New girl here - bring on the support.. I need a lot of it. :)

Coqui

Coqui

New member
Hi all,

I'm no stranger to weight loss. I've been over weight my entire life and have started (and failed) more diets and plans I can count on all fingers and toes.. times two. On a whim earlier I decided to look at before and after pictures on the internet and came across this site. Eager to see some pictures I registered and was blown away by the results. I think it's finally my time to follow in you guys' steps and become a "legend" on the Before & After board. Problem is it SCARES me to death! I fear repeated failure. All I've ever known with weight loss was failure. I am currently a snug size 20 at 260-ish pounds. The smallest I've been in my adult life was very tight size 16, largest in highschool being borderline 24.

A quick bit about myself: I'm a Puerto Rican music addict, technology geek and avid gamer. (LOTS of curves being hidden by layers of fat!! :banghead:) This causes me to sit in one place for hours at a time moving barely anything but my fingers. I also work in an office environment for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. The most exercise I get at work is spinning my chair around to move a piece of paper to a file cabinet. After work I'll come home and play the Xbox, PS3 or play a game on the computer for the remainder of the night. This totals up to 15 or more hours a day sitting while barely moving. From November of 2009 until April 2010 I have put on close to 35 pounds. I do not want this lifestyle anymore.

Eating healthy is not a problem for me. My mother was very health-conscious growing up and fast food was considered a treat in my house. Now that I have my own source of money, fast food has become more than just a treat - it's become a staple in my diet. I have already begun making quick changes to this.

Sorry for the wall of text (I tend to get carried away :eek:) and I look forward to getting to know you all and hearing your advice on my weight loss journey. Any advice is absolutely appreciated!!

~ Coqui
 
Welcome from another newbie!

Isn't this place great?? There's so much information and motivation that you cannot not want to lose weight! I just keep coming back and reading posts and threads and its making sense!

I'm sure the more reputable members will chime in soon and give you the best direction from here. But till then, good luck and welcome! Cant wait to hear all about your progress!

:party:
 
Welcome.

I think you probably know what the answers are - you listed both things that are problems for you very clearly. :)

So the trick here is to actually do it.

I'd suggest two things:

The first thing is registering for a free account on FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal or LIVESTRONG.COM - Health, Fitness, Lifestyle | LIVESTRONG.COM and starting to log your food. This will let you see how many calories you're eating and how your nutrition levels are breaking down. Once you know that, you'll be able to see more clearly where you can make adjustments, cut back, change your nutrition, etc.

The next thing I'd suggest is checking out the various sticky posts in the exercise area of the forum (Weight Loss Through Exercise - Weight Loss Forum). There are some very good posts on exercise, both cardio/aerobic and on incorporating weight lifting into your exercise plans.

It's not rocket science and you don't need any fancy diets or fads or tricks. What you DO need is a commitment to changing the way you eat and the way you live PERMANENTLY.

That's the hard part - but once you get to that point much of the rest of it falls into place.
 
Thanks all :) I'll be sure to check out those links. The help is very appreciated. What are the rules for posting photos on the Before & After forum? Do I have to have any weight loss to begin a new thread?
 
Hi and welcome!

As Kara already pointed out, diet...not dieting...is going to be the biggest part of loss. Even if you don't add any exercise, what you eat is going to change your weight more than anything else.

I have the same problem as you actually. I am going to school online...and trying to keep my GPA way up. And love playing certain computer games. Plus my kids are all in school during the day, and my two older kids help with my younger once they get home. So essentially I am sitting in front of my computer all day long.

In my case though I went ahead and joined a gym since I have the time anyway. For me it's less about the workouts and more about the getting up and going and doing something that's not sitting on my butt.

If you haven't already, start a diary in the diary thread so we can all go YAY! when you say you've accomplished something; or Aww, you'll do better next time, when you don't. That helps me a lot. Even though I don't get a lot of posters to mine, I know that there are a few readers. It makes me feel better to know people are supportive even when I fail a little. :)

Good luck!
 
Hi and welcome! I'm new here too, trying to drop almost 80lbs by January 2011. I hope you find all the support you need here. The fitday website Kara reccomended is awesome. I was eating mostly healthy food but way way too much of everything. I was astonished after the first day how high my calorie count was, really put things in perspective for me.

I used to enjoy devouring my lunch, getting the kids down for nap, and then sitting in front of the tv or computer until they woke up. One thing I changed that might work for you and the gaming is that I am not allowed to touch the TV or computer until I've done my workout. Not only do I get my workout in, but usually afterwards my energy level is so much higher I don't WANT to spend much time sitting down and find something else active to occupy my time while they nap. So it has turned out to be a double positive for me. Just a thought.

Good luck!!!
 
Hey again :)

Thanks a lot for the comments and advice. I signed up for Livestrong.com and noticed they had a Blackberry application - AMAZING tool. I highly recommend it to everybody. For two days I've tracked what I've been eating and wow... I keyed in my current height and weight and that I wanted to lose two pounds and it did the rest for me. Throughout the day I'd tell the program what I ate, how many servings, etc. and realized that I have definitely been overeating. By early afternoon I had already eaten 75% of my recommended calories and on top of that I discovered I eat nearly an extra 1/4 of the recommended sodium and nearly an extra 1/2 the recommended carbs.. just WOW. It's been a serious eye opener for me.

Thanks, you all. I feel like I FINALLY have the tools to do this the right way.
 
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