My insights after a month and I keep going

klaramarina

Hi, I'll be forty this august, i was 208 last year and lost some weight before my gallbladder surgery last December, 3 weeks after surgery I was 173, well after that I got lazy and ate whatever I liked and I gained back, until a month ago I made a decision to take my Health seriously, so I weighted 182 two weeks ago, now I am 175 and looking forward to be 125 in six months. I'm 5'5" and I work out 5-6 days a week. Also, I am eating 1200-1500. What I have figured out is that you gotta make a decision today and turn that switch to eat the necessary, food to nourish not to enjoy it, because that is the problem when we start to enjoy it that much that we overindulge. So weight loss and to keep it off is about 70% diet, 30% exercise in my opinion. I cut dairy, carbs ( I only eat a piece of sprouted grains bread or a cup or 1/2 of brown rice or a sweet potato only after working out) sugars (including the fake ones, you will forget about sugar cravings soon). I eat 4-8 oz of protein a day, plus 2 boiled eggs, plus protein shake no sugar added. I eat two servings of fruit a day( berries, 1/2 grapefruit, apple, pear only these have less sugar ) I eat all vegetables that I can, when cooking I don't use any oils, I use instead broth and it works. But a spoonful of fish oil a day works so you can have your ration of fats a day. I take a multivitamin and I drink a lot of water, I also divide my meals in 5 small throughout the day, sleep good.
Workouts: I jog/walk 4 miles( now I stopped jogging because knee problems so I focus and other types of exercise) swim laps in the pool, elliptical in the gym, rowing machine in the gym. When I just started I did little but I pushed myself into do more, you gotta read your body, and very important to stretch for at least 10-20 min before and after working out.
Never give up, listen to your body rest, if you failed one day, next day continue until you achieve your goal.
Good luck

mhigdon35

Good for you! You seem so motivated and all in it, you're inspiring me! I'd like to get to 120, I don't have a time frame. I got to 125 and started binge eating hard, trying to get back into things now!

klaramarina

Yeah I hear you I used to do that, knock on wood that I don't do that anymore, now I'm focusing on the outcome and try to forget food, food it is just to nourish us

LovesDogsAndBooks

I am roughly your height and starting weight and am down 20 lbs now. Everybody should go with what works for them, but I personally still want my food to be enjoyable. I haven't really cut out anything that I used to eat, I eat less of everything though. And there's nothing that I started eating just because it is considered "healthy", but that I don't like. The reason I have been putting off for so long to try to lose weight is that I had this misconception that eating less necessarily means depriving yourself, being hungry all the time and so on. I'm not quite 3 months into this and am surprised at how few difficulties I have to eat at a deficit. I'm sure one of these days I'll have something like a binge, got 2 weeks of vacation coming up, too, so that'll be my first test. But at this moment in time I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to keep this up.

klaramarina

Yeah you'll be fine because you have a head start, for me I eat 4-5 times a day and I don't feel like I need to eat more, my food choices have change so far, and I'm focusing on that because the sweets that I used to crave they will always be there for me but I don't want to be there for them. Also, the older I get the harder it is to loose weight. Last year I was 208, then started to eat better and exercise and lost some weight, a month ago I was 182+, today I weight myself and I am 172, so this time I just want to take my time and loose all the excess weight. Actually I am feeling better, more energy, food cravings are disappearing perhaps because it is an addiction that you crave more and more so it is getting out of my system.
Good luck with your journey

LovesDogsAndBooks

That's great that you're doing so well! And I wasn't implying you should do anything different, I was just describing how it's working for me. And you're the one who has a head start, I'm 11 years your senior I wish I had done this 10 years ago.

klaramarina

yes, I understood that part just for some people like me sometimes it is better to stop eating what we crave because in my case I overindulge, that's all. Eating all you want in smaller portions it is a blessing because you have control!! What I have not master it yet, hopefully later. Thank you for writing