Enough

I hear ya!

I've lost about 120 lbs overall, but that's nothing compared to what I've lost in TOTAL since I'd often gain that same silly 10-15 lbs back ...

good luck!

Jennifer I am right there with you, except just a few lbs more. My body really likes to sit at 150 +/- 1-2lbs. I really want my body to like being 135. I can't seem to find the self discipline or whatever to get there. It seems like I am willing to 'settle' at least subconsciously, for being the size I am at the age I am (48.5) - even tho' I hate how I look. It would almost be easier somehow if I weighed much more. I am not sure what is going to be the kick in the pants I need, but I'm willing to put myself out here with you and see what we can do!

Willing to take suggestions, etc.

Current weight 4/7/10: 151
Goal weight: 135-140

Cool! We'll have our own little ENOUGH thread going. So I put my bodybugg back on today, and have been logging food. It's the best way for me to remember not to reach my hand in the easter candy, etc.

AND, I weighed myself this morning, so my real starting weight is 152.5

WE CAN DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!

Enough is enough is enough is enough. I'm there too. I am down 50lbs since I started tri a few years ago, but I am soooo stuck at 150. I am totally hot and happy at 140. I have given up dieting. I just eat as clean as I can and work my training plan. I have an iron in 3 weeks. You'd think with all the training I have done that I would be a skinny minny. Not so. My body is only 3 pounds lighter than when I started.

Does that mean that I need to do 3-4 more irons to get my weight off?

You are all very inspiring!  Keep up the good work!

Hey gcirongirl-

I hear ya there.  I think my biggest thing is how much I eat cancels out the amount of activity I am doing.  I was just telling my girlfriend last week that I feel like I have a worm sometimes .  One night last week I actually had to get up and eat at 3 am because I was SO hungry.  I'm hoping my body adjusts to the increased volume of training and my hunger goes down.  This is where I think I just need to be more disciplined and realize it's ok to be a little hungry.  As long as I am eating enough to not jeopardize my training, then it's ok. 

Today was a pretty good day.  It was a rest day training wise for me and I ate pretty well, so I feel good about it.

Every day we have the choice to how healthy we are going to be!  I'm going to make good choices tomorrow.

Today I did these things right:

logged my food
put on my bodybugg
drank water
had a great lunch
avoided all easter candy
lifted off shelves, loaded into cart, pushed thru Lowes, loaded into car - about 600lbs of tile, grout and quickset
ate carrots when I felt like snacking
bought healthy stuff at grocery store

things not so right:
dinner is going to be eaten too late (close to 10pm)
dinner will have most calories of the day
did not get a workout in, other than the stuff at Lowes
ate the samples at the grocery store (not much, but still...)

Hi guys! I'm in the same shoes - when I did triathlons a few years back I was a happy healthy 135 ... then life got in the way, and now I'm an unhappy 155 and cannot lose weight no matter what I try. I eat clean, I work out daily, but I can't lose the body fat! It's frustrating!
I know I'll never get to 135 again soon - as I'm doing more strength training than cardio ... but my goal is to fit back into my clothes again! Right now I'm cycling thru 2 pairs of "fat" pants and 1 skirt, and my entire closet is mocking me.

Hi Bodhi girl-

Thanks for joining us.  It's great that you are strength training.  I believe (I'm probably in the minority on this forum) that it plays a BIG role in losing weight.  Because your body can so easily adapt to cardio and begins to get more efficient and burn less calories.  Strength training is a great way to mix things up.  I'm trying to make sure I lift at least twice a week while I train for the HIM.

Weight training is critical for weight loss especially for endurance athletes. After about an hour of endurance work, the body tends to metabolize muscle and spare fat. It is very common for individuals who already are prone to fat gain to lose a lot of muscle during endurance training. Unfortunately muscle is what is burning the fat, so if we lose it, we have more of a tendency to gain fat. Yikes! That's me!!!

I gained a lot of fat with my last ironman. So, I did some research and found a couple of tips. I haven't lost as much fat as I would have liked this time, but at least I haven't gained any this time. They key here is lots of high interval work and weight training. The suggestion is to do 45-60 minutes of zone 4 intervals 5 days a week with only one day of zone 2-3 intensity endurance work a week. I was also told to do good heavy weight lifting 2-3 days a week.

I was doing really well losing the fat with this until my Iron training plan turned to really long distances. I had to give up most of the interval work or risk it all killing me. Gratefully, my iron is in a couple of weeks. Then I can get back to the intervals and hopefully drop the rest of this weight.

My fat loss training schedule looks like this:

M - Run intervals on the track & upper body weight training
T - Bike intervals on the trainer & swim speedwork
W - Run fartlek on the road & lower body weight training
Th - Bike hills & swim strengthwork
F - Run hills & total body weight training
S - Bike distance
S - Rest and usually a nice walk with hubby

Combine this with really clean eating and the fat comes off. I have 4 more weeks and then I can get back to this. Yeah!!!

Sounds similar to what I'm doing - except that I'm only running as cardio. I'm actually training for a physical endurance and strength test I'm hoping to take in a few months (entrance exam to be a police officer). A typical week for me looks like this:

Mon - 20-30 min run, plyometrics & upper body strenth
Tues - 20-30 min run, lower body & core
Wed - interval run and speed work, usually 30 min
Thurs - 5 min on the bike just to warm up, total body strength, plyo's if I'm feeling good
Fri - long slow run, usually 60 min
Sat/Sun - off

I mix up my strength training from week to week - how much weight v.s. reps, work to failure, pyramids, etc, plus just different movement/muscle groups ... I increase my running by 1 every week (I bump it up a notch on the tread every Monday) ...

I think I know what I'm doing and I am gaining a lot of strength - yet - can't seem to get past this plateau! I lost 10 pounds to get to 155 ... and I honestly don't care what the numbers on the scale say, I just want to fit back into my clothes! My eating is as clean as it can possibly be, with the exception of my weekly bottle of wine on the weekends (which I am not giving up, thank you very much;-).

It's frustrating. If anyone has any suggestions I'd greatly appreciate them.

I truly believe that if you are eating a clean diet (this is the MOST important part) and exercising the way you have to in order to train for a Tri and you still can't lose that extra 10 - 15 lbs, than your body is at it's healthy weight.  The hardest thing to remember is that muscle is more dense than fat...with the workouts we put in, some of us will NEVER hit that high school weight/body again.  I was a size 2 in High School, but couldn't run 6 feet much less 6 miles!  I believe you are putting more stress on your body by worrying about the numbers than focusing on how great you feel!  

If you truly feel that you still need to loose a little bit, than try this.  Go out and buy an awesome pair of jeans, shorts or a dress that you absolutely love in a size smaller than what you currently are.  Then go home and hide your scales.  Every couple of weeks, try on the new outfit.  you won't constantly be stressing over a number and I guarantee you see results a lot quicker! 

I've been fighting that "last ten" myself for the past year and the scale is finally ticking down again.  What's doing it for me?

1.  Virtually eliminating processed foods, nothing with HFCS, and no chemical sweeteners - and NO FAST FOOD ever.
2.  Front-loading my calories at the start of the day
3.  Training for my first tri - Oly in June

I usually eat about 5 times per day.  Here's a typical menu:

Pre-AM workout:  One medium banana, water
Breakfast:  Either 1/2C oatmeal with 1/2C 1% milk and 1/2C water, 1/4C raisins, 2T walnuts OR 1C Kashi go-lean with 1C berries and 3/4C 1% milk, sometimes 1C OJ
Mid-Morning snack:  1C voskos lowfat greek yogurt with 1 med papaya or 1C berries
Lunch:  Either salad with veggies and leftover meat from dinner night before (4 oz appx) OR turkey sandwich on whole wheat, slice pepper jack cheese, mustard, tomato, lettuce and 1/2 avocado
PM Snack: Medium apple with 2T peanut butter
Dinner:  Grilled fish, chicken, steak, or venison with salad and veggie, sometimes a slice of whole grain bread, or a pasta dish.

If I want a "goody" I'll have a clif bar or something like it.

I've been training in the early am 6 days a week for the past four weeks, with bricks 2x per week, plus weightlifting on my lunch hour.  I've consistently lost 1 lb each week after the scale not moving for several months.  I think the extra cardio and swimming is really paying off.

Last Sunday when I weighed myself I was at 150.8 (I weigh myself only once a week, first thing Sunday morning).  My goal is to get to 145 by race day - June 13.

I'll be checking back to see what everyone's up to here!!

Aloha,
Dianna

Sounds like a good menu. Here's a typical day for me:

6 am/pre-workout: 1/2 banana, 1 cup protein shake
8 am/post-workout: pancakes (the other 1/2 banana, 2 egg-whites, 1/3 cup quick cook oats, 1 tbsp ground flax)
11: 2-ish cups salad greens and raw veggies w/ 4 oz of some kind of protein (usually leftover chicken or fish from the night before)
2-3-ish: 1 cup yogourt w/ 1 cup mixed berries, protein powder if I'm feeling I need it (not always)
5-7-ish: supper - usually 4-6 oz of some kind of meat, with appx 2 cups steamed veggies
8-ish: 1 cup almond milk, chocolate, warmed up in the microwave so it's a "treat"

I feel good on this plan, when I'm on this plan consistently - I rarely feel like I want to splurge or eat improperly ... I think I've found a good balance for myself. What I need to do is STICK WITH IT - not have one really good week, then totally go off-plan the next week when life gets stressful. For me - it's emotional eating.
I'm currently going thru a major move and career-change, and, well, I'm stressed. I let that get to me sometimes and eat an entire bag of chips for supper!

I am totally an emotional eater and it's making me crazy, because my life has lots of built in stress this year - and I need a better strategy. I do really well, then something tips the scale and I have a day like yesterday.

Woke up at 5am to get house ready for Open House (we've been trying to sell for almost a year). Wake up DH and DS and go run 5K race. At a Clif bar on the way. After race, ate a chick-fil-a biscuit!!! that was the finish line food. Also ate some stale popcorn that some kid was handing out. THEN went home, showered fast to get out of the house, and we went to Texas bbq place for DH's birthday. Where I ate fried okra and bbq ribs. a LOT of that. I was stuffed.

So far, not great but maybe I could make it work for the rest of the day. NOPE.

We went to Costco. I ate EVERY SINGLE SAMPLE they had there, probably 400 calories. Not even stuff I like or wanted, and I was already stuffed. What's up with that?

THEN we got home, had to do some home repair stuff, took a little nap and before you know it, it was 10pm and DH and I had yet to eat dinner. Nothing is open at 10pm, and we didn't want to cook or have to clean the kitchen again. So we ate Kentucky Fried Chicken (chicken breast and double mashed potatoes)! AND for no good reason I ate the biscuit, too. I usually throw it away.

Now today I hope to recover from that crappy eating day - will report more good food news here tomorrow!

It is my ultimate frustrating thing that I know exactly what to do, but can't do it.

Edited by annabananamc 2010-04-11 7:09 AM

Happy Sunday all-

I didn't have the greatest weekend eating wise, but Monday is always a new day.  I travel two days this week so I'm really going to focus on making healthy choices while on the road.

The good news is, my husband has decided he wants to lose 20 pounds.  I'm really proud of him for finally committing and it will be SO much easier for me to lose my weight if he is on board.  I've always struggled trying to lose weight when he's not into it because he just complains about the healthy food I cook

Hope everyone had a great weekend and it's a brand new week!

Edited by misscullen 2010-04-11 5:58 PM

Accountability is one of the best ways to reach our goals.  So yes, let's check up on each other.  I am going to start logging my workouts and nutrition into my log every day and force myself to be 100% honest.

And, I'll post my weight on here on a weekly basis.

Deal??

I think maybe we need a keyword or something, that we can say/scream/email when we are about to make those bad choices. Like in a race, when I start to slack off, I might say to myself "this is a RACE idiot!", or in an open water swim I say "just keep swimming". And sometimes in training, HTFU or Suck It Up, Buttercup.

So help me think of a good one when I am tired, the students have been beasts, I leave work an hour late, and my son is whiny and the Chick-fil-a drive through is singing it's sweet siren song......those are my most trying moments.

I'll need a completely different one for those times when I feel pitiful and like I DESERVE to be able to eat like those folks who can down 2500 calories a day. Even when I am working out, I still need to stick to about 1700-1900 just to break even. I have no metabolism now that menopause is here. So I need the stop whining and accept who you are mantra for those times.

Today was a so-so day, definitely better than yesterday. I had 2 eggs for breakfast, then ate an apple and about 10 mini pretzels mid day. Rode my bike for an hour in HR Z3, and 15 minutes cruising, with just water and 30cal sports drink. I had a fairly large late lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, but it was reasonably healthy: Black Hound sandwich = black beans, yellow rice, lettuce, a little cheese and salsa and some grilled onions, bag of kettle chips (I know, but it was ON THE PLATE) and a couple tbsp of their ginger spicy coleslaw. Since then I've eaten one of those micro mini 3 musketeers that the real estate lady left.

On tap for dinner is grilled chicken, romaine, tomato and avocado salad with light dressing, and of course, my daily glass of chardonnay (my medicine)

Tomorrow is back to school after spring break. I am dreading it. I am so not ready to work.

And you???

Starting tomorrow, I too am logging every day - my eating and my workouts. I'm so glad I found you guys - I don't have much accountability in my life to anyone but my dog, really, so this'll be good for me.

Monday is a new day!

I'll admit, my Sunday diet-wise wasn't the greatest.  This seems to be the hardest day of the week for me.  My husband and I like to get up and make breakfast so we had omlet (egg beaters), turkey sausage and strawberries.  That would have been fine, but he made hasbrowns as well and I'm a sucker for anything potato related.

Biked (moderate intensity) for 90 minutes and had a banana and muscle milk when finished with that and then he made pasta for dinner.  Not great. 

I bet it is hard to go back to work after spring break.  But the routine will probably be good.  I'm just glad that I am only traveling two days this week, but then we are moving on Thursday so it will be kind of a stressful week.  Just need to keep my eating in check through it.