How to maintain that wonderful weight loss

Friday, October 23, 2009

I started my diet in August of 2008 and finally got to 119 pounds this past summer. Now I have to maintain the loss. I swore to myself that I would never be overweight again and I strive everyday to stick to that promise. As I said before and anyone who has ever tried to lose weight, its a hard promise to stick to. I still do my diet shakes a few times a week but mostly I just try to watch what I eat. I also try to drink some soy milk at least once a day because I have been hearing lots of good things about soy. Its a complete protein, and is the only vegetable that is. Amazing. Its like eating a piece of meat only without all the fat. I tried tofu once, I put chunks of it into my spaghetti sauce and it broke up into tiny little pieces that I really didn't even notice a taste. My son said he could taste it but hubby and other son said they couldn't. I have a soy cookbook that has some recipes for tofu and I am going to be trying some of them soon. I'll let you know how it goes.

The ( Dreaded Exercise ) Part

Tuesday, October 20, 2009


My walking is wonderful. I remember when I first started to walk, I would get about 2 blocks from home and my calf's would be just burning. This would go on for at least half a mile. Now pretty much I don't have a problem with that at all. I'll tell you what I have a problem with is the cardio and strength exercises. Talk about burn, (although that's the point), now we start to burn. I do about 20 minutes of cardio just about everyday. I do have my days where I just don't do much of anything. These are just exercises to get the heart pumping. You can find cardio and strength exercises on google, it will give you a million hits. One of my favorites sites is Self.com. They have tons of exercises. I just pick 10 or so exercises that I like and do my cardio. As most women of age such as myself, we start to get wings on our upper arms. Man I hate those. So for a couple of months now I have been doing exercises for that particular area. I think my son called them triceps. Me thinks this is going to take a very very long time to get rid of if ever. I should be so lucky. I am using Self.com exercises for the triceps, called something like Sculpting The Arms, and a couple my son showed me. I try to do all these exercises everyday but stuff happens and I don't get to them all everyday. My sister calls me obsessed, and maybe I am, but I have never felt better. All of this stuff I do is a personal choice, you must really want it, because it takes lots of work and dedication. I love it though. And now its time for my walk, you all have a good one.

More of my journey

Monday, October 19, 2009

So what did I decide to do about the whole weight loss situation, well I started to look at many different plans and such to see what would work for me. After looking and thinking for about a month I settled on a plan. I talked with an Herbalife distributor and decided to try their plan for 1 month. Now dieting is not an easy thing as we all know, but I do believe that dieting is a personal choice and if its not your choice it won't work no matter what anyone else says. You must do it for you and not anyone else. Having never really dieted before I wasn't sure anything would work for me and certainly wasn't sure my convictions were strong enough. Really the only thing I had going for myself was the fact that I was scared that I was so close to the age my parents were when they passed away. A strong enough reason for me to at the very least TRY. So that's what I did. I bought Herbalife shake and a few of their nutritional supplements. I didn't exercise or anything, I just followed the plan to the letter, never cheating once in the month I gave myself to make this work. And it wasn't easy let me tell you. My hubby and kids love their donuts and so do I but not once during that month trial period I had set for myself did I cheat with donuts or anything else that wasn't good for me. Imagine my surprise when I stepped on the scale and had lost 8 pounds the first month. I almost cried. So I decided to give it another month. Again I lost weight. That second month is when I decided to start exercising. So I started to walk. A fairly brisk walk, going about a mile each and every day. Soon I was walking twice a day for a mile each time. And actually enjoying it. I don't like to run so walking was perfect for me. The pounds started to melt off me. Soon I had to hold up my size 14's and moved into my size 12's that thankfully I hadn't thrown away. People were starting to notice. What an incredible feeling when someone would say to me wow Diane what are you doing, are you losing weight? You look great. There were times people I knew would stop their cars and yell out to me how good I looked while I was out there walking. This was huge incentive to keep going on my diet. I am not a vain person, and not the most feminine woman on the planet, I wear once piece of jewelery my wedding band, I don't wear make-up, and I mostly wear jeans and t-shirts. I do love my perfume though. But I was starting to look good. As I saw the weight coming off I next stepped up my exercise routine. I started to add more miles to my walking, sometimes walking 3 miles at a time, twice a day. I purchased a pedometer to see how far I was walking and how many calories I was burning. I got a walking stick and some pepper spray just to protect myself, we have a few dogs in the area whom give me the willies. Thankfully I haven't had to use those 2 items on anyone. But they make me feel safe. And sometimes it gets boring out there walking so I got an mp3 player and jam while I walk. Today I can easily walk 6 miles in one trip. I also have a friend who walks with me twice a week and that makes the walk even more enjoyable. Tomorrow I will tell you all about the rest of the exercise I am currently doing. Have a good one.

My Diet Journey

Sunday, October 18, 2009

In my old age I have become a health fanatic. Let me tell you why this came about. Last year when I turned 50 I realized that I was a mere 15 years give or take from the age both my parents passed away. Wow did that scare me. It was then I decided to do something healthy to help me go well beyond the age my parents were when they died. I am 4 foot 10 inches and was about 30 pounds overweight. I weighed 151 pounds, way to much for my height. I have never dieted always being a small woman until I had kids. Then I just couldn't seem to get the baby weight off. But I really didn't care, I had a very happy marriage ( and still do by the way ), so what did I care. I would eat when and what I wanted. Before long I started to get fatter and fatter still not really caring. My hubby loved me and all was right with the world. Soon I was in size 14 jeans and they were tight. I am an older parent, currently I am 51 and my sons are 18 and 17. I was always tired and never wanted to do things with my kids because frankly I couldn't keep up. We as a family would go camping, fishing, and hiking every summer for vacation. Many many times while out hiking I would have to stop and rest while my hubby and kids were anxious to continue. So they would go on ahead while I panted and rested on the trail. It got to the point where I would stay at camp because the hike was to much for me and my menfolk would go without me. It was a sad situation. Then the big day, my 50th birthday. It was then I decided to get healthy and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my 50 years on Terra Firma. More on my story soon.