Advice before I start
claire76marie
Posts: 6 Member
Ok so the new me starts on Monday am currently getting myself into gear ...I have read that to see a difference it a good idea to measure yourself ...which bits do I measure...I'm guessing boobs ,waist ( if I do d it ) , thighs..am I right in this ..I've taken the picture of the before ,the exercise bike is here ,the healthy shopping is ordered and most importantly I'm ready ...thanks in advance
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Replies
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Best advice I can give you is have a good breakfast even if you don't like breakfast like me lol. I normally go for oats or eggs on toast. You will eat a lot less throughout the day if you just do that. Best of luck to you!2
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How bad do you want it? The key to your success is staying motivated. Don't start unless you're seriously dedicated or you'll fail. But...you can do it!! Just don't get discouraged. It's tough...3
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Best advice I can give you is have a good breakfast even if you don't like breakfast like me lol. I normally go for oats or eggs on toast. You will eat a lot less throughout the day if you just do that. Best of luck to you!
Not necessary. Lots of people do just fine without eating breakfast. On days I don't workout I can go till mid afternoon just fine without eating and don't overeat as a result. Meal timing and size is totally personal.
I measure all those bits and also my upper arm and calves, though those last two less often.
Good luck!10 -
Buy a food scale and weigh all of your food. You can measure liquids with measuring cups but everything else gets weighed. Read the stickies at the top of the forum. Good luck!6
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A good attitude towards it all is a must, as soon as you start to dislike doing things (clean eating/exercising/logging) you'll start finding reasons to avoid doing it, and justifying those reasons! If something isn't working for you instead of going down the avoiding spiral, address it head on and change it for something else (ie at first you planned to get up and do a work out DVD every morning but it's killing you, try yoga instead or moving your sessions completely).
Good luck
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My best advice is to start small. A lot of people go in head first all or nothing and just set themselves up to fail because it's too much change too fast.
Small changes: go for a walk everyday, or make small changes to your eating habits like reducing soda intake or less "junk food".
Use a kitchen scale to weigh your portions.
I'm still losing weight eating foods I love like peanut butter, tacos, even chips once in a while. If you can fit it into your Cals then indulge a bit.
Don't go to an automatic 1200 Cals per day, reduce slowly. Start by lowering 250 per day and as you lose weight you can reduce again.
For Weightloss to be FOR LIFE, you have to find something that will be sustainable for you! Good luck and you can add me as a friend if you want :-)9 -
Make this YOUR journey, if it works for you and keeps you in a calorie deficit, do it!
Other thibgs I've learned along the way are:
As said above a food scale is your friend and ultimately makes it so much easier to be patient with the weight loss process.
If you know, *for a fact* by logging every bite and sip, that you're in a calorie deficit then it's just a game of consistency and paaaatttiieeeence.
Patience, patience, patience. #1 lesson I've learned. It reeeeeally helps when that scale won't budge, you just have to wait it out!!
Don't try to tackle too many new things at once. Took me since Jan of eating well and getting into that habit (weighing, cooking, making meals) and being able to not really stress as much about that to finally start incorporating exercise! I didn't want to have to worry about 2 huge changes as once and risk quitting again.
Again, its individual, I did that because I previously hated excercise and wanted nothing to do with it haha. For YOU, if you're already used to the occasional work out, great you're ahead of the game!
Lastly, food!! This was/is huge for me. Don't try to overhaul your current ways. Look at how you eat now, and make small tweaks and adjustments. I used to eat 2-3 of the instant oatmeal packets for breakfast. Those aren't necessarily bad, but they have alot of sugar and I now like to eat more for less calories so cutting the sugar from that was big. Logging showed me how changing to plain oats with some stevia, cinnamon, raisins, apples, etc could save me 100+ calories, which I could then use for eggs or nuts or fruit, etc AND have it be much more filling.
I told myself when I started this new healthier life I would never eat a food i didn't like just cause I "should" , BUT I'd go out and buy a bunch of veggies I hadn't tried in a while and try cooking them in new different ways. If you like them great!! if not, you experimented and tried!
(Side note, roasting veggies is the best thing ever, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, cauliflower, carrots, sweet potato! Yummm haha).
A huuuuuuge part of how I don't get bored in this, is always finding new healthy recipes to try for making my lunches. And the recipe builder in the app makes it easy to do that. Right now I have a few different meals always ready to go in the freezer and I know exactly what's in them, calories, protein, etc. I like stir-frys, soups, turkey meatballs, taco meats with chicken and ground turkey, chicken and veggies, cooked chopped and pre-portioned chicken breast... the list goes on!!
Good luck, hope this helped. add me if you want4 -
For measurements I would go with standard (which I take every 2wks):
Chest
Waist
Hips
Thighs
Biceps
Neck
Food scale is a must. You wouldn't believe how bad people are at eyeballing serving size (raises hand).
Don't drastically change your diet, unless your diet is all junk food. Stick with things you know you will love eating long term. Don't go out and buy expensive "health" food just because it's been labeled a "superfood" (there's really no such thing). You want this to be sustainable for life. Not some "fad" diet where you'll gain it all back once you start eating normally again.
Try to get adequate protein, carbs and fat. None of them are bad unless you have health issues. No matter what people say. And protein and fat can help you feel full longer which means you won't be snacking all the time because of hunger.
Be patient. Don't freak out if the scale doesn't budge much or suddenly stalls. Weight loss isn't a straight line. There are lots of ups and downs. And water weight can mask scale loss for days, sometimes weeks (this is why we take measurements).2 -
My best advice would be to not feel like you have to be perfect. Although you're not going to lose weight if you're over every day, or if you're regularly over enough to wipe out your deficit for the week, but once in a while is not the end of the world. Try to figure out why you ended up going over - are you restricting what you eat too much? Exercising too much and not eating enough calories back? Is your deficit bigger than it should be for your weight? etc.
In the past I've failed by restricting myself too much by demonizing certain foods/food groups and by just giving up entirely if I went over or ate a food that I saw as 'bad' because what's the point? I'm always going to be fat since I want to keep eating this stuff, right? This time I have succeeded by forgiving myself when I slip up, eating to maintenance or over if I need it, and by enjoying all the foods I've always enjoyed, just a bit less of them
Otherwise I would suggest reading the stickies and hanging out in the forum. I've learned so much here!8 -
Best advice I can give you is have a good breakfast even if you don't like breakfast like me lol. I normally go for oats or eggs on toast. You will eat a lot less throughout the day if you just do that. Best of luck to you!
Not necessarily. One should eat at any time(s) which keeps them on track. My hunger throughout the day is the same whether I eat in the morning or not. If I follow my hunger after having breakfast, I will have eaten too much.3 -
Oh boy....everyone has had such great advice...I am still in the process of losing and changing...I have discovered some things about myself I haven't necessarily liked throughout this process. Things like...I have a serious dysfunctional relationship with food and just how much my impatience is a self sabotage BUT...in taking a hard look at these things (& others) it has helped me learn to adapt & take new approaches, much of which have been trial & errors...but when I decided last October that I was finally fed up...I decided that change was no longer a want but a need. My mindset was calmer and more steady than my usual fast & furious approach that always burnt out before any significant gains were made. I decided that I WASN'T going to measure myself (something I always did, bust, waist, thighs, hips, calves, arms & neck)...I was only going to weigh myself because...I really didn't care about all the rest since it was GOING to change if my weight dropped and I didn't want to get caught up in the minutia. I was just going to do it & things would start looking better hopefully soon but most importantly FEELING better. Well...a few lbs. shy of 50 down...things have changed for the better all around & all I know is...I wear a size smaller than the day I got married but I am not hung up on any of that. My doctor is thrilled with me...my husband is thrilled with me....I am thrilled I can do things I haven't done since my 20's (I'm 46 now...something I wasn't comfortable saying 6 months ago) and I find myself really using that Nike saying "just do it" Liz. There is no more "I don't feel like it" or "I'll start tomorrow"...my only advice is..."just do it" & if you muck up one meal, one day, one week....who cares...you have the ability to wake up & "just do it" again....when you take on this approach...it is so surprising how you just start making better decisions for yourself each time you are faced with one. "Do I eat this bagel right now? Or will a yogurt be fine? Just do the right thing Liz...there will always be a bagel tomorrow..." "I have time to get a jog in now...but I feel like messing around on FB...just do it & get it over Liz...you'll have time to mess around on FB later..." then when you look back at your day you'll see the series of good decisions you made & then you are rewarded by the numbers on the scale...GOOD LUCK...you can do it....look at all the successful people here...5
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It's tempting to set a start date but there's no time like the present! My diary started on a Sunday evening, where i logged a whole portion of Dominoes nachos (800 cals) BOOM! the journey begins.
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If you're having trouble, mix up the times and macro level you eat at. I do best with a form of IF--I eat a very small lunch, more like a snack, a very large dinner, and a late night snack. This works best for me. Some people do best on 3 evenly spaced evenly caloric meals. Don't be afraid to try new approaches to control hunger!3
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Keep it simple to start. Weigh and log every bite. Don't worry too much about when you eat or what you eat. Just stay at your daily calorie goal. After a few months, then you can tweak your diet more. Notice which foods satisfy your hunger and which ones leave you hungry an hour later. Take notes as this will be the key! Good luck!2
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also, don't be scared, don't think 'i'm on a diet', don't feel panicky, this is the beginning, you will look back in 3 months and thank your present self, so tell your September self that they're welcome.7
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Log calories, weigh food, find some type of exercise you enjoy! Educate yourself about the process!!!! Come on MFP to log and read and to see success stories. #1 thing: be in it for the long haul. This is about being healthy and reaching your goals for weight loss and fitness for the rest of your life. All the best2
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Why are you waiting till Monday?
Maybe start right now if you're really serious about it.2 -
Best advice I can give you is have a good breakfast even if you don't like breakfast like me lol. I normally go for oats or eggs on toast. You will eat a lot less throughout the day if you just do that. Best of luck to you!
I find that having breakfast makes me ravenous all day long! If you are a breakfast person, by all means have at it, but don't force yourself.4 -
Thanks one and all ... 0
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Bust, hips and waist are the typical ones. Maybe arms and thighs if you want. Doing before pictures is good. Needs to be a lifestyle change. Moderation. Don't think of it as another diet. Set mini goals1
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Make this process easy for you. What is easy for me is to eat the same breakfast and lunch then it varies for dinner/snacks. Not much planning so I can do this and continue to. I have been here almost one year and not missed a day logging my food. using a food scale and watching my macros are a key to my success so far. Also I do not eat out much.2
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hellonew2015 wrote: »Make this process easy for you. What is easy for me is to eat the same breakfast and lunch then it varies for dinner/snacks. Not much planning so I can do this and continue to. I have been here almost one year and not missed a day logging my food. using a food scale and watching my macros are a key to my success so far. Also I do not eat out much.
brilliant advice. I do kind of the same thing but vary lunches, and have the same dinner.
I've saved 4 or 5 'meals' (salmon lunch, chicken salad, pasta salad etc ) and take a few minutes on Sunday pre-logging and playing with my weekly meals. I find that really helpful, in the mornings I use my phone to prepare my tupperware in a sleepy fugue-like state and don't have to really engage my brain.1 -
Make sustainable changes (that includes a reasonable calorie goal)
Weigh your food
Log everything
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Best advice I can give you is have a good breakfast even if you don't like breakfast like me lol. I normally go for oats or eggs on toast. You will eat a lot less throughout the day if you just do that. Best of luck to you!
Don't do this.
Eat healthy, good portion sizes, when your hungry. Why eat 300 calories you don't want?2 -
My best piece of advice is goals and sub goals and reassess regularly.
For example:
20lbs by Christmas
5lbs by a friends wedding in August
Also, it's good that you took a photo, although it's always good to make sure the photo follows the same rules. Sunlight could make shadows making it look less improvement than you really achieved. So I would say may sure your camera is propped in the same location, at night, same light on, don't try to suck in or tense.
My gf using a pair of shorts as a guide, she could fit in them 3 years ago, no chance a month ago, now they can just do up. She's self conscious about thighs so this shows more than the scales at times.0 -
Just to add to the already great advice:
Don't do something that hasn't worked out well for you in the past. For me, I always failed when I started cutting foods out when I tried to lose weight and just ended up miserable and bored. This time, I haven't cut any foods out (yes, I still eat sweets/sugar/cakes/cookies) and just started weighing and logging all the food that i eat. I have successfully stuck with my weight loss this time and am 85+lbs down.
A calorie deficit is all that is needed for weight loss. No need to over complicate weight loss by giving up the foods that you love unless there's a medical reason to give up the food.2 -
I've been on maintenance at my goal for nearly 5 years. Best advice - whatever you do to lose the weight needs to be something you are willing to continue forever. Otherwise, when you stop, the weight will come right back on.1
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Micro goals!
Seriously. My goals revolve sounds every five pounds, and also every time the tens digit on the scale changes.
This means I'm almost always two or three pounds from my next goal, and that is hugely, hugely motivating to me when I am trying to stare down a cinnamon roll. "But I could hit my goal tomorrow if I say no..."
When I think instead about that enormous end goal that is not even in sight yet, the cinnamon roll tends to win.3 -
Non scale goals are great too. I have fitness goals that I usually hit every few weeks or so. Great way to keep the motivation up.1
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