A Beauty Project: Journey to health.

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jaylilee

Obsessed with colored powder
Joined
Jul 3, 2011
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Hi,

I am not sure if these posts are not allowed... so please feel free to remove it if it is not! I posted earlier on the no-buy forum about creating a journal here to keep myself accountable, where I would post updates of how I am doing on this "beauty project" of mine.

So, backstory; I have roughly 80lbs to lose. I put them on through college and then a few unhealthy years after... now I'm looking to lose it. I was active as a child but then that somehow seemed to have stopped entirely in my teens, and several moves after, then college, and crazy schedules combined with an overall lack of knowledge about healthy eating led me to 80-90lbs on my 5'3" frame. I've been greatly inspired by a lot of ladies on instagram and other places (tumblr, here) who have made progress on their goals and I figured it was about time I took control of my own body!

I started an account on instagram by the same name of this post to try and become more self-aware of my spending habits in makeup (wooo boy had I spent a lot in the last two years), after having realized that all the spending was me trying to make myself feel better for not being fit and healthy, and not looking or feeling my best. Also the spending had to stop. I think I have been making progress in that aspect, the no-buy forum has helped me immensely (there is so much support!) and I finally think I am ready to take the next step. So, I'm putting it on here for all to see. 

Right now I am:

1. Going to the gym 2-3 times a week, trying more for 3 and eventually work my way up to 4.

2. Focusing on finding activities I enjoy doing: right now that is swimming. 
    - I don't mind cardio, but I hate "sweating" and feeling like a guinea pig on a wheel, and I'm a bit too intimidated by the free weights!
3. Using calorie tracking app MyFitnessPal to keep track of my intake. I think being aware of what I eat plays a huge part. I have a "goal" of calories but I am not feeling guilty if I stay a few under or go a few over. I just need a range to go by.

5. Trying my best to cut out sugary coffee and eating out, out of my lifestyle! This is probably 60% of the reason I put on weight, the 40% left was due to inactivity.

My starting weight.... 219. (man that hurt to type). Goal is 130-140 of lean muscle. 

I will try my best to update this thread weekly, with progress and notes about my journey, and hopefully you ladies and gents will join me in doing the same, so that we can all keep ourselves accountable!

 
Alright, so I will be trying to do a weekly update sometime on the weekends from now on. That seems like a good balanced way to keep updating, though perhaps the posts will end up being a bit long. If anyone else is reading these please feel free to jump in! 

Monday: No Gym. I slacked off and couldn't find my swimsuit (yeah lol), so instead I went home. My fitness pal says I ate okay, but it wasn't fantastic eating nor did I get any exercise in. Boo.

Tuesday was better... I did some light cardio on the recumbent bikes for about 45 minutes or so. I have weak knees from past injuries but swimming seems to be strengthening them as I had no pain or discomfort from my knees. I try to be on the bike for at least 35-45 minutes, though I will try next time to do a solid hour. I have a tracker watch so I will be wearing that next time to see how many calories I actually burn. 

Wednesday was swimming day, and so was Thursday. I was able to stay well below my recommended caloric level of 1,600 calories. I actually ate about 1600, with swimming for 30-45 minutes (leisurely, since I am not good at swimming laps yet, really) putting in about 300-450 calories...swimming seems to burn a lot of calories! I am trying to learn my breathing techniques, now that I am more comfortable in the water and don't feel that "I'm going to sink!" paranoia. My goal is to work my way up to swimming one full lap in the next couple of weeks without stopping... my coordination with swimming is a bit off, and the breathing part always gets to me! 

Friday was rest day, as I made it 3 times to the gym. I was tempted to go in and swim but my hair is hating me right now due to the chlorine so until I find a good swimming cap, swimming will be restricted to twice a week. That might be my goal for tomorrow actually.

 
Well.... last week sucked. It was a very hectic week but I think I used "being hectic" as an excuse to totally skip the gym. I went once last Monday. That was it. The whole week I also ate horribly! I did keep track of my calories and stayed within my caloric limits but the meal choices weren't the healthiest, and coupled with no exercise, I felt blah.

The last 3 days we have also eaten like absolute crap. Visiting family who makes delicious but fatty meals, and then downing the mt. dew/dr. pepper like it's water to keep us awake during a very busy weekend of getting family stuff taken care of. Needless to say, not much got done in the health department.

This week, which for me will be a short week of work, I am going to concentrate on my diet. Pre-cooking my meals at home for the week has worked before with a lot of success. I was told health was 80% diet, 20% exercise, and I feel this is true. So I will be concentrating on getting the eating part down...5 times a day, small meals, heavy on the protein and making sure all fats are good fats.  I have done this before and it was hard at first to keep my timing (had to set an alarm) but got easier as my body figured itself out and "told" me when it was time to eat again. 

Would anyone be interested in seeing what sort of meals I put together, or perhaps have meal ideas of their own they'd like to share? if anyone does, it would be awesome.

 
Hi,

It's really great that you're taking control of your life like this! My focus needs to be strengthening my body in terms of ability, muscle and endurance as well as basic cardio fitness. Reporting your progress here probably will keep you going and more diligent, so I'm saying eat better and work out more! It seems it was a naughty week for the food!

I don't know what sort of meal suggestions you're looking for, but I had a really good salad recently. It had papaya, cucumbers, mixed greens, romaine, sliced onions, and a dressing with olive oil, lemon juice, powdered mustard, some sugar and salt, and the ground fresh papaya seeds together with half an onion. It was nice with chicken on the side. You could bake some chicken breast with it. A grain is not always necessary with this kind of meal, but you could have some steamed quinoa, wild or brown rice if needed.

Another recent meal was pad thai, where the main ingredients were onion, shrimp, egg, chicken broth for cooking rice noodles, tamarind shrimp sauce, fish sauce, carrots, celery, eggplant, onion greens, sweet pepper, cashews, and bean sprouts with lime juice. For both these meals we had enough for  at least four portions.

Something I need to be careful on is portion size as I have the tendency to give my self a little more than I really need and then to give others much more than they really need, thinking that since I'm not active I dont eat as much, but the active people must need a whole bunch more, where in fact they really do not need more. The problem with too much food on the plate is that with distractions we will go ahead and eat it, and it is hard to accept and assess the full-don't-actually-need-anymore point with more food on the plate.

I ate a good portion of pad thai today but not at the right time - it was 6 hours later than I should have eaten, So now my body is hoarding calories as it thought previously that I was starving. For food right kind, right quantity, and right time are the key.

I have the ideas but not the energy to do these meals at times. And I have the desire though not the discipline to make sure I use the stationary bike daily. I'm definitely interested in your meal plan and cooking strategy. Low effort meals that are healthy and protein dense are very important.

Have a better week!

 
Quote: Originally Posted by Monika1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
  Hi,

I have the ideas but not the energy to do these meals at times. And I have the desire though not the discipline to make sure I use the stationary bike daily. I'm definitely interested in your meal plan and cooking strategy. Low effort meals that are healthy and protein dense are very important.

Have a better week!

Hi Monika! Thanks for chiming in.

Those recipes sound absolutely delicious and I will give them all a try. My cooking strategy is mostly based off of what my husband and I have learned from having personal trainers as well as a large amount of our friends competing in body building and physique shows. The strategy is pretty easy, for weight loss or maintenance:

Keep 5-6 small meals a day (depending on your caloric needs), every two hours or so, with the last meal being at no later than 7pm. 

For that, it boiled down to having breakfast within half an hour of waking up, and then my metabolism would quick in to alert me when I needed another meal... it took my body about a week or so last time to become finely tuned to when I needed to eat, but for the first week or so I set myself an alarm on my phone to remind myself. Also lots of water.

My husband and I both try to eat high protein, moderate fat (good fats), and low carb/sugar. We switched our cooking to very little oil, and if so, then it can either be coconut oil or olive oil. A small meal can be an apple and a handful of walnuts, which also add up to the good fats, so for my 3 major meals it was a filling breakfast, lunch and lighter dinner, with my other 2-3 meals being mostly healthy snacks that hit my macros (fat, protein, carb). Always a protein shake before or after working out. 

We cook our meals weekly... lots and lots of protein, so chicken breast, venison, turkey. Enough for about 5-6 days worth of foods, with saturday allowing us one cheat meal, and then Sundays were our cooking days. Some people also break it down to bi-weekly cooking. If you work a desk job, or any other job where there are temptations, this method allows you to keep your food varied while also keeping you on track and not walking into the kitchen and eating donuts lol. So similar to your pad thai and how much you made. Break it down into portions that are ready to grab and go.

My problem is also with portion control. I seem to struggle with that! Also eating breakfast...I'm usually perfectly okay just having a mug of coffee and going without eating until noon, which is not very good because it does not allow for my metabolism to get going, and thus gets sluggish over time.

Anyways, as for an update, this week has been spent packing at home, since we're moving soon. Not much on the exercise department but I am at least getting some activity in. Looking forward to going back to the gym now that the weather is getting nicer.

Hope this all helps! 

 
Sunday check in! 

I've spent most of my day packing, then sitting my butt down because of major back pain due to ... you guessed it, packing.

Regarding goals, I have adjusted my goal from 130-140 to 140-150. I have realized that 140 of lean muscle is a lot more different than 140 of "skinny-fat" flab, and I would probably look weird at 130. I don't know, yet, but we'll see anyway.

 I'm going to have to start keeping a diary of what I eat because I seem to eat very little during the weekends, which is totally counterproductive. I can tell my metabolism is crawling this week, what with my not having breakfast before I rush out the door. At any rate, starting tomorrow and through the rest of the week, I plan on keeping a log of my meals (maybe through myfitnesspal, which was helpful in the past), and I will post all of it here come next week at around this time. 

I've been looking into weight workouts that I can start out with, considering how out of shape I have become since the last time I trained with weights, and go from there. Last time I had a trainer, so it was different as I was told what to do, and I remember little about proper form and how to go about it - so it's time to do research. I do have 3 sets of dumb bells at home in weights of 5, 10, and 15lbs that I can start with, until I need to change from there. 

 
Hmm, I came across this today and was wondering how you're doing on this effort. I hope it's going well!

 

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