Dara's Diary

M

Masie

New member
Hi,

I'm new to these forums, and have been reading through some diaries. They can be quite inspirational. It really helps me to read that someone did their sit-ups today. Right then I will get off of this chair, get on the floor, and do some sit ups. It's a great push.

A little about me... and my dieting past... I am not a naturally slim person, the only one in my family that is not. In high school I got up to about 160 lbs and decided to do something about it. I started running, eating right and the weight started to come off. I got down to 144 and hit a plateau. I started using weight loss pills, skipping meals. I'd run before school, after school, and before bed so that I could burn off whatever I had eaten during the day. And it worked. I got got down to 128 lbs. (I'm 5'5") But it was killing me. I had the shakes, felt like I was going to pass out at any given time. So I stopped the pills, and started eating again. And I eventually stopped exercising as well.

Fast forward through senior (party) year, a brief time at college, multiple family crisis's and a pregnancy... I found myself at 200 lbs. And in complete shock and disgust with myself.

I cut calories and started walking everyday, and I lost 10 lbs in 10 days. That was a month and half ago. I've kept that weight off, but have resumed the bad eating habits. I'm really good about going out for walks though.

I'm stuck. I'm so out of shape I don't know where to begin. I used to be on the track team for crying out loud!! I can't even jog a quarter mile anymore. I know what I have to do, but I feel so defeated already.

Sorry for the book, and I don't usually have such a pessimistic outlook on such things, today's just a bad day I suppose.
 
Well, you've come to the right place! We will help encourage and support you. (Okay, at least I will, but I bet others will, too!)

You can reach your goals, just keep going and don't stop!!
 
Welcome to WLF. Starting a diary is a great start. You will find tons of support, encouragement and advice here.

You CAN do it!!!

~Jenna
 
Hi Dara,

So go with your strengths!

You're good at taking a daily walk, excellent! So make that the cornerstone of your program. Push yourself a bit harder each day, walk faster, or further or add hand weights. Do this as you develop your diet.

Then each week make a small change to your diet, maybe cut out one thing out that you know you shouldn't be eating. Keep a food diary and be thorough and honest so you can see where you can make changes without shaking things up too much.

One mistake I've made in the past was to start a diet that required me to eat so vastly different from the way I used to eat, with different foods. If I was able to stay on the diet at all, then the day I switched back to my baseline eating patterns the weight, like the tide, came back.

So instead work with the foods you like (the healthy ones) and make gradual substitutions to replace okay things with good things and begin to work on portion control. That is important. Measure your cereal in the morning (for example) so you know what a serving is.

Turns out I was regularly eating three or four servings of some foods, while counting only one. So become an expert on portion size and estimating calorie count accuracy.

If you can make the adjustments to your diet gradually, I think it is more likely that you will develop lifelong habits rather than changing your behavior long enough to lose weight, but in a way that is unsustainable in the long term.

Best of luck!

David C
 
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