I need to break it down to smaller goals
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ohbother1971
Posts: 20 Member
First goals are:
Don’t eat past 7
Drink at least 80 oz of water
Stop drinking juice and soda. Don’t need it.
Track food don’t worry about calories, just track
Workout 3x a week
Sleep -this one is a hard one- 6-8 hrs a night. (I’m lucky if I get 4)
Don’t eat past 7
Drink at least 80 oz of water
Stop drinking juice and soda. Don’t need it.
Track food don’t worry about calories, just track
Workout 3x a week
Sleep -this one is a hard one- 6-8 hrs a night. (I’m lucky if I get 4)
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Replies
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Those are actually fairly large goals. I suggest you only take on 1 or 2 of those at a time, for several weeks, before you add anything else.13
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yeah that's a lot in one go.
whats the reason you only get 4 hours sleep?2 -
This is just me, but if I were you, I would implement IF...so stop eating at 7 or earlier and then do not have anything but water/plain tea, etc. until at least 13 or 14 hours later. Continue to eat and drink what you normally do during the eating window, implement this until it becomes second nature and then change something else...i.e. no juice and soda, and then after that is implemented add another change, etc. etc.
As for working out, I would aim for 15 minutes a day, even if that is a brisk walk. I like the idea of moving every day as opposed to just 3x per week. Or get a pedometer and aim for 5,000 steps a day.
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I'd work on sleep first. Hard to exercise and make good food decisions when sleep deprived due to what that does to various hormones that affect hunger.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/sleep-obesity1.htm12 -
ohbother1971 wrote: »First goals are:
Don’t eat past 7
Drink at least 80 oz of water
Stop drinking juice and soda. Don’t need it.
Track food don’t worry about calories, just track
Workout 3x a week
Sleep -this one is a hard one- 6-8 hrs a night. (I’m lucky if I get 4)
Depending on how big a change this is, those could be big done all at once.
What I did when I started was set weekly goals and focus on just one or two things.
For example, I think my first week I was supposed to start logging food, cook my breakfasts and dinners, no snacking between meals, plus walk everywhere I possibly could. Since I already cooked a decent amount, that wasn't a huge change for me (it was mostly the not snacking and walking when I might have driven or cabbed, plus logging), and were some things easy to focus on.
When that was set (after a couple of weeks), I decided I'd workout at least 30 minutes 3 days per week (it was a cold winter and I mostly like outdoor exercise, so I decided to make going back to the gym or pool as easy on myself as possible). I also in later weeks focused on making and bringing my lunch rather than buying it, and increasing my exercise amounts.
Right now I'm doing the same thing, with some different goals (getting back to my daily meditation, for example).
Because I'm a major planner and motivated that way, I also had monthly and 3-month goals, up to running a half marathon and doing a local bike ride, but I think having the specific weekly goals and checking in daily in my journal with progress and struggles really helped.
I was always a 4-5 hour sleep person too (still am too often), and although I did not do it as one of my initial goals (I've worked on it off and on since), I would recommend focusing on the sleep like some others have suggested. Being tired is one of the things that makes not snacking/not overeating and getting in the workouts toughest.1 -
Cut the list down to two. Definitely cut out the juice and sodas IMMEDIATELY it makes no sense to drink your calories. Workout 3x a week. Focus on the rest after you've accomplished those two.5
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What is your reason for not eating past 7? Unless it causes indigestion, it really isn't nearly as useful as the others.
Also, 80oz of water is not needed by most people. Look at your pee, if it is light yellow to almost clear, you are already getting enough fluids. If it is clear, you may actually be drinking too much.
How often are you currently working out? If not at all, start with something reasonable, like 10 minutes 3x a week.6 -
I get annoyed by claims that you should never eat past 7 (or 6 or even 5), since I am rarely home before 8 and like to eat a dinner I cook at home (so often at 9). However, if you struggle with overeating in the evening not eating past dinner can be a good easy thing to try. (I stay up late often but don't eat once I'm finished with dinner plus any planned dessert which would be immediately after dinner.)
Similarly, while I totally agree that the focus on drinking lots of water is a dieting myth, if someone is trying to stop drinking beverages with calories it can be helpful and also having an easy goal to check off daily can sometimes be encouraging and give a feeling of accomplishment.
Pee color is a good rule of thumb.3 -
I feel like the list is a bit much all at once. From my personal experience, focusing on 1-3 things at one time, getting that down and then moving to a new goal(s) has a higher success rate. But if you feel this is something you can tackle, they hey - more power to you! I wish you the best of luck, and I really hope you are able to meet your goals.
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I get annoyed by claims that you should never eat past 7 (or 6 or even 5), since I am rarely home before 8 and like to eat a dinner I cook at home (so often at 9). However, if you struggle with overeating in the evening not eating past dinner can be a good easy thing to try. (I stay up late often but don't eat once I'm finished with dinner plus any planned dessert which would be immediately after dinner.)
Similarly, while I totally agree that the focus on drinking lots of water is a dieting myth, if someone is trying to stop drinking beverages with calories it can be helpful and also having an easy goal to check off daily can sometimes be encouraging and give a feeling of accomplishment.
Pee color is a good rule of thumb.
Oh man, I'm with you. It drives me nuts when people take suggestions from the USDA as hard and fast. They recommended not eating after a certain time because it helped with mindless night eating. There's nothing about eating at night that causes weight gain other than the fact that many people do it mindlessly. If you're mindful about eating at night and fit it into your day, it has no impact.
Sugar has also been victim to this. USDA suggested that people cut down on added sugars, people took that as "sugar is bad". The intention of the suggestion was because people were crowding out micronutrients by choosing foods that were devoid of anything but sugar. However, choosing nutrient-dense foods that are high in sugar (such as bananas or apples) were never considered part of that, and sugar itself was part of that, just that people were eating sugar on it's own and not making up for the lack of nutrients with other foods.4 -
When i was starting, i did ONE goal at a time.
log my food. all of it. good and bad. weighed on a scale. Dont worry about calories.
got into that habit.
then, added exercise. started by simple walks. one walk, at least 10 minutes. increased from there.
give it time, and adding on reasonable goals, and ,mastering those before adding more, equaled 100 pounds lost (and going).
its not a race.3 -
jennifer_417 wrote: »Those are actually fairly large goals. I suggest you only take on 1 or 2 of those at a time, for several weeks, before you add anything else.
Agreed. I'd chose "log all food/drinks" as goal #1.4 -
I agree with the others who said to make the first goal to log everything. I have always been good for a week or so, then have a high calorie day and tell myself I blew it, and from then on my logging gets lazy. I decided to just keep logging no matter if I go way over one day. Who knows except for me, and it isn't a failure.6
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OP, your goals are awesome!
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I agree with the others who said to make the first goal to log everything. I have always been good for a week or so, then have a high calorie day and tell myself I blew it, and from then on my logging gets lazy. I decided to just keep logging no matter if I go way over one day. Who knows except for me, and it isn't a failure.
Exactly the right attitude! I also find it helpful to try to understand what happened if I go way over on a day -- logging helps me with mindfulness.2 -
No sense in rehashing what others have said. I strongly suggest starting with logging and sleeping.2
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It didn’t take. Well sort off. The no soda and juice took. I maybe have one glass of OJ or cranberry once a week.
The reason I wanted to stop eating past 7 was because I don’t sleep and I was thinking it’s related. But I find that as long as I stop eating 2-3 hours before I try to sleep it helps a lot. I am able to sleep better as long as my kids or cats do t wake me up I’m getting about 6-7 hrs sleep a night. Not bad. The others goals didn’t stick. I picked 3x a week because I was already working out 2. I picked 80oz of water because with juice and soda I was drinking about 80 oz of liquid and just wanted to change it to water. I fine that I average about 60 oz of water a day. The tracking didn’t stick at all and I’m here to try that one again. Thank you everyone who responded5 -
You're already getting smarter about this process for yourself. Hang in there. Lots of good advice here. You seem to know some things that already work for you (the correlation between eating and sleeping), so keep that up. For most of us, logging food is what it comes down to. And once you start this process, consistency and patience. I'm struggling with both right now because I'm trying to lose the 10 I gained, and to do it the way I want to, that's about half a pound a week, which really isn't visible week to week. In the meantime, we just stick to it, and trust.1
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Good job on stopping the soda and juice. Those are big. Also good job on getting more sleep. I have to say I've not had cats that wake me up. I do feed them right before I go to bed, so maybe that's it (?)
I agree with everyone else that logging food is the #1 most important thing I did (and still do.) It takes me about a minute per meal and it has changed everything about my food, exercise and nutrition.
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