I have no idea where to start

[infinite]

Hello from Indiana. I'm a newcomer. I want to give a brief backstory and explain my current situation. I'm hoping people here can provide me with some useful advice. This can all be very overwhelming.

I weigh about 180 pounds and I'm 5 foot 5. I have kind of an apple body type as in, I carry most of my weight in my stomach. I'm very self-conscious about it. Even when I was skinny, I always had a belly and a roll when I sat down. Now that I've gained weight and lost it only it again, I don't know what to do.

With that being said, my living situation makes it hard for me to make changes. I don't drive as I'm legally blind, and I work basically next door to my house at a gas station. Crappy food has become kind of convenient to me hence convenience store. Actual grocery stores are pretty far from my house and public transportation isn't really a thing here. Uber isn't even really realistic. I do go to the grocery store, but my house doesn't really have a kitchen... And it has a sink and a microwave and a toaster oven. It's just my living situation right now so I can save as much money as possible, but it makes it really hard. And the people I live with eat fast food all the time. I've gotten into some bad habits out of convenience, but I want to make a change. I just don't know a way to get around it without having a car and a kitchen.

I'm generally a pretty resourceful person, I just need some suggestions to get me going. I can cook with what I have available in my kitchen to an extent, and I have a deep freezer. That's a start. Once I get past this, I can take the next steps.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, especially on flavorful meal prep with limited resources. I'm going to Australia in April and I can't go looking like this. I'm going to see my fiance for the first time in a year and 6 months. I'm really self conscious about the way I look. I know I won't transform overnight and look completely different when I see him but I have to do something.

Thanks

 

[PumpkinChan]

First time I lost weight, I lost tones of weight quite fast without exercise and almost without stopping eating what I was having at that time. I was in similar situations (stuck to a place with fast food, short on money and without resources for other stuff besides sandwiches).
I can't say I really recommended it though... It was not healthy. I was only giving small bytes on food when I was feeling hungry, sloooowly and really making it last like forever... The goal was to cheat on my hunger. So, after a month I was having portions of food that would not sustain even a child and one day, after loosing more than 20kg, I passed out. I will not go deeper into it as it might trigger some people and I am not here like "not healthy but... you can do it".
So... instead of 2 fast food sandwiches, go for 1 and a huge cola light, for instance. Go cheating on your stomach to make it feel full with less but don't cross the line as I did before. Just, decrease your fat food amounts. Start increasing veggies, drink more water, tea, whatever you like just to make you less prone to jump into huge amounts of food.
At home, try to do something like dancing. It helps a lot!!! I am shy but once I was doing it to help loose weight and it helped a lot. I was doing it alone at my room at night and I don't even know how to dance but I was doing it the way I could with no worries of looking ridiculous or not

 

[Trusylver]

are you able to buy in bulk at your supermarket ? some of the cheap frozen meals you can buy would be healthier than a regular diet of junk, with the benefit of being able to be stored in your deep freeze and cooked in your limited kitchen ? Aim at getting the meals with lots of vegetables and not a lot of sauce as the sauces in these types of meals usually also has a lot of extra calories. Stick to water for drinking if you can.

 

[Nottoolate]

Hi infinite! Congratulations on coming here...it's a great first step. It can be overwhelming to both want to lose weight in addition to not having easy transportation to the store. But you can find a way. After all, being legally blind, you've already, I'm sure learned how to overcome obstacles. For what its worth, sometimes breaking a bigger problem down into pieces, and developing a strategy for each piece will get you there, and give you a feeling of accomplishment. Based on the little you've posted here, it seems like your number 1 priority is to get regular access to healthy food. Is there someone you work with or know that would be willing to drive you to the grocery store once a week? That would be a huge start. Once you have access, you can get very healthy food, and if you just focus on that for now, you can also get healthy food inexpensively. Junk food, particularly from convenience stores is ridiculously expensive. For every piece of junk food just think about how you could use that money to buy something healthy. Many fresh vegetables, and fruits will last a week without refrigeration. Tinned fish, i.e., sardines, salmon, etc, are nutrient dense, can be stored in your pantry, and are relatively inexpensive. Eggs are terrific, inexpensive, and contrary to popular opinion will keep without refrigeration for at least a week. I'd also consider getting an inexpensive hot plate. It will allow you to boil and saute fresh foods. With that, your microwave, toaster oven, and freezer access you should be set! Of course you can buy pre-packaged or frozen meals and use your microwave....but its no comparison to buying fresh whole food you can prepare at home. Fresh whole food is way less expensive and for the most part, way more nutritious.

Remember, a step at a time! Congratulations for recognizing what you need to do! And you can do this! Let us know how you're doing!

 

[Lars2]

I read a great article on a ketogenic diet. It explains the science and gives you a guideline to start. It helped me tremendously. Link Removed

 

[Valentin D Curtianu]

Hi infinite,

From what I read in your post, I think you use the life condition you're living now as excuses. I understand your life is not that easy.
I think the problem you have is that you formed bad habits, which brought you in this shape, and not your life conditions. Hard will be to build good habits that will get you in a better shape. You can easily go once a week to do your groceries, buy some kitchen aids, prepare your food every morning, and it's done. But to eat the right foods at the right times and little exercise(walk around the blocks for 10 minutes it's a great start) every day it's not that easy.

Wish you the best!