Words of advice to the Newbies

Hey all. Congratulations on giving it a go. That makes you different than a lot of people out there. And (to be US-centric) two-thirds of our country is overweight or obese, that's a lot of people who should take a page from you. So. You've already got an NSV (non-scale victory).

So I've been here about six months and I'm pretty darn happy with my results:

Frome about 2 years ago, to my start point when I thought I still looked like 2 years ago, to 6 months in.

Someone might want to ask what my weight is in all the pictures. I'm not gonna answer that. What I've figured out, is that it isn't about the scale. It is about your life. The scale is ONLY one measurement. Let's be honest. We're all here at least a little bit to look better nekkid. I know I am. Now, I'm not gonna carry my scale around and try to allure my husband with a number on the scale. It is all about other stuff.

Taking measurements, in my opinion, is a better measurement. The scale will stall, or seem annoyingly slow. You will break down and eat all the salt in the world one day and wake up the next thinking you gained 10 pounds. You didn't. That would take 35,000 calories above your burn, and I just don't think you're up to that kind of challenge. You will do something good for yourself: lifting heavy. But the day after lifting heavy, you will go up in weight. It is just water as your muscles repair themselves and make you stronger. If you're obsessed about the scale, you'll freak out and stop doing things that are good for you. So take some horrifying pictures of yourself at the beginning. In your unders or in a bikini. For me it seemed like an improbable amount of pasty white flesh, and did inspire me to cry. But here's the deal. If you don't know where you're starting from, you won't realize how much progress you've made. So take the pictures. Measure yourself in all the places on your body that you store fat or might build muscle. It keeps you from kidding yourself and it lets you know you're making progress. Also do some kind of fitness test for a before measurement. You can google it. I've seen them in Runner's World and Women's Health and Men's Health. I'm certain there are others. I was really happy the day I ran for an hour without stopping. when I started I couldn't run for 3 minutes. Even better, I got to where I like it. Also, when you start lifting, keep track of what, how much, and how many, so you can look back and see your improvement.

Now here's the thing. I'm also a hypocrite. I started this weighing myself every day, multiple times a day. But I did it to notice where my natural fluctuations are, and to not let myself freak out about a little up, or get too cocky about a little down. If you can manage not to freak out, do it. It's kind of fascinating. But if you get obsessive, don't look at the stupid thing. Just trust me: up 2 to 5 pounds during the day. Stall or even up for about a half a week before a precipitous drop. And sort of a 4-week repeat of good weight loss, average weight loss, not much or a little up, and then back again. You figure your own body out.

Please eat enough, and don't just rely upon cardio to make a caloric deficit. Start now with weights that make you sore the next day. Realize that soreness is you getting sexy. Women who lift weights look smokin hot. Women who don't look skinny, but not so healthy necessarily. Big generalization. Totally unfair. I don't care. Its true and there's tons of topics on it, go search for pictures of sexy beasts who lift. But here's my other thing. Someone said in one of those many threads that he prefers the waiffy, weak look. Please don't do that. People who like to hurt women are lazy and stupid. They generally pick women who 1) look like victims and 2) fit their disgusting paraphilic victim pool. You can't do anything about 2, but you can sure as sheet keep from being #1. Do it. Plus, if you lift and are slim and hot, you can fight back better, and that's awesome.

If you eat 1200 calories or less and you aren't losing weight, or you feel tired and hungry, or you feel sluggish, etc. Eat more and see what happens after 2 weeks. 1200 calories isn't much and if you're eating that low, really, eat back your real exercise calories. Food is NOT the enemy. This is not that hard as in complicated. It is that hard in terms of work for it. And you need the fuel to get the work done. I eat 1500 calories plus my exercise calories unless there is something wrong. I often go over on my goals and that is ok. I still like how I look. And I like where I'm going.

What did I do? Well, I was in a weight loss challenge at work that cost me money and was going to cost me $10 every time I went up .5 pounds at any of my twice a week weigh-ins. I'm cheap. that got me thinking about my choices. It got me exercising consistently enough to like it. What I did was Body for Life first. You can buy it on Amazon for essentially the price of the shipping. Its a hard read because the author likes himself very much. That got me running, so instead of his cardio plan, I started a running plan through the micoach app on my phone. It is free from addidas. Then, I wanted something different, and most of the smart sexy beast women on my friends list are doing New Rules of Lifting for Women. Its a newer book, but is also on Amazon. I flipping love it. I love going to the gym and being around my coworkers and shocking people when I load up the bar for squats. I've earned some respect. I'm also doing a 10K running plan. I also have a Tough Mudder on my calendar, which I just realized with some shock is a half marathon with torture exercises in the middle of it. I'm going with coworkers. I will NOT embarrass myself.

Find your goals. Find your most important units of measure for this effort. Take lots of kinds of measurements. Start to love your body for all it has done for you so far, and all the stupid things you've done to it but it kept with you. Don't look for a short cut--it isn't there. And try not to be discouraged.

As you get used to the land of MFP, consider looking at this group. All the smartest, funniest, most successful people answered all the questions that come up everyday anyway. Your question is probably here, and it is answered very well by folks who've lived it:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/457-unofficial-mfp-faq

Lastly, lots of people wont' consider a friend request without a message, so add one when you send people friend requests.