Where to go from here? I am a little overwhelmed with everything! But so far, so good. I have really enjoyed reading the weight loss and motivation forums, but I am struggling to find posts for mid-30's looking to lose more than 20 pounds! Maybe one can be started?
Here are my facts: age-37 1/2 years young! 5'10"-large frame (I can pick up a basketball with my fingertips!)
CW: 260ish-weigh in tomorrow-eek!!
GW: I set it for 175 (I haven't seen that weight since I was in high school)
Mini-GW: I am shooting for 10 pound increments-with a mini-reward for each goal met (I read that on someone's post and it seemed like a great idea-I am going to give it a try!!)
I am a p.m. snacker, so my first challenge will be this evening at Bible Study, then at home. I hope celery can be my new bff!! Any other snack ideas?
I also struggle cooking in the kitchen, as I am a very picky eater! Anyone got any good recipes for a family of picky-eaters??
I am really tired of feeling tired all of the time and not having energy to do activities with my kids. I also want to shop in a regular store again with regular sizes, so my goal is to get down to a size 12/14-after that-we'll see!
Hope everyone has a great day!
Yes, Day 1 can be very overwhelming!
Just take it one step at a time, and the first step - starting recording everything you eat. Just to get an idea of where you are at. Then you will know if you need to make big changes in your diet or just a few tweaks.
Good luck!
What exactly do you mean by "picky"?
I agree - the big picture is overwhelming. Slow and steady wins this race though! Set small goals for yourself and reward yourself along the way. And don't be too hard on yourself either - if you "mess up" today, that's okay; tomorrow's a new day.
I'm an evening snacker too. Ugh! I like baby carrots for the crunch and the fact that i can mindlessly eat them without guilt. But that gets boring, I admit. So i have also fallen for some of those "100 calorie snack packs" they have with crackers & pretzel mixes in them. I know they cost more, but for me, it has helped with the portion control. Especially in the beginning!!
Good luck! :)
A few things. It was recommended to me that I focus on the getting healthy aspects first, the weight 2nd, as those tend to be the same things really. This helps me feel less overwhelmed as I can celebrate both weight loss and the fact that I didn't have any alcohol, or ate whole grains instead of processed, or got grilled chicken instead of fried when I went out to eat. Those are victories in my overall health whether or not the scale shows a "loss" for the day. Getting healthy means eating healthy, exercising, avoiding processed foods and refined sugars. So, weight loss and getting healthy go hand in hand. I am focusing on the health benefits and am seeing the weight come off as well.
I am also in my mid 30's and am looking to get my BMI firmly into the "healthy" range. After that, I would like to lose an additional 5-15 pounds, but I am determined to eat healthy, change my lifestyle, and then see where I feel comfortable, which is why I have set the goal off of the BMI rather than an "ideal" weight I would like to achieve. This also goes back to the idea of a change for a healthier lifestyle rather than a "diet".
The snacking thing is tough. Drink the recommended 8 glasses of water, it helps you feel fuller. Also, I am using the food log as it gives me an idea where my calories are going and where they are available to be used. Its about moderation and not denying yourself everything you want, or limiting yourself to only certain foods. Stealing a french fry off the plate of a friend is not the end of the world. I also use the activity tracker and the overall analysis religiously as it lets me keep track of the calories I am eating, the ones I have burned off and how I am doing balancing them.
Good luck!!!!
ok this is my first day too and very overwhelmed !! Lets just do it together and one day at atime with encouragement to one another . Im 44 yrs old , 5'2 and overweight ((242lbs)) . Want to lose for my health and famly , getting married in 4/6/2013 and want to b down in the 180s to 190s . Feel good about myself again too . Hang in there annelaw and im with ya ! :)
Wow! Thank you all for the support! I survived Day One! Woohoo! I woke up feeling soooo hungry this morning! But I survived it. I stepped on the scale this morning, knowing it would be bad, sure enough 263!! How did that happen! Oh my goodness! Well, that is the highest weight, and I sure do not want it to get any higher! I am tracking what I eat, and I am going to ease into the exercise, as that has never been something I enjoyed!
Kelrantymus-I often say I have the palate of a 10 year old-if it's not good for you I love it, and if it is good for you, I probably don't-examples of dislikes, cantaloupe, watermelon, tomatoes, avocadoes, onions, eggplant, peppers, spicy things, asparagus, I could go on...it's a texture thing with me. I rarely even eat oranges because of the white stringy rind particles that stick to the insides. I am weird, I know.
Kris-not really a carrot fan-although it's worth a shot-I do love celery though-so I am going to try that first-thanks for the idea!
Bunny--I agree with getting healthy first-I just want to feel better!
Pookie-sounds great! Congrats on being engaged! I am usually not online over the weekend, but I will check in daily during the week. I did really good on the pm snacking last night, but we got home late. I just need to keep my hands busy-I am a busy-body with my hands-boredom equals munching! Working on the water thing too. I was up to 4 glasses a day already, but pushing it 8 yesterday-I felt like I was in the bathroom every 5 minutes! Caffeine is my one crunch that I am working on-I have it down to 1 at lunch and 1-2 in the evening (this is down from 5-6/day-and drinking nothine else!) I would like to drop it to 1 in the evening, but I am not going to push yet. Motivation seems to be key for me-hopefully hubby can help with that (and you too of course!) Do you have a good support system to help? What tend to be your hard spots with eating?
I just finished glass 4 of water today and it's not even noon yet! :)
Given your food aversions, you're just going to have to work on trying as many different healthy foods as you can, whether you THINK you'll like them or not. If you really hate them, fine, cross them off your list, but never rule anything out entirely untasted. Sounds like you're a meat-and-potatoes person. The meat is fine, but you'll be a lot healthier if you can find some other vegetables that you are willing/able to eat.
I don't really enjoy most fruit and vegetables raw. I hate the stringy hard 'rawness' of them. But if you cook them I love them. DH is the opposite. He'll sit there and eat raw celery for fun. I can't stand it! Textures change a great deal depending on how you cook your food and many otherwise unpalatable veggies can be made to appeal to your personal tastes if you keep an open mind and try some different cooking methods.
Getting healthy, in my opinion, really should be the #1 motivation. I know it helps me on the days when I want to cheat or splurge, as I know that the cheese I am putting on something is not going to ruin the fact that the meat on the sandwich is low fat, that I left off the bacon or that I am using mustard instead of mayo. I know sometimes all we can think about is that we added cheese...I try to also celebrate the positive steps. Grilled instead of fried is a win even with cheese on it...especially if I would have put the cheese on the fried one too!
Also, the scale has its ups and downs. A dual focus on the weight loss and the getting healthy allows those ups and downs to not matter as much. You can see the 263 as a bad thing, your heaviest weight...or you can see it as where you started when you began the journey to get healthy. It is a number. It doesn't define you. How you use it does define you. Use it as you are...a starting point. Remember that the scale fluctuates and if it does, think back on what you are doing for your body. You will start to feel better, I promise. I use the Biggest Loser for inspiration...by the end of the season they all look great, but what motivates me is the workouts they are able to survive when they are heavy...proof to me that the body responds positively to ALL actual steps to getting healthy.
End of soap box now, LOL. It is just what I have learned. I have been at this a while, although I only recently joined here to help give me the motivation to get rid of the last 30, so I have learned a lot by trial and error and a lot through others. The most important lesson is that it is about getting healthy.
I did read someone else on CC was having trouble with evening snacking, so they would track their days from 5pm to 5pm instead of midnight to midnight. That way if he went over in the evening he had the next morning and afternoon to adjust. I never tried this, because for me I would take advantage and use it as an excuse to eat chocolate and Doritos for dinner, and then starve the whole next day. But to each his own.
Just take it slow, and remember, this is not a temporary diet, this is about making over your life. And your body will get used to all the extra water pretty quick, took me bout a week until I wasn't running to the bathroom every hour. (My whole office thought I was preggo)
Also, you don't have to get to the 8 glasses in one day. You can work up to it. Your body needs the water. 5 glasses when you are used to 2 is still an improvement. As I keep saying, this is all about finding the positive, about comparing one day to the next and noticing where you were better, where you struggled, and where you failed. Celebrate the better. The successes. Correct the failures. But failing in one area is a lot easier if you also have success to celebrate.
Your story is a lot like mine. You can find my success story here at Calorie Count, "Success with Determination"; it is really a life style change. Thirty months ago, I weighed 256 pounds and this is after I had already lost a lot of weight (308 pounds was my highest). Yesterday morning, I weighed 176. I am exactly were I want to be after a 30 month ride. Currently, I am increasing the calorie amount I eat to maintenance level. Always remember, "Diets don't work!", it truly is a lifestyle change. You will fail, just remember, "We fall down, we get up!" Don't let one small failure completely derail you. You have the rest of your life to get to your desired weight so if it gets a little slow at times, who cares? You are taking the most important step today. Best wishes on your new journey!
Air pop pop corn is good night time snack. You need to work in to this in a sort of gradual fashion. You can't go from really bad eating habits to really good eating habits over night. Make gradual changes you can live with and then keep adding. View it as a lifestyle change (I am going to do this for the rest of my life) and start gradually changing things. As they become a habit you can add things that keep adding to the habit. If you overwhelm yourself at first it will be too discouraging. You can start acquiring a taste for more healthy things as you keep trying them. When you first start eating healthy you have to sort of wean yourself from the salty and sweet taste that you were so use to. Believe it or not you can. You get to the point that really sweet and salty things aren't even good any more but it takes time. Hang in there and remember it is a journey. It starts with the first step. I did a bible study on weight loss as a spiritual journey and will sent it to you if you want. You can do it, just take one step at a time.
Welcome to your road to fitness. I too am a late night snacker. I keep baby carrots and pre-cut and washed celery sticks on hand for munchies. Almonds for a hunger snack. Low calorie flatbread crackers and peanut butter for really hungry snacks. Low calorie pudding for sweet snacks. Apples, strawberries, and cantaloupe are life savers. Find a fruit you like and always keep it fresh on hand.
Whatever vegetables you do eat, eat lots of them. Double up your servings and cut back on carbs.
When I first started, I concentrated on balancing carbs, fats and protein. Then I started working on the nutrients one at a time. Reading labels helped to boost these numbers. Not all yogurts or cheese or canned tomatoes are created equally.
Cutting back my sodium had the biggest impact. Many of my old favorite (high calorie) foods (like pizza) just no longer taste good.
The easiest way to immediately cut calories is to replace all your condiments with lower calorie ones. It is amazing to see how many calories salad dressing adds to a 35 calorie salad!
Watch your food log, see where you could have done better, or what you could have gone without. Could you have cut that baked potato in half?? Did you really need that whole 6 oz pork chop?
Think of your calories as money. When I look at the calories on something, I ask myself if I am willing to spend that much of my budget on it. If the answer is yes, the next question is what am I willing to do without.
Take it easy, take it slow, but GO GO GO! Best wishes.
Age 53
Height 5'5"
Start weight 235
current weight 217
Current Goal weight 170
There are alot of us in the same boat when it comes to weight loss. I am 5'3 and my highest weight one year ago this month was 275 lbs. It was health problems at the time that took me to the doctor that made me realize my weight was out of control. First thing I did was to get myself off soda and start eating more healthy. I am now down to 249, but along the way down the scale I also found out I was Diabetic (which happens to run in my family). While getting my diabetes and a few other health issues under control I have noticed I am not tired all the time and have more energy (without the caffeine). I was also informed that with keeping my carbs under control and only having a certain amount for meals (45 to 60 grams) and limited amount for snacks (about 15 grams), not only will it keep my blood sugar under control but it will also help me lose weight. I haven't added excercise yet because of my breathing issues, but looking forward to the day that I can because I know it will also help. Good luck with your own journey down the scale. Hope to see you at your goal, I'm looking for the same range. And yes, small goals along the way help.
hi pookie,
I saw your stats and we are very close in height, weight and age. Wanna be my weight-loss buddy?
this forum is a great site but its nice, i think, to have someone close to your size...know what I mean?
let me know what you think?
Just a quick thought about snacks. Celery alone is mostly water and usually does not work to get you through a craving or snack attack. Don't be afraid of nuts, they are great if eaten without going overboard and fill you up. Try the low fat snack cheese, Weight Watchers has several and Laughing cow has lite too. I like crisp bread with the cheese as a snack. Walmart has them and probably other super markets too. 9 thin wafers only 35 calories with one cheese at 35 is a filling snack. We all know that at times fruit and vegetable snacks just don't do the trick. We need to find things that satisfy in order to make this a life style change and not just another diet. The cheese can also be put on the celery.
Sargento light string cheese has 50 calories a stick and I really like it with raw cauliflower, a cup is 25. Together they have a good flavor. They are pretty filling and only total 75 calores.
Hello annelaw1974 and everyone! First I just want to congratulate you & everyone here for taking the first steps to get healthier! I am also 37 and I'm only 5 foot 1... so when I began to climb up the numbers on the scale it was very noticable. I've been playing these up & down games with my weight for about 6 years now (since I got married.) This last time I reached 150lbs in Dec and I knew it was really time to get serious. I was sick of looking at myself and not liking what I saw and feeling uncomfortable in my own skin. My sister and I decided to do this get healthy adventure together and we downloaded an app to our phones to count calories & add our exercise totals. It has really helped and I have found other types of foods to snack on and I am also excited about exercise now. I now weigh 136 and I still have about 11 more pounds to go to be within my "healthy" range. It is hard, I won't lie... but once you start seeing the difference in your clothes and in the mirror, I promise that it will motivate you more than ever! And honestly counting calories really does help because I try to add the calories in before I eat and when I see how much they are .. sometimes it helps me to change my mind before I put the food in my mouth. I have found ways to actually like plain fat free yogurt... I just add frozen blueberries to it and sometimes a sprinkle of cinnamon. Trust me... you can find many ways to eat differently than you are used to and you will feel so good in the long run! Good luck & I'm here if anyone needs motivation or support! **) -Stephanie
Thank you to everyone who has posted and given me such great ideas! I will certainly take them all to heart. I am trying to expand my palate, I do love some veggies (green beans, celery, corn, spinach!), and I love fruit. I eat apples, strawberries, grapes, pineapple, bananas, and grapefruit. I even bought a mango this weekend to try! I will let you know if I like it. I did ok this weekend on calories, I went over on Sunday evening, but who can resist steak, roasted potatoes, and corn on the cob? Yum! I am less focused on the actual calorie count right now, and more focused on making better choices with what I do eat. I chose the smaller steak, and only had a small spoonful of the potates, so I am working on portion control-and no seconds! Caffeine is still my weakness (that and Doritos!) I am currently at 2 sodas a day, and have stuck with that since Thursday. I bought lots of fresh fruits and veggies this weekend, along with some baked cracker chips, and even wheat bread (that's a biggie for me!). I am going to have to get creative with eating though, because my budget and healthy eating might not always be on the same page. We have been doing low-fat or fat-free on lots of items for years now, so that helps to not have a total shock to the system. I hope everyone has a great day. I am going to start walking at lunchtime tomorrow (forgot my tennis shoes-today-and definitely not walking in heels!) ;)
Anne
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