Hellooo :) Advice is welcome!

abby5421

Finally getting involved in the community here- hopefully will motivate me to keep tracking and exercise more. Would love friends/ motivation/ people to vent to when coworkers order pizza and fried dough Add away, message away, let's do this!!

And my newbie question: What has been your biggest help losing weight? I've got about 90-100 lbs to lose, so anything helps!

tom_7

Haha venting when coworkers order pizza and fried dough is actually very helpful. For some reason there is a lot of peer pressure to join in on these occasions even if they know you're trying to eat healthy.

I highly recommend the book "It Starts with Food". Even if you don't follow the Whole 30 program highlighted in the book, there is a LOT of helpful information for anybody looking to lose weight/get healthy.

Patttience

My biggest help so far: I would try to sum it up the key things that have helped me most in the 9 months i've been at this.

1. because i'm a sugar binger - I made a determination to quit sweets. It requires some strategy but you don't need strategy to start. My strategy has been excellent and i have no desire to return to my sugar eating habits of the past. and its been over 9 months since i started.

2. Cook and cook healthy nutritious foods especially vegetables and make them taste great. Eat lots of vegetables and fruit. Vary your food choices. Make time for cooking and shopping. keep your fridge well stocked with nutritious stuff so that it is always easy to make something on the spur of the moment. Don't bother with boring old steamed veg unless you really like them. Make your vegetables taste good and it will probably involve digging out some recipe books and expanding your horizons to other cultures. I suggest anything medittereanean, indian, middle eastern and then go from there. Also learn how to to cook and love eating all sorts of beans and lentils. Such foods a more useful diet food than bread pasta and rice, though i don't think its necessary to give those up but cutting down is helpful. Keep your protein intake up so that you can keep your carbs down and also not have unnecessary muscle loss.

3. food diary and daily weighing but weekly would probably be fine too.
4.
4. Only exercise if you want to. Exercise is not essential for weightloss. But using a pedometer to increase your activity is motivating. You can leave most types of exercise until you are slimmer and its easier. Focus on food.
5.
5. When you have stress or a low mood and start to get bingy feelings, you better be willing to go and get help asap. I have found talking to a councillor each time some problem had me heading towards trouble. And i found i could bounce back quite quickly. Of course i already have my trusted councillor in place but i deal with depression for many years now. Dieters ignore their mood and mind at their peril.

6. A lot of books about weightloss are motivating. Read them from time to time and learn and try things and be willing to change your eating habits forever. Keep your eye on the long term even as you go about deciding what to eat for lunch.

jouttie

Log, log and log! Log EVERYTHING, even if you bust your calorie account. Sometimes I overdraw my account by so much that I think I am gonna break MFP :-)
You need to know where the calories are coming from to help you make sensible choices.
That is what has helped me anyway. GOOD LUCK!

annangelich

Hey there new friend! (adding you).
Vents are welcome here.
The things that have helped me the most is realizing I need to take baby steps, and constantly remembering that weight loss happens when you don't give up.

melaniecheeks

1. The importance of water cannot be overstated - get into the habit of drinking plenty of it.
2. Sleep is important too, make sure you get plenty of that.
3. It's what happens over the long term that matters - don't get too upset about one meal or one day that didn't go according to plan.