Try n try again and again..in need of tips for a giverupper

Sailorswifey07

Yes.. I am the one that starts a healthy lifestyle.. Last for a few months.. And then suddenly.. The weight comes back again even if I keep to it..and I just give up.. I say to myself.. Just accept your 205lbs and 5'3"...I can't exercise a lot due to back injury... But I walk. And walk... But I'm at the point where I know I need to focus on food.. But when I find myself at a point where I feel hopeless.. With something I can not physically do because of my disability... I eat.. So what are some tips for a person like me.. I've tried it all to stay motivated.. I've got huge goals.. And I know what I need to do.. I want to loose weight to get pregnant and have a healthy pregnancy next year...I want to loose weight to help with my back pain.. And before the pregnancy I wana take my 3year old daughter to Disney world which is my favorite place in the whole world to see her eyes light up when she sees the castle and meet her favorite characters, Minnie Mouse and Elsa...I want to give her that.. And if I'm not capible of walking the parks.. Then..I can't give her that..I want to be the momma and wife my family deserves..I couldn't want anything more..
So to all the brave beautiful people that have succeeded...what are some advice you can give me? At this point I'm kinda desperate..and I never admit it unless I mean it. Lol! Thanks everyone in advance!

bajoyba

Start small.

Weight loss is all about being in a calorie deficit, and you can create a calorie deficit without exercising and without eliminating anything from your diet.

When I first started, I just plugged my info and goals into MFP and let it do the math for me. I just ate the foods I liked and stuck to my calorie goal every day. Over time, I started tweaking my eating habits, exercising regularly, and paying more attention to my nutrition, but it has never been complicated in the slightest.

Here's what worked (and still works) for me:

- I eat at a moderate calorie deficit
- I eat foods I like in order to hit my calorie goal every day, aiming for a balanced diet
- I log everything I eat and drink accurately and consistently
- I do exercises and activities that I enjoy to maintain and improve my fitness level

Here's some helpful info that explains it in detail:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1235566-so-you-re-new-here
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

My diary is open, and you're welcome to have a look.

karmac0matic

don't let yourself get burnt out

don't go crazy with restricting or too much exercising, again you'll get burnt out or worse.

make sure you don't only focus on the numbers but rather how your body is feeling and how you're feeling about seeing/feeling/etc your body.

dreawest

stress eating is hard to turn off but I find what you eat doesn't matter it just needs to be in quantity so I buy bags of mini carrots and snap peas and keep cucumbers on hand and when I need to mindless stuff myself I will sit with a bag of peas/carrots and eat til too full without it sabotaging my calories. I know I should stop mindless eating and I have definitely reduced it but in the meantime it has helped.

Sailorswifey07

Thanks so much for the tips.. I truely believe that it's all about the way you feel and not the numbers. But my scale's batteries died..Lol! So here in a month I'm going to replace them and see how far I've come. This site is amazing.. There's so many people that are supportive of each other. We are all fighting for our health. I hope one day I can give my own tips to help others!:-) oh and snacking on veggies is a great idea!!

bajoyba

stress eating is hard to turn off but I find what you eat doesn't matter it just needs to be in quantity so I buy bags of mini carrots and snap peas and keep cucumbers on hand and when I need to mindless stuff myself I will sit with a bag of peas/carrots and eat til too full without it sabotaging my calories. I know I should stop mindless eating and I have definitely reduced it but in the meantime it has helped.

I'm not really a stress eater, but I AM a boredom eater, and a similar approach works for me. There are times when I just feel like munching on something, so I try to keep lots of low-calorie snacks around. My favorites are fresh vegetables (carrots, celery, cucumbers, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes), cheese sticks, pretzel sticks, and popcorn. I will also sip on water, tea, black coffee, la croix, or the occasional diet soda if I don't want to eat anything but still want to put something in my stomach.

Sailorswifey07

I guess it's time to get to the store and buy some veggies and small ziplock bags! I was just on YouTube and watched and interview with bob Harper and just mentioned the same thing. If your bored or stress eat..drink 16oz of water and eat in some carrots or a crunchy vegetable.but my weakness.. Honey mustard to go with it.. If I made my own home made would it have less calories in it than the store bought? Sorry for the silly question.lol

MelodyandBarbells

It should

You can control the amount of honey & mayonnaise in it, which tend to drive up calories. Some recipes call for substitutions such as Greek yogurt. I use the allrecipes app for recipes whenever I'm craving something. The calorie totals are posted and someone will no doubt have lower cal versions

If you find yourself burning out every so often , my question would be is your method sustainable. How much of a deficit do you aim for, what's your daily calorie goal set to? Is it better to successfully lose 25 lbs a year , or try for 70 if that may mean burning out for you? Just food for thought.

MelodyandBarbells

Oh and in the spirit of the MFP process, I should mention that to know your home made honey mustard is less calories , you'd have to compare store bought calorie count by weight and/or tablespoons, log your version in MFP and then determine if you've successfully removed calories from the original version . I did use the recipe function for honey mustard once!

Sailorswifey07

Most of the charts and calculators I've done online say to stay between 1300 and 1500 calories. So I'd say to stay safe would be about 1350-1400.
But I'd really like to stay realistic on expectations. Bc I think I've come to the point where I'm going to focus on nourishing myself with what it needs. Finding alternatives to foods that I love..
The last time I started getting healthy it went to a standstill at 160lbs.. I was feeling amazing! But I had a fall and ended up int he hospital after i had an epidural shot done in my lower back for a ruptured disc.. I lost all control of my legs for a week..and I'm now walking on my own.. It just seems like every time I'm back on the right track something happens.. Life. Lol. So I use these things as excuses to give up.(my mama's southern cookin didn't help either..lol) but I think in the past I did push myself too much.. Jane.. You just gave me a lot to think about. Lol<--a lot of thinking out loud. Haha! Thanks girly!

_KitKat_

You said you have a 3 yr old, when my girls were young I was probably at my fittest, I believe it was because snacks in the house were more toddler size and healthy. The veggies and fruit are great choices, dry cheerios are probably on hand too as well as eggs (great protein & I think 2 hard boiled is about 155 calories)....my oldest loved eggs and it was an easy quick meal to prepare. Weight loss is really only about staying in a deficient, depriving your self will only lead to cravings and usually failure, eat what you want and just log accurately (weighing and logging everything) and within your calorie goal. I am not one to say don't eat this or this but if someone is having a hard time it can help to cut some habits out...soda is a ton of calories and can feel like a waste when tracking, the other is whole milk...with a toddler she probably needed this at age one but if she is a healthy weight the doctors normally have you switch to a reduced fat milk (reduced calories too). Small changes can give you more room in your calories without normally feeling like you are sacrificing.

As for stress eating, I am of little help...eating makes me sick if I am stressed but when it comes to giving up......remember less weight and in better physical shape, your back will be easier to deal with and should have some improvement. You also have a beautiful little girl to role model for and be active with; plus I am sure she wants a healthy baby brother or sister to play with. Next time you just want to give up, remember all the reasons you want to be healthy and how your life and your family's life will improve. Your daughter will also have an easier time (statistically) of maintaining a healthy weight if her parents do. I wish you the best and know you can do it!

tcpwade

I have a tendency to give up too. I'm back after a long break, myself and what is working for me right now is that I had my husband hide the scale from me. I find that I do great the first week. I track, I exercise, I feel SO great about myself, and then if I jump on that scale, so excited and proud of myself and don't see a number that reflects what I feel I earned, I get immediately discouraged and slowly start to back slide. Hiding the scale has kept me going, because I'm basing my success on how I feel about myself and my choices, and letting myself be proud of me without that machine to "score" me on my progress. I have promised myself to go an entire month before checking in with my weight. In the meantime, I'm hitting all my goals and I'm feeling fantastic about myself, which is motivating me to keep going.

kathitoo

It is okay to go at it slow, I know hard to do! but if you want to make this life long and not put it back it has to be something you can stay with the rest of your life. It isn't realistic to think you will never have another chocolate cookie or an ice cream with your child; but everyday probably won't work either. Eat healthy, cut out the junk on most days and it can be a treat once in awhile! I don't drink soda anymore on a regular basis but once in awhile I will have one (like every 3 months or so) and I am good. Even if you lose a pound a week that is 52 pounds in a year. Same with most junk, when faced with it, I will usually play a game and say when you have lost xx pounds you can have some, or walk 20 minutes and you can have some, but usually I don't want it after that. I am learning this the hard way too!

mathandcats

I typed out a lengthy response and lost it to some forum error... I'll give the shortened version again...

- don't set your calories too low - if you're miserable and hungry you won't stick to it.
- don't cut out all the foods you love - if you have a craving, try to accommodate it into your goals by eating less or lower calorie foods at your other meals. If you are unhappy because you think you can't eat something ever again, you won't stick to it.
- if you really need it, try having a cheat day once a week where you eat at maintenance calories instead of your deficit calories. This won't undo your progress that week because you will only be eating the amount required to maintain your current weight, and you'll still have the weekly deficit from the other 6 days.
- there's no need to cut out food groups unless you have a medical condition. Don't listen to people insisting you have to become vegan to lose weight, gluten free to lose weight, etc. Only do that if you want to.
- try to find which foods you like that will keep you feeling satisfied for an appropriate length of time given their calories
- use a scale to measure your food. It's so much faster and also more accurate (for solids) than measuring cups. Plus, you don't have to wash as many dishes!

Fuzzipeg

It sounds to me that you have come such a very long way so far, so congratulations of your recovery so far. Give yourself credit for your determination and stop being hard on yourself. Like you my daughter is recovering from a major injury and it all takes time. She is further along her road and is getting back to herself. For her the end is in sight after 18 months and recovery is individual.

If you have always had weight issues it might be a good idea to have full blood tests to see if there might be an underlying cause.

If the issues is a recent one because of immobility and medications, you probably feel daunted by how far out of control things became. How about entering food and activity information from when you when you were at your most immobile and see how the calories built up. May be print of a sheet or two of what happened back then for reference. Now see the difference your regained activity is making, consider the additional calories this new activity would have utilised, this could be seen as a sort of deficit. You are doing well, Please do not put even more excessive pressure onto yourself.

Please be happy with loosing only 1 lb or two a week. This will give you the ability to maximise your foods for your recovery because the right nutrients are essential even now. Make sensible changes, less processed foods, less salt probably. Look on this process as your returning to normal all be it a new one.

All the very best as you get back to yourself

neandermagnon

take it slow and focus on long term compliance... give yourself compliance targets, i.e reward yourself for sticking to it for 1 week, 2 weeks 3 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year etc.

try to make it all as easy as possible... find the number of calories whereby you lose fat slowly, yet still have enough to feel full and satisfied and have room to enjoy all the foods you want to eat (albeit in smaller portion sizes).... it's a lot easier to stick with it eating this way. For exercise, find ways of exercising that you really enjoy, so again, it's easier to stick with long term. For health, focus on getting enough protein, fat, carbs, vitamins, minerals, fibre, then after that you can use remaining calories how you like, i.e. whatever foods you want to eat. Stick to your calorie goal.

Focus on developing good habits by making small changes, e.g. weighing and logging your food, doing exercise regularly... the more you do them the more they become a habit and so the easier they become. Focus on the early days on compliance (with your compliance goals as I said) and after a few weeks they should be habit and compliance should be a lot easier. And once your new lifestyle choices become habit, the weight just kind of falls off (slowly, yet surely, over time).