Want To Lose Weight? Don't Give up

-
A lot of people who have tried to lose weight for years and have pretty much given up need to read about this women who finally decided to lose weight because of her job. She wanted people to take her serious and wanted to lead by example.
Alerted to the health dangers of being overweight, Samantha Szabo changed her lifestyle and her eating habits. Now she's 145 pounds lighter, and in better shape than she was in high school.
By Charlotte Latvala
Originally published in Fitness Magazine 
"I Did It!”
Name: Samantha Szabo
Age: 31
Height: 5'5"
Her Weight Before: 280
Her Weight After: 135
Pounds Lost: 145
At Current Weight: 1 year
Even at 280 pounds, Samantha Szabo considered herself athletic. "My weight didn't stop me from playing sports; I told myself I carried it well," says the Brooklyn physical-therapy assistant. But her career choice alerted her to the health hazards of being overweight, and she made changes that led to a 145-pound loss. "My energy level is higher, I move more gracefully — even my skin glows."
Active, But Big
Samantha grew up on a "meat and potatoes" diet, but softball, track, basketball, and soccer kept her weight around 150 as a teenager. After her mother's death, her diet deteriorated. "I'd skip breakfast but chow down on chicken wings and beer at 10 p.m.," she says. By 26, she weighed 250; a few years later she was up to 280. Around then, she was studying to be a physical therapist. "I started to wonder if patients would take advice from someone my size," she says. "I decided to try to slim down."
Dieting Smart
Samantha began with a sensible low-carb eating plan. "I cut portions and replaced fried foods, white bread, and pasta with fish, vegetables, and whole grains." She also started eating breakfast. Within four months, she had dropped almost 50 pounds. Then she started walking two miles a day; later she joined a gym and added cardio and strength training. Ten months later, Samantha was down to 135 pounds.
"Everything is better since I got healthy," says Samantha. "I'm in better shape now than I was in high school."
Samantha's Weight-Loss Plan
The Diet: For breakfast, Samantha has two egg whites and two ounces of broiled salmon. Lunch is grilled chicken salad. Dinner is chicken or fish with salsa and steamed cauliflower. She snacks on raw veggies, whole wheat cereal, and hard-boiled egg whites.
The Workout: Samantha does 90 minutes of cardio (elliptical, cycle, treadmill) and 30 minutes of strength training five times a week.
Biggest Temptation: Buffalo wings. "When I crave them, I make grilled chicken with hot sauce."
What She Couldn't Wait to Wear: Trendy underwear. "I actually cried the first time I went shopping at Victoria's Secret and was able to fit into the colorful, sexy bras and undies.”
I know that everyone doesn’t have the time to workout two hours a day, but Samantha wanted to lose weight fast and that’s the way to do it. Even if you can’t do a two hour workout, you can still lose weight. Naturally the more you workout, the faster the weight loss. If you think about it, how many people can spend two hours a day in the gym. It’s not realistic. I lost my weight in stages. First I dropped about 30 pounds. I hit a wall and for several months I stayed the same. The following year knowing I regained about 5 pounds, I wanted to continue and try and lose 20 more. It actually took me several months of yo-yoing up and down before I got down to 175. That was 45 pounds total over a couple of years. Like everyone else, my life is hectic and I’m pulled in several directions at once and can’t always watch what I eat, so losing weight can be challenging for anyone.
I hit the wall again at 175 and stayed there for a couple of years until I felt I had too much body fat and wanted to lose more. Today I weight about 160. I want to start weight training again and hopefully gain a few pounds of muscle. As a senior more muscle is a good thing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's the Mediterranean Diet?

-
Image
The Mediterranean diet is based on the traditional foods eaten by people living in the Mediterranean region, especially Greece. It's loaded with healthy foods and research findings suggest following this diet may help reduce some of the risk factors for heart disease.  According to the Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust, the Mediterranean diet was introduced in 1993 by Oldways, Harvard School of Public Health and the World Health Organization.  The diet includes: Olives and olive oil Whole grains, mostly in bread and cereal rather than pasta Very little red meat Fish and seafood Some cheese, but less milk Lots of vegetables and fruit Plenty of legumes and nuts A little red wine The Mediterranean diet is high in fiber and antioxidants from vegetables, legumes and nuts, far greater than the typical Western diet, and low in saturated fat. Very little red meat is eaten in this region, and milk consumption is limited as well, exc...
Read more

Changing Your Life To Lose Weight

-
Image
I can let you in on the ultimate secret for successfully making a change in your life. A century’s worth of psychological research reveals an interesting paradox in who we are. On the one hand, once we reach adulthood our basic personalities remain unchanged for the rest of our lives. We keep doing the same things—and feeling the same ways—over and over. But, on the other hand, every day we change our behavior drastically in response to different environments. Most of us are one person at work, for example, and another person at home. It is easier to change our environment than to change ourselves. So, if you want to change yourself, change your environment. Said differently: Whenever possible, don’t try to fight temptations – avoid them! The easiest way to make a change in your life is to modify the world around you in ways that will naturally drive you toward making, and maintaining, the change you want. There are many ways to change your environment, but let’s focus...
Read more

Cancer and High Protein Diets

-
On the Fox TV Network the other night, one of the big stories was about high protein diets. A new study has shown a link between the over consumption of animal protein and how it can stimulate the growth of cancer cells. It seems we all have cancer cells but they don’t normally grow, unless we consume too much animal fat, dairy or fats from processed foods. Before I continue I want to explain about the link to cancer. After all, Man has been eating red meat for millions of years, right. That's true but todays red meat is not the same. Most red meat that we buy in the supermarket comes from Steers that have been raised in feed lots on a grain diet that is full of hormones and other chemicals that shorten the growing time and put more fat on the animal. These hormones and other chemicals stay in the meat and what you're buying will contain the chemicals that the animal ate. Normally a grass feed Steer that lives on the range in big herds will take 18 to 20 months to grow to ...
Read more