Motivation!

pieces22

Hello ! I’m new to this whole posting thing. I am a very shy person when it comes to socializing lol. The reason for this is post is.. I need motivation. I’ve had family support and my husband but I feel like I don’t get the support I need. Dieting is a huge step and one of the hardest to stick with (in my personal opinion) I’m a stay at home mom and a cook. I mean I get down in the kitchen. But my eating habits are horrible. I’ve dieted before. I lost over 40 lbs “once” 😂 kept it off for a good year. Then suddenly I was like oh f it and went back to my 600 lb life. I’m 245 and wanted to lose the weight. How can I not pick up that damn piece of candy or snack when I’m sad or frustrated. I want to live longer and healthier for my children. 😭😭 no judgement please. I can cook the hell out of anything. I just don’t eat anything other than chicken or Turkey. I don’t eat red meat nor pork. So the whole prep and cooking is not what I’m worried about . 🥺🥺 help

callsitlikeiseeit

motivation comes from within, truly.

another thing to think about it is ... if you look at it as a 'diet' then... the odds of it lasting (and you keeping that weight off you may lose) probably aren't good. A diet is technically a way of eating, which should last a lifetime. Which is exactly how you should look at it and approach it.

The key in losing weight, and take this from someone who has lost over 189 pounds, is to make small, SUSTAINABLE changes. this is a long term effort. not a sprint. you will not lose weight fast. you will not lose weight every week. you will have weeks on end with NO weight loss. its normal. trust the process.

my main tips:

learn how to weigh (on a food scale) your food properly and find ACCURATE database entries now. When you first begin losing weight, you may have a lot of room for errors in your logging. but as you have less to lose, you don't. If you learn how to do things properly from the beginning, it means you don' have to RE-LEARN how to do it later. You like to cook- THAT IS AWESOME - learn how to use the recipe builder. In my opinion it is the single most under utilized tool on MFP. With that, you can make soups, stews, casseroles - family style dishes and measure out to your portion to the GRAM and get a correct calorie count. I do it ALL THE TIME.

Find an activity you ENJOY. You don't have to be a runner (ew). You don't have to work out at all to lose weight (weight loss happens in the kitchen). BUT... physical activity does have a LOT of benefits. Both mental and physical. It can be as simple as a leisurely stroll a few times a week. And as you lose weight, you may find (I did), that you WANT to do more. Simple, little things like parking a bit further out in parking lots. Taking stairs instead of elevators. walking to your mailbox instead of pulling up to it in your car as you are pulling in your driveway. Small things. Every bit counts.

Understand that you do not have to give up your favorite foods or any food groups to lose weight. You DO need to learn how MUCH you can eat. Portion control. This goes back to my first point. For the most part, I eat the same things I always have. Just less of them. I eat burgers and pizza and chips and cookies. Just ... not all in the same day well, I might could get away with it if I planned it out REALLY well. And stuck to the plan with NO deviation. Maybe. LOL

And lastly, you will have 'bad' days. Whether its a holiday or just a ... bad day. Life happens. you will go over. It is NOT the end of the world. You will not ruin your deficit with one bad day. The problems come in when that one bad day becomes two, becomes 3, becomes a week, and goes on....

Snacks - you said you have kids. Now is a great time to teach your kids that snacks can be healthy! fruit, veggie sticks with hummus dip, cheese and crackers, string cheese, yogurt ... so many options that are good for you (and your kids) but are not full of empty calories. and tasty!

You've got this. Take it one day at a time, and each day, try to do a little bit better. Don't try to do everything all at once. Don't try to make 1000 changes all at once. Most people who burn out, do so because they try to do too much, too soon. start small. build from there. You did not gain the weight quickly. You will not lose it quickly. Better to lose it slowly, and KEEP IT OFF, then lose it quick, and gain it all back and more!

88olds

I’ve got a soft spot for people who want to lose for their kids. People will say you have to do it for yourself, but for me it got down to what kind of a parent I was going to be. So it was kind of about me and kind of about them.

Big picture- we need to learn to live within some reasonable limits. Take the advice above and get a food scale. Use it whenever possible. Use measuring cups for liquids. Start a food diary log and everything with calories.

Calorie counting works. It has to work, its how our bodies are designed. Eat extra calories and our bodies store the extra as fat. Eat in a calorie deficit and we draw down the stores. Use the MFP calculators to find your maintenance number for your current weight. Then calculate the number to lose 1 lb per week. Start by planning a menu that aims somewhere between those two numbers. Log the results in your food diary. See how it goes for a couple of weeks.

There’s a pretty long calorie counting learning curve. There’s a lot of trial and error. But the most important thing is to keep doing your food dairy no matter what. Over your number. Log it. Crazy over. Log that too. No throwing up your hands and walking away when things go awry. The process it much more important than the numbers. Fact is that there are lots ways to make mistakes, loss of concentration, lapses due to fatigue, simple arithmetic or misread labels will all trip you up. Plus there are calorie counting gray areas. Sometime we just don’t know how many calories are in a meal or dish. But make a good faith estimate and keep going. Calorie counting doesn’t have to be prefect to work. Aim for consistency over time and you will get it.

Quite possibly your brain is screaming that 1 lb per week is much to slow. But weight loss has two parts, eating in a calorie deficit and living with it. The problem with most diet thinking is its all in on the deficit. But if you want to lose and keep the weight off focus on how you are living as you go. As @callsitlikeiseeit points out, aim at sustainability. It’s whole different approach from diet thinking. What’s needed is a livable downward trend. When you find that, ride the trend as far as it takes you. Then make small adjustments until you start losing again. If you focus on how you’re living time can actually be on your side in this. Good luck.