Oh to feel beautiful ...

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So my mom is giving me a deal...if I lose four pants sizes, I will get a new wardrobe that she will pay for. Not the best way to bribe me into lose weight, but hey, whatever works.


I have never been skinny. Maybe when I was four, but not since I can remember. I have always been muscular and heavy. I am short as well, so that always helps...I mean, I don't LOOK heavy...I hide it well, I guess, because my friends keep thinking I am losing weight (no weight lost). I think secretly I am afraid to lose weight because I don't know what I am going to look like.


But I am ready to try. I keep going back and forth with diet and exercise, but this summer, I really, really want to go back to my sophomore year of college with a whole new attitude and a new body.


I work eight hours, moving furniture and painting, Mondays through Fridays and I have been noticing that my arm definition is getting a lot more toned and muscular. So that leads me to my actual questions...

1) Is it better to lose weight and gain muscle or just to lose weight?

2) If I keep up a 1200-1400 calorie/day and around a half an hour of workout 5-7 days a week, plus all the lifting I do working, will I be able to lose four pants sizes by December?

3) Is there any way to curb cravings for junk food? If so, what are some remedies?


Thanks for listening...errm...reading this incredibly long post. :-D

Hi Everyone!

I was just wondering if anyone knows some exercises to do in the morning when your getting ready to go to work or school. I don't mean a full blown workout. But like a 10 min. mini workout that kind of gets you going in the mornings. 

Right now I do about 50 bicycle sit ups and while I'm walking around my house getting ready for school  I'll do lunges instead of walking. And I try to do 3 sets of 10 bicep curls before I leave the house. Just little things that get's your body going.  But I want  to mix it up a little? Any suggestions?

So, before this community is deleted, I want everyone to know that I've created a new community called fitbody_fitmind. Right now the info is pretty sparse, but I'm about to be running out the door, so I don't have time to enter rules or anything right now. I'll do so later. Please consider joining if you have enjoyed a_better_body and are sad to see it go.

Look, I never meant to stir an issue like this. Though I now understand what I said might have bothered someone, I did it with all the intention of saying that unhealthy habits can be overcome, that being healthy is not easy, but worth it. I had read the user-info, of course, but in my post I never encouraged any kind of behavior, I was just talking about MY progress, because to me it feels that way. I am trying to change, and I am set on this path. That was all. Perhaps I didn't express myself correctly, english isn't my native tongue and maybe I overlooked something.
Now, I really don’t know what to do. Thing is, considering my habits (and though I am trying to change them), I wouldn’t know what to post or refrain from anymore. We all sense things differently and it seems to me that I’ve done more harm than good in your safe haven.
That’s why I’m leaving. It was great meeting some of you, and I learnt many things. For that, I thank you.
Bye and take care, Jewels.

OK, first of all, I wasn’t expecting such a reaction to my last post. I want to thank those who were supportive, for, even though I am feeling healthier, sometimes it’s great to have reassurance from others.
Now, let me state that I do not have an eating disorder, nor am I trying to disrupt the safety of this community. My 900 calorie diet was recommended to me by two different doctors (an endocrinologist and a nutritionist), based on my lifestyle and type of metabolism, or so they said. It was really hard sticking to it and, after a while I realized it just didn’t work. So, fearful of another mistaken doctor, I started trying to eat more and joined this community for tips, support, just like everybody else. Had I wanted a pro-ED community, I would have joined it, but that's not what I'm looking for.
After your help, and finally one from a good doctor, I feel I’m accomplishing something… after all, I am eating more (at first I couldn't have more food, it was as if my stomach couldn't tolerate it) and I take Fridays and Sundays off from the gym (an activity I not only use to lose weight, but simply do because I enjoy it, specially after spending a whole year in bed due to an accident). But if you feel that I don’t belong here (I won't lie to you, I'd like to lose a couple more punds, but my concern is being healthy and plan on reaching 1500-1800 cals a day), that my posts are disturbing, saddening or else, I’ll leave.
Just tell me, and I’ll do it.
Thank you.

February 2006 : 155-160
March 2006: 150-155
April 2006: 145 - 150
May 2006: 140 -145

My weight keeps shifting like that. Monday I will weigh 140, then Wednesday I will weigh 145. Is this normal?

I still am working at getting down to 130. So far so good, it is just long & hard. I just wish I could lose the last 10-15lbs in the next two months.

What do you girls do to lose weight?

im doing the sparkpeople.com thing, where they guide you through everything. and it says i can loose 10 pounds by july 5th? does that sound right? to me it seems like for as much as your eating it wouldnt come off that fast.

Hello! I'm new and wanted to say hi!! I have a question that could be really dumb I suppose so please forgive me.

I have been successfully running 5-6 times a week for the past three weeks and I have lost 10 pounds (I now weigh 119). My overall goal is to just tone and shape up, not necessarily lose weight but in that they are both occurring I'm okay with that. I have the membership to my local Y and have signed up for a tone and sculpt class and a body blast class, one on Tuesday, the other on Thursday and today I set up my fitlinxx where I will go do a full body weight training workout twice a week. On top of this I run anywhere from 2-6 miles six days a week. I'm hoping to get toned up and in shape enough that I can train for a marathon soon.

Is this a bit much? 4 days of weight training of one sort or another and 2-6 mile runs 5-6 days a week? Or is this a good plan? Or neither? I don't want to over do it but I also don't want to waste my time doing not enough work to make a difference. Am I being overly cautious? Any advice and or 2 cents would be great!!!

I was at Barnes and Noble the other day, and saw a book called "The Shangri-La Diet." I just rolled my eyes and thought, "oh yay, another fad diet with ridiculous rules that nobody can follow for more than a month or two." Then I started seeing mentions of this diet all over the place. Finally I caved and read about this new miracle diet. The premise is just about the craziest thing I've ever heard. You drink tasteless oil (extra light olive oil, for example) or sugar water two or three times a day. It must be an isolated intake -- one hour before and after food, 'cause OBVIOUSLY that's the only way this insanity will work. The idea is to separate taste-calorie association. Oooookay. The creator (who has no background in diet, nutrition, or weight loss, by the way) says that by doing this, you somehow convince your body that you don't need to eat as much. WWWHHHHHAAAT??

So anyway, I just happen to have some extra light olive oil at my house, so I took a sniff of it. Icky. Then I tasted just a touch of it with my pinky. OMGSONASTY. It was so NOT tasteless, like the dude was saying it was. I can't even imagine drinking a tablespoon of that shit every day. Holy gagfest.

And then I got to thinking. People are actually following this guy's advice. People will do ANYTHING to lose weight. And by "anything" I mean "anything except eating right and exercising." It's just like a quote my brother used to have on his computer at work: "I'll do anything for money, except work." In my mind, it would be so much worse to drink a bunch of NASTINESS every day than to just go running and watch what I eat. But I guess to other people, the olive oil idea sounds like the easy way out. Crazy.