Wow, there has been so much interest in how I lost the last 10 pounds. I’m looking good enough to take some pictures, as soon as I have some decent ones, I’ll post them. The nicest thing is, most of the pot gut is GONE! Belly fat, adios! (See previous posts Fitness is Part of My Plan and The Last Ten Pounds).
It was the combination of strength training, cardio, and a modest diet change.
As you know, I joined 24 Hour Fitness on March 1, 2008 and had that first free visit with a personal trainer that comes with your membership. I liked his style and signed on for 10 sessions of training. By the 7-session mark, I had lost the 10 lbs! I’d been the same weight for two years, nothing ever helped, not even the office weight loss contest and the mall-walking. I’ve signed on for another 10 sessions because I don’t have good exercise habits developed, yet… and because the attention is nice!
Someone asked if I changed my diet. Here is my response:
Wow, did I change my diet? Let me think…
First, I’m a vegetarian and am organic, so I already eat pretty healthy and low calorie. I truly just wanted to lose 10 lbs, I’m well within my weight range for my age and height.
But I am a sugar fiend so I did cut back on all the “cheating” — I allowed myself one cheat day per week, usually the day of the weigh-in, and it was a fairly modest “cheat” — angel food cake or a few cookies. I tried to get in five miles per day of mall-walking to make up for it.
As a team, we headed towards Subway for their Fit sandwiches a lot more often than we ever have, at least three times per week. So I’d say I ate a lot less pasta and potatoes and Mexican food (our former standard office lunch fare) and a lot more whole grain breads and vegetables.
I drank MonaVie during that month — had not taken it for a few months. Don’t know if that made a difference but they say it helps with stabilizing your blood sugar and controlling hunger. I take 4-8 grams per day of fish oil — some studies say that WITH EXERCISE, fish oil can help you lose weight. Both certainly helped with the inflammation from so much working out!
Two more things… I tried to do more 100-calorie snacks between meals. Biggest Loser said to feel free to drink all the skim milk you want. A sixteen-ounce glass is 18 grams of protein, plus the calcium and Vitamin D, so I did that a WHOLE lot more.
AND, one last thing, was I switched from my former breakfast shakes to the Apex meal replacement shakes (sold at 24 Hour Fitness, where I’ve been training). Plus, my trainer said to be sure to have a protein drink immediately after my workout to rebuild the muscles. So I started drinking “muscle milk” after my workouts. I honestly think that little trick made a huge difference.
It wasn’t all diet. My trainer, whose undergrad was in nutrition and whose postgrad is chiropractic, told me I needed to do cardio on my off days to burn the fat, strength training alone wouldn’t do it no matter how out of breath I got during a workout! So for the first two weeks (my biggest weight loss), I worked out six days per week. I’ve gotten a little lazy since then and just do the three days of training and a couple of days of mall-walking.
I haven’t hit my bodyfat goal so we still have some work to do and I’m still doing all the stuff above.
Hope this is helpful to you, thanks for taking an interest.
Teresa
Filed under: Physical fitness and exercise, Physical fitness and personal trainer, Physical fitness and weight loss | Tagged: 24 hour fitness, brain tumor, diet, exercise, fitness, health, lifestyle, meningioma, natural healing, personal, personal trainer, Weight loss, wellness
