NEEDING A LIFE CHANGE

Hi Kattie,

I'm Holly. I know exactly where you are coming from because I was there too. I gained a lot of weight with both my pregnancies and hated myself. I'll tell you what worked for me. When I finally came to the conclusion that enough was enough, I started really small, and I stayed at home. The staying at home thing was more out of comfort because I didn't want to be stared at at a gym. I had a stationary bike that was given to me and had been evilly eying me for months, so I finally used it to my advantage. At night, when the kids were in bed, or napping during the day, I would get on the bike for a max of 10 mins. In the beginning 10 mins killed me so that was all that I could handle. I would throw on the tv, or pop in a dvd, put the bike on the highest resistance and start, as the resistance got too much to handle, I would lower it. When it eventually came to the point where I could do 10 mins no problem, I increased it to 15. That's what I would recommend: start with something small, and work up gradually. Another thing I would recommend is get your cardio endurance up and then add small weights and strength training. It took me a year, but I finally lost 90 lbs, and doing it slowly has been what has kept it off. Now I'm in school to become a personal trainer because I want to be able to use my success to help others. Another big thing that worked for me was finding a workout program that I could do at home, I started with Turbo Jam because it's addictive and fun, and now I mix that with Chalean Extreme. Anyway, that's just some starters on the exercise portion.

As for the food, I would start by eating all your meals on salad plate. Meal portions today are about double what they were 20-50 years ago, as are serving plates. The standard serving plate a few decades ago was 8-9" now they are around 10-12". We just don't need that much food. The eating will take a lot more committment and planning on your part. I stayed away from red meats and stuck to chicken and fish with lots and lots of veggies. Try and get most of your carbs and calories before lunch and end with a light meal for dinner. As well, try to make sure you have something from every food group at each meal/snack, although go a bit lighter on the carbs later in the day. Snacking is really important too. You should be eating every 2-3 hours just to keep your metabolism up. As for the pop. I hear you on that one. I have a soft spot for pop but will only drink diet and try to limit myself to two. The best advice I can give is: if you don't have it, you can't consume it. It may be best in the beginning to just stop buying it. Besides, you need to be consuming a lot of water, try replacing the pop with water. A mantra I use, and I heard it from someone else: Nothing tastes as good as lean feels. When I feel tempted or have a bad craving, I say this to myself, because it's very true. The satisfaction you get from that chocolate bar is short lived compared to the self-esteem and self-confidence boost you get from overcoming a hurdle.

A few more things that worked for me was visual aids. I used sticky notes to write my "rules" down. I posted one with how many calories to eat, one to remind me to workout, one for water, one just to remind me I could do it and I posted a photo of myself. All of this was right by my bed so that it was the last thing I saw at night and the first thing I saw in the morning. It really helped me stay motivated.

Anyway, don't want to bombard you, I hope you found some of this helpful. If you need anything else, don't hesitate to ask, if I don't have the answer, someone on here will or we can get it! Remember one thing: You CAN do this. We all believe in you! :flowerforyou:

Have a great day!

Holly

Hello and welcome to MFP, the best website ever!!! You will love this site if you don't already. I love this site. It is so motivational, supportive, helpful, easy to use, and everyone is so nice and friendly. I just wanted to wish you a lot of success on your weight loss journey. You can do this!!!!!!!!!!! :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: