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ASOIAF Weight Loss Challenge


Seventh Pup

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Dad used to make me so depressed - he could lose weight by just stopping his nightly ice cream.

Ok, going to do my first 'Stair-a-Thon' in about 10mins...wondering if I should try it bare-foot or not...

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That would be really hard for me. Although maybe you don't like cupcakes? I actually know people who don't but its impossible for me to comprehend.

No I love them, and they are awesome cupcakes. My only saving grace is that the line is usually long enough to discourage me.

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I'd be down with that. Before going to a gym at all though, I need to seriously work on my upper-body strength a little bit on my own. I don't want it to be seen in public how little I can dead-weight lift. Catch-22...

Ideally I want to gain about 20 lbs of muscle weight, but also lose about 10-15 lbs of fat weight, so I need to balance those two goals.

Fuck that, when I started I couldn't lift for shit, and I still can't. But if I had never started lifting heavy at the gym I wouldn't have made any progress at all. There's only so much you can do at home (assuming you don't have a significant weight set at home) and it isn't much. My point is, you shouldn't restrain yourself from going to the gym just because you feel uncomfortable with your level of strength. That's actually what kept me from going for awhile, that and I felt out of place there. But after only a few visits I feel infinitely more comfortable. The first really heavy day took me like 6 days to recover from, but now after about a month I can just manage to go to the gym twice a week every other week. My strategy is that I go whenever I'm not longer sore, so I basically have 1-2 days a week where I'm not sore/recovering.

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It depends on what the surface of the stairs are like, and how comfy your shoes are. Good luck young skywalker.

I need all the Force I can manage, I have to make cookies for a farewell party at work tomorrow.

It's a 'breakfast' themed party - but I'm making Spritz butter cookies that are done with white icing, a dot of lemon curd and red sugar sprinkled across the top.

They should look like devil'd eggs when I'm done, :P

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Put me down for this.

Ideally I need to lose at least 25lbs. I'll settle for 15 in 3 months.

The first tweak I'm going to make is no desserts. The second is to replace every lunch at work with a salad with no dressing. The third is to always take the stairs to my office no matter what.

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There are so many ways that I could list to cut out a few calories in the day.

I can make a pretty tasty salad without any dressing - our salad bar at work is pretty win. As long as I skip on tons of cheese and go for lean meats, pickles and veggies I'll be fine.
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I'm actually pretty fit, but I could stand to loose some belly fat. That is, I'm not much to look at really, but my weightlifting program has been good lately. I need to lose weight for a) cosmetic reasons b ) in case I ever want to enter a weightlifting comp I need to be smaller and a distant c) long term I suppose it would be easier on my heart and joints if I was thinner. But really I just want my pants to fit better. Right now I'm a svelte 185, so put me down for 15 pounds. I had been down to 166 earlier in the year, but I'd be losing too much muscle for that to be a good goal at the moment. Challenge begins later tonight at the gym.

...right after my nap.

Will post more later.

Nice thread, seventh pup!

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I feel kind of out of place in this thread... I'm not fat by anyone's standards, and I don't think I need to lose more than 6-7 pounds or so. But I'm taking this challenge anyway, and here's why:

I used to be an athlete. A swimmer. The last two years hasn't really gone as well as I hoped they would, and when you don't perform well it's no fun, so I quit after my last championships a few weeks ago.

There's this thing you need to know about swimmers. We practice even more than other athletes, and we eat accordingly. I would estimate I had a calorie intake of 2-3 times that of a normal person, and I was always hungry, always eating. If I ate a steady meal, I would still be hungry again in an hour's time.

Now the trouble is that the hunger doesn't go away immediately just because you stop training. It's gone down a bit, but not nearly to the level I need if I'm to keep my weight. I have to struggle to do this, or I will get very fat very quickly. And it won't stop. I'm a big guy as it is, and there's nothing that prevents me from gaining another 50 pounds or so in the course of a few years.

So now I figure that if I need to change my way of eating anyway, why not do it right now, before I get fat? Why not stabilise at a weight I'm comfortable with?

So here's my challenge: by the end of September, I should weigh 83 kg = 183 lbs (as opposed to the 86.9 kg = 191.5 lbs that I weigh now). And by the end of October, I should still weigh that much. The important thing here isn't to lose weight but to keep it under control.

My first step will be to eat regularly, five meals a day, and make them smaller than I'm used to. That ought to take me quite a long way. I'll try to exercise a few times a week as well, but what I really need to do is normalise my eating.

If all goes well, you'll see the result in the NHAW. :cheers:

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Please do not do this to yourself.

There are so many ways that I could list to cut out a few calories in the day.

Hmm, I don't think that's all that drastic. I personally don't care for most dressings so I don't eat them. A little bit of Italian or vinaigrette is all that I can stand on occasion. Plus, what's the point of eating salad if the dressings contain tons of fat and calories?

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Fuck that, when I started I couldn't lift for shit, and I still can't. But if I had never started lifting heavy at the gym I wouldn't have made any progress at all. There's only so much you can do at home (assuming you don't have a significant weight set at home) and it isn't much. My point is, you shouldn't restrain yourself from going to the gym just because you feel uncomfortable with your level of strength. That's actually what kept me from going for awhile, that and I felt out of place there. But after only a few visits I feel infinitely more comfortable. The first really heavy day took me like 6 days to recover from, but now after about a month I can just manage to go to the gym twice a week every other week. My strategy is that I go whenever I'm not longer sore, so I basically have 1-2 days a week where I'm not sore/recovering.

Also going with a friend might help.

But the most important thing to remember is that, truly, unless you are doing something outrageous or being obnoxious, nobody is paying attention to you at the gym. Everyone is in there concentrating on their own stuff. Once I realized that I was fine. When you've been to a place a few times it becomes familiar and you cant remember why you were intimidated by it in the first place.

Also you could try to go to the gym at irregular times when it is less crowded. Go during the day or later at night. I have a bit of an irregular schedule (12pm-230am) so I go to the gym around 1030pm and I usually have the place to myself. I am FAR from a health expert or nut, but protein shakes help me a lot with soreness and once you're in pretty good shape you won't be sore as often anyway. I'm able to go 5-6 days a week for the most part, though on some of those days I just do cardio.

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Now the trouble is that the hunger doesn't go away immediately just because you stop training. It's gone down a bit, but not nearly to the level I need if I'm to keep my weight. I have to struggle to do this, or I will get very fat very quickly. And it won't stop. I'm a big guy as it is, and there's nothing that prevents me from gaining another 50 pounds or so in the course of a few years.

The heaviest I've ever been in my life was after I stopped competing. I just stopped. I went from working out hard 6 times a week, to having normal activity levels and not specially working out. When I was training I could eat a whole pizza, after I stopped training I could still eat a whole pizza only now I got fat. It was really hard, I admire that you are taking this under control now. :)

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I'm in. I'd like to lose about 10 pounds too--three months seems like a reasonable amount of time to do it in. We're moving across the country in two weeks, and I've replaced any pretenses of exercising and eating well with stressing out, packing, and trying to clean out the freezer so we don't toss food. The poor diet and lack of exercise probably aren't helping the stress, and I know it. Probably my biggest issue is snacking at work--I stress eat. What do other people do to cope with stress at work? My main outlets--talking to someone, exercise (especially gymnastics, but even just taking a walk), journeling, ect. are all rather unprofessional. Just breaking down crying is also rather frowned upon. Stuffing your face with chocolate, however, is apparently perfectly acceptable and seems to be the preferred method at my office.

For this week, I'll start making sure I take at least five servings of fruits and vegetables to work with me, to be eaten before I touch the snack bowl. I won't have much room left for chocolate that way. On weekends, I'll make certain I eat the same before any junk food, but home usually isn't a problem. All bets are off during the three days of the actual move though--two people, two cats, one moving van, 1200 miles. I'll just be happy if we all make it there alive.

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... what's the point of eating salad if the dressings contain tons of fat and calories?

flavor

Also going with a friend might help.

But the most important thing to remember is that, truly, unless you are doing something outrageous or being obnoxious, nobody is paying attention to you at the gym. Everyone is in there concentrating on their own stuff. Once I realized that I was fine. When you've been to a place a few times it becomes familiar and you cant remember why you were intimidated by it in the first place.

Also you could try to go to the gym at irregular times when it is less crowded. Go during the day or later at night. I have a bit of an irregular schedule (12pm-230am) so I go to the gym around 1030pm and I usually have the place to myself. I am FAR from a health expert or nut, but protein shakes help me a lot with soreness and once you're in pretty good shape you won't be sore as often anyway. I'm able to go 5-6 days a week for the most part, though on some of those days I just do cardio.

Definitely sir. I can't go on off hours unless it's on the weekend. I wanted to go w/ friends but no one would come with me for various reasons, which is another reason I put it off so long, I didn't want to go by myself. Now I think of it as a good thing b/c I have no distractions. I now realize that what you say it true, and that you don't really notice other people more than in passing when you are focused on your own shit.

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Yeah logically I know you guys are right about the gym. Its just that last time I really went was a decade ago, and it was middle school, and everyone knows what vicious little bastards those kids can be; I think it scarred me.

No excuses though. There's a fitness center in my own damn building, and if its really so bad that it doesn't fit my needs, there's a real gym just a block away. I'm gonna start going at least once a week (starting this Saturday), twice if possible. And I'm going to keep incorporating as much exercise as possible into my daily routines. That chin-up bar (same model a friend of mine has, so I know its functional) should help a little too.

Not gonna change dietary habits though, I only get about 1500 calories a day right now anyway, plus booze calories on Fri. and Sat. nights. My weight gain is entirely from one-time events, like weddings, where I'll gain a pound or two and just never lose it, in day-to-day life I'm in equilibrium. So if anything, I'll probably start to eat more- once I've burned away enough of my stored up calories that is.

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Really, for me, it's portion size. The continual elephant in the room of the average American's diet. I have a kitchen scale that is regularly accessible, and I intend to use it. And possibly count calories. If two weeks go by and nothing's happening, I'll be counting calories.

and me as well. It's all about portion control. Right now my exercise program is about as good as you can get for someone over 30 with a full time job who isn't a professional athlete, though I suppose I could do more cardio. At 2800 calories a day I maintain; at 2000 I start losing. The challenge will be to lose fat without losing anything from how much I'm lifting. It took me 2 years to get things where I want in the gym, so if my numbers start to drop off too much, I might have to bail on the weight loss challenge.

To recap, the goal is to lose 15 pounds, with the main focus on portion control. This means eating slower, drinking more water during meals, and not acting like a Dyson vacuum when the GF doesn't finish her BBQ Chicken Pizza at California Pizza Kitchen. The challenge is that I'm so totally broke now that if I'm spending $40 on dinner, I want to polish off every fucking crumb. I leave no breadstick behind.

But the most important thing to remember is that, truly, unless you are doing something outrageous or being obnoxious, nobody is paying attention to you at the gym. Everyone is in there concentrating on their own stuff.

true words. And if they're looking, let 'em look. Better still, try talking to people, mm hmm? I know the gym isn't supposed to be social hour, but I've made some nodding acquaintances over the last few months. It takes a village. :thumbsup:

Yeah logically I know you guys are right about the gym. Its just that last time I really went was a decade ago, and it was middle school, and everyone knows what vicious little bastards those kids can be; I think it scarred me.

get over it! This would make you what, 23 years old? I just got serious about lifting two years ago at age 33, and I'm stronger than I've ever been in my life. It feels like I've had a revelation about how the human body works, or more specifically, how it's supposed to work, and because of the modern Western lifestyle, doesn't.

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I'll join. I actually started doing this about a month ago. My weight isn't bad, although you certainly won't catch me in a bikini (5'6" and around 135 lbs). Despite not being overweight, my health habits have been pretty abysmal the past few years and I'd like to turn that around. My goal is mainly to become healthier.

First I started taking the steps at work. Just recently I've been trying to be more careful with my lunch choices. I'll eat salads a few times a week, and if there's a day where I'm really starving for something bad for me I'll try to keep it in moderation. For instance, one slice of pizza instead of two, or a hamburger but no fries. I cut back on desserts, and for dinner I try to rely less on processed food than I had before.

My weight was creeping down tiny bit by tiny bit, but then I added a short exercise routine. So far it's a few sets of crunches, leg lifts, and push ups plus some stretching. I try to do it at least a few times a week if not every day. I'm getting better at sticking with it, but some days I just don't feel well and don't bother. Since I started this routine my weight has crept back up and then remained steady. I doubt I've put on a few pounds of muscle, but at the same time I can feel a difference. *shrug*

Maybe this thread will give me that extra push to stick with it/go a little farther.

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