On the Scales:
- Starting Weight: 67.0kg.
- Current Weight: 60.3kg
- Loss: 6.7kg, or 10% of my starting weight.
NSVs (Non-Scale Victories)
- BMI (not perfect, but a decent enough indicator for me): Previously: 24.9. Wear a cardigan, and I'd be "overweight." Now: 22.4 - just shy of the halfway point in the normal range.
- Currently wearing my GOAL JEANS! My what? MY GOAL JEANS!!
- Everyone is noticing that I'm looking trimmer, even my old Dad.
- Can now sustain weight loss without logging food every day: have a bit of an instinct for what I will and won't eat in order to keep losing.
- Am much fitter and can wear workout clothes without laughing at self.
- Took a ridiculous picture of self in goal jeans. Laughed at self then.
What's worked for me?
(1) I always ate "fairly healthy," but it wasn't until I started counting calories on My Fitness Pal that I had any success at all. After all, what's a diet without a treat? And how big is a treat? And how many treats? I never knew the answers to these questions until I had a set number of calories to eat each day, and wrote down every single thing I actually ate. The answers to the above questions weren't what I'd previously thought.
Along with counting calories, I have spent time focussing on carbs/proteins/fats, saturated fat content, sugar content, and sodium content. All these things are quite important, and you'd go mad trying to track it all without My Fitness Pal.
Those six weeks of hard-line rules late last year were great, and I've mostly kept them up and included some more, like no rice crackers, ever! Ever, ever, ever! I'll tell you why one day. Evil things.
(2) I always stayed "fairly active," but it wasn't until I started "working out" that I had any success either. I had previously read research indicating that pure cardio was the way to go if you want to burn fat, but the reality is that strength training is pretty effective especially when it's coupled with cardio. It was all more effective when my exercise routine was mixed up so my body didn't get used to my workout routine and go into a plateau.
So I completed Jillian Michaels' 23-day Shred program ... I beg your pardon ... I nearly completed Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred program in the comfort of my living room with the aid of a set of dumbbells and my three small children. I saw results, oh boy did I see them! And although I should have been measuring results with a tape measure as well, I mainly saw them in my ability to go from being able to do zero pushups to 15 in a row, and to crunch my abs until Jillian said to stop, and to star-jump and jump-rope and butt-kick until I lost continence. This last is not a joke. I didn't let it stop me - I bought a pack of maternity pads and kept going.
Going to the pool lost its appeal when the big pool was shut down for winter, so I did as much walking while pushing the pram/stroller as I could. To and from school is ideal (Hills! Resistance training!) when the weather is nice, so I've been trying to do that whenever I can. It's funny when you are sad when the kids hop out and walk, or when you're pushing a nice easy pram ... simply because you know you're burning fewer calories!
What now?
The picture above doesn't show it, but I haven't lost much weight from my tummy. I have a little bit left to lose if I'm going to get rid of this fat over my internal organs (doctors don't mind all that much if your fat is on your thighs, but they don't like seeing it closer to your heart and other organs.) The weather will get warmer and I'll be back out there walking to and from school whenever I can, and the pool will re-open and I'll start carving up the water again. I will buy new clothes and lo, there will be less fabric in them. I will look nicer in my clothes too, so perhaps I should decide to care just a little bit about how I look.
I'm going to learn how to get my scales to tell me [their opinion of] my body fat percentage (again, imperfect, but decent enough as an indicator) and I'll let that be a rough guide to how much more to lose, as well as how my body feels. I can feel many inches of fat over the top of my recently-toned muscle right now, and I plan to keep some of it but lose some of it too. Not all of it is necessary.
Hey - wanna check out My Fitness Pal? I am eternally grateful to Emily Sue for sending me in that direction! I recently asked a friend's husband who has lost 25kg on MFP how awesome is My Fitness Pal?
His answer: "Really awesome. Actually ... A Hundred-Awesome."
He's right!
