just simple regular exercise. some kind of exercise or extra moving each day.
and learning that the portion sizes i'm 'soposed' to eat, do actually apply to me.
what i know now is that the cycle starts with exercise. intense, give everything i have cardio usually. but it starts there.
exercise, control myself when i eat afterwards so i don't undo the cal. i burned, eat what is 'worth' it, bc i don't want to spend 2 hours running off a peice of cake, or more likely a block of cheese.
what's different now is, when i over eat, or eat when i'm not hungry, i'm AWARE of it. for so many years i wasn't aware. and that means i'm less likely to do it, and can stop when i recognize it.
i'm only just starting to learn about ways to cook low fat or without fat. i wish i knew in my teen years. i was interested in cooking, the info is so much more available now. and info about very healthy food like vegan or just lots of whole foods.
If I had realised sooner why I overate/ate emotionally, I don't think I would have gained quite as much weight as I did. I also wish I hadn't stopped exercising-- which was partially tied in with the same childhood stuff that lead to the eating part-- because even though I was always a little heavier, staying active helped to keep my weight down. When I stopped completely is when things got really out of hand. If I had known to just keep up with the exercise while working out the eating problems, I would never have stopped!
I should never have allowed myself to go so long without a scale. There's a lot of other stuff I never had the power to change, so I'm sticking with something I know for sure was under my control: I should've bought a scale long before I did.
I should never have allowed myself to go so long without a scale. There's a lot of other stuff I never had the power to change, so I'm sticking with something I know for sure was under my control: I should've bought a scale long before I did.
I like this one: my mother always encouraged me to never weigh, just go by your clothes, but it turns out accurate knowledge helps me, it doesn't demoralize.
I wish I had known that "calorie counting" doesn't automatically mean "900 calories a day, 1200 if you are a total wimp". I basically either tried to eat 900 calories (and would be perfect for 3-6 months before collapsing) or ate whatever I could get my hands on.
I would never have started eating butter again, and I would have moved to a place that was more walking friendly sooner, and I would have a left an unsatisfying relationship sooner.
I gained most of my weight before the age of 14 so it is difficult to say what I would've done differently because my mom tried to cook healthy foods and we didn't eat processed junk and I was involved in activities. I think if I had a chance, I would've had a doctor look into my irregular periods more but what would they have done for a 12-13 yr old with irregular/heavy periods? I'm guessing they would think that was normal.
I wish somebody had taught me portion control. I remember my dad scooping me HUUUGE bowls of ice cream that were probably 4 or 5 servings. I was always told to clean my plate, even if I had very large portions. I was always given the last little bit so leftovers weren't cluttering the fridge. I was taught about the economics of getting the bang for your buck...the King Size Snickers bar is cheaper by the ounce than the regular-sized one...get the King Size. As a result, my idea of what a satisfying portion is, is very skewed. I KNOW that an appropriate portion of meat is about the size of a deck of cards, but even after a year of eating better, it just looks so tiny and unsatisfying and I feel deprived if I eat that tiny piece.
1. If only I'd known about portion control, specifically that a portion of chicken is HALF a breast.
2. I wish I'd known it was ok to weigh daily. I doubt I'd have put on so much if I had been watching the number go up and up and up.
3. I wish I'd known how different my activity level was going from walking everywhere in college to moving into basically a desk job after college. I didn't realize I'd gone from active to sedentary. I hadn't realized I was active in college because I didn't do any formal exercise. Just walking (ALOT) was enough.
1) Education. I never learned anything about nutrition, calories, exercise, food, until recently. I wish I had been taught these details and how our bodies respond to food twenty years ago.
2) PCOS treatment. I wish I had treated my PCOS differently. I didn't know what it meant when I was first diagnosed, so I ignored it for MANY years. I wish I hadn't now. I think my weight loss would have been easier and faster when I was younger.
I wish I had known that I wasn't actually fat. Five to ten pounds over weight, even twenty is not an emergency!
If I hadn't thought I was already a lost cause, I would have taken better care of myself.
Couldn't have said that better myself Nicole. I always felt fat, so I thought, well, I might as well be fat. So, I never took care of myself either. When I graduated high school, I was 122 pounds. And I felt fat? WTH was I thinking? It's amazing what your mind can convince you of. Now, I wish I was 222. LOL! I'll get there. Eventually.
I really don't know. The first time I ever strung two words together to form a sentence, I said "More ham."
There was no isolated incident that caused me to put on weight or develop issues with food. I have just always liked eating. I'm not sure my childhood weight gain was really preventable since at the time I didn't know or care about calories and nutrition.
As for slowly putting on lost weight throughout college and Japan, there were factors. For starters, I would have said "**** no" to the bagels with cream cheese I ate for breakfast every summer at my internship. I suppose I would have been more vigilant about taking my birth control pill. I managed to gain 5 lbs in 4 weeks of pregnancy and instead of working to get rid of the gain, I just pretended it wasn't there. Like the bagels and cream cheese weight, instead of acknowledging something had to be done, I just accepted it.
It's all complicated I suppose. Being fat was just part of who I was and I would be very different now if I had always been normal or thin.
I wish I had known that "calorie counting" doesn't automatically mean "900 calories a day, 1200 if you are a total wimp". I basically either tried to eat 900 calories (and would be perfect for 3-6 months before collapsing) or ate whatever I could get my hands on.
Right! When I was a teenager, I thought you had to just pretty much not eat at all to lose weight. THAT didn't last long! Then in the early 90s I thought you had to eat less than 10 fat grams a day. That actually got me down 70lbs, but one trip to New Orleans and THAT was over. Then I thought replacing 2 meals a day with a sugary milkshake was the ONLY way, after all, that feeling of being STARVING must mean I'm on the right track! Too bad that soon went by the wayside as well. I guess bottom line is I thought to lose any meaningful weight there had to be lots of suffering invovled -- and turns out I don't do suffering well!
