I was running a Biggest Loser competition on my scrapbook message board. As a sedentary hobby, scrapbookers need a little motivation to get active and a little competition seemed just the ticket. We weighed in each week and also reported minutes of exercise.
I started getting more serious about losing weight after having Valerie and my doctor recommending me getting down to my ideal weight since we're probably not having any more kids and with my pregnancy high blood pressure and other, smaller health concerns it would be a good idea. I mean, I want to see these children grow up! Getting off the baby weight is not usually too hard. I'm usually within 5-10 pounds of prepregnancy weight by the time my babies are 3 months old. However, I'd been carrying around my college freshman 15 (ok, 20) for quite awhile. I did South Beach after Henri and got about 15 pounds over my ideal weight.
I lost the baby weight just by breastfeeding, like always within 3 months. Then I had to actually work at losing weight. I checked stuff out from the library and settled on Jillian Michaels of Biggest Loser fame & her weights/cardio combo as well as Jackie Werner, who has a similar style, just a little bit harder. The bonus is most of the workouts are 20-30 minute videos, so I don't have to depend on weather and I can usually find that time in my day. I bought some shoes to use only inside and started.
Me right before I had Valerie, probably around 204 pounds...
I started in October, around the time we went to Disneyworld...
I probably weighed around 185 I'd say. I lost 10 pounds by the first of the year and started Biggest Loser-Scrapbooker's Edition at 174.5 pounds.
I finished on 3/31 at 159.5 pounds, so 14 pounds lighter or 8% of my 1/1 weight. I got second place which I'm really proud of. Our winner frequently won our exercise minutes for the week and lost 11% of her weight! I'm really proud of her as well! Anyways, here's my "after" picture. I will be doing the 2nd quarter as well since I'm still 9.5 pounds above my weight, which I think will get me to a size 8, which will put me where I was when I graduated high school, 15 years ago. It's going a lot slower, but I'm getting used to saying "no" to certain things and saying "yes" to exercise. I plan to get to the 150 and maintaining. I'll indulge a little more and exercise a little less, but plan to stay there as I'm getting rid of my clothing along the way so that if I can't fit into my clothing, I better exercise! I also plan to treat myself to some new clothes when I get there.
These are both from this week...
