where to go from here?

bieque

ok. I have been logging food and exercise for a couple of weeks now to kind of get a baseline of what I'm eating and how many calories I'm burning per day (I really didn't know prior to this). I'm currently training for a marathon and would like to lose 5 lbs (the 5 lbs that I put on back in March and haven't been able to take off). So I'm trying to figure out ways to improve my diet, maintain energy throughout the day and for my long runs, and yet lose these stubborn 5 lbs. I'm 5'5" and am currently 132 lbs.

I know that I consume more sodium than is probably considered "good", but I have low blood pressure and find that if I don't consume enough sodium, I get dizzy and black out spells when going from sitting to standing. I also know that I should stop drinking soda but I love coke and feel like I need the caffeine (I'm a busy single mom of an 8 and 5 year old). I also know that I'm not eating enough veggies and am trying to work on that.

So, where should I start? Advice appreciated.

therealangd

Without seeing your diary, all I can suggest is to give up the coke, and eat enough veggies.

Morglem

Just my opnion and its from my own experience. I use to live on diet pepsi, drank NO water. I was always tired, sluggish just didn't feel good at all. I started here about a month ago. I cleaned up my diet (cut bread, pasta way down. Gave up coffee (I just use to have in the morning), diet pepsi (other then maybe a glass when we go out to eat), alcoohol (I always had little, but in the last month I had two drinks) and I'm drinking LOADS of water. 12 to 14 glasses a day on a regular day, 8 is the minimum I'll allow myself. Now I feel much better!!! I have 3 times the energy I had before if not more. My diary is open you can take a look, its not perfect but I'm proud of it most of the time. Good luck on your jorney!

LorinaLynn

Five pounds is a tiny amount. Most folks fluctuate more than that from day to day. Yet I understand wanting it definitely GONE and know I can see a visible difference between how I looked at 137 vs 132.

That said, it sounds like you've only been figuring what you eat, and not trying to lose just yet. So plug in your stats on here and see what happens at a tiny caloric deficit. Maybe try for .5 pounds a week (certainly no more) or adjust custom goals so you're eating 100 or 200 calories below maintenance.

When you only have a little to lose, it will be slow. But when you eat properly (aim for more protein than they suggest on here), you'll notice a big difference in few pounds. If you eat too little, you might lose more pounds, but not notice the difference as much because you're losing muscle as well as fat.