Sick and tired of feeling sick and tired

Well it is my first day.....confused about what to do next....though I suppose joining is the first of many positive steps.

I look at success stories when I need a boost... that's my tip for the day!

Welcome to MFP.

Just log everything you eat and all you do exercise wise. My advice. Find a challenge that sounds interesting, or a group and join. It really has helped me. Try to make some supportive friends. Look for the good advice, skip the bad. Read the supportive information, skip the haters. Look over the success stories and read what they did to get where they are. All that should give you a good starting point.

Everyone's journey takes different turns. You have to custom yours to your situation. Wish you well on your journey. You already did the 1st step. Just keep makeing postivie choices and it will happen for you.

Welcome I hope you like it here.

I've become a little bit of a zealot... Sorry in advance for all the long-windedness

Here's how I started:

1) tracking for a couple of weeks before I worried about losing.
(although seeing what I was eating I couldn't help but rein back a bit)

2) seeing where I could make small changes on things that weren't that important to me.
(Don't even think of taking chocolate out of my diet!!!)
--Reducing quantities where I won't notice it so much
--Swapping out things instead of eliminating them.

3) Look at my diary and started adding foods that had positive healthy effects specifically for the health issue in my family.
I found most of the things I "should" add were really yummy too! salmon, avocado, oatmeal, mango, red grapes....
(Sort of think of food as medicine to deal with family history of various health issue oatmeal is good for heart health, mango and red grapes lower cholesterol, tumeric and cinnamon good for arthritis)

4) every couple of weeks I see where I can make another couple of small changes.
If you completely revamp your diet, it's way easy to revert to old ways in times of stress. (and who doesn't have stress?)
If you make a series of small changes, food still offers you some sense of comfort.
sort of a comfort continuum, and after a while the first small changes will seem comforting in themselves.
You don't have to be perfect you just have to do better.

5) also rather than being uberstrict with the target MFP set for me. I was happier once I gave myself a range:

ROCK BOTTOM: 1200 cal
TARGET: MFP Calories for lose 1 lb a week (when that hit 1200 I changed to lose 1/2 lb per week)
TOP OF RANGE: Maintain Calories for my GOAL Weight.

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(SAFETY VALVE: Maintain Calories for CURRENT Weight - remember to keep updating this number as you lose)

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I naturally tended to do 2-4 days between 1200-1300 cal then a day at about 1500-1600 cal then back to the 1200-1300 cal.

--As long as I stayed under the top of my range I should continue to lose, even if it is at a slower rate.
--As long as I don't go past my safety valve I shouldn't gain.

BUT... The closer you get to your goal the smaller your range. (frustrating)


6) I only worry about it 1 lb at a time.
Once I found ways to lessen the stress, I found it way easier to focus on the process and let the results follow. (It's what worked for me some people need the stress to get them motivated. Me I get scared and overwhelmed and don't see the big goal as achievable. )

Food is not the enemy.

Oddly enough on my journey here I've reduced guilt over food.
I have the occasional treat and I fully enjoy it with no guilt involved.
The thing is since I'm not eating crap all the time the occasional treat is just that a TREAT it's special and I enjoy it so much more than when I was unconsciously shovel junk food into my face.

I figure if I've got a good plan that I can actually maintain I can keep this off for a long time to come, without feeling deprived.

Good Luck

Welcome aboard. This is a thread full of great information for newbies, when you get a chance read through it:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/596830-if-you-could-tell-one-thing-to-newbies-on-mfp

HI I agree with everyone log, exercise tweek numbers to fit you if needed and stay commited it's not a quick gratifying experience but the rewards for the patient is amazing!


(on a side note to all the MFP members...As an old member I am in awe of the responses to this new addition to the family. I love when I see people being helpful instead of rude.):flowerforyou:

Thanks so very much for all the encouragement. Im sure I will be a familiar face to all of you. Im sticking with this like glue!!!!!::happy:

Cinsistency is key as well as everything else people have mentioned. This time around for me has been way different. I did not start out hard core, still not there yet either. I just started by recording everything that I ate, no matter what it was. I did not eliminate anything at all. It was a few weeks taht went by when I realized where the changes in the diet was needed.

Good luck. Reach out to me if you need to.

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