I used to be almost 160 pounds BEFORE college. I know, my weightloss isn't of a grand scale, but it's made a huge difference. In high school, it was a challenge to be even 20 pounds overweight. The picture is me just 2 months ago, no makeup, looking goofy, after the gym. Entries after this will be MUCH shorter, simply on diet and exercise, I assure you...This is purely introductory.
Let's start with my family dynamic to back up my story: My mother is morbidly obese. My dad has a pot belly. They're wonderful people, just not with very healthy lifestyles. My oldest brother is 36, a health fanatic, often OCD, and often preaches to me that I should live a healthy lifestyle so as never to "get fat". My other older brother is 29, more muscle in his build but not really "fat"- though he could be on the way to getting overweight because of his bad food habits. I never had great habits, but I tried very hard. In my junior year of high school, I was 5'5 and weighed 155. I fluctuated between 150-155 most of high school, actually. Senior year I went down to 145. And after 2 years of college, now I'm 5'6.5" and 134 lbs (less than that if I'm naked and haven't eaten yet! hahahaha).
In high school, I was never a big fitness buff. Yes, I was an ex-gymnast and dancer (I quit tumbling at the beginning of high school). No, I was not an amazing gymnast. In fact, I obtained many skeletal injuries from being a gymnast and still have to go to the chiropractor. My knees pop, my wrists hurt when I do push-ups, my ribs slip painfully, and my back and neck are constantly tense. I decided to work out more to keep my joints in constant movement, and to strengthen my muscles so I'd be in less pain (hopefully).
I became vegetarian my freshman year of college in hopes of losing weight and having better digestion from the lack of meat (since I hardly ate much meat as it was), and didn't really lose much. I did have good digestion though! I still fluctuated between 145 and 150. I was able to get to 140-143 by the end, because of stress mainly.
Then over the summer I worked my butt off,because I was dating a guy who was not only skinnier than me, but really really toned too. Turned out, he and I weighed about the same, and weren't much different in height. I hoped to one day have a guy be able to lift me up and say I was "light".
I have literally an hourglass figure. I am not twiggy thin but I am "skinny" to a lot of my friends. Trouble is, I'm not as strong as I was, because I do not lift very much, but I'm working on that now. I am starting to try for defined abs, but I have a pretty flat (yet soft) stomach. My waist is tinier than the rest of me. I have trouble with bra and underwear sizes, since I always seem to fall in-between in measurements.
Though the weight I'm at is normal, I am aiming for 125-127 lbs in a few months, so that I can feel a bit better in a bikini, and be more toned muscle than fat. I have lost about 7-10 pounds since starting sophomore year, and about 20 pounds since high school. It has taken a lot of dedication over the past year to get to where I am now. I started out only able to run a mile in 20 minutes, and burning at Most 200 calories on a treadmill. Now I can run a mile in 10 minutes, with very few, if any, breaks inbetween sprints. Now I often aim to burn more than 400 calories in a cardio session, and even more by lifting and abdominal exercises. My cardiovascular system is definitely stronger, and I can run faster (at speeds of 5.5-6.0 on a treadmill) longer than I used to.
My routine: I rely heavily on interval workouts so my body doesn't get too bored. I have mainly been doing cardio as a means of working out- I work out at Least every other day and try and burn 500 calories or more on machines. I'll give myself a break one of the workout days and do 300 calories of cardio. If I can get up to 700 or 800 calories burned on cardio machines, it's a really good day. I try to make it to the gym every day I can. During school, I go usually 4 or 5 times a week. I take my time at the gym and often am there for almost 2 hours. I run a mile or two to warm up, and my main workout is on the eliptical. Upbeat music really motivates me when running. Then I do standard crunches (usually for an entire 3-4 minute song on my ipod), elbow-to-knee oblique crunches/bicycles, and a few pike-ups. Sometimes I'll do planks, and then the ab machine (usually set at 30 lbs, I do 50 reps, take a break, and another 50). Then I do hip abductor/adductors at 70 lbs, usually up to 100 reps. Then leg extensions at 50 lbs (my knees hurt if I do heavy weights), for 200 reps. I try to work my triceps and back muscles with tricep push-ups and tricep-targetted machines. I usually do 50 reps of light weight, because my wrists are weak and I don't want big arms (like I used to have).
Currently on Christmas break, I have lost two pounds since early December and weighed in at 134 yesterday! Today I didn't work out because my body is exhausted from me pushing myself to go to the gym every day, but I stayed away from unhealthy food (besides one nonfat starbucks coffee and one dark chocolate truffle- sue me!).
xo ~ Liz
