch all over.

I’ve been carefully tracking my calories in/out, counting food/beverage items and exercise. Initially, I was doing this on my own with a Google spreadsheet, but then I got turned on to www.sparkpeople.com, which is so much easier to use. They offer their services completely free of charge, too, so I highly recommend it.

My program has evolved to the following. This is what I can live with, so far:

Cardio 30-45 minutes, 4-5 days/week

Weights 30 minutes, 2 days/week

Diet: 1450-1800 calories/day, with an emphasis on healthy choices; whole grains, vegetables, fruit, lean meats, lean dairy, beans… as little processed food as possible. No soda (I wasn’t a big fan anyway.)

Water: 64 ounces or more daily

I’ve had some real “over” days on calories, but I’ve managed to compensate with exercise for the most part. I’m getting there.

This month I’m re-motivating myself with new exercise DVD’s. I’ll chime in again when I have tried them out.

started off the payback plan…