It’s been awhile since I did an “Ask Me Anything” Post. I get a lot of emails, usually with similar questions. I’ve answered some of the usual ones before. Here are some of the old posts:
Now on to more reader questions!
I’m 17 and I weigh 205 pounds. I’m a female. When you were on your journey to losing weight, did you have a good support system? You give me hope.
To answer your question, I did have a lot of support from family and most of my friends. There were definitely people in my life that were NOT supportive and even tried to sabotage my efforts to lose weight. Those people didn’t stay in my life very long. I don’t think it’s worth it to keep people in your life that aren’t going to bring something GOOD to your world. The emotional vampires, the self-centered people that are just your friend when they need something from, the person that breaks you down instead of building you up…who needs that in your life? Life is short and that time should be spent with positive people that enrich your existence.
I think what helped me when it was time to lose weight was that I’d been overweight for so long that my family and close friends were concerned for my health and they were happy to see that I was making a legitimate effort to lose the weight. Once the weight started to come off, I got even more support. It definitely helped keep me motivated when things got hard. Having positive re-enforcement from people around me helped me make better choices.
Don’t give up. Trust me when I tell you it is so much easier to lose the weight when you’re younger than when you are older!
I’m a new listener to Half Size Me (loving it!) and I recently listened to Lisa’s episode, which was so motivating and interesting. In it, Lisa mentioned that she has read a lot of weight loss memoirs and that got me wondering—can you share what some of the best weight loss memoirs are that you’ve read?
Here are a few of my favorites:
“The Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl” by Shauna Reid
When you swim, how often do you breathe and do you only breathe on one side?
When I swim at the gym I get a lot of comments and questions from people when I’m done. Sometimes it’s when I’m relaxing in the hot tub, but usually it’s in the steam room when I finish up my workout. The most common question I get is how far I swim and how do I keep track of laps? I usually swim a 1.25 miles, sometimes 1.5 miles. I’ve gotten pretty good at counting the laps as I swim. I can do it without even thinking about it. Sometimes if I do space out and forget my laps, it’s no big deal because I generally swim 45-50 minutes at a time and so I can guesstimate how far I’ve swum because of the time.
When I swim I usually breathe 2-4 times in one length of the pool. That might not seem like much, but keep in mind that I’ve had to work for that. When I first started swimming I had to breathe a LOT more often in order to make it to the other side of the pool. As I got more fit, lost weight and became an efficient swimmer I didn’t need to breathe as often and I can often hold my breathe for the entire length of the pool.
If you are just starting out with a swimming workout don’t put too much pressure on yourself about the breathing. Breathe as often as you need to and honestly, you should probably take a breathe BEFORE you think you need it. Until you get good at it. The better you get at swimming, the less you will have to breathe while you do it. Also, if you hold your breathe for too long, that will actually wear you out quicker and your muscles will fatigue and make it seem a lot harder to swim than it really is. So build up to it slowly. Listen to your body and you’ll get there.
As for the breathing. When I learned to swim as a kid they did not teach bilateral breathing. After I learned how to swim the new “thing” was to teach breathing on both sides but it was too late for me. It felt unnatural and no matter how much I try to do it (even now I still sometimes try to retrain myself to breathe on both sides) I can’t do it. My neck and back muscles just don’t work that way when I’m in the pool and I end up floundering and sputtering and will probably drown. 🙂
When or how do you go from wtf am I doing to gee, I enjoy the gym?
Good question! When I first decided to lose weight I started swimming a few times a week. For one month (I hadn’t started counting my calories yet, and I hadn’t weighed myself either) I went swimming about 3 days a week. It was really, really hard. I was fat, out of shape, slow, and could barely swim to the other end of the pool. Once I got to the other end of the pool I had to rest for a bit before swimming back. I’d say this was the case for a few months. Once I was swimming consistently 3-4 days a week (probably around 30 minutes each time), the less I had to rest before swimming back the length. It just took some time. The better I got, the easier it was to breathe while swimming and the less I had to rest. Once I got to the point where I could swim the length of the pool and not have to rest before swimming back I LOVED it. I felt proud and excited that I was seeing obvious progress. I think seeing progress and being able to tell I was GETTING BETTER made it fun and easier to stick to it.
I made goals for myself. Things like, “I want to swim 5 laps without having to rest.” Then it was, “I want to swim half a mile without having to stop.” Each landmark I reached made it easier to push myself further. That first time I swam 1 mile without having to stop to rest I felt like I’d won the lottery. I was SO HAPPY!
So to answer your question, in my experience I enjoyed the gym once the activity I was doing got easier. Short answer: I’d say about 2 months.
I kept at it, I practiced everything and set goals for myself. Reaching the goals made me proud and I enjoyed going to the gym. Not only that, the endorphins from exercising improved my moods and I started to get addicted to that “high” from exercising. To this day, I know that the exercise high is a big part of what keeps me going to the gym. I notice the significant difference between my moods on exercise days versus rest days. This is a natural stress-reliever and anti-depressant for me, so I stick with it!
Finally, I think it’s VERY important to pick an activity that you like and will stick with. If you hate running, don’t start running. If you have knee issues, maybe cycling is a better option. Hate the gym? Try taking your workout outside and go hiking or play tennis. Basically find something that give you joy and you’ll stick with it!
Do you have any questions I can answer? Ask away!
Connie
It’s never too late to learn bilateral breathing. I am 53 and have been swimming since I was 17, and I just learned how to do it 3 years ago. I was motivated after a personal trainer pointed out to me that one of my shoulders is higher than the other! I asked a swim coach at my gym to give me some tips on form, and she pointed out that my body position was fine for breathing on both sides, but I just had to roll a bit more and keep my chin tucked to breathe on the left (rather than trying to raise my head the way I was instinctively doing, even though I don’t do that on the right). It’s easiest to practice with a pull buoy to get your body a little higher in the water and take the kick out of the equation. I promise it can be done. I learned how in ONE coaching session and then just had to practice until it became more comfortable.
Lisa Eirene
That’s very cool you were able to change that!