newbie!

notforlong

New member
hello! brief bio about myself :) i'm a 19yr old from uk, been dieting since i was about 12. have been very depressed and put on a lotttt of weight when i was at school espesh when i was 16!! since then i haven't gained so much but have struggled with losing it. recently became a vegan and have stuck to my diet for a record 4 weeks so far! my average is 2 weeks :p hopefully this time will be the one and i will not be fat anymore.


oh btw the most ive weighed is 16 stone 8 (about 230lbs) a couple of weeks ago it was 15 stone 9 and tomorrow i will weigh myself again :)
 
Welcome to the forum...


You know, for the longest time I thought weight loss was as simple as "eat less & move more"...and it can be, but it isn't realistic for most people...I've recently had some health issues that forced me to be more attentive to my eating habbits...


One thing you have to not do is think of a diet as a short term fix...fad diets tend to have you basically starve or deprive yourself of nutrients only to reach your goal and go back on your regular "diet"...and the weight comes back and brings friends...hence the yo-yo effect...


So the real answer isn't as simple as starve and lose weight...it has to be a change in how and what you eat, not necessarily how much (some will call it a paradyme shift)...changing to a vegan diet will work, but make sure you get your proteins (beans, peanut butter, etc...)...you still require a balanced diet. You also need to make an effort on finding healthy foods that you enjoy eating and watch your portion sizes...


Not all salad is created equal...if you have a nice colourful salad (peppers, broccoli, lettuce, spinach...) and then put Ranch or Ceasar dressing on it...you just threw the caloric count off the chart (may as well have a cheeseburger)...don't worry so much about low fat (unless you have cholesterol issues), just watch the suggested serving size & the calories per serving...


Anything fryed isn't the best choice, health wise...but a stumble here or there isn't going to kill you...just limit the stumbles...


I'm still learning this stuff myself, but I've been really paying attention to what I eat...I still eat a full meal (not hungery five minutes later), but I make better choices...half my dinner plate is filled with veggies, then quarter protein (meat) and quarter starches (rice, noodles or potatos)...I try to avoid creamy sauces (hard for me, since I love them)...same with lunch...leafy green salad w' light italian, broth based soup and a piece of fruit...


Anyway...I've kind or rambled on and you haven't even asked for the help...sorry...I'm pretty enthusiastic about this right now...


Almost forgot...my diet is allowing me to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week...add exercise and it will be faster...


One tip...if you use the tool for recommended daily intake for calories...don't punch in your current weight, punch in your goal weight...download a calorie counter app for your phone to track your progress...and remember to enter everything you eat on it...it's really helping me...so far I've lost 27lbs since August...those 1 to 2 pounds add up...I'm 5'11 and currently weigh 250lbs...60 more to go to get to my goal weight...


Good Luck!!


Later.
 
hahaa yes you sound very enthusiastic :p if you read what i wrote i won't be eating lots of the things you told me to stay away from because im now a vegan. oh wait, u did mention that you knew i was a vegan. anyways, i have very good nutritional intelligence and am not using fat in my food or eating bread pasta potatoes etc. my only problem is my motivation!
 
Welcome to the forum,


Im also new here and looking forward to helping as many people as I can.


Remember that determination and motivation is the key :)


Megan
 
Hey all, Just joined here. I am a Personal Wellness Coach with Skinny's Nutrition Studio in Ridgeland Mississippi.


I'm looking forward to offering any help I can. Willing to answer any questions I can and give any encouragement I can offer.


Matt
 
Howdy, notforlong! I want to encourage you to stick with it, 'til you get results. I went two months without any success, before finally turning the corner.


Just so you know, I am (mostly) vegan, and have been for almost 20 years. I say "mostly" because, on occasion...especially at restaurants...I will eat vegetarian, either for convenience or some transient reason. While trying to lose weight, I have eaten eggs a few times. (My husband is not vegan.)


Despite my normally vegan diet, I began to gain weight about 5-6 years ago. Turns out, the insulin resistance associated with my PCOS was the cause (at least, that appears to be the case, at this point). Now that I'm addressing that, I am steadily losing weight.


YOU might be interested in what I eat, so I'll give you some examples.


For breakfast, I usually eat Irish oatmeal or steel cut oats or quinoa (I like it teriyaki or with tamari sauce). I also typically have some fruit (fresh pineapple, papaya, or a banana). I often have coffee (now that I'm trying to lose weight), but I also have beet or acai juice.


Other meals include a spinach salad with sesame seeds and balsamic vinegar (with a citrus, for best iron absorption), curry lentil soup, baked beans, or homemade fennel or vegetable soup with bok choy.


A snack might be edamame, a piece of wholegrain bread with blackstrap molasses + grapefruit juice (for iron), a piece of fruit (typically an apple) or tomato juice plus 3-5 almonds, pistachios, walnuts, or Brazil nuts (yes, I count them out beforehand), or spicy hummus with a 4" wholegrain pita.


Of course, that's just a sampling......


I used to like my Cajun style red beans & rice dish, but I find eating rice (or pasta...even brown rice or whole wheat pasta) for dinner pretty much guarantees a higher number on the scale the following morning. So, for now, my intake of rice, bread, and pasta is extremely limited. Once I reach my target weight, I will relax a bit about having those foods from time to time, depending on the results. (Many of my, and my husband's, favourite, homemade, vegan dishes include rice or pasta, wouldn't you know.). But I do still eat a slice of wholegrain bread, or use a small, wholegrain pita for dipping hummus. If I do eat rice or pasta, I limit it to just a few mouthfuls.


Good vegan sources of protein are (the complete proteins) soy, hemp, quinoa, salba, and spirulina, plus beans, nuts, legumes, oatmeal, and food combinations (such as red beans & rice/rice & peas). Most are self-explanatory, but the salba I use in ground form, and add it to appropriate dishes.


I do eat tofu maybe once or twice a month, normally. But since finally starting to lose weight about five or six weeks ago, I haven't had any. I tend to use almond milk (in place of cow's milk), and vegan spread/margarine in place of butter.


I'm no expert on weight loss or fitness, but if you have any vegan-related questions, feel free to ask me. I'll help if I can.


Best of luck! :)
 
ah thanks! sounds similar to the sort of food i eat :) i think i actually feel better as well since i've become vegan... always start off with porridge with raisins and pumpkin seeds (i seem to have pumpkin seeds with everything) snack on salted popcorn, stir fries (just the veg and no oil :p), frozen veg with stuff, soup, avocados, salad yum yum yum. also vegan chocolate is expensive!! which puts me off :p (as a student)


i figured that since ive been able to stick to being a vegetarian for most of my life and not to diets, why wouldnt i be able to stick to veganism? and so far- it's worked! so happy :D lost approx a 17lbs so far :)
 
That's so funny! Although I'm not eating them as much as I normally do (now that I'm significantly cutting calories), I usually sprinkle pumpkin seeds on anything I can. :) Great natural source of zinc! Avocados have also fallen by the way side. I used to eat 1 every 2 days, at least. I think I've eaten 2 in the last month! (Don't misunderstand....avocados are a great source of healthy fats. It's just that I'm eating so little, overall, some things I feel I can only "afford" once in a while...like my homemade guacamole with pico de gallo. Love it. But it would probably have to be my lunch AND dinner, at this point, given that I use a whole avocado plus the tortilla chips.)


I'm on such a tight plan, right now. I lose at least 1/10th of a pound each day. So, that's a caloric deficit of about 350 calories. Lots of sources over estimate the amount of calories burned during exercise (and I tend to under estimate), but I'd be surprised if I'm burning more than 300 calories during my workouts. That means just skipping a day of exercise, could mean no weight loss or even weight gain. But it also means an extra apple could make the difference, too. That's what I mean by being on a tight plan. Nearly every day where I've thought I could have that extra something, I didn't lose weight, or might have even gained a bit.


Now that I AM finally losing weight, I'm throwing everything but the kitchen sink at it, to see what sticks. I drink at least one cup of black coffee per day (even though I don't really care for coffee). I eat at least 5 sticks of celery every day, as a snack. I try to eat a protein with a carb, at each meal or snack. I definitely exercise (hard) every day. I don't eat after 7PM (which is when I used to do most of my eating, previously). And to get a better night's sleep, I've been doing about 30 min's of PM Yoga just before bed, for about 2 months or so, now. I find that, generally, if I skip any of those things, I don't record any weight loss the next morning. (I only weigh myself after my morning exercise, naked, just before getting in the shower....so I'm comparing apples to apples.)


I have tried some different things...none of which worked for me. There was that claim that "an easy way to lose weight" is to eat 30g of protein within 30 min's of waking up. I used a soy protein shake (which was recommended) that was just 1g of fat and maybe 200 cal. I was also cutting calories and exercising at the time, yet I GAINED 7lbs in 2 weeks. I HAD to stop that experiment. I did the apple cider vinegar thing for a while. I didn't feel any better and I certainly didn't lose any weight. I have had coffee about 30 min's before my workout, and the first time it really did significantly improve my performance. I EASILY did twice my normal distance on the treadmill. But I've had mixed results since then. Most times, I haven't performed any better...sometimes even worse than usual. So, I don't bother with the 'coffee before workout' any more. But that first time WAS something. I felt light as a feather, as though I could continue all day!


I don't find vegan chocolate expensive (most dark chocolate is vegan...just check for soy lecithin, and no milk ingredients). But maybe prices or availability are different where you are. Desserts are where veganism really shines. I make most of my mom's old recipes, just replacing the animal products with vegan alternatives. No one can tell the difference. Alas, desserts are neither important to me, nor on the menu during this weight loss period. (Well...not the quantity, anyway, that even halving a typical dessert recipe would make. ...Just too much waste, or enticement to consume more than I would like.) (My mother used to marvel that I coud just walk by desserts, without even glancing at them...especially if they don't involve chocolate. Then again, she was always pointing out that I grew up preferring raw vegetables as treats, so......)


I don't find it too, too difficult to be vegan...except at non-vegan restaurants. I'm not a big fan of salads (and even most restaurant salads seem to come with a cream dressing, cheese, bacon bits, etc...ask them to leave those things off, and you're left with a bowl of lettuce and tomato....), and most soups (as you must know by now, if you're already vegetarian) are not even vegetarian. Usually Jewsh delis and middle eastern restaurants have a daily soup that's vegan.


I'm just rambling now. In any event, good luck, and try to stick with it, until you find just the right combination of factors that work for you. Don't let a few setbacks put you off. You deserve to look and feel exactly the way you want. Keep at it until you get the results you desire! :) :) :) :) :)
 
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