1 week newbie :)

fpelletier

Well thought I should stop in and introduce myself! I've been using MFP since Tues of last week, and lost 4lbs when I weighed in on Wed! I've done Weight Watchers twice in the past and done well with it, but this time around it's not in the budget, so some friends told me about this site. I apparently joined it a few years ago but I guess I didn't pay attention to it or I lost track, who knows!

A little background on me My name is Frances, I am a 36 sahm to 3 girls (12, 8 and 3) and have been married for 13 yrs later this month. I used to be a skinny kid until around 5th/6th grade then life was crazy at home, started eating more junk and not being as active, though I did play sports, but the food intake was more. In high school I was pretty plump but looking back now, I wasn't that bad, probably 40lbs or so overweight compared to now where I need to lose around 150 or more.

I have several health problems, arthritis in my knees/legs which I was told I had at the ripe ole age of 21, I have high blood pressure and have since I was around 12 (crazy!) and was recently told I had some type of heart issue I needed to get checked out. All of these have led me to the fact I really need to get in shape, lose weight so I can be there for my kids later in life.

In 2010 my youngest girl was born with a undiagnosed birth defect which caused a lot of emotional eating on my part. I was stressed beyond words a lot of times and again turned to food. She just turned 3 this May but she's gone through 2 surgeries, one at 6 weeks, 1 at 19 months and in between all of that my mom had a major stroke in March 2011. We thought she was going to die per the doctors as she had slipped into a coma and her body began to shut down. Nothing short of a miracle she came out of it about 2 weeks later, but is paralyzed on the left side and is now in a nursing home. We relocated her to the town I live in so that someone would be close by, but it has been emotionally and physically draining on me. So with everything going on in my life with my little girl and my mom, I didn't have time for me and didn't eat the best for sure and forget about exercising.

So that's me in a nutshell. I am glad to have found MFP and have lost 4lbs since I started and look forward to losing the other 146 over time. I know it will take time, but with the support of my friends and family here and friends on MFP I know I can do it. My husband also joined me on this journey and he lost 5lbs last week, so I am proud of him too.

My questions this morning

A. I have trouble eating all my calories every day, I have to force myself to eat something to get close to them, how much would say is OK to leave at the end of the day? I am allotted quite a bit of calories and while some days I can easily eat them other days I just don't want too.

B. I need some low impact exercise ideas to work on due to my knees. When I lose about 40 or so, I will work on other exercises but for now I need to start slow. I have some walk away the pound dvds that I plan to start up and work my way back up to Power 90. Suggestions?

Thanks!!!

abideedum

Hi, and welcome back

You've obviously gone through a lot in the past and this is your first step in your new healthy and happy life. Well done!
Congrats to you and your husband on last weeks loss. No regarding your questions:

A. The standard advice on these forums (IMHO) is normally EAT EVERYTHING all your daily calorie goal etc. However i also found it hard to reach it to start with, i was eating lots of low calorie and healthy food so simply struggled to eat enough volume. Also i guess that i thought that keeping the deficit bigger would help (which it did of course). I found by week two of being here on MFP i was able to reach the goal everyday, i realized that maybe i could put a sauce on that, or grab a small snack etc and stay within my goal and most importantly still lose!
So my advice would be to try, but if your honestly not hungry then dont worry about it. Once you get use to this diet then you'll find yourself quickly reaching the goal.

B. I'm not much help on this one, i wasn't as heavy when i started this so just went straight in for high impact. However as far as im aware swimming and cycling are low impact. i've never heard of power 90 so not much help. I would suggest though that walking may be a good idea. I found it useful before i started running to walk.

Most importantly Good Luck with this journey

p.s. feel free to add me if you want a friend with an open diary

rosejodi

Hi,

I am quite new to the site too, but have some ideas (more so on the low impact exercises as I have a bad back so am pretty limited). Swimming is a great option, but not one everyone can do if there is not a convienent pool to use. Other cardio options are walking, or the recumbent bike. Stretching and low impact strengthening exercises are also good. The way my trainer has looked at it is to move and try new things - but if you feel pain, stop and try something else.

fpelletier

Hi, and welcome back

You've obviously gone through a lot in the past and this is your first step in your new healthy and happy life. Well done!
Congrats to you and your husband on last weeks loss. No regarding your questions:

A. The standard advice on these forums (IMHO) is normally EAT EVERYTHING all your daily calorie goal etc. However i also found it hard to reach it to start with, i was eating lots of low calorie and healthy food so simply struggled to eat enough volume. Also i guess that i thought that keeping the deficit bigger would help (which it did of course). I found by week two of being here on MFP i was able to reach the goal everyday, i realized that maybe i could put a sauce on that, or grab a small snack etc and stay within my goal and most importantly still lose!
So my advice would be to try, but if your honestly not hungry then dont worry about it. Once you get use to this diet then you'll find yourself quickly reaching the goal.

B. I'm not much help on this one, i wasn't as heavy when i started this so just went straight in for high impact. However as far as im aware swimming and cycling are low impact. i've never heard of power 90 so not much help. I would suggest though that walking may be a good idea. I found it useful before i started running to walk.

Most importantly Good Luck with this journey

p.s. feel free to add me if you want a friend with an open diary

Thanks so much, that is a good idea about adding a sauce or extra snack (esp in the early part of the day) to get them in. I am trying to do better meal planning so I don't have to rely on myself to eat so many extra calories after I have dinner. A small snack is OK but I feel like I am eating an entire meal some nights!

I will add you as a friend I need all the support/help I can get!

fpelletier

Hi,

I am quite new to the site too, but have some ideas (more so on the low impact exercises as I have a bad back so am pretty limited). Swimming is a great option, but not one everyone can do if there is not a convienent pool to use. Other cardio options are walking, or the recumbent bike. Stretching and low impact strengthening exercises are also good. The way my trainer has looked at it is to move and try new things - but if you feel pain, stop and try something else.

Welcome to you too! I wish I could do the swimming thing, but lack of access to the pool makes it hard, I don't have the funds right now for the Y, its around $75 a month to join. Someone else mentioned a recumbent bike, I need to check that out, maybe I can find a used one here locally.