Missing the low hanging fruit

Posted on September 21, 2014

This is a summary of a conversation I had with my husband last night. He told me there is no low hanging fruit but I should keep up the good work.

Honestly I was feeling a little jealous of the rapid weight loss some people are reporting because they have quit soda, fast food, or have started drinking water. I realized after 6 months months at this, I don't have any obvious tweaks I can make to get 8lbs off fast. I quit fast food years ago because my palette changed and it just made me feel sick. I kicked my Coca-Cola habit years ago too. I've been drinking lots of water and exercising 5x a week, usually 2x a day, since March. I eat 4-5 meals and stay in my calorie range. I allow myself the occasional treat or date night. I have averaged 1lb a week weight loss but have big weeks and plateau weeks. I limit dairy because it makes me feel sick. My new goal is the limit processed food and try to eat clean, as much as my family will tolerate.

I'm happy for new dieters that are having that early success because I remember how motivating that is. Changing your lifestyle takes time to become habit. Keep up the good work because your body will thank you later.

I guess my question is for you long time dieters that have been doing this for awhile. Do you follow the same plan and rules or have you needed to tweak things to continue to see losses at the scale?

I did find a positive side last night. If I hadn't quit the bad foods years ago, I would have had a lot more weight to lose in 2014. I managed to maintain my weight with a sedentary lifestyle and an extremely stressful job. My tummy troubles decreased. My food bills went down.

Drinking another glass of water....

Comment Now!

Rebekah Y.

10/18/2014 4:09AM

Hey Diane, it sounds like you're doing a great job! Maybe you should get a heart rate monitor to get an idea of how your body is doing during your work outs. Before I got one, I was doing T25 and dripping in sweat, so I thought I was getting a good calorie burn in. It turns out that I was averaging around 180 calories burnt. I got a heart rate monitor and found that my body reacts a lot more to cardio than it does to any type of weight training. Apparently I have a very low resting heart rate so it's difficult to not be irritated by people that can easily burn twice as many calories as me, in half the time. Now that I'm doing more cardio though, I see a lot more positive results. You can do this! :-)

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Desi

09/21/2014 5:48PM

Diane,
I will say I was 208 lbs before and got down to 135 in 8 months but have climbed back to the weight I am due to a perm back disability and medications. This has occurred over the last 2 yrs and now I'm finally at a place where I can start trying to lose weight, but the first time I did it I was working out 5-6x a wk and I definitely had to change up my routines... My body got used to doing the same exercises. So I challenged my body and starting running on an uphill incline instead of just running the normal 6 miles, I started biking at a higher intensity, did a cardio kickboxing class, tried yoga, etc... And the lbs started shedding. I never did I stop drinking soda the first time or stopped eating fast food, but I did limit the intake of those items. Maybe switch up your routine, add an extra set or increase the incline.. That may help. I know the first time I tried list weight.. This is what helped me.. Just a suggestion ;)

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Diane F.

I added running last week. Thank you for the other ideas. I will keep mixing up those exercises.

JeannieBee61

If you do the same as you always have done, your body calls that the new norm. I was walking 3-5 miles a day at my job and taking the dog out after work, up and down stairs all day at work and stayed in good shape for my size, but never lost a pound, even with eating pretty decently...That is in a job I've had for 11 years. Time to exercise differently for me to get to another new norm of less weight...