Looking for friends to keep me focused....

AntoinetteC

Hi everyone,

My name is Antoinette, i signed up yesterday and i really love this site. I really love that i can keep track of what i eat. I rejoined Jenny Carig on 05/21/2011 and so far i lost 8 pounds. The flip side of it.... i still have 80 pounds to go. lol. I am going to stay focused on what i eat and exercise 3-4 times per week. My wake up call was when my doctor put me on BP pills. I hate this. I know my weight as alot to do with this. Well here's to my journey....cant wait to see my new body. Have a nice day everyone.

Antoinette

beckusjane

You may have already seen this message. I put it as a blog on my page. I truly think this helps when people feel like they are stuck and not sure what to do to continue. I dont want you to give up. I KNOW you can do this:) I also know there is strength in numbers so feel free to message me anytime if you are having issues throughout the day. I can check in daily with you if you would like:)

Just so you know, this may turn into a novel:) And dont go strictly by any of this. What works for one person may not work for someone else. We did a "Get Fit, Get Healthy" challenge at my work for 8 weeks. I lost about 22 lbs. and 5% of my body fat. We had to do certain things to get points for the challenge. These are the things we needed to do:

*64 oz. of water each day. This does not include coffee, juices or kool-aid. Now you can have 64 oz. + juices but you must drink 64 oz. When you do drink juices, they have to be 100% juice. Easy enough right? Grape juice, apple juice, orange juice. Tomato juice too but the sodium is ridiculous in it. I'm sure if you want some of that it would be ok for a change. Just dont make it your only juice.

*7 hours or more of sleep. This can be hard if you have small children or just a hectic schedule. If you are able to lie down for a nap during the day, you can count that, but it is much better if you can get 7 hrs straight.

*Eat breakfast within 2 hrs of waking up. This is a hard one. Some people just cant stand eating first thing in the morning. I usually grab something quick like an apple or a banana.

*5 servings of fruits/veggies a day. Pretty straight forward. Again this is where your juices come in. You can use 4 oz. of fruit juice as a serving of fruit. For the record, jelly beans are not a fruit even if they are fruit flavored.

* 210 minutes of cardio a week. Now you can get this walking, biking, swimming, yardwork (raking and push mowing count) snow shoveling is a BIG one but obviously it will be a few months til we can do that again and I dont mind a bit!! Now it doesnt matter how you break this down as long as you do a minimum of 10 minutes for any time you are counting it. You can do more than 210 minutes of course if your schedule allows.

*Toning with free weights or stretch bands 3 times a week for 10 minutes a piece. You can definitely do more than 3 times. That is only the minimum. Sometimes I will use my free weight and incorporate them into my aerobic routines.

That's it. Those are the simple rules I am following and the weight is coming off. You dont want it to fall off all at once. If it does, then you're doing something drastic and the chances of sticking with it are slim. Working it off slowly is the best ticket. Making small changes makes it easier to become lifestyle changes not temporary fixes.

Also, I tend to stay away from white flour. You can eat breads, potatoes and pasta in moderate amounts but it is much better for you if you eat whole wheat breads and pastas or sweet potatoes. Dont get worried about the fact that there are about as many carbs in whole wheat pasta as there is in the regular. It's better for you~trust me!!

Another trick that helps? If you have time, measure out a serving of your snacks. Use ziplock baggies and have them ready to grab and go. I usually have pretzels, animal crackers stuff like that ready so that I dont have to think about it. If I just try to sit with a bag of pretzels, pretty soon Ive eaten half the bag but if I have a true serving size packaged, I know when to stop.

If the idea of this process is overwhelming, dont try to change everything at once. Maybe work on 5 fruits/veggies and once you have that figured out, then try 64 oz of water. Keep adding a step to it til you are on your way to healthier choices.

Good luck. Hope this helps:)

Becca

krevelle65

Hi I started trying to lose weight because I was put on bp meds too. Feel free to add me as a friend if you like. I weigh 262. When I was put on bp meds I weighed 282. I tried losing weight with a dietician. But visits were every few months and I didn't behave like I should. I started using MFP in May. Welcome abroad !

liquidjem

Welcome! I hope you enjoy the site and good luck with your journey. I would be happy to be your friend, feel free to add me!

brittanydittman

Welcome! Im sure you'll find all the support you need here ) Id be happy to lend some advise when i can! ive lost a total of 70 lbs in the past 3 years so im pretty familiar with the world of weight loss lol Feel free to add me as a friend!

Pam3

great advise becca, thanks for sharing....portioning out snacks is a wonderful and time effective idea.

thanks again

spiritgurl

Hi...welcome to the site. Feel free to add me as a friend for support. You can do this! I have tried Jenny Craig 3 times and each time I was successful at losing weight but in the end I got tired of the same food and I ended gaining it all back when I was cooking for myself. So far I have managed to do this on my own (and with the help of my MFP supporters) and I feel much more in control of what I am doing. The first few weeks were the hardest but once you get into a routine it becomes second nature. You have great motivation to do this (BP pills) and for yourself to see that "new body". Good luck on your journey! We're all here to cheer you on!
Carrie

JustAboutDelicious_wechanged

Looking for some online friends to keep me accountable. I've opened my food diary for friends to review and give any constructive help along the way. Hoping for support and motivation for my weight loss journey! Hope I can also do the same for those that need it.

My ultimate goal is to have another baby and I would like to be down to a size 8 when I get pregnant (hopefully no later than 6 months) and I'm currently a size 14. I also have PCOs which makes it even harder to keep the weight off and to lose it once it's gained which can be depressing when you feel like you are eating well.

Hope everyone is doing great in their continued life-long journey with a heathy lifestyle. Feel free to add me as a friend for support!

AntoinetteC

Thank you so much