Finally fit

I’ve been absent for far too long, and there is evidence on the scale to show it.

My kids’ school year, work and life in general kind of ate my fitness life there for a while. Not exercising had a couple of bad effects: less energy, slower metabolism and the inability to eat as many calories as I wanted to eat without gaining weight. Duh! (I also moved from special “treats” about once a week to daily, or more. Not good)

These past couple months have been good for a couple things though. They made me understand just how little I could eat if I wasn’t going to exercise and didn’t want to gain weight. It’s a scary low number: 1,650 calories roughly. Ouch!

The news is not tragic. Over about five months, I put back on almost 10 pounds — about half of that was pretty recently. I did maintain my 60+ pound weight loss for about three months. But it’s fine. I know exactly what it takes to fix this.

So here I am again, returning to my Tumblr inspirations that helped me through my weight loss last year. All my new clothes still fit. It’s going to be spring soon in the northland and we just bought a new elliptical for home use and to supplement jogging and body weight workouts — all of which I had pretty much dropped over the busy winter.

I feel odd even listing this again, but SW: 204.6. LW: 143.8 CW: 152.6

Oh, and I have a new GW: 140. My hope would be for my new healthy range to be 140-145, not 150, which is where I’ve been hovering (or over) lately.

Lets do this!

Well, after 57 pounds lost, I guess I had to start shopping for clothes sometime… like, when the season changes in Minnesota and you have no clothes at all.

I’m definitely still adjusting to being a comfortable size 8. Read: not adjusting at all. I actually had to try on whole batches of new sizes repeatedly because I kept thinking I needed 10s. (My old size was 14-16)

The damage. Spent about $600 (although after looking at things again at home, I’ll probably return about $90 of stuff)

I bought and am keeping, count ‘em, three pairs of skinny cut pants: dark olive (Kenneth Cole), black twill (some cheapie brand), black corduroy (Michael Kors). I got two other pairs I’m returning. (I didn’t need five pairs, and my daughters helped me pick.) The ones I’m keeping are cute. I never thought I could wear that cut, but they are great. The 8s aren’t tight at all, very comfortable.

I bought two pairs of knee-high boots… kind of unrelated to the weight loss, but actually I have gone down a full shoe size. Who knew? I had fat feet.

Then I got two new jackets. I found a great deal on a beautiful Columbia ski jacket with liner — size M. (My previous jacket? XL)

I also got one great sweater and a Merrill wind-breaker shell jacket, also a medium.

That covers most of what I need for the start of fall/winter weather. I still need a couple more tops/sweaters, but no rush on those.

So, so fun to fit into everything I tried on (or even to go smaller.)

SW: 204.6 » CW: 147

144.8

Only .2 pounds away from 60 pounds lost.

Um, wow?

Plus I’m about to embark on the wearing of all my new clothes to replace all the clothes that don’t fit.

SW: 204.6 » CW: 144.8

in-skin:

i cannot, for the life of me, take you seriously if you post those miley cyrus walking photos as fitspo…

It’s past the time for my monthly recap, so here goes:

I’ve been watching what I eat and exercising for a little over eight months.

I have lost 58.6 pounds, more than 28% of my body weight.

Looking back, the third, fourth and fifth months of weight loss were actually the slowest and hardest.

September was exceptional: I lost 8.6 pounds that month (the highest weight loss after my first month.)

Here’s how it went: 

February: 15.8 pounds (I did Atkins induction for three weeks. no it’s not healthy. i don’t regret it. It was very important for me to see some quick results)

March: 7.0 pounds (During this month I moved to a lower-carb, higher protein diet)

April: 4.4 pounds (Ah, one of the sad months. Diet was great. Exercise was great. Didn’t see many results)

May: 4.0 pounds (Ah, one of the even sadder months. Diet was great. Exercise was great. Didn’t see many results)

June: 4.8 pounds (This was OK. Even though I didn’t lose much more weight, the cumulative results were getting pretty impressive. Paired with the exercise, my inch measurements were going way down, too.)

July: 6.6 pounds (This was an amazing month, mostly because it included a large family vacation that has always been a landmine of poor eating for me. I had more treats than I’d been having, but exercised a ton more — but in a fun way, water skiing, swimming, jogging, canoeing. Awesome. Felt so good to be more active. At this point, I think I’d lost 40 pounds.)

August: 6 pounds (Another very good month. I was trying out a crossfit gym on top of my regular gym, so I think I worked out six days a week this month.)

September: 8.6 pounds (Um, WOW! Not sure exactly what happened here. I keep thinking it has something to do with putting on so much more muscle — yeah, I know it weighs more, but I’ve kept my calorie goals around the same… Maybe I’m burning lots more calories.)

During this whole adventure, I’ve aimed for my calories to stay around 1,250 (non-exercise days) and 1,500 (on exercise days). There are certainly many days I’ve gone over, but the vast majority of days 90%???, this is what I’m doing.

I’m probably pretty near my weight loss goal now. OK, let’s be honest, I’m way beyond my weight-loss goal. (When I started, I would have been VERY happy to get back to 170… Instead, I’m now flirting with 145. For me that is a very fit, low weight, with lots of muscle tone. I’m 5’6” but have always had a muscular build.)

This weight puts me around a size 8, sometimes higher, sometimes lower. At age 43, I’m actually lower weight (and in better shape) than I was during part of high school.

For the first time in ever, I feel like I’ve changed my relationship with food. I still treat myself, but the portion sizes are much smaller. The treats are really that — once a week or so, not daily.  

In another post, I’m going to recap some of the other changes — most notably my measurements and fitness level.

Thanks to everyone here who’s been an inspiration through your own posts, photos, recipe ideas etc. During some of the tough plateau times I had, the tumblr fitness community was what kept me focused and inspired. It was far more reliable than family or friends or even myself alone to keep me on track.

SW: 204.6 » CW: 146