Best Advice

KickinBooty

For those of you who have been successful at losing weight what is your best advice? How did you make it through for those first ten pounds? I just can't seem to get on track and I don't believe I can do this. I want it, but the easiest choice sees to be to eat something rather than work it out.

Lyadeia

Best advice: DON'T GIVE UP!

You *know* that eating at a calorie deficit will make you lose weight. You *know* that doing cardio makes your heart healthy and gives you endurance as well as burns calories. You *know* that weight lifting strengthens muscles and helps turn your body into a fat burnin' furnace.

So, just have patience, and DON'T GIVE UP. Cause you know those things will work. They won't make you lose 10 pounds overnight, or even in a week or 2, but you know that they will work. Eat clean, workout hard...and don't give up.

MissMaggie3

Do weight training. It did it for me, to the point where I'm still losing and don't want to! Wish I'd done more from the start.

jellyfishjen

Baby steps. Change habits slowly. Try one day at a time. Making an achievable goal for each day and building on it. eg. Today.. I will have 2 pieces of fruit and a 15 minute walk. Then the next day you will look back and mostly be able to say that was easy so today I will do the same as yesterday, but do 2 x 15minute walks, pieces of fruit and drink 8 glasses of water. Get the idea.Don't worry if you fail one day, just say ok I will try that again or I will try something else today. Log your food and you will soon see what changes you can make to stay in your calorie zone. Once you know what is heavy in calories you will make healthy swops. Swop butter for hommus, fries for a large salad, cake/cookies for fruit. There is so much you can learn I have been here over 12 months and still learning. I want to not only lose the weight but make this a life time change and be healthy and happy.

Cold_Steel

Stick to it ! A part of that is honesty and self integrity. Do not lie to yourself. If you say you are going to eat healthy, exercise then do it. Don't tell yourself you are going too and then say "Oh I am weak I cannot do it," just do it and be honest to yourself.

eeeekie

realize that it's a change of life style and *kitten* happens. Birthdays happen, holidays happen...cake, pie, cookies, all the bad stuff is there and if you have some it's not going to be the end. The choices you make today can easily be changed tomorrow! HELL, you don't gotta wait till tomorrow to change them. If you had cake, get a workout in and work it off.

Giving up isn't an option because if you do you're giving up on yourself.

Pebble321

I'm with Lyadeia - just keep going!
As long as you are creating some kind of calorie deficit then you WILL lose weight.
It probably won't happen as fast as you want (when does it ever?) but it will happen.

Dustinryan24

if its hard for you to eat healthy, then schedule cheat days..
set a meal or two a week where you eat something you love.. my choice was pizza.. haha
after a couple weeks, i didnt want to cheat anymore.

PBJunky

Patience and consistency

castadiva

Jelyfishjen is right - baby steps! You've got to find the way to do this that works for you. I'm no good at self-deprivation, so the key for me is reducing the key offenders, working more exercise into my day - I walk home from work - eating more protein and fewer refined carbohydrates, and finding alternatives to some things that I will happily eat/drink most of the time so that when I really, really want a chocolate chip biscuit or an eggnog latte, and no substitution will do, it's a tiny part of a healthy overall picture. Good luck!

nenamartinez

A big key for me is controlling hunger and getting enough water. It's hard to make yourself drink the water at first, so, if you must, set alarms every few hours and go chug a glass of water, haha. Seriously, if you're absentminded like I am, it can make a world of difference!

Cdcaldwe

In the beginning I was sick of how I had let myself get to where I was. For awhile I burned more calories a day than I consumed. Many on here will say that isn't healthy, but I jump started myself. Now I am starting to eat my daily calories and get in plenty of excercise. I feel better than I have ever.

helenoftroy1

what helped for me was visualising myself at a certain weight and looking down at the scales and seeing that number. Everytime I exercised I imagined people saying how great I looked and how much better/ sexier I would feel.
I kept getting these wonderful Non scale Victories (NSVs) where little things would make me smile and remind me how well I was doing, and believe me they come thick and fast.
It is so worth it. I have really become demotivated and stuck for the last two months but I still take each day as it comes, make better choices and wake up with to a new day thinking about what I'm going to make etc that is healthy.
I have off days (even as I said before months!) but it has been so worth it, and probably the best advice I can give you is look at the success stories on here, use the forums to get advice and help, recipes and a whoop whoop!
Good luck, I truly believe everyone can do this, and sometimes it's just a case of something clicking!

stevwil41

realize that it's a change of life style and *kitten* happens. Birthdays happen, holidays happen...cake, pie, cookies, all the bad stuff is there and if you have some it's not going to be the end. The choices you make today can easily be changed tomorrow! HELL, you don't gotta wait till tomorrow to change them. If you had cake, get a workout in and work it off.

Giving up isn't an option because if you do you're giving up on yourself.

This!! One bad meal, day or even weekend doesn't have to ruin it for you! Things happen. That's life. You prepare for it as best you can and then make the best choices you can at any given time. When I started, I sat down and preplanned everything up to doing some research on nutrition information at 2 or 3 fast food places so I would have a few options if life went haywire and I had to have a drive thru meal.

Ultimately, it's all a balancing act and you have to work out the specifics for yourself. I'm not a particularly clean eater. I eat a lot better than I used to but I keep a couple of frozen meals in the freezer for those days when I get get home late. I have something small for dessert every day. I generally eat out one day a week and don't really worry about calories.

These are all things that work for me. Some or all of them may not work for you. Don't get discouraged if you try something that doesn't work, just try something else. You'll get it eventually. Good luck!