h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well you can be really motivated if you really wanna!

Well after 5 months, a Name Change (formerly Anxer) and a half stone lost in wieght I'm happy!!!

I joined the Gym in January. Been going every week day I can manage. At Xmas I wieghed 12 1/2 stone. I now wiegh 75 kgs (just under 12 stone), bench press 81 kgs, leg lift 200kgs. My waist has gone down from a 35/34 to a very toned 31 inch (if that).

Never felt better. now if only I can get the College work out of the way!!

If anuybody is remotely intrested what I did at the Gym, it wasnt haard at all.

I didnt recieve an Induction and even though I'm a memeber I never had a programme made up for me. In some ways this is good becuase I dont have to meet targets, and if I have a bad day, so be it, there no point in pushing yourself if you havent got the energy or feel well enough. I also had enough self discpline though to go when i could. So i wouldnt push myself, but I would do what I could, and then the next wouldnt get easier, but it wouldnt get harder, and I definitely wouldnt feel guilty about not doing certain exercises and trying to make them up the next day.

At the moment I have a warm up run for 15 minutes at 13.4 kph, with a final minute burst of 16kph. I was on 20 minutes @ 13.0 kph, but the Holidays buggered up my scheudle for 2 weeks. I then have a 20 minute cycle on a hill program. Hurts the legs like hell (especially when your trying to get RPM's in the high 100's and at high levels) but its worth it.

I used to do the Stepper and the rowing machine, but these tired me out too much (about an hour aeorobic work eggh), the stepper annoyed me, and the Rower gave me blisters on my hands. I subbed them both for longer on the treadmill and Cycles.

Its then down to the Wieght machines, where I focus on the upper body. I also do alot of Leg press. However I've found that whatever I do, if i try those kicking motion thingy majigs, I get very bad cramp in my legs. My lack of stretching probably, but I just leave it be.

And like a very bad boy I just go and have a shower, and back up to College. And I've never felt better. Also, since I've noticed that My stamina isnt that good, I've started running on the weekends, 4 miles. It Reminds you that running outside isnt like a treadmill and little things like pollen, car exhausts, Burning Animal Pyres and very big, very steep hills cant be simulated, but only expreinced .

That sounds like very good results Whippy! I gym three days a week at the moment, I only do weights, and basically try to build rather than trim down. But the past few weeks I've been eating a *lot* and I'm sure the weight work has helped me to let the extra food go to my muscles and not to my waist. I still look fairly good, at about 84 kg bodyweight. I'm just training moderately trying to keep on doing it over the long term rather than train very hard for a short while and then getting fed up or burnt out and staying away for a few months and then getting into a real slobby condition and going back and training hard again for a few weeks and so on.

I've been fairly successful at training consistently. For this entire year there was no single week in which I did not train. Every week I trained at least twice, I'm aiming for three days a week.

I will soon have to think about starting to lose some weight again. Even though I look okay I will look better if I can get rid of ten pounds or so of unnecessary flab! But first I want to keep on eating a lot and growing stronger for a while longer.

As someone with serious back trouble, I am more wary than others of taking that first step into a gym. I am beginning to see the point of it, but am not sure how to find a trainer who will understand my back problems and be able to cater for them. Plus which my guts have been slashed in several operations in the last 5 years and I haven't dared use any of those muscles since. How can I expect a trainer to know where to tread carefully and where to go for it. A physiotherapist has helped me, but there's only so much that health insurance covers there.

I think I've found my motivation again. Probably something to do with only having 3 items of clothing that still fit

This is the first holiday in quite a few years where I've gained weight - usually all the traipsing about over moors & up hills works off all the extra eating, but having the moorland closed off this time meant I spent a lot more time eating devon cream teas and sitting in pubs - and it shows!

TC - as another back problem sufferer, I know exactly what you mean about being wary of gyms. Regular visits to a chiropracter seem to keep the worst of my back problems at bay but I think I'll stick to walking or swimming - one wrong move in a gym I'd be crippled for weeks. Which is also another good reason to get rid of th excess weight I'm carrying, my back niggles constantly at the moment, I'm fairly sure being overweight is causing that.

Sue

I wish I could help you guys with your back trouble. I ain't no expert on that. You know what, I just wonder if people shouldn't know more about their own bodies. I don't know about medical stuff or physiology or such but I know my body fairly well. I know where my organs and my bones and my muscles are and I know in what condition they are. I know what my body can take. I would not easily injure myself because I can feel whether my muscles or ligaments or tendons or joints can handle it or not. Sometimes when my back hurts it's because I've been sitting too long in a poor posture and if I just notice the way my muscles are feeling I can tell that. Then I just need to do some stretches and relaxing and everything is fine. Or maybe I need to strengthen my abdominal muscles to support my midsection better. But I can tell because I know my body and am aware of what's going on with it. I know what food I need to eat and how much of it. I don't know but I wonder if we shouldn't at an early age be encouraged to learn this stuff. It helps me a lot.

I agree that we need to be "taught" better eating habits and about how much our bodies really need from an early age. I remember reading an article which blamed mothers that gave oversized portions to their offspring and encouraging them not to leave anything on the plate, as it set up unrealistic picture of how much fuel our bodies need in a more sedentary culture. But I am not sure whether blaming our mums will solve anything now!!!

I have had to relearn that I am not going to starve on what my eating plan tells me is a sensible plan for the day. My emotions get the better of me sometimes, and I panic and eat lots of stuff, and then end up just feeling bloated.

But, I have turned the gains back into losses and am on track to getting to my 15 kg milestone (0.6kg to go!)

I don't think it's a question of being taught anything - it's more a question of not being "untaught". Kids, if left to themselves, will naturally eat the right things in the right amounts.

Anyone who has been pregnant will realise that your body does know what's good for it. This is another time where we eat apparently irrationally, but are just more aware of what our body is craving for.

Finishing up everything on your plate is certainly a bad habit we are forced into in this society. Who is to say that the arbitrary amount that is on your plate is exactly your requirement at that time (even if you have served yourself!)?????

Having had three children and watched them develop, I have learned a lot about how the body works, but being at home as a housewife for a few years and going through depressions and "baby blues" does rather distort your eating habits.

There is only one cure (naughtily suggested by a girl friend recently): "You'll just have to get a lover!"

Hi, I am hoping somebody out there can help with my diet crisis!

I have been trying to stick to a low fat diet since mid-may and have been doing my Rosemary Connley and Ann Diamond exercise videos 4 or 5 times a week. I've shed about 18 pounds so far but have hit a plateau and am starting to get really frustrated

I am not the model dieter because I refuse to give up my friday-night curry and or at the weekends, figuring that if I try and deny myself everything I'll just stop dieting. I have got at least 4 stones to shift and can't see an end to it.

ARRRRRGH!

I WANT SOME !

Well, there are some online diet schemes which claim to work well, as they devise a diet particular to your needs. I used to have them listed in the entry.

... have just checked. They are still there and the links work. Maybe for a couple of dollars you can come off your plateau.

I have not lost any weight since I started the thread. Must try harder.

(To get back to the entry, just click on H2G2 Weight Losers at the top of this conversation)

don't feel bad, tc, i've *gained* since i joined you last year!

I heard something that made me feel better about plateaus. It doesn't help you lose weight through them, but helps your state of mind. What I heard was that our bodies do not like losing weight, they are not programmed to do so in large amounts. So when you lose a large amount of weight, our bodies go into "crisis" mode (plateaus). Here comes the good part: the longer the plateau, the more stabilised your body becomes at that weight, so the less likely you are in putting the weight back on.

So now I think of these slow patches as my body getting used to being a bit thinner, and don't resent the scales not moving so much!

Hope that helps - good luck!!

Hi Tashalls ! Have missed you. Have you been around elsewhere? Because up until now I think I only met you here...

Yes - it sounds encouraging that the plateaus on the way down might also be plateaus on the way up, so the longer you stay there, the bigger the chance of stopping there if you start to put weight on again - a kind of layby.

I like that, a weight layby.

I think your attitude has everything to do with why sometimes diets are successful and other times are not. I am in a troubling motivational attitude at the moment, in that any little thing sets me off!

I have been hanging around the place, although I am not as active as I once was. I am not liking this moderation thing one little bit!



I have spruced up my home page, though, it was looking a little old. And I check in now at least once every couple of days.

Well, things are not going well this week, have been on a training course with free booze - sure this isn't conducive (sp?) to shifting pounds.

Am glad to hear that this plateau might be a good thing! Now if we can just find a way to make crispy aromatic duck beneficial I will be a happy girl...

Why anthing is possible

*waves magic wand*



go forth and eat crispy duck!

Hellooo!

Back again, online at home again now so it'll be easier to keep up!

Since joining last year, the lowest I've got is 15st 5lb, I think, now I'm back up again to 16st7lb, and lacking in motivation. My plan to give up smoking and spend the money on a gym worked for quite a long time, even if I didn't go to the gym that often! Now however, I'm smoking again (due to moving back home with smoking parents), not losing any weight, and while I'm writing this I'm thinking "Why??" "It's not gonna kill you to have one cream cake instead of 3!" motivation levels rising.....

One thing I have found since on here last, my mum suggested doing a protein diet. She thought it might be good for me because I don't eat a huge amount, if I even ate the brekkie, lunch and dinner of your average joe I'd balloon out! (I, unfortunately, am one of those people that really needs to exercise to achieve any decent weight loss.) But, while I stuck to this protein diet, it worked! I lost weight steadily. Okay, sweet stuff is out, as well as pasta, potatos, bread, all the 'fillers'.

But what astounded me was how much healthier I felt! My brain seemed more active and I had stacks more energy! My hunger was more acute, difficult to describe, but I felt less like the nibble sort of hunger. Being hungry would be at more regular times and it felt like proper hunger....difficult as I say to explain! Obviously this diet isn't suited to all, it's premise is that our body uses carbohydrates for energy (hence people "carbo load" before a big run), if we eat more carbs than our body needs, it turns to fat. If we eat less carbs than our body needs, it uses the excess fat for energy.

If you'd like more information, ask Queegle; a fountain of knowledge on food nutrition.

My god I've written an essay, apols!

Perhaps we ought to ask Queegle's mum!!

What exactly is a protein diet, please?