Hi Im Annie....Im 34 and Need to lose 100+ lbs

I'd love to be friends! We can totally do this!

Hello everyone! My name is Annie, I am a 34 year old mother of two. My kids are 11 and 14. I want to lose weight so that I can be active and do fun things with my kids. My weight has really became noticeable in the last year when my kids are wanting to go zip lining, to water parks, to amusement parks, and to the lake. I feel I am too heavy to do these things and embarrassed to be seen in public in a swim suit. My kids want to spend time with me and want to do things with me at this point and it saddens me that I am too over weight to do these things. I have been trying for a couple of months to lose weight with no success...my doctor suggested this site. So a week ago I joined the site and got started. I have done pretty good my first week and stuck to watching what I was eating and worked out several times. And I lost a total of 9.2 lbs. this week!!!!!! Yippee! I was hesitant to step on the scale this morning for fear that I wouldn't have lost any thing and would get discouraged! I kept telling myself 1lb is progress in the right direction! Then I stepped on the scale and was pleasantly surprised! I gotta keep going! I am lucky my family is supportive, and encourages me to push myself everyday. I would like to have some friends on here, to help encourage me and help me going. I believe you can never have enough support! :flowerforyou:

Welcome!!!

First tip I will give you - find active and supportive friends! There are many out there who can help you and have been in the position to begin with.

Second tip is to not just focus on the weight loss, but the overall improvement in life. Setting different measured goals is very important for those times when the weight stalls. Consider taking measurements to determine body fat% or aim for improving results of your lab work if you do them regularly. (For me it was the lab work above all others).

Third tip - Be honest with yourself

Fourth tip - Nutrition is #1 and Exercise is a very close #2 - we cant always work out, but we can always control what we put in our bodies. Not saying we have to stick to salad and water all day everyday (although that helped me get on track) - but try to keep it clean. The way I like to look at this is by telling people....option 1 is a salad with all the fixings and comes in at 400 calories - Option 2 is a cheeseburger and is also 400 calories. Which one do you chose? Some would say that a deficiency is a deficiency and loss will happen, but I bet my left....shoe...that the salad will help avoid a whole slew of health issues more so than that burger.

Fifth tip - if you do work out - listen to your body. Some of the results you will see on this site can be very encouraging, however, if you try to imitate what a specific person is doing (as I have in the past) it will lead to injury in most cases. Start out slow - If you can handle a 30 minute walk, start there, but if not, 15-20 minute walks are a great way to start. Focus on quality of your workouts and not quantity. As you increase duration and intensity, do it slowly...most doctors recommend only increasing activity by 10% of the prior week to ensure proper progress. So yes, this mean don't walk this week expecting to run next week.

Sixth Tip - Failure is not a bad thing. It is a tool to show you how not to do something in the future. Learn from these and apply the lessons to tomorrow and beyond.

Seventh Tip - KEEP DRINKING WATER - everybody is different - some people keep an eye on the color of urine, while some go by the math - but needless to say, hydration is key in this. (Oh if you want to do the math - simply take your current weight and drink 1 ounce for every 1 pound of body weight. so for me at approx. 300 lbs - that's 300 oz - or 18.75 cups of water a day....just over a gallon. Sounds like a lot but if you drink 1 glass an hour while awake, plus have one or 2 extra cups with each meal - its easy to do). Water will help flush out a lot of excess sodium if you have that issue, and will really help keep cravings away.

Eighth Tip - Invest in other tools to help you achieve your goals. For everyone this is different. Things like food scales and Heart rate monitors are great must haves for anyone getting active and wanting to lose weight. They are not required, but certainly take away any guess work!

Ninth Tip - Be mindful of fads! By now you have seen a lot of them, and probably tried a few. If they worked they of course you wouldn't be here now....if it was easy no one would be.

I have tons more, but being at work ill leave it at this for now!

CK

Great loss! Keep going, you can totally do this :flowerforyou:

I started on January 8th, 2014 and have lost 65 pounds. I was exactly where you are now. I'm 35 pounds from where I would love to be, and feel GREAT!!! I'm a 44 year old mom to two AMAZING young men (ages 12 & 15) and I wasnt able to do much of anythign with them because of my weight... But NOW I can!!

Two things...

1. Buy yourself a digital kitchen scale, and an adjustable measuring cup and measuring spoon. weigh and measure EVERYTING you eat. You'll be surprised at what an actual serving size is... I know I was when I started. I was typically eating almost 3 times as much as I should!

2. LOG LOG LOG!!! Be fanatical about it. if you eat one potato chip, weigh it and log it. Make it as much of a habit as chewing.

If you do that, you'll see where you need to adjust your eating habits and making the changes will be easier.

Outside of that, connect with positive people here and if you need help, ask. If you can encourage others, do it. It feels good to help other people on their journey and will help you stay on track yourself.

If you have a bad week, don't beat yourself up. That's the cool thing aobut this site, each day is a new start and it is what YOU make of it.

You CAN do this!!

Hi there! I just started back on MFP. I'll be 34 on Saturday with a 2 1/2 year old daughter. I have about 135lbs to lose! I know we can do it if we put our minds to it!!!