It's Time to Lose the Weight

I

It'sTime

New member
Hi there-

I'm new to the site and thought I'd start here and give a little introduction; hopefully will provide some motivation for myself and I'll be able to gain some encouragement from you guys- I know we've probably all been in the same boat at some point in time.

So-- here it goes:

I'm a 22 yr old female who has decided it's time to get healthy again!!
I currently weigh 192 (which is so embarrassing for me), I'm 5'8", which helps me hide my weight a little better, but still makes me cringe when I read the number on the scale. I haven't ever really had trouble with my weight, I was always relatively tall and skinny. When I graduated high school, however, I got a desk job and began eating fast food on a regular basis and didn't get any exercise. My routine consisted of sitting at a desk for 9 hrs and then going to school and setting in a classroom for an hour, and then going home to sit and do homework and then go to bed. Literally, no exercise. So, naturally the pounds started packing on. As I gained, I began depressed and ate more. It was a vicious cycle. In Feb 2007 I decided to diet and began the Weight Watchers plan. I lost about 15lbs and then found out I was pregnant so I stopped. I decided I wasn't going to be one of those "eat everything in site" pregnant ladies and started off fairly healthy. Towards the end of my pregnancy however the holidays approached and I started eating more junk...then I developed preeclampsia and began rapidly gaining water weight due to swelling. I tipped the scales on my delivery day at 224. I could not believe it...never in a million years did I dream I would ever weigh that much!!
Once my daughter was born, I vowed to do better. In fact, I lost all of the water weight and was down to 190 at my 6 week appt (I fit right back into my size 16's). I still felt depressed weighing that much and a sleep deprived new mom didn't want to cook, so I fell into the fast food trap once again. (I should mention that my husband is a big help around the house, and he does a wonderful job of making me feel beautiful...sometimes too good of a job-- he should've told me when my weight starting getting out of hand!! ;)

Anyhow, here I am...my daughter's about to be 1 and I'm still at my post baby weight (actually 2 lbs higher). Talk about depressing....

My goal would be to get down to 130-140 range. I remember how my clothes fit there and I liked it. I began exercising on 12/1...30 minutes on the treadmill doing alternating speeds to get my heart rate up and down. I plan to increase my gym time once I get used to this a bit...when you haven't exercised in so long it's hard to get back into the grove. I've also cut out fast food and nearly all sweets (I may have a Weight Watcher cc cookie every once in a while...or a protein bar containing chocolate). I only drink water and am currently consuming about 80 oz a day. My biggest downfall is that I don't like fruits or veggies...I mean AT ALL. I've been drinking the V-8 V-Fusion to give me a bit of fruits and veggies and have been taking a multivitamin along with a B-12. I feel like I'm on the right track but know that this is going to be a difficult journey.

I apologize for the long intro, but I wanted to give you guys the full background because I'm here to find ways to make my lifestyle change work. I don't want to be on a fad diet and lose 20 lbs then get off of it and gain all of the weight back and then some. I'm here because I want to be a healthy, attractive mommy who has the energy to spend time with her daughter. I don't want to be out of shape any longer. The only problem is that because I didn't have to worry about my weight in the past, I don't really know how to do this. I don't really know what's "okay" to eat and what's not. I don't know what size an appropriate portion of something is. I hope that this is where you guys come in...I need all of the advice and encouagement I can get. I realize that this is going to be a challenge but I want to accomplish it with all of my heart.

Well, so far so good..I look forward to hearing from you guys and will try to update once a week when I weigh in (on Monday's).

Thanks in advance for all of your help!!!

:newbie:
 
First off, Welcome! And good luck! :)
I think you'll find there is a lot of support and motivation here as well as some great information. I know it has been very helpful to me.
I Would say i've been in about the same boat... except I gained a whole lot more weight and am quite a bit shorter. not to mention my my daughter just turned 4 and i've only started taking a serious step toward my weight loss about 2 months ago lol. It took me till i was comfortable in my size to decide to change it... go figure...
lol and dont worry about the long into... you should see mine :S lol mines an explaination of the last 5 years of my life and full of whining about how I felt it was impossible for me to lose weight (I've had an attitude change since then though thank goodness lol)
 
welcome to the forum! :) I'm new, too...


I can understand you about the sitting at a desk all day - cause I literally do! I have 2 jobs - work 12-13 hours a day and it's all sitting on my butt! Working that long really leaves no time to cook something healthy so I always opted for the fast food.

I'm trying to change it though - I started my new life on 12/1 also :) I weigh a lot more than you and I'm a few inches shorter lol - but I can understand!

I've been pretty fat since I was little (i started gaining weight when my parents got divorced when I was like 9 or 10) - I wasn't ever really OBESE until highschool... I just never did anything and always ate out of boredom.

My boyfriend is very supportive of me being whatever weight I want to be. He says I'll be "sexy" no matter what hahaha. Luckily - he's also going on this new lifestyle change - too bad he only needs to lose 20 pounds!!

Anyway - browse around - read the stickies - you should start your own journal too! It's pretty fun... plus it's something you need to be "accountable" for.. (don't you HATE that word??) so it'll give you a reason to come back here often for motivation :)
 
congrats on starting your weight loss journey! I can relate also to the sitting all day @ work helping with the weight I've put on & also being a mom of a 1 year old I know how sometimes after chasing after the little one all day the last thing you wanna do is hit the gym. When I started I was winded after 10 minutes on the treadmill doing pretty low speeds, tje first time I did the eliptical I thought I was going to pass out after 5 minutes stop and go. Everytime I forced myself to go it got easier. It was hard at first to get the motivation to go because I'd look in the mirror and still just see the same as I'd always been. It didn't take long before I could notice the change in the way my clothes fit, and the biggest boost of all has been when people start noticing and telling you how much better you look. After the results start coming it's SO MUCH EASIER to stay motivated. If I have a bad day that I don't feel like doing it I look at a picture from before & know I don't ever want to be there again, not just because of my body but how empty I was on the inside. As far as portion control weight watchers is great to help with that, I've not done weight watchers this time but it does teach you portion control and their points system is good for people who don't have time time/knowledge to figure out their daily intake. Best of luck to you!!!
 
Welcome and good luck!

Just one bit of unsolicited advice -- don't worry so much about the number in the scale, start focusing on the stuff you can handle today, like eating an apple. That's one serving of fruit down. Maybe you have baby carrots for a snack later.

I've been overwhelmed with the weight I have to lose too, and for me, I needed to figure out the stuff I could control. I can't lose 30 lbs in one week, but I could eat more fruits and vegetables. That became my "goal" until it became a habit.

(It's still my focus, because it's really easy for me to skip those veggies.)

Good luck!!!!
 
Congratulations on taking the first step!

Now to take the next one. Your goal over the next few months should be to make minor changes to your diet until it is as close to perfect as you can get. That being said, here are a few tips:

1) Try to eat more often. Eating more often throughout the day seems to help a lot of people improve their body composition. Each week, try to add in one more meal per day until your eating six times per day. (NOTE: you will be eating the same amount of food, just split up into smaller meals)

2) Try to include a lean protein source with each meal. If your exercising with weights, increasing your protein intake will help to increase your muscle mass which will in turn increase your metabolism.

3) Include more healthy fats. Increasing your intake of Omega-3's can actually help you loose fat! A great way to do this is to supplement with fish oil. Fish oil will also increase your insulin sensitivity which will do wonders when trying to loose fat.

4) Try to only eat carbohydrates first thing in the morning and within a few hours of exercising.

5) Increase your NEPA. NEPA, or Non Exercise Physical Activity, will help you burn more calories through out the day. Some simple ways of doing this are taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking on the far side of the parking lot, taking the dog for a walk, or playing with your kids!

I would also suggest that for your cardio you use a stationary bike instead of the treadmill. If you are overweight, running can be very hard on your joint. Using a stationary bike you will help to keep your joints healthy. Also look into doing some weight training 3-4 days a week if your not already doing so.

Hopefully you can find a few of these that you can implement in your life. Remember to make gradual changes so that your able to stick to your plan.

Hope this helps.
Best of luck.
Troy.

P.S. If you cant get your veggies in perhaps you should look at trying a greens product? My favorite is Green+ by Genuine Health. Your local supplement shop should carry it.
 
I know what you mean about being able to hold the weight/hide it well! I'm 5'8 1/2 and people rarely guess me to be 180. Then when I say, I want to lose 35-40 pounds, most people think I'm crazy and I'll be way too thin but I really do have 35 more pounds waiting to disappear! :) Good luck to you!

Alison
stuckat180.blogspot.com
 
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