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| Fatty Get Skinny celebration dinner |
As I blogged about here, my husband and I have been on an extreme health challenge/competition for the last 2 months. It finally finished on Friday, and results were quite amazing - across 10 people (5 couples) we lost a total of 130 lbs, 30 of which were lost by my husband and I.
The plan itself felt quite sustainable...we were not hungry (except late at night, since we weren't allowed to eat after dinner) and the cravings for sugar and refined carbs subsided fairly quickly.
What wasn't sustainable was the level of exercise we were doing. Everyone became insanely competitive, and it wasn't uncommon for me to be riding my bike for an hour and then running for an hour or more every day. And would you believe we came in measly third place?
We are now trying to figure out how to sustain the results. ...we are thinking of just aiming for 4 points a week....to put this in persepctive, this would mean that if you had 2 food infractions (click back to the original link here to see what this means) you would have to run for an hour 3 times a week (or equivilant)...this seems reasonable/sustainable to me. ...I may feel differently in the dead of winter!
With so many long runs under my belt, I've had a lot of time to reflect on this competition, and what parts of it I value. I've realized that I don't really care about the weight loss. I certainly want to be at a healthy weight and feel good in my clothes, but beyond that I really don't want to focus on my weight. We've been really careful to call it a health challenge because I never want my daughter to think that I'm on a diet or that I'm unhappy with my body. I just want her to think I'm strong, fit, active, and healthy...and that I am at peace with my body. It has successfully birthed two healthy children; I think it deserves a little respect!
Any reactions?
PS: Obviously the name of our plan - "Fatty Get Skinny" - is in jest :)....I realize it's a bit at odds with the musings in this post!
Hot tamales!
ReplyDeleteI showed this pic to my friends and they commented that you should have worn a shorter dress to show off your skinny legs!
ReplyDeleteYou look fantastic!
ReplyDelete"it wasn't uncommon for me to be riding my bike for an hour and then running for an hour or more every day" No offence, but I would dearly love to see that. ;)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, any specialist will tell you that exerting yourself with such unrealistic workload is completely unnecessary, and far too often counter-productive (the infamous yo-yo effect).
Actually, losing 2 pounds a week (your average) is recommended by doctors as a healthy, slow and steady tempo of losing weight. Most people can easily lose 15 pounds in 2 months by just slightly (however permanently) altering their lifestyle (adding 30 minutes of excersise 4 or 5 days a week, giving up hard liquor/junk food/sweets/whathaveyou).