Diets & Weight Maintenance Support Group
Chat about how well your latest diet is -- or is not -- working. This group is a great place to find support and accountability as well as share success stories and valuable lessons with the community. From where to start to weekly weigh-ins, get help from others to reach your dieting and weight maintenance goals.
Starting status:
I weighed myself at the beginning of this month and the number was 234. That's more than I've ever weighed in my entire life. I knew I ate too much sugar, but I drank lots of water and didn't think that my habits were accumulating to such an extent. I didn't sleep well, often ate late at night to compensate for this, and I ate sugar a lot. I have been very depressed for a long time (several years) as well...so emotional eating has been a factor. Also, meals / snacks were my break from working on things and when I really wanted a break or dreaded getting back to work, I would eat more.
Reasoning:
When I saw the number 234 lbs on the scale, I wanted to make the weight gain stop. I'm very embarrassed of my weight and the way I look now; it makes me feel awful and unattractive and depressed. I feel like people see me and see "an ugly fat girl". Last year I weighed 214-215 at about this time, which was still very overweight, so I started exercising a lot. I would go on long walks (and eventually jogs) several times a week most weeks, and I started drinking a lot of water. I ended up gaining weight after doing this for ~6 months and after injuring my foot (tendon or ligament related, had me limping for weeks, it was painful) I stopped exercising and gave up. I think the reason I gained weight was not because of exercising, but because of my eating habits being so bad (not that I would eat a cake a day, but I think I ate too much, too many calories and sugar). I felt it was hopeless after gaining weight while exercising a lot. I thought I could never lose weight.
What I'm doing now:
I'm still overweight and today is day 13 of my plan. I've gone down to 227 lbs (using mid-day weight), so it seems to be working slowly. Here are my rules for myself, and so far I've been able to stick to them pretty well:
1. No heavy-sugar foods if I can help it. It's my biggest weakness. If I can't help it and I really crave the sugar, I can have something very small (one tsp chocolate chips for 70 calories or some hot chocolate for 120 calories).
2. I'm limited to 1500-1600 calories each day. I have to keep a food record, and I do this on an excel spreadsheet on my computer desktop. If I don't know calories in something, I look it up...and I never eat anything unless it's a measurable amount in proportion with a serving (it stops the "well I ate one chip...that's hard to estimate" problem). This has made me more aware of how many calories are actually in foods and how to plan for the rest of the day.
3. I have to think about what I'm going to eat before I actually eat it. This helps me to be able to plan.
4. If I have to eat late at night (3-4 am) I count it for the next day instead of giving up on that day. If I don't give up, it encourages me to keep going.
5. I keep track of my weight on the days that I weigh myself on a separate column of my excel sheet. I weigh myself only when I feel like it, and not every day. I just weigh some days. I also don't want to look at the numbers (which seem horrific to me), so I use different numbers. I take my weight and multiply it by the square root of 3, then divide by 4 (arbitrarily chosen numbers) and this "disguises" my weight so that I'm not embarrassed to have my sheet open on my desktop sometimes during the day. I think this is a really good idea actually...I was sick of looking at my weight in numbers, so I changed the numbers but did not lose the information.
6. I have 4 goals. First to 215 (my last year's weight), then to 200, then to 180 (about 5 years ago), then to 150 (close to where I should be). I would be happy at 150 and not ashamed of myself. I also know I would look MUCH better (I'm so tired of how I look right now and clothes fitting how they do...and my sizes), and feel SO much better (knees, back, stomach, arms...tiredness..).
Conclusion for today
So that's where I am right now: 234 starting, 227 today, 13 days gone by. This doesn't include exercise so far, but I went for a walk yesterday, so that's a start. I plan on exercising a lot more once I can get to my first goal (215) so that it will be a bit easier on my knees.
I weighed myself at the beginning of this month and the number was 234. That's more than I've ever weighed in my entire life. I knew I ate too much sugar, but I drank lots of water and didn't think that my habits were accumulating to such an extent. I didn't sleep well, often ate late at night to compensate for this, and I ate sugar a lot. I have been very depressed for a long time (several years) as well...so emotional eating has been a factor. Also, meals / snacks were my break from working on things and when I really wanted a break or dreaded getting back to work, I would eat more.
Reasoning:
When I saw the number 234 lbs on the scale, I wanted to make the weight gain stop. I'm very embarrassed of my weight and the way I look now; it makes me feel awful and unattractive and depressed. I feel like people see me and see "an ugly fat girl". Last year I weighed 214-215 at about this time, which was still very overweight, so I started exercising a lot. I would go on long walks (and eventually jogs) several times a week most weeks, and I started drinking a lot of water. I ended up gaining weight after doing this for ~6 months and after injuring my foot (tendon or ligament related, had me limping for weeks, it was painful) I stopped exercising and gave up. I think the reason I gained weight was not because of exercising, but because of my eating habits being so bad (not that I would eat a cake a day, but I think I ate too much, too many calories and sugar). I felt it was hopeless after gaining weight while exercising a lot. I thought I could never lose weight.
What I'm doing now:
I'm still overweight and today is day 13 of my plan. I've gone down to 227 lbs (using mid-day weight), so it seems to be working slowly. Here are my rules for myself, and so far I've been able to stick to them pretty well:
1. No heavy-sugar foods if I can help it. It's my biggest weakness. If I can't help it and I really crave the sugar, I can have something very small (one tsp chocolate chips for 70 calories or some hot chocolate for 120 calories).
2. I'm limited to 1500-1600 calories each day. I have to keep a food record, and I do this on an excel spreadsheet on my computer desktop. If I don't know calories in something, I look it up...and I never eat anything unless it's a measurable amount in proportion with a serving (it stops the "well I ate one chip...that's hard to estimate" problem). This has made me more aware of how many calories are actually in foods and how to plan for the rest of the day.
3. I have to think about what I'm going to eat before I actually eat it. This helps me to be able to plan.
4. If I have to eat late at night (3-4 am) I count it for the next day instead of giving up on that day. If I don't give up, it encourages me to keep going.
5. I keep track of my weight on the days that I weigh myself on a separate column of my excel sheet. I weigh myself only when I feel like it, and not every day. I just weigh some days. I also don't want to look at the numbers (which seem horrific to me), so I use different numbers. I take my weight and multiply it by the square root of 3, then divide by 4 (arbitrarily chosen numbers) and this "disguises" my weight so that I'm not embarrassed to have my sheet open on my desktop sometimes during the day. I think this is a really good idea actually...I was sick of looking at my weight in numbers, so I changed the numbers but did not lose the information.
6. I have 4 goals. First to 215 (my last year's weight), then to 200, then to 180 (about 5 years ago), then to 150 (close to where I should be). I would be happy at 150 and not ashamed of myself. I also know I would look MUCH better (I'm so tired of how I look right now and clothes fitting how they do...and my sizes), and feel SO much better (knees, back, stomach, arms...tiredness..).
Conclusion for today
So that's where I am right now: 234 starting, 227 today, 13 days gone by. This doesn't include exercise so far, but I went for a walk yesterday, so that's a start. I plan on exercising a lot more once I can get to my first goal (215) so that it will be a bit easier on my knees.
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Usually I get a daily influx of emails on health topics. An article from Dr. Mercola really stood out recently though because it mentioned that fat cells have their own mitochondria. Not only was this the first I'd heard of this, he also mentioned that fat serves a purpose in our metabolism. Another new factoid for me. The bottom line for me was to appreciate that even our fat cells play a...
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I just do not feel well and I really think that it's because I cried yesterday on my way to work about my Aunt who is in the hospital. I don't think that we will have her much longer. She is very frail. Now she needs help eating. So, this is the third time in a year that I felt this way after crying. I think crying releases toxins into my body. I also worked up a sweat at the gym...
Don't worry about other people giving you unsolicited advice. You know yourself and your situation the best, and are in the best position to decide what to do and when to do it.
~Lorrie
Good Luck on achieving your goal!!!