new, lost, motivated

Hi there,

You basically have to log EVERYTHING you eat and it is really important to be truthful, weigh everything at first until you get used to portion size.

The beauty of MFP is that there is no diet plan - you just stick to the calorie count. Obviously, the sensible thing to do is to eat large quantities of low calorie healthy foods (salads and veggies) and then a small portion of everything else. This means when you are cooking a family meal, you are eating the same as everyone else......just in different proportions.

Go easy with the fattening treats and evenif you have 1 square of chocolate or 1 finger of a kit-kat you must log it.

Above all you must start exercising, and this will give you more calories when you log the exercise but a word of advice, don't start eating back ALL you exercise cals until you are confident of your own body. I ended up eating one third of my exercise cals and steadily lost 1 to 1.5lbs per week - I was happy with that.

My example is:

1200 cals given by MFP
500 average exercise cals per day (walking, gym etc)
I ate average of 1340-1370 cals per day (1200 plus one third of 500), it worked for me and it is working for a lot of people on MFP.

Water - drink as much as you can but MFP recommend 8 glasses per day - I usually average around 5.

Can I also suggest, in a very supportive and friendly way........have you had a check up for post-natal depression? I suffered that with my second child and you sound very much like I did......weight gain, not really doing anything, not keeping up my own personal stuff etc. Very easily corrected if caught in time x x

Good luck on your journey.

Linda

i totally let my self go after the baby, and its disheartening but just focus on your health.


ASK FOR HELP AND EXCEPT ANY HELP OFFERED. there is absolutely no shame in this and your friends/family will love spending time with the baby. really, let people give you a rest even if just for 20 minutes so you can have a shower or get some fresh air. don't despair, babies are only really really hard work for a small while. my fella is two now and you get so much more time to yourself.

add me as a friend if you like. my diaries open and i log everyday. and the folk around here are grreeeeeeeeeat at keeping you on track good luck.

Yes everything you put in your mouth you log in here. It will add up the calories and other nutrients! It works awesome, but make sure you are doing honest logging. If you have a chocolate bar or a bag of chips log it!!!! Only honest logging will help you, if you don't log in everything you eat all the calculations will be off. It is calculating a deficit for you so that can loss weight. The recommended amount of water is at least 8 cups of water a day, but I drink more. Water helps to keep the metabolism going, and also flushes the system out.

I absolutely love this site, and I log in each day!! It is a life change, not a diet. It is working for me and I hope that you have just as much success!!!!!!!

I am always looking for weight loss buddies so if you'd like add me as a friend!!!!

I know that my situation is different, but when I went into a major depression I had to be hospitalized because of it. I was holding everything in and didn't tell my husband or anyone else. What I learned while in the hospital is that I really had to talk to my husband and family about what was bothering me, etc. They can't read my mind and just really didn't see it. Now I tell my family everything and that has helped. They didn't think that I should have anything to be depressed about until I told them what was bothering me.

Thank you ladies for all the imputs I was actually thinking on checking for post-partum depression but it's a little bit hard to accept and I don't know how to make the approach to my husband. It is completely unexpected since I could say I'm truly blessed with a beautiful healthy daughter and a very supportive husband so I feel like I have no right to be depress if that makes any sense

I kmow it is difficult to admit that you may be depressed but believe me, once you speak w your doc it will get better. You dont have to be psychotic to have PPD. I had it with all 3 of my children. I nursed each for 2+ years and took zoloft with the last 2. They are fine and I am fine. If I hadn't sought help no one around here would have been anything close to fine especially my husband. Especially me. Husbands and babies need happy and functional wives and mommies. If you are not well then everything in the house seems "off" so there is a chance your husbands knows something isnt right. Remeber, "Hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world". Mom needs to be healthy.

I'M going to friend you.

I went to fattofitradio.com. I used "Military" for everything. I just plugged in what it asked. That is how I came up with 1376 calories to get to my goal weight. Site is awesome. Check it out.