Wish me luck!

HanaThorne

Hello all

As you can see, this is my first post on this forum I joined about 10 days ago when I realized that my weight has seriously endangered my weight and that I really need to stop messing around and start doing something about it. I am 25 years old, my current weight is well over 250 pound (around 118 kg - I'm European), and, given that I am a very short person (5ft 3in), you can only imagine the physical and health repercussions - both of my knees are starting to give out from under me, I'm heavily anemic, walking more than a mile gets me really tired, I'm having problems with my cycle and so on.

Now, I have never been discriminated or made fun of because of my XXL size, I am in a wonderful relationship with a guy who loves me just the way I am and have lots of great friends so I've never felt pressured to do anything about my weight - I was a chubby girl since I was a toddler and was perfectly fine with it for all of my life. My weight has been in the "normal overweight" levels until a few years ago, when I started suffering from anxiety and, as a result of that, started heavily overeating. In the meantime, the anxiety is under control so I'm finally able to concentrate on making myself better in other ways (others would argue that anxiety WAS a symptom of my weight - which may be partially true). Two weeks ago, when I stepped on the scale and saw the mindblowing number (and mind you, I've lost a few pounds since then), it hit me that, if I continue like this, I'm going to become one of those people from reality shows that are carried around in special chairs or something.. So I signed up here, started monitoring my nutrition and weight and have been going pretty well so far.

My biggest problem is my diet. As a kid, I refused to eat anything except pasta, fries, soup (with a lot of noodles in enormous quantities) and other junk and unhealthy food. This continued into my adulthood - I ate my first piece of meat in college and my first fruit in high school. So, all of my life I am completely unaccustomed to healthy food of any kind - and I am now beginning to remedy this. I am steadily but gradually introducing lots of different fruits and vegetables in my diet - but am not completely giving up of some of my favorite food. I figured that, if I keep to my daily calorie goal, I should pretty much eat whatever I want, but I still want to eat healthier. I was never one of those people who would starve to lose weight - I love food way to much for that I would rather be careful what I eat, but eat plenty and lose weight more slowly - which is the more healthy way to go

Since I was raised in this very, very poor dietary lifestyle, my body is starting to complain from the shock of the sudden intake of "foreign" food. This is starting to get very frustrating - today I was rolling over in bed for the whole afternoon just because I eat some green beans, and a few days ago I had a huge stomach ache after eating a banana and fresh orange juice (in the morning, though). Since a few years ago, I can't, for the life of me, eat a whole apple or drink an apple juice without feeling like a sharp rock is cutting through my intestines. I'm reading through the internet and I'm thinking it may be because I'm taking a lot of fiber products recently, but I'm not sure.

So, for starters here's a one big hello and sorry for the big read - I like to write and I tend to overdo it, I'm even starting of starting a blog here And secondly, I would love it if you would share some useful nutrition tips that would help me gradually introduce healthy food to my diet without my body over-reacting

skinnysushicat

Cooked foods can be gentler than raw, so to get accustomed to some fruits and veg cook them well. You like soup, so blend well cooked veggies into a soup. Build up gradually. And avoid beans if you're not used to them - gently does it!

askeates

You may want to consider adding the veggies to your meals. Since you are not wanting to cut out your pasta and so forth, steam a head of broccoli and add it to the pasta. First it makes the pasta meal more filling (veggies are amazing that way) and satisfying, plus you get the added nutrients from those veggies. Just don't over cook them, because then they lose a lot of the nutrients.

I do this a lot with spinach, my son HATES it, but I add it to pastas all the time now and he never notices because I have chopped it up very fine, plus added the broccoli

For fruits, add them to a yogurt smoothie, or toss them into steel cut oats for breakfast. Just remember your body needs a little time for adjustment, if you really have never eaten a lot of fruits or veggies add more slowly into your diet.

Best of luck!

HanaThorne

Hi girls,

Thanks both for the advices, keep 'em coming!
@askeates - I am definitely cutting down on pasta, but am eating mashed or boiled potatos or rice instead. I'm doing the "hide the veggies" thing with my mashed potatoes a lot of the time

Turtle_L0ve

Welcome! I'm fairly new to the site as well but stopped to read your post and I understand the frustration of trying to eat healthy only to have it KILL your stomach! I was diagnosed with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) years ago and I really have to watch how I eat fruits and vegetables. I can't eat food with a high acid content or with a ton of fiber when I first wake up. For that reason, I don't eat breakfast until I've been awake a couple of hours. When I do decide to eat an apple, I almost always peel the skin off because I know it will hurt my stomach. Sometimes I will eat a couple bites of the skin, just so I get some of the nutrients. Iceberg lettuce is AWFUL for me. I tend to use Romaine mixes or darker leafier greens instead of iceberg lettuce.

I'm not sure if that will help you any but good luck in figuring out what works best for you! It's definitely a process!