Good for you for getting motivated and coming to these forums! This is an excellent place for support. I can completely relate, because I'm five feet tall, and my heaviest weight was 210, so very similar.
I would not call your new exercise regimen "strict" because that will make you not want to do it. When I'm successful in keeping to an exercise program, I have acheived it by going at my own pace. If you throw yourself into very intense exercise at your size, you put yourself at increased risk of injury (believe me, I know what I'm talking about). So what I did to start was give myself a block of time each day in which you can walk. I would definitely start out with walking, because it's the easiest exercise and easy to stick with. If you are not used to physical exercise, I would start out with 25 minutes a day, and every 2 weeks or so, add more time on to that until you're walking for an hour a day. Then after you've been doing that for a few weeks, start adding some resistance training into your routine, as well as some abdominal crunches (not full-on sit-ups as you can mess up your back with those). In the beginning when you're at a size like us, it's all about conditioning your body to be used to exercising. You can't just throw yourself into it, because you'll injure yourself and delay your progress further.
Next, is diet. Don't cut yourself down to a drastically lower amount of calories immediately, because you'll not be used to eating that much less and you'll get severe cravings. What I started doing at first was cut it down to 2000 a day, which is pretty generous. You don't want to go on a strict "diet" so much, but you want to get your body used to a lifestyle change. I am a binge-eater, and I figured out what my trigger foods are and eliminated them from my diet. Some people can have "cheat" days where they have some treats, but this does not really work for me. If I have one bite of chocolate, for instance, I go crazy and I'll go to whatever lengths to get more of it and stuff my face with it. So I just don't eat it at all. It totally depends on the person, but in my personal experience, it's best to replace my unhealthy trigger foods with healthy treats, like fruit.
Having a good diet requires putting time and energy into preparing meals, and going grocery shopping. This is, however, totally worth it. I have a rather busy schedule myself, so my workaround with this is to chop up all the veggies I plan to eat for the day in the morning, and divide the portions into different containers for the day. This is basically how I eat every day:
Breakfast: 2 servings of carbohydrates, 2 servings of protein (usually hard-boiled eggs for me - it helps me to have more protein in the morning), 1 fruit serving
Lunch: 2 servings of carbohydrates, 1 serving protein, 3 veggie servings
Snacks: I usually have low-calorie carbohydrate based snacks, no more than 100 calories per snack. I usually have about 3 snacks a day. I eat whole-grain crackers, home-made granola, rice cakes, cereal, etc.
Dinner: 1 serving of carbohydrate, 4 veggie servings, 1 protein serving, 1 - 2 fruit servings for dessert.
I eat almost all my veggies raw. Cooking them depletes a lot of nutrients. The only things I cook are corn and potatoes (which are technically starch and not veggies). I also don't eat any white-flour based carbs or white rice - brown is the color of healthiness
Whole-grain is so much better!
I still eat things like mayonnaise and olive oil, but I measure out the portions and equate them with my calorie intake. I'm allergic to non-fermented soy (soy sauce is fermented, as are miso and tempeh), so I can't use cooking spray. If I need cooking oil, I use a brush to brush it very lightly onto the pan.
And if I get a really intense craving to snack at night, I allow myself a serving of veggie or fruit, or if I'm craving a salty snack I air-pop 1/4 cup of popcorn and season it with soy sauce (no butter or anything like that). Also, a cup of miso broth (you can buy miso powder mix in the ethnic/health foods section of the supermarket) can be very soothing and is only 30 calories!
I barely ever eat out. When I do, I try to fill up on many veggies before I go for heavier fare. If my food portions are large, I ask for a to-go box before I start eating and put half the food in it for later, which comes in handy because then I have a yummy lunch to take to work the next day.
I still eat bacon, but I cook in on my George Forman grill which gets rid of a lot of the grease...hehe. Also, I don't eat it every day.
After losing some weight and being active for a long time, you can cut your calorie intake down to about 1600-1800 a day.
Welcome to the forums - feel free to start a weight loss diary and don't hesistate to ask any questions you might have
And as a fellow shortie, feel free to hit me up for advice if you need it. Good luck on your journey!
Edited to add: My George Foreman grill, my rice cooker, and my bread machine are the best things ever! I use the GF grill daily, the rice cooker a few times a week (brown rice only), and make bread at least twice a week - my housemate is often responsible for eating a whole loaf, making me need to make a third loaf..lol.
I stay away from nitrates and MSG in my food, too.
) and I have a small bone structure so this excess is putting my knees in pain, causing health problems and I just generally feel unhealthy. I've decided that I want to lose the weight and feel like a healthier human being and obviously, to be a complete hottie! I turn nineteen in 11 months and I want to be significantly lower by that time! I'm hoping a strict exercise regime and healthier eating will help! I've always been a bigger girl (my lowest weight in my teens was 150) so I'm going to make this year, my year!
