Glad to see you reading Berardi and Cosgrove. Keep it up. ;-)

You're welcome! No...YOU keep it up!

Aoife, I love your Blog. thanks for the smile.

ps... I loved your poem... please write more...

I started working out in April, and the first logging of my weight I have was two months later in june when I'd lost about 15-20 pounds.

While I've been a vegetarian for a long time, before I got fat and therefore before I lost weight again, I really cleaned up my diet in order to lose weight. Gone were the french fries, the candy/cookies/cake/icecream, the pizza, the mounds of pasta, etc. I switched to a diet comprised mostly of salads, veggies, and veggie protein "meat" replacements like Boca and Gardenburger products.

Since losing the weight it's been a better balance, I don't deprive myself of the tasty things I gave up to lose weight, but I keep my indulgences to a minimum, of a moderate amount, and of good enough quality to satisfy my cravings (most of the time). Sure, I slip up, and that's how I'm up a few pounds, but overall life is about having fun, enjoying yourself, and not going overboard in any behavior which could turn self-destructive, including eating. Most of the time, it's a chore to remember to eat, and I usually do fairly good when it comes to quality.

As I got farther along, it did seem like I was slowing down. There were a lot of reasons for this. I found I was often eating too little, my workout was the same for nearly a year, and I was generally losing steam.

I started lifting much heavier weight at lower reps, my cardio went from long steady state to short intervals and high intensity intervals, my eating became cleaner and I ate much more... closer to my maintenance level at that point, and things picked right back up.

It took longer to go from 140 to 120 than it did to get to 140, but that's because it gets tougher once you get closer to your goal because you're eating so little to maintain your weight, eating less is a hassle... and your body tends to like certain points it feels is a good weight/bodyfat level. My spot seems to be 140. My body likes it. I don't.

When you're close to your goal, it takes much more work to get results, especially when you're in pretty good shape, as I was. My resting heart rate was in the 40s, my caloric burn was at about 1800-2000, pushups and crunches were so easy they weren't worth doing...

I had to eat very well, often, and not too low... just about 250 below maintenance. I had to lift heavy, I did 5x5s. It really changed my body, got me far beyond just simply "tone," but it was intense and took a lot of work and monitoring and strictness with my food. No candy. No cake. No fries. Not one. No skipping workouts. No half-assed workouts. No staying up all night.

You have to want it bad. You have to be willing to make it happen, not just hope it happens. You have to work for it. You have to spend the time and money and energy making sure you eat right, get your workouts in, cook your food and pack ahead of time to eat often enough, stay away from the things that deter you. You have to ignore the people that say you're good enough. You have to have a plan and stick to it. It has to be realistic. But it has to be something you have to work for. And you have to work for it.

HOLY THATS FRIGGEN AMAZING!!!!!!!
Wow 200 to 120 yer my hero!!! LOL wow!!!

Yeah surpised and amazed as may others, and learned much after reading your posts in the forum... I've decided to give the "clean diet" deal a try. I don't eat much meat and trying to cut it off (well weekends like this are hard since Im at home and not rez and yeah home = meat lol)...

Um as you've listed above I see clean diet involves fresh fruits, veggies, whole grains, and non-processed stuff... Im gonna give those a shot.

Do you feel that your diet had a big impact on your weight lost? Were you a vegetarian before that, or you became one to lose weight? Since you first started being serious about losing weight, about how long were you starting to see the results? And when your body was being more adapted to exercising, was it harder for you to notice the changes? Or changes come at a steady rate?

For like say, when you were 140, was it harder to see/ feel the change and taking longer comparing to when you were say 160? When you go from 140 to 120, did that take long?

Sorry I know the above is lot to ask... but wow you are really inspiring and you're real! I learned alot from your posts, once again, and best of luck in your process (and with the parking spaces) in the future =]

Hey. Welcome to the site (a few days late). I always use snow down here as an excuse to stay in bed, so I usually survive just fine. Take care.
:-)

Hi, I'm new to this site and just wanted to say Hi to someone in my area. Hope you survived the snow fall today. Take care.

"It's good to know someone else in the world with an Irish name ^_^"

That's a pretty name. (ah-vair, right?) I still can't decide if I'll "curse" my kids with names noone can pronounce when looking at them or not. Probably a good thing I don't have any yet.

There is a befor and after gallery forum....

I have a friend named Una (she's from ireland).

And I know one Irish phrase, "póg mo thóin," or "pogue mahone."

That's all I got, I'm serbian/croatian, not even close.

It's good to know someone else in the world with an Irish name ^_^

"Is your hair really green?"

Only in my dreams... (and in my stylist's nightmares...)

There's not really a place here that I've noticed to put photos, maybe in the forum I guess. Hadn't really thought about it. I might.

Is your hair really green?

let's see some before/during photos.

Congrats on 80 lb lost.

In all honesty, it depends on your definition of "vegetarian." If you're just someone who "doesn't eat meat" you're in for trouble. Candy and cake and frenchfries and pop are all "not meat" and they are all things that easily lead to carrying extra weight.

If, however, your definition of "vegetarian" is "one who only eats plenty of fresh fruits and veggies, doesn't eat processed crap, only eats whole grains and only in moderation, etc..." then you have a much better shot. If your day is filled with healthy, low cal, high fibre foods that contain tons of nutrition and fill you up well, it can be the next best thing to a magic bullet.

It's all just a matter of actually being sure you put good food into your body, whether it's an animal product or not. Crap is crap regardless of whether you pull it out of the ground or butcher it, and should only be consumed in small quantities at best.


Dude, I totally believe in luck. That's how I get the good parking spaces so that I'm not late to class.

Thanks. :-)

200 to 120 -- that's an incredible accomplishment!

I really found your posts helpful, even though it was sobering to realize you can gain weight as a vegetarian/vegan too. I was hoping for a magic bullet, to be honest. Sounds dumb, I know.

It sounds weird for me to say "Best of luck" because people work so hard to reach their goals on this site that it would be an insult to think luck had much to do with it. So best wishes, and keep it up!

We got a treadmill, I started walking. We got a bowflex, I started using that and still walking. I was working out every other day, eating very "clean" foods (I don't eat meat, fish, because I'm a veggie), playing tennis... until I hit about 140.

After that we got a gym membership, sold the bowflex, got a squat rack and I started lifting actual iron, and I lifted heavy.

Places like stumptuous (http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/index.php) helped a lot. I also used programs from John Berardi, The Testosterone Advantage, and things I came up with or trainer friends came up with. I hung out on forums like Men's Health and JPFitness (the latter is much better than the former now).

Now I read stuff like Metabolism Advantage by Berardi and New Rules of Lifting (Alwyn Cosgrove Lou Schuler)... New rules is where I'm getting my current workouts from.

I eat about 300 calories under maintenance, it's easier that way to not be hungry, even if the weight comes down a bit more slowly. I used to be very hardcore, but burnout has taught me a lesson... it's possible to put a few back on when you stop paying attention. Now I'm striving for a more balanced approach... it's a lifetime of living a moderate, healthy, active lifestyle... the active "weightloss" and "dieting" time is rather short in comparison. While it's nice to have the fat gone, keeping it off is much better... rebuying real estate sucks. At least I don't have to repay for much.

hey i just saw your page, how did you go from 200 to 120? what was your program like? nutrition and excercise program?? let me know.. .and good lck with yhour weightloss!