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I'm new to this forum... but I was wondering. does anyone have any idea what might help a person to either maintain their current weight that they've lost, or help them to lose the last 10 or 15lbs ? Supposedly my healthy weight range is 135 to 145. When I started a month ago I was 175... since then I've lost 15 pounds to get to my current number 160. However I seem to be stuck at 160...
I've been pretty good following my diet and I've been making attempts to walk 20 minutes a day on the treadmill. Sometimes I've even done 40 min. in a day if I skipped a day. That seems actually to have helped me lose the weight faster. But I still got a stubborn 10 or 15 to go. Any suggestions on excercises that I could do besides walking? Yesterday actually I was out flying a kite that I made at my art school... and I found it was really good excercise and it didn't even feel like it. So if anyone likes the kind of exercise that I tend to like where it doesn't seem overly demanding, that's a great one!
Tomorrow I'm going to go for 30 or 40 min. on my walking...
Oh another thing... the one thing I miss on this South Beach diet... is Tortilla chips and salsa! Does anyone have any idea what I could use as a substitute for the Tortilla chips?

Good luck to all who venture into losing weight ... I know I need all the luck I can get!

Tabbycatgl

Well its officially day 2 of writing in here. I walked at least 30 min. on the tread. So I feel good. I think halloween might have knocked my diet a little out of whack. Since I had a couple pieces of candy. At least that's the only thing I can think of that I've been doing that might make me stop losing at the moment. That and I just might need more excercise and vary the types of excercises that I do. My mom and my sister are also on this diet and they've both lost 20 to 30 pounds. I told them both that I'm not going to stop until I can wear a bikini. Not that I care about wearing one. But I think it'd be nice to say once in my life that I could actually go out in public and not feel embarrassed in one of those things. I admit for one of the first times in my life I feel very good about my body. I was never a person who wanted to show a little leg or any other part of my body for that matter. But now I feel like I can show a little leg. Cause now I've got the legs I always wanted and never knew I had! But I feel like the real thing to remember about dieting is that... somedays your going to fall off it. But the trick is that after you fall off you just jump back on. I mean there are times when I just get a craving that continues for a week. And then I say to myself... thats it... I'm going to have something that I want. But when I choose to be "evil" I try to pick something that will satisfy my craving, but be a lesser evil. Like instead of having a brownie or chocolate cake I have a cup of cocoa. So that way I still feel like even though I've broken the rule, I've at least thought more about what I was going to have.
I was thinking about maybe trying to get one of those big exercise balls to work with... Has anyone worked with one of those? Do you like it?

Good wishes for all

Tabbycatgl

I still have yet to figure out quite how the forum works. But then that's the artist in me, I never seem to do things the conventional way...
Anyway... haven't done my excercising yet today, but planning on it. Another 30 minutes on the treadmill. Thinking I might actually try and go to the cat shelter today or this weekend... I'm not only trying to improve my health but my role as a person. I was so happy last week because I wrote a letter to the editor of my newspaper about the shelters and how we need the publics help. And he published it! Which gave me a second wind to start writing letters to other people who might be able to help with the situation. I also went through orientation at the local humane society here so now I can spend time with all of the animals there. I've been working with the cats at lot at the other shelter and a lot of them have made progress. I know some cats it takes 6 months to rehabilitate them to people again. I've been going there for about 2 months and a little more... and spent time with a cat named Olivia. She's a beautiful little gray cat with suspicious eyes. At first if I came near her she'd hiss and run. But now she stands her ground more and she doesn't hiss as loud as she used to. Infact now she even sniffs my hand and doesn't feel threatened enough to move. I still can't pet her though. But I'm looking forward to a day when she will let me. I'm planning on taking a cat home soon... though its so hard to pick when they are all worthy of the luck. Though Squirt seems determined to go home with me. She often greets me by coming nose to nose with me. And she's very luvvy dovvy. There's one cat I'd take if I could. But he has bowel problems so he's not very good with a litter box. Still Smoky was the first one to greet me when I came in the door the first day. And he's gorgeously black with yellow eyes and a full face. And the most perfect little white teeth and pink mouth I've ever seen on a cat. He's a prince.
Anyway... they are friends to me... all forty or more... and I try to be friends to them as much as they allow. So for anyone who does work at a shelter or has adopted an animal from a shelter I applaud you.

Well I've succeeded in bumping up my daily excercise routine from 20 min of walking to 30 min. a day. However, for the past 2 days I've had shin splints which are not fun... so I'm going to wait just a little while for that to get better. My sister has lost even more weight, though she didn't say how much... but I don't think I can remember the last time I saw her so thin I recently found out that jumping rope for half an hour burns more than walking at a moderate pace... I'm hoping to be able to change my routine to that sometimes. I've found that it actually helps when your walking to listen to music that you find inspiring... it helps you to be more revved up about it. I like listening to songs that have messages that seem to go along with trying to reach my goal in some way. Though fun songs work too... Plus it gets your mind off of watching the numbers on the clock a little bit.