So something a little different!

[Bad_Zipper]

Hi all,

So I, like many other people have tried to lose weight, and year after year, yo yo after yo you and disappointment after disappointment I'm looking to do something different. I have an idea and I think I'm in a good place to start but let me tell you guys my story:

I'm a 22 year old female college student, I'm about 5'6" and typically somewhere between 175-180lbs, when I was in highschool I was more around 155 and honestly I'd love to be back around that range.

I used to be incredibly self conscious, lonely, extremely disappointed in myself constantly. Even in highschool I was extremely unhappy with my looks even when I was lighter. I don't really feel this way anymore. For the last 6 months I've been dating what I'm now sure is going to be the love of my life. Aside from being extremely supportive, I can see how he genuinely thinks I'm pretty and not only tolerates but really likes how I look. This was something I didn't think was possible, so I consider myself really really lucky.

I want to make a plan of extremely slow weight loss. It's counter intuitive, but I think it's going to work out better than anything I've tried before. I'm not setting any weight/measurement goals, the goal is to change my behaviour in the long term.

What I'm planing to do is pick one thing monthly and attempt to master each skill, and then add a new on top of it. I haven't fully decided what order things should go in, but some things I've considered:

- November: stop drinking coffee every day (I've cut down to about 2-3 cups a week from 2-3 cups a day)
- Sleep a regular sleep pattern and eat breakfast including protein every day (this will be the goal for this month)

Other ones are eating whole grains only, going to the gym once a week, then twice a week, up to four times a week, limiting when i eat out etc.

Well wish me luck :3 hopefully this is going to be something that causes permanent changes.I'm hoping to lose around 10 lbs a year most likely, so this is going to be a very slow process, but I want to lose it permanently. If you guys have any other ideas for what a good monthly goal would be, I'd love to hear your ideas.

 

[KaraCooks]

That sounds very reasonable. IN fact I suspect once you get your system down and as you start making changes you'll find the weight falls off faster.

A few things I'd suggest you add as goals:

1 - log your food. Register for a free account at a site like fitday.com or thedailyplate.com and start logging in what you eat. It'll help you know how many calories you eat and what your nutrition looks like.

2 - Eliminate packaged and processed foods from your eating as much as possible. (This was a big one for me.)

3 - Reduce sodium. Most people eat far more sodium than they realize, and sodium will cause you to retain water weight. Aim for less than 2400mg of sodium per day.

4 - Drink enough water. The American Sports Medicine Institute recommends 1/2 oz of water per pound of bodyweight - more if you're active or working out hard.

5 - Try to get 1g of protein per pound of body weight.

Those are the big ones that I added to my life when I made changes and now they're all second nature. They've made a huge difference for me.

 

[Bad_Zipper]

Thanks! I've had accounts for fitday before, but i find I don't keep it up beyond a month or so...maybe that should be the goal one month.

 

[weightlady]

It sounds like you are on the road to success. Weight unfortunately can make us feel self-conscious as well as depressed. I just want to reiterate how important it is to maintain a hydrated body, it will do wonders for your weight loss