Hello..

amdsweetz

amdsweetz

New member
Hey there everyone, my name is April. I have struggled with my weight my whole life but after I had my daughter 2 1/2 years ago, I have not been happy with my body at all, I'm very self consious and I hate it. I want to actually be able to wear a bathing suit if I want to... I haven't worn one in years!
I also would like to look better for my husband, because even though he says I look good to him, I don't believe him... lol

I'm currently 5'5 and weigh around 167... I would love to lose at least 40 lbs by the time I turn 21 (that will be may 2010)

I am really considering joining weight watchers so I can learn how to eat healthier (because that is a big problem for me) and lose weight in a healthy way... though I'm not really sure if I should invest my money into weight watchers or a gym... because I really can't afford both, unfortunately. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd really appreciate it.


PS- All of those before and after pics are very inspirational to me..
 
Some people benefit from joining slimming clubs and others do not.

If money is tight it might be worth seeing whether you need to do so or not.

The bottom line is that you do not need to join a slimming club or a gym in order to lose weight. Both things can help if your head is in the right place for weight loss. Both things can be like throwing money away if your head is in the wrong place for weight loss.

I paid out for gym subs and joined Weight Watchers when I was big and got no-where.

I lost a lot of weight while not a member of a slimming club or a gym. I joined slimming clubs for taking off the final 20 pounds as part of my maintenance strategy (I wanted the free life membership and to be weighed regularly and independantly so that I did not run into problems into the future, I also liked the idea of meeting nice people that way). I would have happily joined a gym at that stage too had one been available locally that I could afford at that time.

You certainly need to raise your game both nutritionally and regarding exercise in order to lose weight. There are sections here on both these issues - and I suggest that you read these paying special attention to the sticky threads.

Since currently WW offers only their points plan - which is based on simply calories and saturated fat - I therefore think that nutritionally you would be as well off counting both calories and saturated fat using
You would then be able to examine the other aspects of your diet to see where improvements could be made - e.g. fibre, other fats, protein, calcium, sodium - all of which have an influence on how good your diet is and influence weight loss too.

Weight watchers provides recipes - but there are plenty of recipes on the forum too - also elsewhere on the internet. I was able to buy quite a lot of second hand diet recipe books at charity shops. Once you understand about nutrition and what is beneficial for weight loss - it is quite easy to evaluate a recipe and see whether it fits in with current weight loss opinion. What you are looking for is different ideas of things to do with healthy food.

In my opinion the main thing that slimming clubs provide to the average weight loser is support to keep them on track. I actually found more than enough support for that on this forum.

The best way to build a support network is to start a diary and visit other people in their diaries and leave a message. They may visit yours too - and this is how we make friends. You also make friends by joining challenges and clubs. The more you put in - the more you tend to get out of it... I actually made some very close friends this way.
 
Welcome! :)

I'll add my $0.02 to what Omega said above. I personally would chose the gym over WW - but I don't think that others have to make the same decision. I think a lot of it depends on what you feel you need the most help/motivation with.

For me - I've always loved to cook, so teaching myself about proper nutrition, learning to fix delicious and healthy foods was something I enjoyed and didn't have to have outside motivation for.

Exercise, however, has always been something I've dreaded. So for me, joining a gym was a commitment - I paid the money, I had to go. And eventually I learned to enjoy going and now it's something that is a regular part of my life.

Definitely read the threads here and ask questions - there are a lot of us who are more than willing to jump in and offer thoughts, advice, and suggestions.

:)
 
Amdsweetz, I'm on WW and do not go to or pay for meetings. I bought some WW books on Ebay, but found that most the information I needed I was able to find on the internet. I can send you a link to a site with tons of information about WW, it tells you how to figure out your daily points and activity points, if your interested. Also, there's this site called , that I use, and the food journal allows you to choose "WW point values" as a setting, it will add them up for you, along with your calories, as you add food, it tells you your WW points. Oh, and cardio DVDs like The Firm are good, those are what I use, they don't cost all that much either. Best of luck to you!
 
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On the subject of exercise DVDs - I made a brilliant home exercise collection for next to no money. You can pick up exercise videos at charity shops for literally pennies. You can play them through a few times on an old video player then hand them back into a charity shop if and when you are sick of it. I have even known people to copy them to a blank DVD - but am unsure about the copyright position when you do that.....
 
If buying WW books as tamwalt suggests - I can say that I personally think that the old "core" plan from WW is superior to the points plan that they currently market. It was based on a list of low GI/GL foods and I think that there are benefits to being aware that these tend to be the healthy choice.

I do not think that counting calories for life is a thing that most people plan on doing (or counting points for life) - so anything that makes us continue heading for the healthy choice gets my vote.
 
Also if you have cable TV, check out FitTV or Fit on Demand or whatever your local area calls it. I've done several of the Fit workouts and they're pretty good. If you have a video recorder or a DVD recorder or Tivo, you can even record them to use again.
 
Thanks so much for the advice everyone!

Tamwalt- THANK YOU soo much for the links you sent me. They will be very useful to me. I appreciate it!! :)
KaraCooks- that is a great idea. I do have on demand so I am going to check that out asap! I totally forgot they had a FitTv on there. sweet!

Omega- Thank you for all the advice, you were very helpful! :)

Well I'm off to go work out now and hopefully find something semi healthy to eat... there's no food here! lol
 
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