I've been toying around with exercising and dieting for several months now, but I started taking it REALLY seriously around the beginning of June. In about 5 weeks, I lost 16.5 pounds! YAY me!!!
I'm really proud of losing that weight, but I still have more to go...........
Let me start at the beginning...........I'm getting ahead of myself.
I have always been a fairly skinny person. I'm 5'4" and although I always thought I could use some toning, I never considered myself overweight. After having 4 kids, I felt lucky that I never had to watch what I ate. I had never dieted in my life.
That all changed when I turned 40. In the last 7 years, I have gained around 5 pounds or less each year. That doesn't sound like much, but in total I have put on an extra 30+ pounds...........and that is a lot for my 5'4" frame.
I knew this cruise was coming up, and I constantly talked about losing some weight. Then I got tired of talking about it and I made some attempts at exercising and watching what I ate. I wasn't serious about it, and I got nowhere. I could lose a few pounds, but it came back as soon as I stopped exercising and/or started eating junk food and fast food again.
Last winter, I bought myself a WII FIT Plus, and I started to play around with it.
I really like this!! The board is a scale, so I can weigh myself everyday if I want to - I love that feature! It also helps with balance, and mine has improved 100% in the last 6 months........
Check this out:
Last winter, my balance was significantly leaning to the left. My WII Fit has really helped my balance and posture.
I also love the yoga. I have never done yoga in my life, and I never ever thought I would. I will admit that I can do the first 5 yoga poses on my WII and actually enjoy doing them in the morning. It's refreshing! I only stick to the simple standing poses, and the deep breathing stuff - no downward dog for me!
As for the "games", I have gotten better and better at them, and it doesn't feel like working out at all.
I can't say enough good things about my WII Fit! For me, it was well worth the $100.00 I paid for it.
When I first got my WII, I weighed in the mid 150's...........fluctuating by a few pounds up and down.
This was way more than I wanted to weigh, and I hit an all time high on April 1 when I weighed in
at 161.4 (oops!!)
I didn't do anything about my weight in April or in May, but when June came around I felt like it was time to deal with this once and for all.
In early June I started the Atkins diet, and I also started exercising........a lot. That's how I lost the 16 pounds. Right now I'm weighing in at 144........and I'm happy with my progress so far.
My WII Fit tells me I should get down to 129, so I still have 15 pounds to go.
As for my diet, I had no idea which one to choose...........they all sound like torture to me. I'm not sure why I picked the Atkins diet, but it has worked for me so far.
All the info I needed is on their website for free.......menu's, meal plans, recipes.........
www.atkins.com
For exercising, I have tried different things.
It's too hot to walk outside, unless I get out there before 7 in the morning, and I'm not willing to get up that early to walk. I did walk in the mid morning in early June, before it got hot. I would do 2-4 miles - fastwalking, but not jogging.
Recently, my daughter gave me her GAZELLE to use
I have to admit, I really love this thing! I can do it in front of my TV in the mornings, and it's easy on my knees and feet. It really gets my heart going, and the cardio is what is helping me lose my weight. I do 3-5 miles a day on my Gazelle, depending on how I feel that day. It totally takes the place of my fast-walking.
My daughter also gave me an Ab Lounger to use. She recently moved into a smaller house and she doesn't have room for these big things, so I'm "keeping" them for her. That deal worked out really well for me!
This is the Ab Lounger:
It's great for helping with crunches, and now I can do 100 crunches a day - soon to increase to 200 a day.
I don't think my stomach will be flat in 8 weeks, but it's better now than it was last month at this time.
Really, I'll take any improvement over the 161 pounds I was in April.
One thing I noticed is that the skin on my belly and my inner thighs is feeling a little loose. To make a long story short, I googled this and found that with my age, my skin's elasticity is not what it used to be. Also, I'm a smoker and that isn't good for my skin or anything else. It will take my skin a little longer to catch up with my weight loss. It's not noticeable at this point, and I don't care if it is. I'll take some baggy skin over fat anytime.
There is another reason my skin is taking longer to catch up with my weight loss, I found out it's not good to lose weight as fast as I did. I'm only supposed to lose 2 pounds a week :(
How in the heck am I supposed to only lose 2 pounds a week? It either comes off or it doesn't. I have no idea how to limit my weight loss to 2 pounds.
But I'll try.......
I have backed off on all of the exercising I was doing, I was doing about an hour and a half in the mornings and about an hour at night.
I'll continue with the crunches, and I'll do less miles on the Gazelle.
I also think I'll switch to counting calories instead of the Atkins diet. I like the Atkins diet, but I need carbs in my life!
So we'll see how it goes for a month, and hopefully I can keep this weight loss thing going, only at a healthy pace. Losing 15 pounds is definitely do-able in 7 and a half weeks. I'll work on losing half of that by August 1, and I'll come back and update on how it's going.
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