Hello! New Here. Advice needed!

Hi
 
I am new, though was a member ages ago.
 
I am almost 40 and have been training again for almost 2 months after a lay off of a few years due to illness etc (in which I put on lots of weight due to meds).   In 2 months I have lost about 7lb in weight, 4 inches from my waist, 2 from my hips and an inch from each leg.  I have gained a lot of strength pretty quickly and though still far from what I used to lift, I am very pleased.  My cardio is going well and I feel very healthy and good in myself.
 
Do you think this is a reasonable amount to lose over this time period?  I know I will never get back to what I used to look like as I simply don't have the time to train that hard, but I do want to get back to not feeling like crying when I look in the mirror (I am pretty much there :)  ).  I am 5'8 and and weigh about 12 stone 7 just now.  I would like to just keep going the way I have been really, though not sure if this is realistic.  My legs I am almost happy with - the shape is coming back nicely and not too much fat on them. Arms not too bad though still a bit of fat to lose.  Stomache looks awful though I am losing weight there more than anywhere else and it is a lot better than it was.
 
I start uni again on Monday and with my timetable I should be able to train 4-5 days a week.  Hopefully 2x a day on 3 of those days. Weights in the morning then cardio in the evening.   My diet is ok.  I hate veg but do make myself eat it.  Protein I know I need more of and I will try to remedy this.
 
Does anyone have any advice re good stretching exercises for the hips?  My hips have got quite tight the last few weeks and I am not sure why.  Any general advice anyone can give me is VERY gratefully received.

hi holly, welcome to Muscle talk!  Sorry to hear you were ill, but great that you can now move forward and are still driven to train despite having a genuine reason for the weight gain!  well done!

  your inch progress sounds much much better than your weight loss, so that coupled with your strength increas i would say you have added some muscle as well as loosing some fat, and thats a fantastic achievement!

sounds like great changes for a couple of months!  And i dont see any reason why you cant continue to make changes to the way you look! obviously it will slow down at some point, when it does then maybe you can have a play about with diet etc, but for now while your progressing like you are, i wouldnt do much different to what you are!

my other half comes in here regularly, and ill let her advise you on the hip thing!

daz

Thank daz - any advice from OH re hips gratefully received.  I should look up a human anatomy book but since I will be doing hours of anatomy from next week (not human, lol I am a vet med student) I am a bit loath to end my holiday!

It was very frustrateing not to be loseing any weight for ages. Inches were coming off and my clothes getting looser and looser as I got stronger and stronger so I knew I was on the right track.  I am lifting about double what I did 2 months ago on some of my bigger muscle groups such as legs and back so that is good. 

I do need to start eating a bit better.  Reading the forums has reminded me that I am not eating the best I should, particularly my protein intake

sometimes the scales can be very misleading, like you proved! if you were getting smaller ie clothes getting looser, then you must have been loosing fat! the scales just showed that you were replacing it with muscle! Good job you knew that though, so many people give up thinking just because the scales havent dropped they havent got anywhere!

If my OH (rachfit) hasnt been in here in the next day or so, ill give her a poke to have a look and make some suggestions for the hip tightness.

if you need any help on diet, feel free to post it up and someone will help with it! there are plenty of very knowlegable women posting on here, but this section can seem a little quite some days, so i drop in now and then to reply to people like yourself then you dont think you have gone unnoticed :-)

Thanks Dazc.  I may post some details of my diet once I pluck up courage.  It would be nice to get advice.  I live in Hungary so its actually quite hard to get many of the foods we eat and take for granted in the UK.  Fish for example is very expensive (other than canned) though chicken is not too bad. Vegetables and fruit are fantastic here - mainly grown locally so very fresh.  Have never found cottage cheese but there are probs with language - even using a dictionary.