Thinking about giving up.... fat is my new pet
Goal179
Posts: 314 Member
I'm up 12 pounds. I only lost 27 so almost half my weight is back. I want to give up. I'm running into the same issues around time and preparation that plagued me a year ago. How do we win at this? I have no time for meal prep, no time for even a 15 min walk. The only thing I've been doing is going for a walk in Ross or TJ Max just to get my steps up. I no longer believe that I can do this. I'm up at 4;45am to get to work. I don't get home until after 6:00pm. After making dinner, doing homework, giving kids a bath, logging back in to finish my work and trying to spend time with my family....I have nothing left. It's time to go to bed and start all over again. I don't know how to do this. Please someone, tell me there is a way to still win this battle.
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I have no idea what to say beside don't stress yourself over it. Focus on eating healthier and put the scale down! Do what you can! Shoot sounds like you getting some form of workout when you get home dealing with household things. People lose weight all the time and never step foot in a gym!4
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All you need to do is eat less. Simple, just not easy. Lessening your portions will equal results. Theres no other way. It doesn't feel great to eat less at first but you will get used to it.
Just to be clear, you can continue eating whatever it is you're eating that you put on 12 lbs. Just eat less of it.18 -
Have you thought about using a meal delivery program? You can pick meals that fit your goals and just reheat, eat, log it. Might be something to looking into if you are as busy as you say you are. When you are cooking dinner, make enough so there are leftovers for lunch/dinner the next day.0
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What job do you have? Are you paid to work at home?0
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Just eat a smaller portion of what you are eating.
You do not need to meal plan or exercise to lose weight. You do need to stop the excuses.
And I am yet to find faster food than some fruit.8 -
can you get a food scale while ur at ross or tjmaxx.. time to know ur exact portions!! exercise isnt neceassarily needed initially... can u get to the root of how u gained 12lbs.. examine!!! they dont appear magically0
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And breathe.... you CAN do this. You don't need to find time to exercise so relax about that. It's great if you can find a bit of time as exercise is good for mental health as well as physical and can give you a few more calories to play with, but it's not essential for weight loss.
What is your calorie allowance as set my MFP? Next, look at what you are eating. Weigh & measure everything, no excuses. Could you choose less calorie dense options? A ham salad sandwich instead of peanut butter for example. Use a bit of lemon juice / balsamic vinegar instead of ranch or may on your salad? Make your portions a bit smaller? Have a piece of cake, but a thinner slice than you would usually cut, two biscuits instead of four, diet soda instead of full sugar.
Take it one day at a time and one step at a time, make little changes which make the whole process less daunting and before you know it, you won't have just won the battle, you will have won the whole war! Keep your chin up and keep going! All the very, very best!
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Thank you for the support. I have done something a little different in that I have designated 7pm as my scheduled time to exercise. I have never really done this before. Someone above mentioned that if I had to pick my kids up at a set time, I would do it. No matter what. Exercise needs to be considered as important. A time that i cannot miss. I am not going to worry about how LONG I exercise, as long as I get something in. My standard is 45 minutes so that will be my goal but I won't be hard on myself if I can't fit 45 minutes into the schedule. I have also meal prepped breakfast for this week. It's not much but, it's a start. Breakfast is where I usually do the worst (400-500 calories just for breakfast on most days with lots of sugar). So spinach egg white mini quiches are on tap all week, only about 100 calories. That will free up more calories for lunch and keep me from going over my 1400 calories for the day. Thanks for kicking me in the butt, pals. I will take one day at a time.11
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Your life sounds just like mine.... my job is also full on, I work long hours, and I live miles away from work which means lots of travel time. And I'm a Mum too which means when I get home I have Mum stuff to do, usually before having to sit down and do some more work before bed.
Yeah, it's tough. I've tried to find healthy stuff I can prepare quickly. And Im not too worried about exercise at this stage.... I'll focus on that further down the track if I get more time.
We can do this!0 -
Geocitiesuser wrote: »Just to be clear, you can continue eating whatever it is you're eating that you put on 12 lbs. Just eat less of it.
FALSE. What you eat is just as important, if not more so, than how much you eat. If you're loading up on carbs, then you're releasing too much insulin. Insulin burns the glucose in your blood to try to bring blood sugar levels back to a normal range, but most people eat way too much in the line of carbs for the insulin to deal with effectively. Your body will store excess glucose as glycogen, however, your body can only store so much as glycogen, too. All extra blood glucose/glycogen is converted to fat. Our bodies store over 40,000 calories as fat, but we can only store 2,000 calories of carbs. It can also only store 400g of glycogen in the liver, and 100g in the muscles. Again, the extra is stored as fat. If you up your fat and protein intake (fat doesn't make you fat, carbs do), and significantly lower your carb intake (in the form of grains, starches, sugars (including added sugars--read labels!), and yes, fruits and vegetables) you won't be hungry all the time from the excess insulin dropping your blood sugar levels (which triggers hunger), but you'll start to lose weight a lot easier.
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HeidiGrrrl wrote: »Geocitiesuser wrote: »Just to be clear, you can continue eating whatever it is you're eating that you put on 12 lbs. Just eat less of it.
FALSE. What you eat is just as important, if not more so, than how much you eat. If you're loading up on carbs, then you're releasing too much insulin. Insulin burns the glucose in your blood to try to bring blood sugar levels back to a normal range, but most people eat way too much in the line of carbs for the insulin to deal with effectively. Your body will store excess glucose as glycogen, however, your body can only store so much as glycogen, too. All extra blood glucose/glycogen is converted to fat. Our bodies store over 40,000 calories as fat, but we can only store 2,000 calories of carbs. It can also only store 400g of glycogen in the liver, and 100g in the muscles. Again, the extra is stored as fat. If you up your fat and protein intake (fat doesn't make you fat, carbs do), and significantly lower your carb intake (in the form of grains, starches, sugars (including added sugars--read labels!), and yes, fruits and vegetables) you won't be hungry all the time from the excess insulin dropping your blood sugar levels (which triggers hunger), but you'll start to lose weight a lot easier.
Where are you getting your information? I eat over 300g of carbs a day (some days over 400g) and am losing weight just fine.5 -
Don't give up.
If I'm particularly busy, I'll mainly live off of soup (You can churn out about 5kg of soup with only a few minutes of prep time-especially if using canned/frozen veggies that you don't have to chop) for lunch & dinner (add some rolls and butter and extra meat bits for the family members with higher BMR). Tailoring the amount of beans/veggies/meat can make it very filling for very few calories and better fit your macros. Breakfast: I make a batch of yogurt, jam, protein powder (if plain yogurt instead of greek yogurt), and oats...divvy into containers and leave in the fridge (usually 1-2 tubs of yogurt at a time)(just a few minutes for 1-2 weeks of breakfasts). If you are regularly making dinner for the family, maybe make fewer larger batches that can be microwaved for everyone for 2-3+ more nights.
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Maybe find ways to simplify things. From everything in your life to food, specifically.
Maybe plan a certain breakfast and lunch to eat daily. And come up with 5-10 meals that are easy to measure out for dinner and rotate.
You can lose weight without exercising.1 -
FALSE. What you eat is just as important, if not more so, than how much you eat.
I, and many other people, will respectfully disagree. 2,000 calories is 2,000 calories.6 -
Thank you for the support. I have done something a little different in that I have designated 7pm as my scheduled time to exercise. I have never really done this before. Someone above mentioned that if I had to pick my kids up at a set time, I would do it. No matter what. Exercise needs to be considered as important. A time that i cannot miss. I am not going to worry about how LONG I exercise, as long as I get something in. My standard is 45 minutes so that will be my goal but I won't be hard on myself if I can't fit 45 minutes into the schedule. I have also meal prepped breakfast for this week. It's not much but, it's a start. Breakfast is where I usually do the worst (400-500 calories just for breakfast on most days with lots of sugar). So spinach egg white mini quiches are on tap all week, only about 100 calories. That will free up more calories for lunch and keep me from going over my 1400 calories for the day. Thanks for kicking me in the butt, pals. I will take one day at a time.
Make meal times a bit easier. Prep food stuff right before bed. I like smoothies on work mornings because they are fast and I can nurse for a couple hours. Premeasure ingredients at night, stick in a freezer bag and pop in freezer. In the morning just pour it into a blender with water.
Make lunches the night before, or if they are old enough have kids make them, put them in fridge, and have them be responsible for getting them out and taking to school/sitter/daycare.
Slow cooker is your friend! Get an extra bowl or two. Or a second cooker. Make oatmeal overnight at breakfast, then change bowls and pop dinner ingredients in.
Get a few premeasured but healthy choices. I like Kind bars, Sargentos Balanced Breaks, Sabra hummus and pretzle crisps, and those prepackaed fruit, pretzle and cheese things you can usually find in deli or rrfrigerated section.
Use your lunch break to move. You don't need to get all aerobicy and sweaty, but find a quiet corner and stretch for 10-15 minutes. Try to increase flexibility and range of motion, rather than working up a sweat. This will feel good, and help tone your muscles.
Make your family help! Unless they are toddlers, they can do some chores, straiten up thier own messes, help with meal preperation and cleanup. Families are not just Mom, they are EVERYONE, and everyone needs to work together to make things successful.
Stop being so hard on yourself. Life happens. Eventually things will settle down and you can look harder at making longer term choices. Until then, just wirk on whatever baby steps and shortcuts you can fit in.1 -
HeidiGrrrl wrote: »Geocitiesuser wrote: »Just to be clear, you can continue eating whatever it is you're eating that you put on 12 lbs. Just eat less of it.
FALSE. What you eat is just as important, if not more so, than how much you eat. If you're loading up on carbs, then you're releasing too much insulin. Insulin burns the glucose in your blood to try to bring blood sugar levels back to a normal range, but most people eat way too much in the line of carbs for the insulin to deal with effectively. Your body will store excess glucose as glycogen, however, your body can only store so much as glycogen, too. All extra blood glucose/glycogen is converted to fat. Our bodies store over 40,000 calories as fat, but we can only store 2,000 calories of carbs. It can also only store 400g of glycogen in the liver, and 100g in the muscles. Again, the extra is stored as fat. If you up your fat and protein intake (fat doesn't make you fat, carbs do), and significantly lower your carb intake (in the form of grains, starches, sugars (including added sugars--read labels!), and yes, fruits and vegetables) you won't be hungry all the time from the excess insulin dropping your blood sugar levels (which triggers hunger), but you'll start to lose weight a lot easier.
Excess any macro is stored as fat.
Protein also causes insulin to spike.
I find fibre gives me the most satiety which is a carb.2 -
No matter how you feel, Get up, Lace up, Show up, and Never give up! This was posted in my gym tonight! Good luck! You can do it! Keep going! Add me I'll help ya!0
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i lost 50, then regained 20. for a nearly a year I struggled to take some of those pounds off again, but the way I had originally done it was not sustainable. I weighed/measured/counted everything. I did a lot of cooking, often not having dinner ready until 10pm. I was late to work on a number of occasions, because i needed 20-25 minutes to prepare lunch and dinner to take to work, and eat breakfast (instead of 5). It worked, but long term, there was no way. I got really discouraged. But i'm back on track the past 3 weeks with a new approach: forget about measuring and counting. eat small meals; don't snack, don't drink any calories except for coffee (the way I make it - each cup 15 cals), and don't worry about it. The weight will come off in its time. it's much more sane and i do have the foundational knowledge of calorie counts and nutrition so I can make good choices without counting. I know it's often said, but hard to do, but for me, now, simply eating less and avoiding high calorie foods is the way to go. Tracking everything was a good and necessary learning experience, but it consumed way too much time and effort and was stressful for me. it's easier now just to exercise that willpower to say no to extra food.
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I'm a busy working mom as well. I don't meal prep. I plan out my grocery lists and buy what is in season/on sale. I have bout 5 recipes I do over and over. Plus I have easy meals on hand like frozen meals when I need that cooking time to do something else. Breakfast during the work week is a protein bar because I have enough to do in the AM and don't have time to think about cooking myself breakfast. Get in exercise when you are with you kids - kick a soccer ball around, chase them, play tag. Get a food scale as well, it will help get portions under control.0
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You must be super strong to be getting through all this stress and exhaustion day-to-day. Is there a way to involve your kids in exercise? If you have even 45 min to devote to yourself, that is great. You can get really significant burns in that timeframe with no equipment, like HIIT or tabata. I have done this 25 min tabata/hip hop dance video and really enjoyed it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf0nEpG8tno 2 -
You can do about what you decide that you are able to do.
If your children are tiny, being in survival mode for a while may be your only choice. As they get bigger though, you need to think about what kind of example you are setting and what you are teaching them about healthy eating and activity.
Scheduling in exercise is a great approach. I print out a calendar every week and plan out my exercise ahead of time around other commitments. It works!1 -
Are you enjoying all the food prep? Breakfast here is hard boiled eggs or cold leftover chicken. Think low-prep, low clean-up! Simple and boring and low cal for my breakfasts = success. Which is not to say don't have fun cooking! It can be simple and easy.0
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I work out but a lot of time life gets in the way and i dont have time to work out, however portion control and counting calories is everything, drink plenty of water and count calories i have been able to have a successful weight lose journey off of this alone.0
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Try not to stress yourself out too much. High stress causes people to overeat. It also makes people reach for sugary foods instead of healthier one.
If your short on time you should do 20 minute high intensity workouts. You need to also eat less portions of the food that your eating or need to get your family to eat healthier.0 -
RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Just eat a smaller portion of what you are eating.
THIS.
If you can't face weighing/tracking your food right now (though I highly recommend it), simply pick out a side plate next time you serve yourself dinner. You'll likely be cutting your portion size by a third, without even trying/thinking about it.
As another poster said, Simple but not easy. Just stick with it and fight your way through this period of doubt. You can do this.
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