Cory's Quest for a Healthier Life

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-Cory-

-Cory-

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Hello everyone. I joined this morning and have decided to make a diary here. It seems to help a lot of people, so I figured I'd give it a shot. It's been two weeks since I started my journey. Weighed myself this weekend and found that I put on three pounds; however, I'm not going to let it get me down because it's my time of the month and I have always been bad about retaining water. Going to the gym tonight. I've been alternating pilates and zumba for the time being. I figure I can adjust things and try different things as I go along. The last two weeks, I've gone to the gym 4 times per week and I'm already noticing a difference in my fitness level and the way I feel. Right now, I have more hope and motivation than I have ever had in my life when it comes to losing weight. Very happy and feeling in control of myself.

EDIT: I decided to include a little personal information for anyone who might follow this thread. I'm a 23 year old female doing graduate work in aerospace engineering. I've been overweight all of my life and desperately want to be healthy. My cousin was 25 when she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and my father is pre-diabetic right now. If I can get healthy now and avoid this, I will try my hardest to do so. I have a wonderful supportive family and currently live with my brother and our two cats. He and I are both trying to get healthier and have been able to provide a lot of support for each other. Oddly enough, neither of us eats a lot of junk food or fast food or a lot of the food people stereotype as 'fat people' food. My mother always cooked for us and the things she prepared were always relatively healthy, we just ate too much of it, didn't exercise, and tended to drink a lot of soda. We've cut out the soda and trimmed down the portion sizes. I thank anyone who has taken the time to read and comment.

Starting weight: 271 lbs
Goal weight: 165 lbs
Progress to date: +3 lbs
 
Hey welcome! I started at 273 myself, & it's going down!! Yay!

Good luck with your weight loss journey!
 
Hey, I just started on 9 of January this year. I lost 13 lbs :) so far.

(I only update my signature weight on Fridays)
 
Welcome aboard Cory! Stick around and peruse the forum.

-Cory- said:
EDIT: I decided to include a little personal information for anyone who might follow this thread. I'm a 23 year old female doing graduate work in aerospace engineering.
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Yeah ok, way to make me feel inferior why don't you. :D I suppose a joke about how "losing weight is not rocket science" is in order?
 
Alrighty, here's my first official update. Just got home from zumba. For those who might not be familiar with it, zumba is an hour long cardio fitness class based around Latin dance. It's a ton of fun and kicks my butt. I'll probably go tomorrow night too. I had thought I would have a harder time getting myself to exercise, but I really enjoy doing zuma. I've never really known how to dance and this is teaching me a some.

Sometimes it makes me a little insecure though. Because I'm working out through my university, most of the people at the gym and in the fitness classes are really fit college students. A lot of the times I wind up being the only fat chick in a room full of fit, thin, really graceful girls. I won't say that it lessens my enjoyment any, but sometimes I do feel a bit self conscious. Oh well. I'm sure at least one or two of those girls used to be me and I'm also fairly sure that few or none of the girls are looking at me with judging eyes. It's mostly my own insecurities about being fat rearing their ugly heads. I know one day, I'll be one of those girls.
 
Hey Cory, welcome to the forum. I'm pretty new too. I just started last month.

First off, good for you for grabbing control of this while you're still so young. My experience suggests your body is pretty responsive to changes when you're younger.

Second, I completely understand the "self-conscious in a crowd of peers" thing. It's normal and understandable that you feel that way. But the reality is that most people are either (a) supportive that you're making the effort, or (b) too busy to really notice or care about who else is there... unless of course you show up dressed in your fluorescent Dora the Explorer leotard... not that I know that one from experience or anything...

Stick with it and tweak the process until you find a formula that works for you.
 
Quercus, may your Reynold's number always be high. :p

Thanks for the encouragement, Don! Logically I know that what you say is true.

As an aside, I wanted to include what I ate today.

Breakfast: cheerios with dried cherries
Lunch: went out to a Mexican restaurant and had enchiladas suizas (no tortilla chips)
Dinner: broiled venison steak with roasted broccoli and carrots
Snack: one scoop of vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries on top

I know some might nay say the ice cream, but I'm determined not to feel deprived and I still have the calories left for it today.
 
I'm a biologist so I had to look up Reynold's number. I still don't get it. I was trying to say "May you lose weight." In my limited understanding of anything related to aerospace i thought that given an equal thrust less weight will give less drag and more lift. Maybe I should stick to biology.;)
 
Ha! High Reynold's can mean that the fluid around an object is moving quickly. I was trying to say that I hope as you lose weight, you'll find yourself zippier. Truth be told, it wasn't that good of a joke. :p
 
Hiya Cory, thanks for stopping by my diary :) Good luck in your journey - you sound very motivated! Also - I love that you're doing aerospace engineering :D
 
welcome Cory

this place has been wonderful for me and my ongoing weight loss journey, if i'm struggling at any point I alwasy find myself logging on here to get me back on track :)

I really look forward to reading your journal
 
Welcome Cory. You are gonna love this forum.

Regarding you feeling insecure in the Zumba class - you know in a few months you will be the thin sexy chick in class. I bet you some of those girls used to be a fatty. So don't even take note - just workout and know you will look like that soon!
 
Hey Cory,
Thanks for stopping by my diary and giving me a good reason to connect with so e more people who are on the same journey as me! As you likely saw on my signature, I started this journey back in June 2011 at 269 pounds...now 19 months into the journey As of this morning I'm at 171...that's about 98 pounds lost in my book (I'm an electrical engineer by the way... not rocket science, but if you fly girls don't have the controls, it's hard to get 'me up and down off the ground!!). Anyway, I have also been overweight most all of my life, but my weight really started gaining after I turned 40...you are so smart for changing your lifestyle now to avoid sickness, and trust me, it will help your self esteem a ton too, and as much as I hate to admit it, it will also improve your odds of employment when you get out of school...but I'm sure you know all that! The key for me in losing the weight and maintaining and gradually losing more has been the following simple (not easy plan)
1. No processed sugars or sweets (go to fruits to get that sweet tooth)
2. Low carbs. For me this meant staying away from breads, pasta, mashed potatoes etc
3. No soda..this means regular and diet (I do drink a alot of green tea, sparking water and regular water)
4. Exercise at least 30 min every day, preferrably 60 min, no matter what
5. No eating after 6 (I later revised this when I started counting calories and used the BMR to determine who many calories/day I could have, and ate after 6)
This is now my lifestyle...and I was able to do this even on an 18 day cruise, so I figure it's now ingrained enough to sustain me.

I encourage you to write down your method...(itwill help you stay committed to it) it doesn't have to be this one..you need to find one that works for you !!

Good job on the Zumba...and I totally understand your self conscienceness...but you gotta remember, you are there for you..weightloss is all about the mental attitude..I like to say it's an inside job...and it's also a very healthy egoistic endeavor...if you don't do it, no one else can do it for you, so look out for yourself girl!

I will not wish you good luck..because of me, it's not about luck...it's about choices...we have a choice what we put in our mouth, we have a choice about exercising, we have a choice about who we hang around and influences us...so I wish you good choices my friend!

I encourage you to write on this forum often, I think you'll find a lot of support and encouragement, advice and venting, and a lot of other useful and useless info...it takes all of it to get us through some days!

I look forward to hearing about your progress!

Sarah
 
Hey ice cream is not off limits for me either - as long as you can portion control and off-set it with exercise & the rest of your food is low cal, you should be fine! :)
 
scbibhouse said:
I will not wish you good luck..because of me, it's not about luck...it's about choices...we have a choice what we put in our mouth, we have a choice about exercising, we have a choice about who we hang around and influences us...so I wish you good choices my friend!
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Sarah, this rang true with me. A couple of months ago, I actually lost a friend over this endeavor of mine. She and I were growing apart anyways, but this seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back. I had told my friends about what I wanted to do and asked them if instead of going out to eat and sitting around doing nothing, we could maybe go hiking or something instead. Most of them were very understanding, supportive, and even excited. This girl was not. After a little while, she started picking fights and telling me that all I cared about was exercise and that she hated hanging out with me now because of it. The thing is, she is very overweight herself (probably also in the lose 100 lbs range). I had hoped that maybe the two of us could do it together and had spoken to her about it when I started. She had seemed very into it at first, but it just fell apart. She is the only person who has ever NOT supported me since I started.

Justina, thanks for the support! I never want to get to the point where I feel guilty over having a little ice cream. Now, guilt over a pint of ice cream is appropriate. But just a scoop? Nah. :p
 
Here's the official update for the day. Just got back from the gym and am feeling pretty sad tonight. I've felt this way after my Wednesday night workout the last two weeks. The girl who teaches zumba on Wednesday nights does A LOT of jumping, where as most of the others focus more on moving the legs. Jumping just makes me feel like poo, both mentally and physically. I can't jump for as long or as high as the other girls because I'm so heavy and it is physically uncomfortable because of all my fat flopping around. Those things coupled together mean that I'm constantly beating myself up during the workout. I know I'll sleep on it and will be happy that I went when I wake up tomorrow, but right now I'm feeling pretty crappy. I'd think about doing something else on Wednesday nights, but I feel like I need to go because it's so hard. If it's hard for me, it must be good for me, right? And I know that as I lose weight and get in better shape, it won't be so hard or as upsetting. It just makes me feel like I have so far to go and I have really only just started.

I did ok with food today. Had some cereal and half a grapefruit for breakfast, a sandwich made out of a leftover salmon patty for lunch with a side salad, and a beef and rice burrito for dinner. The burrito might have been a bit heavy, but I'll offset it with some soup tomorrow night and not worry about it.
 
Jumping is tough on me too. I tried jump rope and it caused too many aches and pains for now. I don't think that there is anything wrong with finding another form of exercise on one night if it causes pain. If it's just tough and uncomfortable then you can power through if you like. Just remember the point is to exercise not make yourself hurt or feel bad about yourself. You should be proud of yourself for making the changes and anyone there that would look down on you for making yourself healthy has bigger problems than being overweight.

Don't feel sad. You're doing great!
 
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