Hello!

[Mindfang]

Hello everyone, my name is Asia and I recently have to decided to begin my journey of fitness. I am 18 years old and i'll come out and be bluntly honest. I am 350lbs, and 5'11. I hate my body and never really gave much effort to change it. After consideration and delving into my family's history I came to find out diabetes runs in the family. I need to change this. My goal weight is 200lbs. In all honesty my 'normal' weight is supposed to be 173lbs which I don't see happening. I want to do this for me. I want to be able to wear a bikini, or even feel comfortable wearing a skirt in the summer. Now and days appearance is everything and I want to put a effort in. I want to be a cosmetologist and with that comes beauty. I know if I hit my goal I will be more confident and i'll strive to do the best work possible. But back on track, obesity runs in my family. My mother before her gastric bypass was 400lbs, and I don't want to follow in her footsteps. I want to do this without surgery. But where to start? I eat roughly 3 meals a day, excessive snacking, and soda. How I love soda. I'm trying to teatter off of it but its hard when its always available. Then I need to get out there, do things. Not coop myself up in my house and eat and play videogames. But i'm on Weight-loss fitness to get a bit of insight, to get support. Anything helps at this point im just not sure where to start?

 

[Benny Bent]

Well, limit the soda a lot, start to drink a lot of water everyday, it'll help against water retention and you might already lose some lbs ( not fat just lbs ) in the first day of this good habbit.
That's already a start.

 

[Mindfang]

Thank you

 

[joshd_1973]

Health is a great motivator and reason to shed the weight. One of my biggest motivations is that high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease run in my family. I have children and I want to see them grow up and I might not be able to choose my DNA but I sure as hell can control what goes into my mouth and how much I move.

Ditch the sodas for diet drinks and just by drinking a lot of water you'll see an instant impact in your weight. Use that to make so other changes to your diet and potentially introduce some exercise into your routine.

If it all seems like a mountain try and change just one thing at a time. Something you can do today.

 

[Nostalgic]

Making the change from soda to water can be hard at the start but trust me you will learn to crave it as I do now.
Even at restaurants out I might order a light soda but for the rest of my meal it's water and sometimes I even drink that before my diet soda.

Healthy eating, water and exercise and you will reach this goal.

 

[Elle33]

Hi and congrats on starting this journey Best thing to do is to NOT give up everything at once. This often leads to bingeing, followed by negative feelings such as guilt. Take each day at a time and start small. You say soda is available....DONT make it available, at least at home. I understand in shops etc its hard because they are everywhere, but you CAN control what's in your environment. Maybe set aside certain days of the week where you allow yourself diet soda, or if you drink say 6 sodas a day, aim for only 3 and slowly decrease. Reward yourself with a play of the video game only after a walk. Start small..10 mins... then 15 mins and eventually you can build up to an hour. You can also do hand weights at home or beginner workout videos. I tried Mel B's dvd the other day and it was so hard, I only did 25 mins, but 25 mins is still better than no mins ;-) We all have good and bad days, we're human so dont be too hard on yourself.

BTW, you dont have to be beautiful to be a cosmetologist. Im a beauty therapist/makeup artist and I dont look like a model, Im just average looking. It's not what you look like that makes you good at your job. Best of luck. I have alot of delish recipes Im happy to share with you too

 

[Majed]

Welcome Asia

 

[Omega]

Welcome to the forum.

If you can bring yourself to ditch the soda and switch to water - that would be ideal... If it is just too hard - then switch to diet soda since that would bring your calories down by a lot... Then you could work on having less diet soda and more water... Rome wasnt built in a day... Allow yourself to take time - I found it useful to challenge myself to only have diet soda after I had drank a certain amount of water... Weight loss is all about calories... you need to burn more calories than you eat if you want to lose weight...

The first thing that I did when I was big was I started going out for a walk every day. My first walk was about 0.6 miles long... I didnt care how fast I walked - just that I did it... It didnt matter if I had a rest - just that I did it... I then had to walk at least as far the next day... I pushed myself to walk further as soon as I felt able... Pretty soon I was able to walk for miles every day... I still didnt care about speed... Amazingly - after a while - I found that I had speeded up naturally. A slow walk is a brilliant form of exercise and very effective for a big person.

Many people find it a process rather than an overnight transformation... My first actual "eating" step was to try to cut out chocolate bars... My husband and I were both big (and he didnt know what I was doing at first)... Every night we would fetch several chocolate bars each from the chocolate drawer... I used to sit with mine in front of me and not eat it... At the end of the night I used to move my bars into a different drawer... Pretty soon I had a secret drawer full of chocolate that I had saved up... When I told my husband - we literally restocked the normal drawer from my drawer of saved chocolate...

In time - I made other changes - I stopped having take-aways and started focusing on eating meals that I thought were healthy. I started eating more vegetables and less bread... It all developed over time.

I suggest that you read the following thread - it may help you settle in and make friends here
http://weight-loss.fitness.com/threads/57955-My-advice-to-newcomers

Good luck with your project.