Hi everyone
A bit of background - during my college days, I always had a bit extra, but I never considered it a huge deal as I was participating in the marching band and burning a lot of calories with each practice.
But after college, I sort of let myself go. I bought a scale finally and weighed myself. I had never imagined I had gone up to 250 lbs and I'm 6ft.
I was already planning to diet, but I'm afraid I might be diving too quick into it. I know the warnings of dropping your calorie intake too drastically and how it might lead to yo-yoing a diet. I don't intend on doing that at all because the 250 on the scale was a huge wake up call. I'm aiming to get myself below 200, preferably to 180. I work a sit down, office job, so I already know I'm not getting much physical activity at work.
Here is how I currently have my day set up:
6:30AM wake up, eat breakfast: 3/4 cup special K, 1/2 cup 1% milk (already considering skim)
I'm hoping to fit in the occasional day where I may have an egg and a slice of whole wheat toast in the morning.
I usually don't eat anything until around 12:30. I'm already thinking I should find something in between as 6 hours without anything might be excessive. I occasionally will have a cup of coffee, but usually just water.
12:30PM: I grab lunch. Being in NYC, I find my lunch choices are limiting and I may try to start packing a lunch. Commonly, this is a salad, specifically caesar. I'm already asking for dressings on the side, but I'm wondering if Cobb salads might be any better, or if there are some easy packaged lunches I could bring into the city (45 min commute) for lunch.
3:30PM - Snack, attempting to make this fruit of some sort.
Get home around 6:30PM or so, grab dinner (smartones frozen meal, salad, grill chicken)
7:15PM - Get some exercise. For now, this has been jogging or a brisk walk, usually averaging out to about 30 mins a day
If I get a craving after that point, I get something real small (100 calories or less).
As for drinks, I've pretty much switched to exclusively water. I'll drink juice and a diet soda from time to time.
Also, as a way of getting a bit more exercise out of my office job, I do little things: I'll walk to the end of the train track when catching a train, I'll get off a subway stop or 2 before mine and walk the rest of the way, I take the steps at work.
I'm planning on starting a diary to list out each thing I had that day.
I WILL see this through. Any other helpful advice will be great. My main concern right now with the start of it is if I should be dropping calories that fast or if it should be gradual. I did just start this on Tuesday (obviously not long, but still)
A bit of background - during my college days, I always had a bit extra, but I never considered it a huge deal as I was participating in the marching band and burning a lot of calories with each practice.
But after college, I sort of let myself go. I bought a scale finally and weighed myself. I had never imagined I had gone up to 250 lbs and I'm 6ft.
I was already planning to diet, but I'm afraid I might be diving too quick into it. I know the warnings of dropping your calorie intake too drastically and how it might lead to yo-yoing a diet. I don't intend on doing that at all because the 250 on the scale was a huge wake up call. I'm aiming to get myself below 200, preferably to 180. I work a sit down, office job, so I already know I'm not getting much physical activity at work.
Here is how I currently have my day set up:
6:30AM wake up, eat breakfast: 3/4 cup special K, 1/2 cup 1% milk (already considering skim)
I'm hoping to fit in the occasional day where I may have an egg and a slice of whole wheat toast in the morning.
I usually don't eat anything until around 12:30. I'm already thinking I should find something in between as 6 hours without anything might be excessive. I occasionally will have a cup of coffee, but usually just water.
12:30PM: I grab lunch. Being in NYC, I find my lunch choices are limiting and I may try to start packing a lunch. Commonly, this is a salad, specifically caesar. I'm already asking for dressings on the side, but I'm wondering if Cobb salads might be any better, or if there are some easy packaged lunches I could bring into the city (45 min commute) for lunch.
3:30PM - Snack, attempting to make this fruit of some sort.
Get home around 6:30PM or so, grab dinner (smartones frozen meal, salad, grill chicken)
7:15PM - Get some exercise. For now, this has been jogging or a brisk walk, usually averaging out to about 30 mins a day
If I get a craving after that point, I get something real small (100 calories or less).
As for drinks, I've pretty much switched to exclusively water. I'll drink juice and a diet soda from time to time.
Also, as a way of getting a bit more exercise out of my office job, I do little things: I'll walk to the end of the train track when catching a train, I'll get off a subway stop or 2 before mine and walk the rest of the way, I take the steps at work.
I'm planning on starting a diary to list out each thing I had that day.
I WILL see this through. Any other helpful advice will be great. My main concern right now with the start of it is if I should be dropping calories that fast or if it should be gradual. I did just start this on Tuesday (obviously not long, but still)
