New but Not New New

Etrigan1776
Etrigan1776 Posts: 8 Member
in Introduce Yourself
HELLO!!! I have been on the MFP journey a couple times now and just kept falling off. I always do great in the beginning and then just fall off. I am 38 years old and have a goal weight of 199 (haven't been there since leaving the Army in 2009). My starting weight this time is 261 and I am down to 258 in 2 weeks. I think the biggest reason that I have not stuck with it was because I was trying to do it alone with no support. My wife of almost a year is on this journey with me but I would also love to have some friends to keep me accountable for what I am trying to accomplish and would love to help keep others accountable for what they are trying to make happen.

Replies

  • scoutmom1981
    scoutmom1981 Posts: 303 Member
    Having your family be on the journey or at least support you is paramount to success. It makes it much easier. Especially when you share the cooking. It's hard when you have to log everything. My husband now has to measure everything out and leave all the labels when he cooks. It's a pain but he knows it's going to make me better in the long run (he is super skinny and needs a constant flow of sugar to keep him running).

    My goals are very similar to yours. I want to get to 174 (though I would be happy at 199). I started this at 163 and I am 155 this morning. I've worked this plan before and made it to 185 so I know it work if you put the effort in! Good luck!
  • Etrigan1776
    Etrigan1776 Posts: 8 Member
    My wife is my rock in this journey. She doesn't weight her food or log it but she keeps labels and reminds me to log things. She is also the driving force to keep me going to the gym. There are days that I just want to come home and relax and she is pushing me out the door for us to go to the gym. I have free use of the High School and Middle School fitness centers since I work for the school district but she cant go unless I do so she keeps on me. It has been a huge help but a pain in the tail sometimes. If I hit 199 then I will be happy but I know I want to bulk up on the muscle so I think I will end up over that number but in a healthy way. I wouldn't be angry with 230 if it is a healthy 230.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,421 Member
    Welcome back!

    This is the time you will STICK TO IT! Or not. It's up to you. Nobody can make decisions for you. It's up to you to be accountable to yourself. Motivation is short-lived. It's about developing habits.

    Some things that can help:
    • Set some achievable but challenging goals. What goals are you setting up for your success?
    • Take it slow. It took a long time to get where you are, so don't expect results too fast. Going too fast is the way to fall back off the wagon. It's easy to go breserk if you set your speed too high.
    • Log everything you eat. Everything. Even if it's ugly. Your body knows you ate it, so put it in your diary. If you don't the only person you're doing a disservice to is yourself.
    • Set some short-term goals so you have measures of your success along the way rather than far in the future.
    • A safe loss rate is about 1% of your body weight per week. See the graphic below. Track your progress over time and celebrate it.
    • Don't pay too much attention to the number on the scale any given day. I can fluctuate up to five or six pounds overnight. Consider weighing every day and ignoring it but putting the number in a spreadsheet and calculate a rolling ten-day average to see the trend. Weight loss is not linear. For more information, check out The Hackers' Diet, especially the section on Signal and Noise.

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