This is beginning of week 5 for me with the body bugg, and I’m down 11 lbs. It does what it says it does if you track your calories. I’m finally a believer. After dieting and FAILING miserably for so many years, I finally feel like I’m going to do this and make it to my goals. It’s very new, very awesome sensation. lol…
I would have figured I’d get bored with tracking calories, but I haven’t. I actually love knowing how many calories I’m consuming because I love hitting all my daily targets for calorie burning, steps, activity duration, etc. I’m a body bugg-a-holic if there is such a thing. lol
I’ve also discovered a great trick to making sure I burn up all my calories for the day. I love TV and I watch too much of it, but I bought myself a stability ball, and now I bounce on it while I watch TV – it works so well that I know I burn 350 calories while watching 45 minutes of news! If I know we have a lot of shows ot catch up on and will be in front of the TV for 2-3 hours [I know, it’s a lot…], at least now I know I can burn 1,000 calories or more doing it. It doesn’t replace my daily workouts but it does mean I can just do ONE workout a day and then burn off the rest of my calories while watching TV vs. doing 2 workouts a day like I was doing before, which felt like too much. Bouncing isn’t that hard on the body, but working out twice a day can be.
I’m going to try dropping my calories from 1,850 to 1,750 and burning 3,000 a day vs. 2,850 to see if I can increase my weekly weightloss from 2lbs to 2.5lbs. If it’s too much I’ll go back to what I was doing before [1,000 calorie deficit per day instead of 1,250]. By kicking my routine up a notch, the body bugg software claims I’ll reach my goal by April 9th. Which is great because it gives me time to settle into my new size [whatever that ends up being] and gives me time to do a little shopping – we have a few weddings to go to in May. If/when I reach my goal it’ll mean I’ve lost a total of 95lbs. How crazy is that? I’m almost halfway there – I’ve lost 39 lbs so far since I started this journey. I’m still not 100% sure my goal weight of 159 lbs is correct or not, but I weighed 160 at the end of highschool and again when I lost the weight I gained after my first year of college, so my ‘ideal’ weight is probably around that number. I can always reevaluate once I get there if I think I can lose a few more lbs… and if my body stops at 165 or 170 and I look and feel great, I’m fine with that, too. =)
The best part of counting calories and living this way is, nothing is off limits. I eat mostly healthy, but now and then I can splurge if I plan for it. Last night my husband took me out for a delicious lobster dinner. I had a 1.5 lb lobster and I dunked every piece in butter – I also made sure to let most of it drip off, and in the end I probably ate about a tablespoon total of the butter, which is about 105 calories. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. When we got home I had enough calories left over to have some popcorn while we watched a movie and a few squares of chocolate. That whole thing about some people being able to eat whatever they want is true – as long as it doesn’t mean their taking in more calories than they burn.
I used to think maintaining a big weightloss would be tough, but if you exercise, it really doesn’t need to be. If I’m burning 1,250 calories more than I’m taking in now, to lose the weight, it means I either keep up the activity level and I get to eat a LOT more, or I can eat about the same amount of food and I don’t have to worry about being SO active every day [right now I do about 10,000 steps and get in about an hour and a half of activity per day, at a minimum]. It’ll mean I can take a couple of days off each week and really let my body recover fully before pushing it again.
This whole experience has been such an eye-opener. I know I won’t ever have the same issues with weight gain again. I know I’ll be ready to move on with the rest of my life when I reach my goals. This will be the toughest thing I’ve ever done. But once I figured out what works for me it stopped being an uphill battle, and turned into a happy journey. =) I’m enjoying it every step of the way.
In case you’re wondering about the stability ball, this is the one I have. It’s made to withstand 1,200 lbs – it’s made more rugged for weightlifting. I’ll be getting another as we finish off part of our basement as a gym so I can use it in place of a weight bench: Rhino Skin Stability Ball [image courtesy of amazon.com]
Exercise[The]Demons 