Yet another newbie, 226lbs and needing change

Beastie

Beastie

New member
Hello folks,
I was looking for somewhere I could find other people to motivate and keep me motivated.
I'm a 27 year old female, who currently weighs between 226 and 220.

My problem isn't so much food, it's exercise and motivation. I mean I do eat things that are bad for me from time to time, but if anything, I eat too little, usually only one regular sized dinner, maybe bowl of soup or a banana or other fruit for breakfast/lunch. Typically I never eat more than twice a day.

I have spoken to my doctor, and he believes I could easily shed the pounds with regular exercise (though he did not suggest anything in particular). I would also like to eat a bit better than I do, as I know eating too little is no good either, I just have little to no appetite usually.

Anyways, I live in a city, and am not very comfortable right now with either walking in the city, or going to gyms. I could possibly be talked into it but honestly, my self esteem is so low I just start thinking awful things about myself whenever I'm in a crowd, the idea of being in a gym scares me. I know I am being silly, but that's who I am, at least now.
Ideally I would love to have some sort of equipment at home, but that isn't in the financial cards right now, unless I find a really good deal on used stuff.

If you guys will humor me and answer a couple newbie questions I would really appreciate it.
How do you get motivated? What sort of exercise do you do? Any other tips for an overwhelmed weight loss newbie just getting started?
(Edit to say, I am reading posts all over the forum, especially the where to start thread, but I wanted to ask for personal accounts and tips, hope that's okay!)
 
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Hi and welcome. :)

I'm going to throw this right out there bluntly - because I tend to be pretty direct. :)

With all respect to your doctor, exercise is going to do diddly squat for you if you don't control what you eat. I can't count the number of people who say "I eat healthily, so it can't be the food that's making me fat." I used to say the EXACT same thing you do: "My problem isn't so much the food .... etc."

The truth? It's the food. If you are eating more than you're using to maintain your body, you're getting fat. And I used to eat mostly healthily, but I ate too much. You *can* eat too much healthy food and get fat.

I would suggest that the first thing you should do is register for a free account on fitday.com or thedailyplate.com and start logging the food you eat. You'll see very quickly how much you eat, and how your nutrients break out - which will help you know where to make changes and cut back.

Ideally, at your weight, I'd say you should be eating around 2000-2200 calories and make sure that you eat veggies, lean meats, whole grains, and healthy fats, pretty much in that order.

Now that said, exercise is definitely GOOD and will help you lose weight faster. If you combine weight lifting and/or body resistance work with cardio, it will help you to maintain lean muscle and burn more fat. There are several good sticky posts on the exercise forum about getting started with weight lifting and body resistance work - including stuff you can do at home to get started.

As far as motivation - that's a tricky one and I have a pretty different philosophy on it. :) The thing is everyone gets motivated. You see a picture that motivates you. You make a New Year's resolution that motivates you. Whatever. But motivation doesn't last. Motivation is like a crush. You see someone who appeals to you and you get a crush and you're in lust, but that never lasts. What does last? Commitment. When you become committed to losing weight, even when it sucks - even when you really want to eat junk, even when you don't want to work out, even when you're tired and crabby ... THAT'S when weight loss happens and lasts.

Think of it like this: You get up every morning and go to work. Some mornings you're really excited about it and it's fun and you look forward to the project you might be working on or whatever. And some mornings it's raining and you didn't sleep well and you have a meeting with the boss that you really don't want to go to ... but you get your butt out of bed anyway and go to work. Because that's life. You just do it.

That's how I look at eating right and exercising. Do I slip up sometimes? Sure. Do I "call in sick" sometimes? Sure. But 90% of the time or more, you just do it because that's part of life. :)

I hope that helps you. Feel free to visit my journal and read my whole story and see my photos. And of course, I'm happy to answer any questions I can! :)
 
Thank you for your reply.
You are right about many things I think.
However I do truly feel I am more paying for my past mistakes as far as eating goes, rather than continuing to make them. I had a period where I did eat things I shouldn't have, and probably larger servings than I needed. I have never been a snacker, sure I'll have some popcorn at the movies or such but I don't typically snack at home.

Anyways, the fact is I do need to look at it as a job to get back in shape, you're right. I will do my best to do so.
I just wish I knew better where to start as far as exercise goes. I cannot afford any equipment or gym memberships. I guess my best bet is to suck it up and just walk till I can afford more.
 
Welcome

:hurray:

Welcome to the forum! Don't despair! We are all here to help you. I would like to know where did you come up with the name Beastie, because you do not pertain to no beast! I truly hope you are not looking down on yourself, because you shouldn't. You are a beautiful person and any questions you have, please ask us ok.

All the best!
 
Oh no, it's nothing like that at all! I may be a bit low on self esteem but I don't call myself things. I use the name Beastie because I like monsters and critters like that. I couldn't really think of anything else on the fly to use for my forum name so there it is. I also thought it went well with my icon. I don't consider myself a beast or anything. I just need to get back to feeling like myself again that's all.
 
Welcome to the forum. I'm new here too. I hope you can achieve your goals. Nothing feels much better then stepping on the scale and seeing constant change. I know you can do it!
 
Hey KaraCooks,

I like your style!

Commitment. When you become committed to losing weight, even when it sucks - even when you really want to eat junk, even when you don't want to work out, even when you're tired and crabby ... THAT'S when weight loss happens and lasts.

I'm definitely going to hold on to that one! No wonder I usually don't like the word committment - I mean who can I blame? :)
 
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