Jan's successful weight loss through common sense, eating for health, exercise, and determination

Date: August 7 2007

Jan Bowser

-City & country: Ulysses, Pennsylvania, USA
-Age: 42
-Weight before diet: 272 lbs.
-Weight now: 201 lbs.
-Target weight: 150 lbs.

Looking good and feeling better is what Jan is achieving with the weight loss method she's following. To stop looking like "an egg with legs" takes some discipline, and here she shows us what she does to lose weight: from the types of food she eats to her exercise routine. Jan also shares some weight loss tips that have worked for her and which others may find helpful.

-What finally made you decide to start with a weight loss program?
In July of last year I re-injured a previously herniated lumbar disk while prepping a wall for painting. I was on the couch for nearly a month contemplating my long-term disability. I already had a handicapped placard for my bad days, and at that point, I was only able to walk by holding onto the back of a kitchen chair and sliding it across the floor. I had serious thoughts about calling a medical supply store for a walker. Now, I am a fairly bright person, I know that the fat I was carrying on my front was putting too much stress on that disk. I began in the late fall to try to lose weight, but I was only able to stay at it for about a month and then I quit.

In April, my husband videotaped our son’s birthday party and I was in the video. I was shaped like an egg with legs. That day I began all over again. I had finally seen myself as I truly was.

-What type of weight loss program are you following? 
In April I set some guidelines for my weight loss.  I knew the equation: eat less, move more, lose weight. I decided to do the following:

1. Drinking: No sweet drinks. If I drink tea, it will be either unsweetened or sweetened with stevia. No pop, soda, etc. I don't drink milk anyway, so that's not an issue. I have been drinking lots of water. I used to drink gallons of sweet drinks every day. And pop! I would drink cans and cans of it. The acid from the Coke and Pepsi made it seem like I had irritable bowel syndrome. But once I stopped drinking all pop the problem went away. Must have been the carbonation and the acid! I was drinking a gallon of sweet tea a day – that’s 1519 calories right there! Ice water is my drink.

2. Exercise: First thing every morning, cardiovascular exercise on my treadmill. I started out with 30 minutes, and now am up to 60 minutes. I don’t go beyond that. An hour is enough. When I am on the treadmill, I sweat. Big time. If you don’t sweat, bump up the speed or incline a bit until you start really working it. I also have a cheapo exercise bike and I now am able to ride a regular bike! I ride around town with my kids nearly every evening before dark. I lift dumbbells and do crunches and push-ups every other day. It’s important to leave a day of rest between strength training exercises. I go to bed early and am up at about 6:15 am to work out.

3. Eating: Lots of fruits and veggies. Apples, oranges, bananas, onions, peppers, broccoli, green beans, that's what I can find now at the grocery store. Canned and frozen veggies, carrots, beans, lots of beans, mixed veggies. Mmmmm. Three meals a day and at least two snacks. Nothing after 6 pm except water and maybe a piece of fruit.

I skip on mayo, butter, sour cream, anything that's not no-fat dairy products, also breads, cakes, cookies, chips, dip. If I can make a reasonable substitution, then great, if not, then it's history. I can live without chocolate chip cookies.

I choose my foods carefully, instead of:

Red Meats ----> Boca Burgers (soy)
Bread ----------> Pita Bread or Lite English Muffins
Potatoes -------> Rice
Chips ----------> Pretzel Crisps
Butter----------> I can't believe it's not butter spray
Dressings ----> Salad Spritzers

4. Accountability: Fitday.com journaling - it's free. I journal my foods that I eat, my exercise, and I have a written diet journal where I can talk about anything. And I do. My journal is public, feel free to browse it and then you can set up your own if you wish.

5. Medical Intervention: I am taking Meridia, 5 mg every day. Sometimes you can't go it alone. I weigh in at my doctor’s office every week. It’s free to just step on their scale. They record my progress. The staff is my cheering section. They make me feel so good. I used to dread weighing in at the doctor’s. I also take a multivitamin, a calcium supplement and three large glasses of Metamucil smooth orange fiber supplement throughout the day. Fiber not only prevents colon cancer, but also lowers cholesterol and binds fat in the digestive system. The sugar free version of Metamucil is terrible though. Bleck.

I am doing this for ME. Not for my husband, not for my kids. Not for wanting to see if people treat me better, but because I want to be thin. I want to be strong and I want to cut my chances of ending up like my parents did, dying of cancer because of years of unhealthy eating habits. Food can kill or food can cure. I choose cure.

-Why did you choose this weight loss program?
I just tried to base my plan on common sense and tailored it to fit my needs and what I could reasonably expect to be able to stick to for the rest of my life. I didn’t want this to end up a non-sustainable weight loss program. About two months into my plan, I read the book Make The Connection by Bob Greene, and strangely enough his book was nearly 100% the same as my plan. Great minds think alike, I guess. It’s been very affirming reading his book, realizing that my plan is sound.

-How long have you been on your weight loss program?
So far it has been 100 days.

-What kinds of physical activities do you like doing to maintain your weight and to stay fit?
I walk for an hour on the treadmill every day. Every other day I do crunches, modified (bent knee) pushups, and 12 different exercises with dumbbells.

-What were the most difficult obstacles you had to overcome or are still overcoming?
Cravings, staying motivated. I try to remember that if I want a particular thing and nothing else will do, then it is just a craving. If I can’t get hungry for a can of veggies, then I am just craving, not hungry. When I am hungry enough to eat beans, then I know I am hungry. I have had to retrain myself to feel those inner impulses that tell me when I am full and when I am hungry. I had lost that due to overeating.

-How do you keep yourself motivated?
I take photos of myself every month and post them on my blog for comparison. I keep a fitday.com journal so that I can track my progress. I measure my body every single week and track the progress. In April, I measured my bust as somewhere around 57 inches, my waist was about 53, and my hips were 57 inches. Here are my measurements since April:

Neck 15 ---> 14 inches
Bicep 12.50 --->11.50
Forearm 10.25 ---> 9.5
Chest 50 ---> 45.10
Waist 47 ---> 41.5
Hip 53 ---> 43.8
Thigh 22 ---> 20.25
Calf 16---> 15.5

Now that’s motivating!

-Do you have any weight loss tips for our readers?
Use your common sense. If a diet aid or program says that dieting will be effortless, they are lying. It’s hard. Otherwise everyone would do it. But by staying steady and making a plan that you can reasonably stick to, it’s do-able. Don’t try to do it all at once. Start with some exercise, and then modify your diet to get the junk out. After a while, begin lifting some light dumbbells to build strength and boost your metabolism. Do it day by day. Don’t dwell on the long term. If you have a time when you fall down on your plan, dust yourself and get back on. But if you find that you are falling off all the time, have a heart to heart talk with yourself and make a plan that you can stick to. Use moisturizer every day to help your skin stretch back without sagging and wrinkling. This also helps keep you in touch with your body. Put it on in front of a mirror. Naked.

-Do you think it will be easy to fall back into your old lifestyle pattern? How do you prevent this from happening? 
Oh, slipping back into old habits is as easy as pie. But I am going to try to stay steady. It is easy and painless, in fact, quite enjoyable to gain weight. All you have to do is sit back and eat. I am going to strive to not let that happen. I want to be around for my kids. My mother, father and every female relative in our family in the past forty years, died of cancer. I have a very vivid picture in my mind of my mom, after she had lost 100 lbs while on chemo, she said, “If I knew I would feel this good losing the weight, I would have done it years ago.”  I don’t want to get cancer. Who knows if I will, but by eating right and exercising, I am cutting my risk factors.
 

-Do you have a favorite Web site or blog that helped or inspired you to lose weight?
Several, too many to list here. Many are on my blogroll, listed on my blog.

http://www.thebestlife.com
http://momtothescreamingmasses.typepad.com/the_elf_diet
http://www.fitday.com
http://www.talesfromthescales.net

and here is my blog

http://just-a-mom-thats-more-than-enough.blogspot.com