A few months ago you may remember me mentioning a couple of friends that were training for a 5K. It was so motivating for me that I dusted off the treadmill in the basement and tried gradually increasing the number of jogging minutes in a 30 minute interval. While I had gotten that number up to 18 (where 18 of the 30 minutes were spent jogging) I stopped short of getting to where I needed to be. In the meantime, one of those friends stopped her running routine also, but the other had consistently improved upon his efforts — to the point of where he began planning half marathons!
Well, yesterday that same friend invited me to participate in a duathlon — run two miles, bike 20 and run two more. It is so close to my home and would be so convenient! The trouble is — I don’t own a bike and it’s next month. I don’t think my body would be ready by then, even if I was equipped. I’m so disappointed though. I would love to do this, and the two mile portion seems less daunting than a 5K, even though I’d have to do it twice with a bike ride in between!
So, long story short, I need a plan! My husband and I were talking recently about how I am finding success in weight loss because I took the time to plan and make a goal that was definite and concrete. Blogging about it made me accountable, and the fact that I disclosed my prior weight to about 60 people in last year’s Christmas letter gave me all the motivation I needed not to screw up. With the 100 pounds goal completion in sight, I think I’d like to layer another big goal on top of that. (Normally, I wait until one major goal is accomplished before starting another one, as I think I’ll have better luck meeting it if it has my full attention.) Abandoning the norm, here goes:
I want to be able to run a 5K distance in 45 minutes or less by two months from today. Ironically, two months from today will be my 17th wedding anniversary, I’ve just realized. What a nice gift to be able to give myself — the completion of a goal and the sense of satisfaction it will bring.
I will expand on my plan in my next post. I do already have those things ironed out, but a screaming toddler in the background is preventing me from getting them typed out right now.
Hi Jennifer!
Great plan! I know you can do it! The only way that I’ve been able to maintain my weight loss (since stopping Seattle Sutton), was when I work out consistently. I would love to do a 5K with you when you’re ready. There are always events in your area. Keep up the great work and your anniversary will be better than ever!
I want to congratulate you for your hard work. How did you lose the weight? Im trying to do the same but i woulld have to lose about 220 llbs. Im 21 yrs old and i would really apperciate if you can tell me what you have done differntly to help you.
you’re right. Planning is the key to success! While reading your blog I was reliving my old success when I lost all the weight and went on to run an 8k. I can’t wait to see a picture of you crossing the finish line!
Rocio, I wish I could say I had some magic formula or that it was just one thing I’ve done. If it were only one thing, perhaps it would be easier for more people to succeed. You CAN do it though. Here are some things I work at or have used to help me:
1. Don’t think of it, in your case, as having to lose 220 pounds. Think of it as wanting to lose 10 pounds 22 times. If you break it up into smaller chunks, you can take delight in smaller accomplishments more frequently!
2. Don’t “fall off the bandwagon” if you have a minor setback — heck, even a major one! Just because you have a lapse in judgment or binge, don’t allow yourself to continue in a downward spiral. Kick yourself in the butt and get back on track! Weight loss appears to be based on trends. You can still splurge a bit every now and then (like once every two weeks or so?) and have it not do ultimate harm. But, if you are “good” only occasionally, and splurge as the norm, you won’t lose weight. That’s why it is so important to eat right the overwhelming majority of the time!
3. Get as much sleep at night as you possibly can.
4. Drink as much water as you possibly can.
5. Make small sacrifices (eating wise) whenever you can and pretty soon they’ll add up. For example, if you normally have a big bowl of ice cream every night, go ahead and continue enjoying the taste of ice cream — just make it a much smaller bowl or do it less frequently. (I haven’t given up any foods that I didn’t want to, and I still eat pasta and garlic bread and chocolate, for example, just a LOT less of it than I used to.)
6. Eat lots of vegetables!
7. Exercise as regularly as you can, or try to increase your physical activity in smaller ways if you just can’t commit to actual work outs. For example, park further away from the entrance to a store so that you have to walk a greater distance in the parking lot. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. If you have a dog, walk it regularly — it would be good for both of you!
8. Try not to exceed suggested portion sizes and for snack-type foods, don’t think that you HAVE to have a full portion. For example, if one serving of tortilla chips is 15 chips, and you really want something salty and crunchy for a snack, perhaps 10 chips would satisfy you! Sometimes foods are portioned out in convenient snack sizes, and that is nice if you need extra help limiting your intake, but once you are accustomed to smaller portion sizes, sometimes those packages actually give you more than you’d want to consume. Cookies are like that for me. I had a taste for a cookie. I saw that a package of “Grandma’s” chocolate chip cookies contained two cookies and each one had 170 calories. There was no way I was going to let myself consume 340 calories in just cookies! But, a little further down the shelf I saw a bag of ginger snaps and you could get five of those cookies for only 140 calories. They weren’t pre-packaged into serving sizes, they were bulk in the bag. The nice thing about that is that I really didn’t want five cookies. Two cookies happened to satisfy me and it was less than 60 calories for what I consumed. Also, don’t sit down with a bag of chips and think that you will have the willpower to quit. Instead, take out the number of chips you want to eat and then close the bag and put it away. You may still want to go back for more, but it will mean you will have to get out of your chair again and reopen the bag. You might decide it’s not worth it!
9. Make yourself accountable to someone, actually the more people the better. I admitted in last year’s Christmas letter (mailed with my holiday cards) that I weighed 268 pounds. My sister thought I was crazy because no woman reveals her weight! I also am blogging about my successes and failures and encourage my friends and family to follow me. I feel like I’d be disappointing more people than just myself if I don’t do it. In truth, my own opinion matters more than anyone else’s, but for me, it has helped to make my goals public. I think a person’s mind can play evil tricks and can justify any point of view given the opportunity. If I had kept my weight and my goal private, the little red guy on my left shoulder might have had more power than the angelic dear on my right shoulder, if you know what I mean!
10. Try to stay optimistic and think of all the ways you will be better/happier, etc. once you have lost some weight. It’s ideal if you can combat whatever mental or physical issue caused you to gain weight in the first place, but I believe that the praise and admiration you receive after a chunk of weight is gone is often enough to keep you going! The hard part is making a substantial dent so that you get to the point where the compliments start flooding in. For me, that was about 50 pounds of weight loss. For you, it might be a little more.
11. After I had lost about 60 pounds, I was at a plateau and I couldn’t seem to break it. Once I had reached a high enough frustration level with being at that plateau, I started counting calories. If I had to do it over again, I would have started this from the beginning despite my early successes. I think it is just so helpful. Granted, it is a pain to enter, but anything worth doing is worth doing well. So, everything I eat is entered into a web database called Daily Plate at the livestrong.com website. Once I became more aware of the actual calories I was consuming, and I saw how many calories I was supposed to be consuming in order to lose a chosen number of pounds per week, the weight loss resumed. Numbers don’t lie! It’s a scientific process — you have to either eat less calories than your body needs to function or burn more to offset the extra you take in. Ideally, you can eat less and exercise more and the weight will come off faster. But, as you could tell if you had been reading from the beginning, the “eating less” comes much easier for me than the “exercising more”. It’s funny that I’m typing this today, of all days, as I introduce a new exercise plan!
I hope these tidbits help. If you have a weight loss blog and would like for me to follow you, I will. I try to encourage others working through similar issues and am willing to help you if I can!