20% Gone!

I didn't realise till this week that since April (when I begun focusing on my diet) I have lost about 20% (17kg / 37.5 lbs) of my original body weight. It doesn't feel too significant, but when I see the numbers I realise it really is. A bit over a third of that 20% is thanks to CC, so thanks guys for keeping me on-track with the weekly weigh-ins!

I'm on the home stretch now. 2 different scales keep giving me different results on my actual current weight (I'm guessing the digital gym one will be more accurate than my home one), so my actual goal weight might vary as I get further down. Besides, I'm not just after a number now. I know what I want my body to look like, and I intend on getting it there, despite the scale!

Good luck to everyone!

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Hey Elrepo - that's really a huge success and I am very very happy for you!! You already mentioned in the other thread that you cut out completely sugars and refined products. What else would you suggest to beginners like me and many others?

What did really help you and push you through and what was the one item that you needed regularly? 

And how did you lose the other two thirds? Did you use the Weight Watchers system or any other diet/nutritional system?

All the best for you!

Brigit

The first two thirds were just from some logical changes in my diet. I have always been fairly active. Infact, in some years of high school I was doing 5 different styles of dancing a week as well as school sports! Since last year I have still been doing my ballet once a week and 1 hour gym sessions twice a week, so I knew the problem wasn't lack of exercise. I've always been in the overweight bracket due to my love of sweets/chocolates and snacking from boredom. So that's basically what I targeted.

First step was to cut out sugar, sweets, soft drink, juices, etc. Whenever I got the urge in the beginning to eat/drink any of those things I told myself "Fine. You can eat it. But look at the energy and nutritional information first, then calculate how much time at the gym you'll have to take in order to burn it off." After doing that with many products I simply lost the urge to eat them. Each week I'd get less cravings, until they were gone.

I also eventually switched to skim milk, which didn't bother me too much as I only have it with cereal/tea/coffee and never drink it on it's own. During that period of a few months I was still eating stuff like white bread, ate the fat on my meat at dinner, had butter on my boiled vegies... But I was losing at a consistent rate (around 1kg/2lbs a week). Then I hit 72kg (well, at least that's what my cheap scale said) and it stopped. It kind of waivered between 72... 72.5... 73... etc. Not much change over a large period of time.

That's when I found CC, where I browsed a fair bit for nutritional info before joining. Then I looked through the tools and began calculating my intake and VIOLA! The scale began to drop again! That's when I started making some smarter choices. Basmati rice instead of Jasmine... Rye/wheat bread instead of white... Little things make a difference!

After looking back I can honestly say that my original diet had a lot of the right elements: I eat a lot of fruit and a satisfactory amount of vegetables. There's pretty much no foods I won't eat, so I generally eat a good variation with plenty of meat, seafood, dairy, etc. Portion sizes were reasonable, but a tad excessive.

Oh man, I went on a ramble! Okay, here's some tips/things I did which helped out:

 1. Do the shopping yourself. I do the grocery shopping for my parents mostly now, as my mother tends to pick rather bad foods. Shopping also gives you a good idea as to nutritional info on most processed snacks which you might have believed were healthy. If you tend to impulse buy, write a list and bring a limited amount of money so you can't afford those extras!

2. Find low cal foods you love and BUY LOTS OF THEM. You asked what item I need regularly? It's tea, no contest. I use a small amount of skim milk and artifical sweeteners for it, which I know are bad... however I've found this is a good against boredom eating and is good for my sweet tooth. Once I get to maintanence I intend on changing it to honey! : ) Sugar free gum is another one I use frequently.

Other foods I stocked in my fridge excessively include: strawberries, melon, mushrooms, carrots, cucumber, sweetcorn, popcorn (with balsamic vinegar) and sugarless jelly/jello. I intend on stocking up on stone fruits when they come in season.

3. If you're like me (work 5 days and go to university) and don't have much time, determine what's easy to prepare or do it the night before. There's nice ranges of plastic containers which allow you to separate food, etc. and even bring things like vegies and dip along for your day.

4. Figure out what works for YOU. Everyone's different, and although we might all not be at the weight we want there are probably different reasons as to why that is the case. Evaluate your diet, schedule and life and determine where the problem points lie. For me it was sweet tooth + boredom. For the next person it could be portion control + will power. If you're able to figure out what drives you to overeat, latch onto it and create your own strategies to combat it.

Hope all that helps!

Hey your report is really interesting to read!!

You cut out sugar and sweets completely, right? So I assume you didn't drink Diet Coke or Coke Zero or any other pop with sweetener in it either?

I am wondering if 1 pop per day is really stopping me from losing. I used to drink only diet pop but more than just 1 can per day... I am cutting back on it but sometimes I JUST NEED IT! Then I have 1 can coke zero and that's o.k. for me. No cravings afterwards.

So you did do quite some sports and you cut out sweets and that gave you such a great loss?! Wow! Amazing! You must have been eating well before CC already! It wouldn't help me much to just cut out the sugar... the burgers and pizza were my dilemma!

O.k. so let's see your list...

1. check - I try to go grocery shopping after eating so I am not starved and don't "over-shop"

2. still working on finding more good food I like and that is fast! I need lunches and dinners that are easy to make/get and that are still healthy!

3. yep - trying to do that too. Or I am just eating simple stuff like sweet potatoe and sour cream which is easy and quick thanks to the office microwave!

4. so true! Thanks so much for your input though! It really helps to see and check if one is on the right track or if somethings need to be changed!

I am off to prepare my lunch now!

Take care and thanks so much and good luck for the last lbs to be gone!!!

Brigit

Well, most of the 'diet' varieties of soft drink (pop) are not really the ones I like. I'm not a fan of Coke/Pepsi... I usually like creaming soda, ginger (root) beer and lemonade, and except for the ginger beer it's too hard to find diet varieties for me and I don't like it that much. So I found it easier just to stop drinking it.

I love juice though. I found myself just eating the actual fruit in most cases than drinking the juice. At least then I could get the 'full' feeling from the added fiber!

I found something interesting though... I bought some instant coffee, right, which I figured had the same calories as tea so I could drink it in the mornings to keep awake for university (some days it's just like that =P). Over the couple of weeks I drank it my weight loss was minimal (at the time it didn't look like it changed at all, but when looking at my graph I can see something happened). I'm not sure if this was related to water retention, or my body was on a plateau... or something more complex caused by the added caffeine, but when I stopped drinking it my weight began to drop regularly. Anyway! Just a thought!

Good luck!

Instant coffee? Mmmh.... that's interesting. Do you think there is added sugar in the coffee that made your weightloss slow down?

I stopped drinking coffee when I started CC. Not because I don't like it but I like it with milk and that would mean I'd have to count it. Last Friday I had a latte (grande, nonfat) and it cost me many calories!) And then secondly I go to the gym every morning now before work and once I am done I am kind of late for work so I don't bother to stop at a Starbucks or Tims for coffee but go directly to the office. I guess it's not the worst thing to do... workout instead of coffee... 

Anyway! I hope you have a good weekend! Keep going girl!

all the best! Brigit

No, I'm pretty sure it didn't have any sugar. It's just normal granulated instant coffee... No perks. It should be equal to tea, and I was drinking it in the same way as my usual tea and about as frequently... so I don't know. It could have easily been something other than the coffee causing the slight plateau. I just found it strange

Hope you have a good week~