What's the first healthy thing you did on your weight loss journey?

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SezxyStef

The first HEALTHY thing I did started exercising...

Coming here to MFP is not something I would consider "healthy" nor is logging food...as it is not a universally healthy thing for all...

It was a good idea for me and has helped a lot...some because of the knowledge of what I am eating but also learning from the forums what is what by listening to those that have had success and maintained etc.

rainbow198

I starting walking around my neighborhood. I wasn't ready to face the nutrition side of things at first.

But as walking became easier and I was able to go further for longer, it made me want to eat better.

Shortly after I cut back on the sugary drinks and soda and found ways to eat more fruits and veggies in my meals.

Then I tried other workouts and starting seeing results. I was on my way and I never looked back!

EatingAndKnitting

I logged my food. I started logging December 30 last year. That was my anniversary and we went to a buffet place. I stuffed myself, as I always do at a buffet place.

I still came home and logged my food as best as I could. Then I added a quick add of like an extra 2000 calories just to be REALLY sure I covered everything I ate. I don't think I ate much more than 2,000 calories for the whole meal, but I wanted to be sure.

The next day I started paying attention to the calories more and stayed roughly in my limits. It was three days later that I finally remembered to weigh myself in the morning though. I go by my starting weight of what it was at my doctor's office during my visit closest to December 30. It's close enough.

fitoverfortymom

I got a food scale and started weighing my food so I knew I was meeting my calorie goal.

stacj27

Stopped drinking calories. Well, not always. I do have a bit of booze every now and again. But no more than once a month while I'm losing weight. But no soda, no shakes, no juice, no beer. The 2nd thing was I started parking farther away from stores and taking the stairs. As long as I wasn't in heels!

gianna42

1. Started logging
2. Started moving

Heather4448

MFP and food scale. 1-2 punch

kgirlhart

The first thing I did was started walking my son's dog when he left for college. Then I decided that since I was walking I should pay more attention to how much I was eating and I started logging my food on mfp and eating at a deficit. That was 2 years ago and now I am down ~75 pounds.

jondspen

Started using MFP and MMF to track calories in/out, then cut back on sodas.

Silentpadna

I thought the first healthy thing I did was start moving again. But since the question specifically addressed "weight loss 'journey' (hate that word), the real first healthy thing I did was start tracking food intake.

A very close second, but since the particular action isn't necessarily healthy it may not count, is that I posted on a thread here in MFP. For me, that became a sort of habit. When I visit the forums, I can't not log my food....Now it's habit. Strange...I know.

Spartan_Gingi

Cut out the soda, started drinking water.

Lizakabibbis

Cut out soda. Haven't had a soda in over a year.

Agent_Freckles

Started weighing, measuring and counting.

Agent_Freckles

jjalajandra wrote: »

I quit eating sugar. Although, it was because I'm a diabetic and sugar seems to make neuropathy worse.

As someone who works in healthcare this makes me very happy

MegaMooseEsq

shaunshaikh wrote: »

Started logging everything without changing anything to understand baseline better and what changes I needed to make.

Same. Believe it or not, I actually spent five months logging everything before I changed much of anything, and I was in fact gaining that whole time. I do think there was a little bit of observer effect happening - I didn't actively decide "I'm not going to get Jimmy John's for lunch because it's out of my calories", more like "huh, 614 calories for that Pepe, really? I don't think I'm that hungry." It might seem crazy, but I think that I just needed to spend time on that first step before really wading in.

murph155

Agent_Freckles wrote: »

jjalajandra wrote: »

I quit eating sugar. Although, it was because I'm a diabetic and sugar seems to make neuropathy worse.

As someone who works in healthcare this makes me very happy

@Agent_Freckles, can I ask you something? Do you know if sugar consumption always affect neuropathy, despite the cause? I have it in my hands, but not from diabetes; it's from chemo. I've never heard / been told about an association with sugar. Just curious.

newheavensearth

Learned what a healthy portion size is and ate only that much, drank only water. Bought exercise dvd and did them.

Dazzler21

fatty2sixpack wrote: »

When you decide you wanted to lose weight what was the first healthy thing you did?

Genuinely... I turned down a biscuit. Then cakes in the office. Then I started cutting fats and carbs down to just what I needed.

JeromeBarry1

The first purposeful thing I did when I decided to lose weight was to google for an on-line food diary tool.

You can find people on this site who would swear that I haven't done anything healthy yet. I'm not here to argue with anyone, just point out that I've lost weight using the food diary as an educational tool to actually make my brain think about the stuffing in my mouth.

Actually, that was only the first thing this time in January 2016. In January 2000, the first healthy thing I did was that I decided to try to live to 100 years and the first order of business was to stop eating so much. At that time I stopped a lot of drive through eating and a lot of eating constantly while commuting in my car.

RoxieDawn

I only came to MFP because my family suggested that I need to know how much I was eating a day to gain the weight I was at the time.

I found this app.! So I would say creating an account in MFP, following and sticking to the process.

EatingAndKnitting

murph155 wrote: »

Agent_Freckles wrote: »

jjalajandra wrote: »

I quit eating sugar. Although, it was because I'm a diabetic and sugar seems to make neuropathy worse.

As someone who works in healthcare this makes me very happy

@Agent_Freckles, can I ask you something? Do you know if sugar consumption always affect neuropathy, despite the cause? I have it in my hands, but not from diabetes; it's from chemo. I've never heard / been told about an association with sugar. Just curious.

I'm also curious to know this. I have mild neuropathy in my feet. I'm on Topamax for it and appetite suppression (to counteract the psych drugs in on for bipolar disorder, what fun!). It's so mild that I only noticr it when I think about it, like now.

I am diabetic, but haven't been great about sugar. I have recently given it up except for very special occasions (birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and major celebrations). I haven't noticed a correlation, but I haven't looked for one.

Agent_Freckles

murph155 wrote: »

Agent_Freckles wrote: »

jjalajandra wrote: »

I quit eating sugar. Although, it was because I'm a diabetic and sugar seems to make neuropathy worse.

As someone who works in healthcare this makes me very happy

@Agent_Freckles, can I ask you something? Do you know if sugar consumption always affect neuropathy, despite the cause? I have it in my hands, but not from diabetes; it's from chemo. I've never heard / been told about an association with sugar. Just curious.

This is a complicated question, but if you have CIPN, sugar can affect your nerves and *can* make the pain worse. Alcohol can also make it worse, and can do damage to your nerves. But if you're not diabetic or pre-diabetic I wouldn't overthink the sugar aspect, but also don't go over recommended daily sugar allowances.

For those who are diabetic, yes, high blood sugar (anything over 140ish post meal) is definitely going to make the neuropathy worse.

junodog1

Logging.

LiftandSkate

Started exercising for 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening, most days of the week. That way, I really couldn't justify not doing it. Once that became routine, I added 5 minutes to each session. I went from hating exercise to having trouble fitting everything that I love to do in: skating, lifting, bicycling, hiking, yoga...Not enough days in the week!

Tracking everything I eat was key, too. I just had no concept of portion sizes, calories, etc. I still resist the reality of this, but have gotten much better over the years!

jvcinv

The first healthy thing I did was moving to fresh whole foods while abandoning, sugar, soda, fast food, and highly processed food. The best change I've ever made.

EatingAndKnitting

Agent_Freckles wrote: »

murph155 wrote: »

Agent_Freckles wrote: »

jjalajandra wrote: »

I quit eating sugar. Although, it was because I'm a diabetic and sugar seems to make neuropathy worse.

As someone who works in healthcare this makes me very happy

@Agent_Freckles, can I ask you something? Do you know if sugar consumption always affect neuropathy, despite the cause? I have it in my hands, but not from diabetes; it's from chemo. I've never heard / been told about an association with sugar. Just curious.

This is a complicated question, but if you have CIPN, sugar can affect your nerves and *can* make the pain worse. Alcohol can also make it worse, and can do damage to your nerves. But if you're not diabetic or pre-diabetic I wouldn't overthink the sugar aspect, but also don't go over recommended daily sugar allowances.

For those who are diabetic, yes, high blood sugar (anything over 140ish post meal) is definitely going to make the neuropathy worse.

Thanks for the info @Agent_Freckles! I'm trying to get my sugars down that low after I eat. I'm closer than I was (180s, down from 250s), but I know there's still room for improvement.

aeloine

This is going to sound like the worst thing possible, but I started weighing myself every day.

I don't have a weird mental block around daily fluctuations, it's just a tool for me. I was NOT taking ownership of my actions before that. I would think that I really "didn't eat that much" and that maybe "it's just water weight".

After the numbers started going the WRONG way, I realized that maybe it wasn't 100 pounds of extra water weight, and maybe I really DID eat that much.

Alidecker

I joined a gym, gave up soda and stopped eating out for lunch during the week all at the same time.

A couple of weeks in, I started logging calories, not here, but by hand in a notebook. I was working with a personal trainer and we tweaked it every week to see what I could do better.

AgidGirl

I started bringing my lunch to work everyday. I used to eat out, it was expensive and very high calorie. It was actually eye opening figuring out how many calories were in my typical lunch (900-1400 calories).