Discouraged but trying again.

mrskatiee

I am almost 28 and have battled with my weight since childhood. I have some pretty wretched eating habits that I am slowly but surely changing. The past year has been filled with major life changes, one of which was a very difficult pregnancy and I quit smoking. Due to immobility and just plain eating my head off, I gained a LOT of weight and am now the heaviest I have ever been. I am also a "stress eater". When everything is going smoothly I lose weight. When there is any upheaval I head for the snickers. I feel sad about my body, and I want to change it. I want to be healthier and a good example for my kids. I need to learn how to cope without putting food in my mouth. I have a hard time finding time to exercise, and really have little motivation some days. I am hoping that through tracking my calories, and my progress, I will be able to actually get the weight off, and keep it off. I have approximately 60 pounds to lose. I might as well start tomorrow. Tomorrow I will start an interval running program for the second time in 2 months. Maybe this time I will make it through the 9 weeks. Wish me luck!

jamielise2

Try swimming - easier on the joints when you are just getting started. Also, make work outs fun by trying Zumba or something like that. Good for you for trying again. Just remember, the weight went on slowly and will come off slowly if you want to keep it off.

jamielise2

I am a stress/emotional eater too. A trick that has been working for me is to take a minute and think before I eat anything, and ask myself if I'm hungry or stressed. When I'm particularly stressed I tend to err on the side of not eating enough for fear of over eating, but you could also try eating something healthier when you're stressed, like fruit.

Hanna82

I'm 28 as well. I've never been a fitness junkie. I've found the easiest way to exercise with kids is, well, with your kids. Get them involved in activities you have to get involved in too. Sports and things that you'll have to be help them with. I have my four year old enrolled in dance, t-ball and soccer. Helping your kid practice keeps you involved and also active. Also, I got a bike. She's at the age where riding a bike is a really fun activity to do together. And swimming is great too. Anything, taking walks together through trails, if you have any nearby.

AprilHead

Aww, we will be here to support you! This site makes it easy because it forces you to record what you eat and when you exercise, and it's easier to change when it's down on paper. Feel free to friend me if you'd like, ok? Good luck with everything.

ItsMeMaryW

You CAN Do it but you have to want it enough AND it has to be for YOU! I have been overweight since childhood. I could never lose the weight for any other reason and keep it off. This never worked for me till the day I decided I was Worth It!!! I've been at this since the end of July and have lost 123 lbs now. This is the most I have ever lost at one time and I'm not stopping and nothing can make me stop. For the first time in my life I love me. I have had a lot of stress through this last year too and it just can't break me. Decide you are worth it and you will lose the weight because Nothing tastes as good as this feels. Best of luck!

registers

I have been in your shoes I understand, I don't have kids. 2yrs ago, I lost 100lbs, and guess what? Last year I gained 80. haha sucks for me. I know how to lose it, that's not the issue, keeping it off is. I studied a lot of psychology, also. The reason I lost the 100lbs is because I wanted to be a Navy SEAL, I'd burn 4000 calories in one hour sometimes. That's just crazy intensity. I learned quiet a few things on my path. I'd like to share some things I learned along the way.

You're here at this webpage, that's good. A lot of people just "wish" or "hope" they lose weight some day, but you're taking action, so you're off to a good start. You're doing better than 90% of the overweight population.

Success at weight loss, I believe boils down to your psychology, everything boils down to psychology. Would anyone really try if they're discouraged? Not really, we get what we expect in life, not what we want. If you expect to fail, you probably will. If you expect to succeed you probably will.

The reason why I mentioned my failure at keeping off the weight is because it made me realize new things and new insights, which I am applying now. Your body can only cause so much pain before it breaks. If you try to lose 20lbs in a month, you would put tremendous stress on your body, and it will more than likely break down. I do know people who have lost 30lbs in a month and have kept it off. It is possible, but if you tried it, and it didn't work. Move on.

It's recommended to start off slow, make small changes, changes you can manage with out too much stress on your body. For example, eat a healthy breakfast and drink your required water untill it feels automatic. THATS ALL. Once you have that down, then work on a healthy lunch, untill you have that down, then a healthy dinner. Once you have all that down, work on improving it. Start out with 15min workouts, that's what i am currently doing right now. Just take it easy, what's the rush? The objective is to build a habit, that turns in to a life style that is "easy" to maintain.

Before I forget, it's all about taking action, if you hate to workout and eat right, or if you love to workout and eat right, if you do it, you will get results. Action is the key.

That the physical part, now for the psychological part. Since I said it boils down to action, what controls action? Emotions control action. For example, lets say you had a miserable day, and you had to workout or eat right, you probably won't do it, what if you had a great day and everything was flowing great, and you had to workout and eat right. You'd probably do it.
The only difference is your emotions. So the key here is to train your mind for positive emotions. I am pretty good at controlling my positive emotoins since I have been doing it for a while. For a beginner, what I would do is, find 10mins for myself. and close my eyes. Imagine how great it would be to achieve your goal, try to visualize is if it was real right now. That's what I am doing currently and it helps keep me motivated and focused, I feel unstoppable when I do it.

You might have difficulty with it, at first, An easier exercise is to "remember" when you felt totally confident and you can achieve anything, Bring that moment from your past back to life, imagine how you'd move, breathe, talk and what would be going on in your mind as you felt this. Once you see this ideal moment imagine stepping in to your body, be in that moement and feel it. Then you imagine going through your daily life, exercising, eating right etc... (while you feel these emotions). The purpose of this is to, train your mind to feel that way through your daily life.

When I mention some of these techniques to some people, they're like "okay whatever." I think to myself "exactly, winners do what failures won't." I hope this helps.

registers

Hanna had a very good tip.

Mtsidad

Good advice, asmcriminal

owengem

Welcome and good luck
You are in the right place for help and support. Have a look thru the forum posts and add people who seem supportive and the kind of people who you believe will support you thru your journey.

You will definitely be more successful with a strong support network around you and MFP is the place to find that

It works if you work it
Gem x