Frugal Living » Fitness for Life- How I lost nearly 100 lbs

Fitness for Life- How I lost nearly 100 lbs

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I’d like to share a Deep Dark secret that I’ve been harboring. I used to be Fat. No, Really. . . . At my absolute heaviest, I weighed 232 pounds (March 21, 1996) (as per the doctor’s scale!). Granted, I was pregnant, but I was also FAT. I wasn’t only unfit and unhealthy, I was absolutely miserable. I’m going to show you exactly how I lost nearly 100lbs!

Budget101 100lb Weight Loss

How I lost nearly 100 lbs

I felt it was imperative that I immediately get into shape and lose as much weight as I could, as rapidly as possible. Biggest Loser hadn’t yet been thought of, I’d watched friends and family struggle through weight watchers meetings for years, counting calories, weighing foods, trying the latest fad diets, Atkins, the zone, south beach, you name it. To me, the answer seemed quite simple, get off my widening rear, get moving and stop eating ridiculous amounts of food.

I read numerous bodybuilding and fitness websites trying to figure out what type of workout plan would work best for me. What I learned (and I am greatly simplifying) is that in order for your body to burn larger amounts of calories, the larger muscle groups need to work.

The more they work, the more calories they burn. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. So with that in mind, here is the very simple workout schedule that I designed that helped me drop 100 pounds in about 9 1/2 months time, and keep it off, permanently.

Pretty simple stuff!

fitness-for-life-how-i-lost-nearly-100-lbs
Mid-40’s & Still staying Fit, for Free.

How much you need to workout entirely depends on your own lifestyle.

  • Are you fairly active?
  • Do you sit down most of the day (for your job)?
  • Do you walk to work, drive?
  • Are you trying to lose weight or maintain weight?
  • Why are you getting fit?

My Workout Plans

Here is the complete Free Workout plan for each day, including video clips of each exercise to help you use the correct form. In addition, each workout includes a free printable workout worksheet.

 

What to Eat- or better yet, what NOT to eat!

Here are a few guidelines for the dietary changes that were made to accomplish this rapid change Food Guidelines.

Also, you can view additional information in our Weight Loss/ Fitness forums

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28 thoughts on “Fitness for Life- How I lost nearly 100 lbs”

  1. girlfriend,
    i would love to see your weekly plan, but i just can’t read a guide that is one letter/line at a time!
    anything that you can do?
    mos

    Reply
    • Girlfriend,
      I would love to see your weekly plan, but I just can’t read a guide that is one letter/line at a time!
      Anything that you can do?
      mos

      I opened the links and saw what you saw but when I enlarged my window, everything was back into paragraph form and easy to read 🙂 If I misunderstood your dilemma, sorry that I wasn’t any help.

      Reply
  2. it’s kind of like google is extending the ads all the way down, which squishes everything, even in a full screen… i don’t know what you could do, really, but i’m thinking of copying and pasting into wordpad, so i can remove the ad…

    i love that someone pointed this article out. i missed it the first time and have so very much to lose….

    *sigh*

    taryn, sitting a squidge under 300 lbs…

    Reply
  3. Could someone who’s experiencing this issue take a screenshot and send it to

    contact @ budget101.com (without the spaces), so we can fix it- we need to know what browser you’re using, which version the browser is (like FF 3.2, etc) also, if you happen to know what your Monitor screen resolution is set at, that would help greatly as well!!

    Thanks 🙂

    Reply
  4. dang girl me and myranda didn’t belive you were ever heavy . you really are the woman that can do it all . myranda misses you so much .

    i want to be like you when i grow lol

    Reply

  5. Dang girl me and myranda didn’t belive you were ever heavy

    lol, Hi heather, hugs randa!!! I miss her too, haven’t seen her in ages.

    i want to be like you when i grow lol

    lol, k.. but what if I don’t ever want to grow up?

    Reply
  6. very impressive! thats alot of hard work, and by yourself, no groups! where’s your diet/eating guidelines?

    i’m trying to lose weight, and redo our eating habits-my husband had his cholesterol checked @ his last appt. the dr. called in a panick, his cholesterol was over 500! I need to figure this out and on a budget!

    thax

    Reply
  7. thanks so much, this may be one of my favorite sections. i am a new member, so i am still working my way around the site! you look great!

    Reply
  8. i’m starting slowly to lose weight. most of my life i was thin and able to lose weight easily after each baby but since our middle child was brain injured as the result of his service in iraq 7 years ago I’m sleeping odd hours and not as organized as I used to be and am having a hard time. I’m also an emotional eater so you can see where that’s going haha I’ve been working on a plan that is slowly coming together for me.

    I used to never weigh more than 125 lbs but now wear 200 lbs.

    First I’m getting on a sleep schedule that gets me at least 7 hours a day. I don’t always get to bed before it gets light (I’m the night nurse) but it’s my goal to do that because I sleep better if I get to sleep before it gets light outside. This is not as bad for me as you all might think because I’ve always been a night owl and am at my best from 6PM onward.

    After reading Covert Bailey’s books — he’s a biochemical engineer I think — I’ve started riding my stationary bike for 15 minutes before each meal. This revs up your metabolism and continues to burn calories more quickly for some time after you finish riding. This worked for me the last time before our son was injured.

    I’m eating the same food I’ve always eaten but am using a forced portion control. I never eat the food I’ve cooked for the current night’s dinner. If I do I have a tendency to go back for seconds.

    I’m freezing my meals in the smallest square snaplock container which is 10 oz and eating from the freezer OR having a salad for all three meals. I was never much for breakfast foods so this works well for me. I’m never likely to go back to the freezer and thaw a second container of the meal I’ve already eaten no matter how good it tasted.

    So I haven’t lost any weight yet but I don’t feel deprived, I have plenty of energy and my clothes are feeling looser. Maybe this method might work for some of you who are having trouble sticking with a plan.

    Reply
  9. i too am overweight. my weight came from wrong medicine prescribed, eating the wrong foods, eating too much, emotional eating and eating when i’m tired. i do not have the money for the gym and do not have a stationary bike.

    i have been off from work since jan 31 and have gained more weight. Thinking of walking during lunch when I return to work on Monday – at least. I need more vegies in my diet too. Maybe we could join up and work together to lose our weight?

    They say it is good to have a partner who wants the same thing. Anyone?

    Reply
    • If there is anyone who wants to chat privately about weight loss I’m Linda Prince Johnson on FB or maybe we want to start a forum? Not sure how to do that.

      Reply
  10. I’ve been trying to download the printable workout sheets and it won’t let me. I was able to download like three of the sheets..but it won’t let me do any more. What’s up with that?

    Reply
  11. Your weightloss is amazing. Unfortunately i dont understand the links above. But i do plan to take the titles a d try to create my own.

    Thank you for the inspiration.

    Reply
  12. I just started the strength training workout. I have done 4 days worth. My shoulders hurt yesterday. I have also been walking, and I did an Insanity workout last night.

    I am wayyyy too short to be this weight. I want to go hiking and not feel like I am going to die. I need to lose about 60 lbs but will be satisfied losing 10 right now. I hope to see results and plan to update at the end of January.

    I saw the post on FB and thought I would try it. I had a child in 1996 as well. Your workout looks like something I can do at home and not feel like I have to have special items to do it. I just use little 1 lb weights. I hold them together where it says to use Bar.

    Thanks Liss. I hope this works for me like it did for you.

    Reply
    • I just started the strength training workout. I have done 4 days worth. My shoulders hurt yesterday. I have also been walking, and I did an Insanity workout last night.

      That’s wonderful! Just be sure that you’re not working the same group of muscles each day, you need a couple days in between for muscle recovery.

      I’m a fan of using what you have at home, my first “barbell” was duct-taped water bottles on a broomstick handle and my first weights were canned goods.

      Like this:

      Just remember, you didn’t put on the weight overnight, it won’t come off overnight. Take your measurements, you’ll see the progress in inch loss each week!

      I’m proud of you, you got this gwrrrrrrrllllllllllll!

      Reply
      • I found that walking is something almost everyone can do and if your legs work, there is no excuse, so I started walking and it makes a REAL BIG difference. Also, the other biggest thing I did was cut out wheat (yep that’s right, went gluten free) and wow what a difference that makes.

        I follow Dr. Mark Hyman on Instagram and I enjoy his information and that has helped a lot. I started making some awesome salads, which I have always hated, but I made them wonderful by adding seeds, nuts, and good stuff.

        You have to think about what you put in your mouth every single day!! It is a lifestyle change, not a fad diet!!!

        Reply
        • I follow Dr. Mark Hyman on Instagram and I enjoy his information and that has helped a lot.

          Oh, Have you seen Dr Ken Berry? I think you’ll find his youtube vids & posts to be right up your ally, so to speak.

          https://www.kendberrymd.com/

          It’s nice to see some doctors coming around to understand nutrition and go against mainstream recommendations that are causing immense suffering in this country.

          Reply
    • Thank you for letting me know, we recently switched platforms & some of our links didn’t update properly. It’s been fixed!

      Reply

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