Last Fall, having had nightly chest pains, I stopped in to the Health Centre to get it checked out (before you start worrying mom it apparently isn't my heart). I was stunned when I stepped on the scale as part of the exam when I saw that I weighed 265 pounds. When I arrived I was a fairly fit 205, a good weight for me (despite the Wii Fit that continues to let me know I'm obese).
The shock of seeing that I had gained 60 pounds since I came here, coupled with chest pains (mom, listen they're pretty much all gone, and they don't think its my heart anyway) spurred me to action. I started cutting way back on what I would eat, stopped drinking pop, stopped eating the family's left overs, and snacked on fruit and yoghurt instead of, well instead of anything.
My goal was to get back to 205, and the first pounds shed amazingly fast, and then nothing. At 220 I started back exercising, first on Wii Fit, then back lifting weights three times a week. Then I started to do one or two cardio workouts a day on Wii Active, anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour in total.
And I stayed at 210 pounds. And stayed. I was shifting around the weight I had, which is good, but the weight goal stayed tantalizingly out of reach. Finally the last two weigh ins (at home) have come back at 205. Now to keep up the workouts and keep the weight off. I'm motivated and as long as I stay healthy it should work reasonably well.
When I dropped the initial weight and posted it on Facebook, a couple of friends wanted before and after photos. I said that I would when I reached my target weight. Hence this somewhat rambling and self indulgent post. I don't have a lot of decent photos of me, so I grabbed a before picture from my "Valentine's Day" video from a year ago. I'm sitting but it gives a pretty good idea of me at my heaviest.
And this is from today, slim, trim and fun to be with.
Comments
23 responses
The quality of the before picture is nicer, but I can definitely tell that you lost a lot of weight, especially in your mid-section!
Good job‼ Keep up the good work! I guess is it harder to keep fit up in the Arctic?
You look GREAT. Congratulations.
Clare, you look absolutely fantastic! What a difference between those two pictures. You are serving as some real inspiration to me. Congratulations on getting down to your goal!
Good for you Clare!
I am exactly the same weight you were when you started and I hope to get to 220. Now I just need to get started. Thanks for the inspiration. J
Congratulations on losing 60 pounds! I think the Wii must rely on BMI, which doesn’t differentiate between muscle weight and fat weight. A lot of athletes probably qualify as obese as well.
Way to go, Clare! You look very fit!
So you do the bulk of your exercise on the wii fit? I recently got a wii and was curious about what kind of workout you do with it. Does it really work? Is Wii Active something separate from the Wii Fit?
Great going on the weight loss! I’m 50 lbs down at the moment with tons to go still. Not really loving going to the gym, which is why I got curious about the wii fit. 🙂
Wow, you look great! Congratulations on the weight loss. It must have been an intimidating number at the beginning, but great job sticking through and getting to your goal.
Thank you all.
@Breigh. I got Wii Fit at Christmas, but now I mostly use it for yoga. I found their cardio workouts not enough (boxing and super hulahoops aren’t bad) but the thing I dislike the most is that you can’t extend the exercise until you reach a certain level. The step routine is a perfect example. I’d love to have one twice as long or more, but apparently I’m not rhythmical enough.
One of the Members here recommended Wii Active (which is put out by EA Sports) and I find the workouts more challenging. Plus you can build your own, if say you wanted 35 minutes of cardio boxing you could string together a whole bunch of cardio boxing sections. I have both the Wii Active Personal Trainer and Wii Active More Workouts. I generally do a work out from each every day. I found that the exercise band that comes with it doesn’t offer enough resistance for me, so I ended up ordering one separately (which is actually a little too much right now, but finding something online without being able to try it is a pain).
Congratulations, you look great!!!
I was in denial about my increasing weight until two summers ago, when one day I decided to start running. The weight loss has been gradual, but I hope to reach my goal early this summer.
That Wii Fit is merciless, isn’t it? 😉
That’s an amazing loss, and fast too! It’s especially difficult losing weight in the arctic dark season, I think, when it’s so hard to get outdoors and be routinely active in an outdoors way, and it sounds like that’s when you did this loss, which makes it all the more impressive. Way to go!
Wow. Did you get new glasses or something? No, wait, it’s the beard, isn’t it.
Lookin good, Clare! Congratulations on such a fantastic achievement. Losing weight isn’t easy. So far my most effective method I’ve found has been spending a week in the hospital on an IV – dropped ten pounds that way once – but not exactly practical. 😉
I am so happy for you… good job at getting back what you once were.
Thanks Deb. I may do some running when it warms up, but running is such a chore for me. It takes a lot persistence for me to keep at it.
Thanks Nancy, it was indeed during the dark season. I’ve kept motivated because, quite frankly, I’m a overweight fifty one year old, who wants to see his young children grow up.
It is the beard Michael. Amazing how slimming trimming a beard down to a moustache and goatee can be.
I’ve done a version of that diet Seabrooke. After two months of the Bobby Sands diet when I lost 30 lbs for a bet, I caught Salmonellae. Twenty more pounds in a little over a week. Not recommended.
Thanks kingsalmon.
looking good… check that, looking great! Congrats.
Good work. I’m so inspired that I am contemplating putting down my gingersnaps and walking around the block. I’ll give it some thought, hate to rush into anything.
Thanks Morena, and gail.
Gail, I used to say “When I feel like exercising I lay down on the couch until the feeling passes”. But I’ve got a lot of good motivation now to keep this up.
Awesome! Congrats on making, and maintaining, a healthy lifestyle shift!
My old roomie and I were obsessed with WiiFit, and because the two of us were so competitive we really stuck to it daily. Fun way to go about it.
Looking good!!!!
Thanks Kate. I did find it quite motivating, and the kids enjoy Wii fit also. Its nice to get back into a yoga routine after all these years.
Thanks Dave.
Kia ora Clare,
Inspirational stuff, well done! Having developed this hip problem which now basically has me infirm until I get it replaced next month, had made my dimensions creep up. I can’t wait to get active again. Man, those photos of before and after really make an impact.
Cheers,
Robb
Thanks Robb. Do you expect a full recovery after the hip replacement? Will you be back doing the same hikes?