Need a motivational buddy!

I'm 27 female and weigh 145lbs (66kg), I'm trying to lose 15 lbs, my goal weight is 130, but I'm having real trouble staying motivated as it gets towards the crazy season (I'm in Australia, so not only is it Christmas coming up, it's the start of summer, and there's parties everywhere!). I started trying to be healthy a year ago, and lost some (about 6kg), but then gained a lot of it back when I went on a holiday. Is there anyone out there in a similar situation? I'd love to help motivate, and be motivated by someone!

'bump'

anyone? 

hello jakinkale ...

Things get a bit quiet in here in the evenings ... but be patient.   I am confident that a number of cheery, motivated CCers will be by tomorrow to help keep you on track! (I don't know the time difference between where you are Down Under and here ... but it's after midnight here in California.)

(Hello, by the way! I'm Molly!)

=^..^= MOLLY

 

Hi Molly,

Thanks for your reply, I always forget about the time difference! Right now it's 9:45am here in Oz, but I posted that last one around 5pm last night :)

Jakin :) 

Hi Jakeinkale.

I'm Eliza. I weigh about 160 and my goal is 130. I am 20 years old and live in the USA. Not only is christmas coming up but it is only about 35 degrees outside and only getting colder. I've never had anyone for motivation. My mom tries but she has ALWAYS been thin and she can still eat whatever she wants and not gain ( I wish I had gotten that Gene. lol)

Hi Eliza,

He he, it's 35 degrees here too - but in celcius (think that makes it in the high 90s Fahrenheit) and our air con is broken. I'd love to help motivate you - it's hard doing it on your own.
Sounds like your mum has the same gene as my boyfriend, he eats whatever he wants, all the food I can't and he's still skinny. He's not much taller than me, and he almost weighs less than I do! I think that my appetite is the killer - I just love food. I've added you as a buddy, feel free to pm me. When are you planning to reach your goal by? 

Jakin xx

Asap But i'm thinking May (when it starts to warm up here) so I can finally feel good in the summer clothes. I have been overweight all my life. I went down from 210 in summer '06 to 170 with out to much effort but it was slow. So now I am really trying to loose I am hoping it goes quicker. I have lost a few lbs but I don't own a scale yet so I can't weigh myself every week and keep track.

I'm a chocoholic. I can't help it. My main issue right now (besides it being almost freezing outside) is that I work at Mcdonalds - Obesity City. I can have free hot fudge sundays and m&m's whenever I am there. I've been doing good with soda though. I have almost entirely cut it out. I only drink about 2 ozs if I'm really craving some root beer and thats it for the day.

When are you aiming to reach your goal by?

Hey I'm in a pretty similar situation - I'm 22 (23 in Jan) , weigh about 147 and am looking to be 135 by March...and I just started this logging thing on Nov 9.

 I'd be more than happy to msg back and forth with both of you - it's so difficult in the first few days....the additional stress doesn't help much!!! (esp with - an internship, school, and work...and trying to put together a new band)

 And WOOHOO....thanksgiving falls just before my 2 week mark...

 I haven't "scaled in" yet.  I'm waiting for Friday because that's the first week. And I've also lost my tape measure....so I should probably get another one or find it.

 

ANYWAY add me as a friend or message me and let me know how you both are doing, and any suggestions you might have in general (cravings, how to fit exercise in, fun alternatives to "generic work outs" etc)

-Kat

Me too!  I'm 34 and gained about  15 lbs over the past 2 years and have not been able to get rid of it.  I'm getting married in Sept. and want to look great.  I really need someone to check in with...and it seems like losing 10- 20 lbs is hard to do.  I weight 144 and want to get down to 130/125.  I'm in California also by the way.

I've tried alot of different things, even hired a oersonal trainer...but that got way too expensive and I didn't lose much weight.  I think I need to be more consistant and diligent about my choices....

hii I'm looking for motivational buddies, my post wasn't generating many hits so i went in search of buddies :D I'm also looking to lose 15 by christmas, then another 15 in the new year. I need some serious motivation. I live in Toronto and its getting realllly cold here which isn't helping my motivation.

Ok Ladies let's motivate each other then!  I'm at 142 this morning...which is nice because I had ribeye last night and started to feel bad about it...even though it was only like 6 - 7 oz.  I thought for sure I would have to change this morning.

Today I am going to go to a pilates class and do some cardio before for half and hour. 

My goal is to drink a tons of water today... Does anyone else have hard time doing that?

Jakin - I love food too...and love to cook for people.  It's my downfall...when I think going out for the evening...I often want to go out to dinner or drinks, and always want to try new food.

I think I'm always going to be late replying because of the time difference...

Kat, I'm sooo glad that we don't have thanksgiving here. I think having two holidays so close together (3 if you include new years) would just be a disaster for my weight loss, Christmas is bad enough! Our gym Christmas party is tomorrow night, and it's a $15 drinks and nibbles thing, so you feel like you should try to get your money's worth, but it's so counter productive to dieting! I'm a bit stressed about it. Once I have a drink or two, I don't want to stop, especially if it's nice wine :) Sounds like you've got your plate full as well - I know how you feel!

My goal is 15 by New Years, that will make me the thinnest I've been since high school, and it was my New Year's resolution at the start of the year. It looks like we all have similar goals, is anyone keen to do a weekly weigh-in? 

Blissful, I'm just like you, love cooking for people, going out to eat and trying different foods. We have an amazing market here in Adelaide, where you can get the most amazing food, and it's where we do our weekly shop. So hard not to buy everything! Even though it's mostly healthy, I just have trouble with eating too much of it :)

Wendy, the thing that I love about it getting cold is that I love eating soup. I once went on this "kick start soup diet" where you're supposed to eat mostly soup and vegetables and fruit for a week. I wouldn't recommend the diet, but the soup was actually really good. I made a slight variation on it, which might have a couple more calories in it, although hardly any (about 1tbsp olive oil for about 8 litres of soup). If you like I'll send through the recipe. I think of it as no calorie soup and eat as much of it as I want (because that's what you're supposed to do on the diet), sometimes I put a bit of cheese on top before I heat it up, and that is really delicious.

I've been to the gym this morning, 500cals woohoo! I find that gong to the gym in the morning helps me drink a lot of water, I'll usually drink 0.5-1 litres while I'm at the gymand on the walk there and back, so having that much all before breakfast sets you up for the rest of the day. I also try to carry a water bottle around with me, so that whenever I feel a little bit thirsty I can have a sip, which is better than trying to drink whole lots in one go. The other thing I do is, when I go out for a meal, or a drink, I get imported soda water (like san pellegrino or something), with fresh lime or lemon in it, which makes me feel like I'm having a spiffy drink, but with no calories, and increasing your water intake! Solves 3 problems at once! I also try to keep some non-expensive generic soda water and some lemons or limes at home to do the same thing.

J xx 

ohh i'd love the soup recipe!! I'm always in need of new things to try. I always find i cook the same few things, i didn't work out today but I'm going to try in a bit. i think i'm getting a cold and all i want to do is snuggle up in bed and eat comfort food (not got to the comfort food yet, i'm resisting).So how was everyones day? I have christmas parties coming up, ahhhhhhh that's all i have to say about that.

i am going for 190 by march. I am now 202. I think this is going to be very difficult for me because I am going to have to watch what I eat. I get plenty of exercise and that's part of the problem. After I go to the gym I feel entitlled to eat. I have been counting calories but I don't think I am very accurate. I've taken off 3 pounds since begining of oct but it is slow and boring payiing attention to all my bad habits. Slow and steady wins the race. Not eactly a race but there is finish line.

This is my version of the soup, I'll post the website too in case you want the super healthy one, but I think mine is better :)

2 large cans of crushed tomatoes (800g each)
500mL of liquid stock (beef, chicken or vegetable)
2 cups of water
1 bunch spring onions
1 bunch of celery, including some leaves
0.5kg carrots
2 stock cubes (chicken, beef or vegie)
1-2 zucchini
2-3 leeks
approx 1tbsp olive oil
some coriander (cilantro)
a small red chilli (if you like food with a bit of kick)
salt to taste

Method
1. Chop all the vegies into pieces the size that you'd like them in your soup.

2. Heat the olive oil in a big pot (you'll need a BIG pot)

3. saute the zucchini and leeks until a little bit soft.

4. Add in the rest of the chopped vegetables and stir them around to heat them up a bit

5. Add in the crushed tomatoes, the stock (liquid and cubes) and the water and bring to the boil

6. Add salt and pepper (not too much salt).

7. Let the soup simmer until the vegetables are as soft as you like them. You can add more water while it's cooking so that it's the consistency that you like.

8. About 10 minutes before you think it's done, add the coriander (basically you add it later so it doesn't go too mushy)

So that's my recipe, I'm pretty lazy about the actual quantities of everything, I just kind of put in what I have and what I think is enough. It freezes pretty well, so that's what I do with it. Then I don't have to cook soup for ages. You can add in chopped green beans or green capsicum as well, but I'm not so keen on them in the soup.

Oh yeah, here's the website:

http://au.todaytonight.yahoo.com/article/3973 1/diet/kick-start-stage-soup-recipe

My day isn't over yet, it's only 12:30 here! It's hot and I'm about to head for the mile walk in to uni. Should have left this morning, but thought I'd be more productive at home. Hah!

hello!

 

I just started this whole lose weight change my lifestyle thing 2 day ago. i weighed in at 178. I am looking to lose 28 pounds to get back down to 150. I have always been very athletic, in soccer and basketball, so I have kind of been a bit bigger for my size because of being muscular. that sounds really funny, I get this funny image of a muscular basketball player, but it's true, muscle weighs more than fat; therefore I'm not concerned with being 150. I know it's a lot healthier than where I am right now, which happened due to family stress and going away to college for the first year.

 Anyways, I would love to join all of you and be motivational buddies. I also thought I would do a weekly weigh-in, and I noticed that you mentioned one as well. I think that is a good idea because I don't know about you, but I'm all about being held accountable so I actually follow through with this whole plan. 

 

Oh, I forgot. As I mentioned, I'm looking to lose 28 pounds, in a very healthy way, which means my target range is the end of March/beginning of April. I'm all about doing this in a way that is healthy, that will change my lifestyle; it's not just about looking good so much as it is feeling good;)

 

--Alicia 

Hi Alicia,

Well done for getting started, that's the hardest part! I'm all about being held accountable or even just feeling like I'm being held accountable :)

I'm going to weigh in tomorrow, I like Fridays as a weigh in day :)

J xx 

Hi All - I'm proud of myself I went to pilates last night and am super sore today.  I didn't do any cardio, but will tonight, and did not drink enough water...will go to the grocery and buy some sparkling...

 Jackin - I'm also a big fan of sparkling water.  I know this is going to sound bizarre...but I don't really like drinking water all the time.  I've tried it with sliced cucumber and oranges, lime etc...but I think I really like the carbonation and sparkling water makes me feel like I'm have a soda.  The soup looks delicious! I love soups! - I'm up for the weekly weigh in.

 I make one with lentil and turkey italian sausage that is really good...especially if you are looking for comfort food when it is cold.  The lentils have a lot of fiber and it is low fat and really filling.

 

Koz - Doing things in a healthy way is great & the way it should be!  It really isn't about the diet but about eating healthy for the rest of your life.  I've gone from one diet to the next trying to lose weight fast and it just isn't worth it...you end up starving yourself and then gaining it back.  I'm really trying to find the good healthy things that I love to eat and stick to those, and eating the "indulgence foods" (like triple cream brie) in moderation.

I gained weight my 1st year in college...but I think it was the beer...I'm going to try to stay away from alcohol during the week ( no more wine with dinner :( ), but at 100 cals a glass I think it will help.

 

Willyc - I also feel entitled to eat after working out sometimes...I'm not sure how to avoid that either...one thing that has helped me a little is to put a bowl of fruit in the fridge so it isn't hidden in a bin,  I see apples etc right away...I'm more likely to grab one instead of crackers or candy. (plus it looks pretty like that in the fridge)

Hey good work on the pilates blissfull! I've never actually done it, have to look for a place in my area, a friend of mine used to go and she got the most amazing abs from it. Not the rippling kind, but just really strong, that's the kind I want :)

Would love a copy of your soup recipe if you don't mind sharing. I sometimes put lentils in mine too :) Not sure if we can get italian turkey sausage here, I've never seen it, but you can get almost anything at our market, so I'll ask around.

I used to feel like I was entitled to eat after a workout, then I joined a new gym, which is really expensive, probably more than I can really afford as a student, but because I was paying so much money for it, it really made me think about why I was going to the gym, and the thought of wasting all that money just to stay the way that I was was motivation enough not to eat the extra food :) That might be one way of thinking about it. I also used to think about the time I spent working out. If I was working out instead of doing my research, or instead of spending time with my friends, it seemed pointless to have it all add up to nothing in the end. Would have been better to get my work done and not eat the extra food. Of course, the extra fitness is definitely beneficial. 

Keeping the fruit in a bowl in the fridge is a great idea, with some fruits I cut them up as well (mostly melon, but sometimes I make a fruit salad), that way you can eat it so easily, you don't have to cut it up and make a mess when you want some. 

It's Friday morning here, so I'm going to weigh in: this morning 144.5 lbs. I'm happy with that this week, feel like I'm on track .

I thought if we're going to keep in touch on this thread that I'd change the name of it. Any ideas? 

J xx 

Jackin -

I'm almost in your same situation.  I'm 27 (28 next week) and weigh 140 today.  I'm trying to get down to 125, but I'd be happy with 130.  I have a closet full of clothes that don't fit me and it's driving me crazy!!!

Count me in for some motivation!!!

~Faith