Newbie, feeling overwhelmed!

I've tried and failed several times to clean up my diet and exercise. This time I'm attempting it with MFP and hoping it is a bit easier.

I'm 5'6" and 150 pounds. This is the heaviest I've ever been. I work full time in a sedentary job and have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Postural Tachycardia, which means I'm exercise-intolerant to some extent, suffer with chronic fatigue and anxiety and I also get episodes of reactive hypoglycemia.
This makes everything more difficult!

Also, I live with my boyfriend who loves to cook (and is very good at it). He does most of the cooking and he likes for us to eat dinner together. He gets home quite late in the evenings, about 8pm, which means we sometimes don't eat til 9pm and I know that doesn't help the situation with my weight.
We don't eat badly - we eat lots of veg, a balanced diet etc but boyhalf isn't mindful of calorie content when he cooks and we're not great at portion control.

My weight is getting me really down and I want to take control of it - I'm just struggling to know where to start as there's so much to take in and consider its kind of overwhelming. Plus the idea of weighing my food and having things prepped in advance really stresses me out for some reason - the whole thing of trying to balance calories in and calories out and make sure I'm eating enough of each food group feels like too much to cope with :(

Any tips to help me get started would be great. At the moment it just all feels impossible!

Replies

  • sgonza94
    sgonza94 Posts: 8 Member
    One thing I would suggest is cut back on sugary drinks, like when you feel like eating junk food replace that with a sweet fruit like strawberries or grapes. Drink water when you're craving a sugary drink. Honestly just estimate what you're eating, that's what I do :smile: plus yoy can add recipes when you track your food and be more exact. I haven't tried it but it's worth a shot lol. As for workouts, try walking but monitor your heartrate so it doesn't get too high. You can add me if you want for support. :)
  • sgonza94
    sgonza94 Posts: 8 Member
    I'm actually similar in measurement too :) 5'5 and 140 but wanna drop a few more lol.
  • starjam25
    starjam25 Posts: 4,826 Member
    I now what a pain it is to figure out portion control, so I started using smaller plates and just one plate per meal. I know for me, the bigger the plate was the bigger my portion. It's not much but they say every little change helps. Good luck!
  • finickygaby
    finickygaby Posts: 12 Member
    I know how you feel, I'm a Yo-yo dieter loose 10 lbs. gain 15 lbs. more but this time I'm trying to change my lifestyle eat healthy and walk/jog Add me if you want, we can do it together btw, I'm 5'5 170 lbs. want to be 135-140