Gonna be a long post ... Newbie =]

[May21]

Hi all. Big, friendly hello from me!!


I am a 20 year old woman from the UK and I am sick and tired of letting my weight and body issues, confidence etc affect my life! So far nothing has really worked for me so i'm hoping a forum full of people in the same kinds of situation will be just what I need to be motivated!!





I didn't start gaining any weight until I was about 9 when a grandparent died and my parents divorced. At the time I was 5'6 so any weight I did gain wasn't a big deal (I am 5'9 now ... doctors have no idea why, but I did all my growing as a child and not a teen. Caused me MASSIVE amounts of pain in my joints and got teased alot for being taller than all the boys)


I remember being weighed before I started highschool by the school nurse at I weighed in at 9st 2lb....a perfectly healthy weight for the height I was...except I was 11!


From that point on i've been a bit bigger than average. Up Until I was 17 I was a size 14-16 (UK size) and was quite confident and didn't mind that at all, given that I am tall I thought it suited me. Then when I was 17 I went on the pill injection. I distinctly remember weighing myself in the January after that and I weighed 14st 7lb .... then the next time it was 15st 7lb ... then 15st 11lb ... all this time I have not changed my eating or exercising habits weight is just piling on. I started dieting but couldn't get any lower than 15st 7lb ... I asked my nurse about it but no action was taken, no advice or support given NOTHING.


Anyways .... now i'm 20, nearly 21 and weigh 18st 4lb (that's 256lb). It is getting ridiculous, I watch what I eat and I definitely do not eat enough to keep gaining all this weight but it just doesn't stop going up! In six months i've gained 12lb but I don't really know how!



I am in a loving relationship and have been for 3 years but it is really taking it's toll on my self confidence. I have devloped stretch marks on my stomach from keep losing a bit of weight and then it coming back tenfold and I am SICK OF IT.



So. Better late than never, I am getting pro-active. I have a girls holiday coming up May 21rst so that is my deadline. I hope to be around 15st 7lb by this point!!




I don't want to be a skinny minny or anything ... I just want to go back to feeling comfortable. I think I looked nice when I was a size 16 ... so that is the goal ... lose the 2 dress sizes and go back down to a size 16. So ... I will be joining the gym, eating according to a plan and coming on here to moan,cry and whale about how horrid it all is!!



Much love, sorry it is so long! x

 

[Lara Rothman]

First of all, good for you making the choice to make your self happy and better your life. I am new to this site too, came here to get that kick in the butt to start the diet and exersize regime i have planned for myself. I would like to offer some advice, in hopes that you may be helped by it. I have learned that everyone see's things differently, and that means they are motivated by different things. For more concrete thinkers who like numbers and lists and orders of operations I would start by telling them that 1 LB is equal to 3500 calories. As a lot of people know, they way to lose weight is to consume fewer calories than you burn off on any given day. That means, that careful calorie counting is a great way see concrete evidence of your progress, and decreasing your weakly calories by 3500 a week means you will loose 1 lb a week. Also, progress is one of the best motivators there is, along with the compliments from other people who see your progress.

If you are more of a visual person. You can imagine your plate of food. When you serve yourself, if you have at least half of your plate comprised of veggies and fruit, and the rest whole grains and lean proteins (either animal or plant), your probably doing well. It is not necessarily the quantity you are eating, but what you are eating that effects weight loss. Like I said above, you only lose weight if you burn more calories than you eat.

I have found that learning as much as I can about nutrition and how your body processes what you eat, has helped a lot in motivating myself to make changes in my lifestyle.


I hope that helps!

~L