Lucyhoneychurch's Blog

I've been on MFP for one solid year, joining three months into my weight loss journey. I reached goal weight/range in September 2011 and have since been in what's perceived as "maintenance mode". For anyone who asks me what I did to lose weight, I refer them to my success story:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/374412-finally-after-6-months-37-lbs-i-m-ready-to-share

But really, especially for those who have already reached goal weight, the hardest part is the Ever After in Happily Ever After. You will spend copious amounts of time trying to stay in your goal range. Some things will work, many of them won’t. You learn how to live with this body that you earned and the person that you have now become. Above all, you just don’t ever want to go back to the way you used to be/feel/look/weighed. I believe that it’s possible to remain in your goal range as long as you adapt your eating and workout habits to a sustainable lifestyle. “Sustainable” varies from person to person. For me, it’s being able to make healthy choices yet eat ALL THE FOODS during the holidays (in sizeable portions). It’s discovering that I like to lift heavy and do HIIT a few times a week, as long as I get my kids to the places they need to be. It’s about TRUSTING THE PROCESS, which I’m doing right now at the end of a metabolism reset. If it works, I’ll have a new blog post about it at the end of the summer. 

I learned a great many things this past year, from being in awesome mfp groups, the camaraderie on my friend list and from doing research on topics of interest. The most important things I wish I could tell people on my friend list are below; I don’t venture into the forums anymore because, well, the waters get too choppy nowadays.

1.) Food is fuel. If you really, REALLY want to lose weight in a healthy way, you need to EAT MORE THAN 1200 CALORIES/DAY.

2.) I don’t like elimination diets, but if there’s something you should really ditch, give up soda. Yes, you can. I did it. So can you.

3.) Ditch the processed snacks if you can. I rarely eat chips and packaged cookies anymore because the thought of those multi-syllabic ingredients murking up the blood in my hard-earned healthy body feels like a huge setback.

4.) Take rest days. They help heal your body from the punishment you put it through.

5.) The scale will go up for many, many reasons. Don’t freak out. Collect the data and chart your progress. Give any new change in your eating or exercise routine TIME. Give it at least two weeks, but 4-6 weeks is better.

6.) There’s probably more, but I’ll save it for the next blog post.

Thanks to my MFPals for being so supportive this past year! I appreciate all the cheers! 

No fancy diet, no pills. Just dedication, motivation, hard work and willpower. I didn’t see results right away, but I kept working out and learning how to eat better. If my weight loss journey/lifestyle change can help even one person to stay motivated, then it was worth it to post!

The stats

Ht: 5’ 2.5”

SW: 157

Joined MFP: 136

CW: 121

The Pics

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Chipmunk cheeks are now GONE!

The Story

Prelude:  After having three kids in a row, three years in a row, I reached 163 pounds in January 2011. This was not good for a short Asian who used to be a volleyball setter in high school. My attitude toward eating was flippant, and I drank 3-4 cans of Coke a day. I gave away my size 8 jeans and shorts because I figured I’d never fit into them again. I told myself that my kids would probably just know me in their younger years as “the chubby mom”, and I was ready to accept that. I was lazy and unmotivated about my weight gain, but inside I was disgusted at my huge abdomen and ham-hock arms. I tried to exercise once a week with a friend but went out for Chinese food afterward. We tried Pilates, then Zumba, and I hated how I looked in the mirrors.

The turning point: My older sister gave me the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred for my birthday in February 2011 and I put it on my bedside table to decorate it. When she invited me to a one-time Bollywood dance class in March 2011, I put on a large, black t-shirt and cringed at the tent it created over my belly. I was stunned when I saw my sister; she had lost 15 pounds since January, doing it on her own with the Shred, and she looked fantastic. Perhaps it was a little sisterly competitiveness, but I was floored by her determination to do it on her own. If she could do it, having had four kids of her own, *I* could certainly do it. Two days later I started the 30 Day Shred.

The regimen: Over the next six months I improved my eating habits, gave up Coke cold turkey, and exercised my butt off. I worked out after the kids had gone to bed. I’d go downstairs, do the Shred, and then follow with cardio for 30 minutes. My used treadmill broke and died two weeks after I started working out, so I ran circles in my basement like a hamster. The space was 20x20 so I did high knees and high-cadence “jogging” w/my iPod. I lost 22 pounds. Then I found MFP in July 2011 and lost the last 15 pounds, slower but with the right tools e.g. calorie counting and the MFP community. I had finished the Shred and moved on to Ripped in 30. Now I’m doing the 6 Week 6 Pack and am hoping to start the New Rules of Lifting for Women program.

I had given up on myself before I even started. Now that I’ve made the leap, I plan to never go back to that way of living. There are too many reasons to keep moving forward and stay positive. When I lacked the motivation to work out, I told myself that NO ONE was going to lose the weight for me. I would have to do that myself.

I plateaued.

I read up on how to break the plateau: change your diet or exercise. Ok, fine, but how? I had lost 30 pounds consistently for the past 5 months and stalling out was irritating. So close to goal and now the scale wasn't moving. A familiar story to many, I'm sure. I read the forums on the never-ending debate of eating back your exercise calories. I never really did because I didn't want to eat back all those hard-earned calories I just sweated out after Jillian Michaels finished torturing me. People get really snarky in the forums and it becomes difficult to read their tone, but one person's post made sense through the sarcasm: Go ahead, don't eat back your exercise calories, and in another two weeks you'll still wonder why nothing's working.

I decided to try eating back my exercise calories for a week. What did I have to lose except weight? I wasn't in a hurry. And if it worked, then I'd report about it.

I started on a Saturday, worked out to my DVD in the morning, added my extra crunches and chest flys and had a nice cache of calories to eat back. By mid-afternoon I was beginning to panic as I tried to figure out how to eat 400 extra calories without stuffing myself by day's end. I decided that some serious food planning would have to be put into place if this experiment worked. 

The scale didn't move on Sunday morning . But Monday morning, after another day of scrambling to eat my calories back, I saw the scale moved by .2 pounds. And the progression continued, albeit small, throughout the week except for one day.

Saturday - 125.0

Sunday - 125.0

Monday - 124.8

Tuesday - 124.2

Wednesday -  123.6

Thursday - 123.8

Friday - 123.2

Saturday 122.8

I would have to conclude for myself that eating back my exercise calories WORKED for me. I know about the deficit that MFP configures in your settings, so these exercise calories are like fuel to keep my workouts going. I'm glad that I can say I have actually tried this for myself, instead of always wondering, instead of being afraid of gaining back the weight. I wouldn't go out and recommend this to everyone, however, because everyone is at different stages in their weight loss journeys and eating back calories may not be right for them at the moment. I've read that when you have more weight to lose, having a bigger deficit is normal. But at this stage of the game, my body needs the fuel to sustain. That has also been another lesson for me, and will continue to be a lesson to learn: how to listen to what my body is telling me.