Happy Anniversary to me! (muscle, lifting, build, drink)

[VTHokieFan]

The end of July/beginning of August 2010 is when I began taking my health seriously and started exercising and eating right. It was tough at the beginning, but now that I'm in the habit of living healthy, I can't imagine my life without it. It's almost something I enjoy doing now. My max weight was 225 in Fall 2008, but I came down a bit and maintained 220 for about a year and a half. I now stand at 185. But I KNOW that while I've lost 35 pounds of body weight, I've lost more in fat.

Here were some tips that worked for me.

• I did not cut calories. I ate a standard 2000 diet. In order to build muscle, you need to have a caloric surplus. If you're running a deficit by lifting, how is your body supposed to repair its muscle effectively if all that protein you ate, at 4 calories/gram, is going to energy. Others may disagree, but again this is what worked for me. So I sought a balance and instead of a deficit, I ate to meet my energy needs.
• I didn't cut calories, but I did shift to healthier options within 2000 calories. I cut beef and pork, quit eating bread, shifted to whole grain carbs,eat fish and have dabbled in vegetarian dishes.
• I eat 6 small meals/day
• I have quit putting table salt on food.
• I went from drinking to get drunk 4x per week (college ) to 1x per week.
• I was patient. Unless you are morbidly obese like on those A&E shows, you are looking at 1-2.5 pounds of weight loss per week. Just the way it is.
• I drink lots of water and cut out juice,soda,etc.
• I used my lunch hour to do cardio.

[LadyKLO]

Congrats to you!!!! You should take a picture of yourself and compare where you were last year. I celebrated my one year anniversary in April this year. Down more than 115 pounds with roughly 40-50 to go!

Keep it up!

[Snort]

That's very impressive!- both of you.

[michelleleigh]

Wow you have both done great!!!

[VTHokieFan]

I've started low carbing it so hopefully I lose those last 10 here soon.