Was told the plain honest truth yesterday !!

You will feel so much better with weight loss. I am sorry your doctor wasn't very tactful. Try walking a bit around the block or during your lunch break and I will listen if you need someone.

Work on diet first. You can exercise til you drop but if you don't change your diet, you'll get nowhere. It's 80% food, 20% exercise (Can't remember where I heard that)
Good luck, you can do it!

You're in good hands, here. Begin with small diet changes. Once those become habit (and trust me, they will), change a little more. Slowly start adding more and more exercise. You'll be shocked just how quickly you'll start melting! Just don't put too much pressure on it because then the task becomes too immeasurable to conquer.

Welcome!

What I really love about MFP is that it breaks it down into little goals for you. Put in the numbers. Set it for what you want to lose (100 pounds). Set an initial weight loss goal (at your weight you might be able to do 2 pounds a week, but if that seems a lot, go for 1 or 1.5).

THEN RECORD EVERYTHING EVERY DAY AND HIT YOUR CALORIE GOALS.

It's one day at a time. If you go over today, exercise a little to make it up. Or tomorrow is new day.

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In terms of change . . .

The second thing I love about MFP is that recording everything taught me where my extra calories were coming from. Turns out some things were more fattening than I knew and some less. I always ate ' clean'. But I could just drop a couple things from my diet - and leave all the things I love (and eat the others in moderation) and hit my goal.

I wouldn't have known that without logging everything in MFP.

That's where I would start.

my tips:

Go slow. Seriously, GO SLOW. I started losing weight back in November at 213 lbs, joined MFP about a month or so later at 198, am now at 168. GO SLOW. This will give your body time to adjust to any changes you are making. It will also keep you from getting baggy skin flaps, but we won't discuss that.

Don't cut out the foods you like entirely. Seriously, I eat chocolate, McDonalds, tons of red meat, you name the "bad foods" and I probably have had some. Just have them in moderation. I eat fast food MAYBE once a month, and limit my chocolate so I'm still within my limits. Just keep your calories within your goals and you'll be fine. You also won't feel like you are depriving yourself as much.

To go exactly contrary to what I said above, there are certain foods I try to avoid or will not touch at all. My philosophy is that if I can't identify the plant or animal the food came from, I don't eat it. I would also try to avoid Trans fats entirely. Try to eliminate all sodas if you can, or at the very least go to diet. If you crave sweet, there are many sweet teas that are low cal and will give you the caffeine from sodas (I don't do coffee, it doesn't agree with my stomach).

As to exercise, you can wait until you have lost some weight. I found it challenging to exercise at first, since the extra weight put added stress on my joints. As I've gotten lighter I've started being able to jog or hike more without my knees and ankles hurting like crazy.

So yesterday I had an appointment with my new Cardiologist because of some blood pressure issues ( had to change meds because of "insurance rules" and had side effects ) so to just lay it all out these are my issues - High Blood Pressure, Type 2 Diabetes, Cholesterol (214), Sleep Apnea and Fibromyalgia. I currently weigh 265 @ 5"7 and I am 47 years old. I work in the medical field ( x-ray tech) and believe it or not going to school to be a Nutritionist ! So my exam came out normal and he decided to switch me back to the medication I was on before and switched another one out.....but bottom line he told me I just really need to get my act together and lose the weight because all my problems can be eliminated by losing th e 100 lbs I need to lose. Now I have no problem with the way he layed out the truth - would rather hear it that way instead of someone being nice about it and not just getting to the point. Now trust me I heard all this before and in the back of my mind I knew this is what he was going to say but for some reason the way he layed it all out really made an impact and I started to look at the seriousness of the issues I have - But now it all seems VERY overwhelming and I don't know where to start because of course I want it all fixed yesterday LOL . He told me to break it all down and take it in baby steps but where do I start first - nutrition or exercise or a little of both? I don't know where to start.......I don't eat red meat or fried foods and I would like to get back to being a vegetarian again because that was when I was the healthiest ( 20 years ago - and a lot more time than I have now) He asked me when I was the healhiest and it was back then - I have just become lazy and lost a lot of self confidence in myself throughout the years.. I always look at everything in the big picture but I need suggestion on how to break it down into workable mini goals - my next appointment is in late October and I would like it not to be a waste of an appoinment. I am very open to suggestions since my mind is very overwhelmed at the moment - thanks for listening

Take a good look at the way you eat. Start by keeping a food diary. You don't eat red meat or fried foods, what do you eat that has contributed to the weight. Do you just constantly overeat? Just see where you think you can make changes.

Welcome! I agree with your doctor, take it slow. If I were you, I'd start out by logging for a few days without worrying about meeting any goals, just to see how many calories, how much fat, etc, you are consuming on your average day. Then set your MFP goal to lose 2 lbs per week, and try to stick within the calories they give you. Personally, I would not worry too much about sticking to any particular diet at first, I would just reduce calories and start trying to get active. Maybe take a 30 minute walk after dinner every night or something. Best of luck, you can do this, just be realistic about your pace and your lifestyle and don't try to change too much all at once! Slow and steady

Good, solid advice! I second this!

(ICU Nurse, now Hospice Nurse...and I've seen the terrible results of obesity.)

Have you look into a plant base diet. You can reverse most of the illnesses you are battling (High Blood Pressure, Type 2 Diabetes, Cholesterol) and it will help with the others. I made the switch and reversed my cholesterol and high blood pressure. Sorry if he was too blut but you may look back at it and thank him for saving your life.

Here are some good resources.


Cook Books
Happy Herbivore - Lindsy Nixion

Books

Neal Barnard MD

- Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes

- Breaking the Food Seduction

- 21 Day Weight-loss Kick start



Colin Campbell

- The China Study



Caldwell Esselstyn

- Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease



Rip Esselstyn

- The Engine 2 Diet



Doug Lisle

- The Pleasure Trap



John McDougall MD

- Dr. McDougall’s Digestive Tune‐Up

- The McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook

- Dr. McDougall’s Total Health Solution for the 21st Century DVD

- The McDougall Program: Twelve Days to Dynamic Health

- The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss

- The New McDougall Cookbook

- The Starch Solution



DVDs



Neal Barnard MD

- Tackling Diabetes DVD

- Kick Start Your Health DVD



Caldwell Esselstyn

- Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease



Rip Esselstyn

- Forks Over Knives Presents The Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue



Michael Klaper

- Digestion Made Easy



Douglas Lisle

- The Continuum of Evil

- Losing weight without losing your mind

- The Pleasure Trap



John McDougall MD

- Dr. McDougall’s Total Health Solution for the 21st Century DVD

- McDougall Made Easy & Irresistible

- Dr. McDougall’s Money-Saving Medical Advice

- Dr. McDougall's Common Sense Nutrition

- McDougall Made Irresistible

- Dr. McDougall Disputes Major Medical Treatments

- McDougall Made Easy

- McDougall's Medicine



Jeff Novick

- Lighten Up

- Calorie Density

- Should I Eat That

- From Oil To Nuts

- Nuts & Health

- Fast Food Vol 1 The Basics

- Fast Food Vol 2 Burgers & Fries



Movies/Documentaries

- Forks Over Knives

- Processed People



Immersions and Programs

- The McDougall 3, 5 & 10 Day Programs

- Dr Esselstyn - 5-hour intensive counseling seminar at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute

- Farms To Forks Weekend Immersions



Online Course

- E Cornel Plant Based Nutrition Course

One more advice for you Noreen, try to it 5 small meals a day (breakfast, am snack, lunch, pm snack, dinner). Just eating more often will keep your metabolism running all day long burning calories to break that food you have been eating and it those extra calories burned will help with the weight loss. From january 1st to March 1st, i did no exercise at all and just started eating 5 meals a day and i was eating healthy (cheating once a week with dessert) and i had lost 8 lbs just doing that. Now i lost more but thats because i included exercise since then but as other people said, start SLOW so by doing this it will hlep you