Not sure what it will take to be successful this time...

[DaniMarie]

Hi everyone...

Where to start... this isn't my first time in the weight loss game. When I was a senior in high school, I went from 197 to 148 with WW. It was great, but I guess the biggest problem was, even though I went to a size 6, I still never FELT skinny... so now, 7 years later, when I look back at those "skinny" days, I don't have any sort of feeling to remember. I can't say "Oh I remember how I felt when I was skinny, I want to feel like that again" cause, I don't. I wasn't at that weight for long... and before I knew it, here I am at my highest weight ever... 224. (eek) I remember it being soooo easy... I counted my points RELIGIOUSLY, didn't even work out that much because I had both school and work everyday... but the weight just seemed to melt off of me. I never felt a struggle. Now, things are very different. At 18 I moved in with my boyfriend, married him in 2008, and left last year. This year is the first time in my life that I've ever lived alone. This presents a brand new problem: I can now stock my kitchen with whatever I want and there is nobody around to make me feel guilty. This has led my sweet to spiral out of control, and I don't know how to reign it in! HELP!!!! I'm finally fed up with being fat, and I'm ready to lose the weight for good... but I'm having the hardest time conquering this sweet tooth! Does anyone have any ideas for me?? I do have alternative "sweet" things, such as sugar free puddings. I've also tried keeping candies or cookies around that I don't LOVE, in hopes that they will be enough to satisfy a sweet tooth without me wanting to eat them all the first day they're here. None of this seems to be working. I'm sure I need to just get past the initial cold turkey phase and then I'll be fine.. but I'm not sure how I'll even make that!

OK, I'm done here for now! Any advice would be greatlyyyy appreciated!!!

Thanks and I look forward to getting to know everyone!

 

[Flumes]

Hi Danimarie

Welcome to the forum.

Unless you are very disciplined, you can't have the junk in the house.
Too much temptation. It sucks to hear that but you don't see drug addicts working in pharmacies.

Replace it with healthy foods....fruits and vegetables and lean meats.
If you have a sweets addiction, use Splenda and drink sugar free drinks for that sweet taste.

Read the nutrition forum. Lots of advice there.

Then count calories. Figure out your BMR and eat less calories than you require. 500 calories less a day = one pound loss a week. Simple

Change your habits. Get active....if you think healthy, chances are you'll be healthy.

But first...you need to commit. You need to take control and do it for yourself.

And lastly...come here often. Start a diary. Ask questions. If you hang with losers...you'll be a loser. And here, thats a good thing.


Good luck!

 

[Jeanette401]

My other advice - don't even buy the sweets you don't love. And only buy the ones you do in small batches and for special occasions.

You can make space in your diet for an extra 100-200 calories of sweets now and then - it just can't be all the time, and it can't be great quantities. One thing I found useful was to ask myself "Which do I want more? To eat this not so great cookie, or to wear pants that aren't sweat pants? To eat this brownie, or to fit comfortably in an airplane seat?"

Also, don't tell yourself "never" tell yourself "later". It's not that you can't have some cheesecake - just not now. You can even schedule it - June 1 I can have a slice of cheesecake (or whatever you've been craving). Then you don't need to eat the cheesecake right this second because you know you can have it later, and you can just eat fewer calories from everything else to make up for it.

The other thing that I've found very helpful is to actually track what I eat. That lets me know two things - one, how am I really doing? and two - do I have room for a treat. If I've only eaten 600 calories and it's been lots of protein, good fats and fiber, then it's not a big deal if I eat a cookie or whatever. On the other hand, if say I went out to Olive Garden and ordered their 5 cheese crespille which is over half my calories for the day in one meal and has 40g of saturated fat and very little fiber... well, no brownies for me tonight! I use but others here use livestrong or thedailyplate for logging what they eat.