Hello everyone, kinda at a loss here

Beware of the "know it all". Study the system, do your math, track everything and listen to your body.

I wrote this topic a very long time ago. It talks about the psychology for weight loss and habits.

Ha, I just read this. I just think its funny saying this with my default pic. Just so we’re clear this pic was before my 100lbs+ weight loss. So lets get started. I have been talking to a few people lately; there is a never ending theme between them. The issue is mostly psychological. Binging episodes, feeling bad, being depressed of slow progress. There are a ton of negative emotions that arise for some people in terms of weight loss. I can some up most of these emotions in to 1 word “disappointment”. Disappointment is really not getting what you expect. You expect to lose 2lbs a week, you do the math in your head “I can be x weight by this date” I never seen that workout once. You get on the scale and no weight loss, or 1lbs weight loss, even a possible weight gain. I remember when I was emo about weight loss. I was talking to a navy SEAL about it, he wrote fitness books. He said “this is science, keep the emotions out of it.” This is very much true.

A lot of people are looking for a quick fix(this is where the disappointment happens). Disappointment leads to failure. This happens when people look at the small picture. People focus way too much on the scale. I have seen amazing transformations when weight has changed very little. I see it like this; there are 2 parts to weight loss, the diet, and the exercise (of course rest is important too). You can’t just go out and run 25miles. You have to train, prepare, practice. If your “GOAL” is to run 25miles, it’s a progressive plan. The body can’t handle extreme forms of stress. A ton of exercise after being sedentary, cutting calories way low, stuff like this just leads to disappointment.

If you want to get better at something, progress in to it. Realize what your goals are. I doubt your goal is to lose x number of pounds. You can lose it and gain it right back(happens to a lot of people). Why does this happen? “USUALLY” because they haven’t prepared/trained properly for the long haul. They do some crash course, deprive themselves in some form or another(tons of stress) then they crack under the pressure.

I think it would be best to focus on the big picture which is health and fitness for a life time. Look at the picture in 5-10yrs down the road. That’s when you should be at your absolute best. How do you get there? Practice, practice, practice. I think a good dietary progression for someone who’s starting out is to focus on eating 2 health meals a day(assuming they’re eating 3 a day). Once they have that down, then shoot for 3 meals a day. Once you have that down, focus on 3 days a week of pure healthy meals, and keep on building. Once you have your diet on lock down, you practiced it enough that it’s second nature you’ll be in control of your diet for a life time.

Same goes for exercise. When I first started MFP, I couldn’t even walk 10mins. I would walk 8 minutes, take a break, walk another 2 minutes, and that was my daily workout, just a 10min walk. Over time I built the ability to jog nonstop for an hour and 45mins. I could do more if I wanted to. You can start out working out 3 days a week, once you have been consistent with it, doing good, then you can add more days a weeks. At a low/moderate intensity. Once you have your days set, exercising 5-6days a week or whatever you choose, you can start to increase the intensity. Once you have mastered your exercise habits, and once you mastered your dietary habits, what do you have? Health and fitness for a life time. Once you have mastered this, progress from year to year, set new fitness and dietary goals every year, if you can manage to do that, when people are going downhill with their health and fitness, you’ll be in the best shape of your life.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/583873-the-psychology-for-a-life-time-of-health-and-fitness

One of the lovely ladies on my FL wrote a blog for people starting out. I know you have mentioned that you are not 'new' to this, but it may help. It is along the lines of the baby steps mentioned earlier which may be less overwhelming for you than to try to do everything at once:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Robin_Bin