I'm new here, I already introduced myself over on the introductions board but I wanted to do so here as well. I am a 26 year old wife to my awesome hubby of 6 years and mom of 2 who has been struggling with weight since my first pregnancy 5 years ago. Following it up with my 2nd pregnancy 9 months later wasn't exactly helpful. However, I wouldn't trade my kiddos for anything.

I am a shorty at only 5'4" and weighed 163.8 a few days ago. I would love to get somewhere between 130 & 135. I am doing this without a gym membership while working a full time job that's very demanding but I know I can be successful with a great support system.

One of my main struggles is soft drinks, so my first goal is to cut out soft drinks and stick with water. So far, since Monday I've been able to not have any but today has been especially stressful at work and it's killing me not to grab one. I made a promise to myself not to, so I'm not going to do it.

I would my main issue is that I don't know HOW to eat healthy, I live in the most obese state in the country and all but one of my family members fit into that category. None of them think that I can accomplish a 30 lb weight loss, but also none of them have tried either. Since I grew up on my mom and grandma's home-cooking everynight I have no clue how to cook healthy. Everything was fried, smothered, or covered in fatty gravy when I was growing up.

I look forward to getting to know everyone and any advice for me is always welcome!!!

Hi, amallison and welcome!!



Cutting out soda is a great start; you will see rewards from that alone, I'm sure! Don't let your family discourage you... chances are, as you start to lose, you will become an inspiration to them!

It sounds like the first thing you need to do is educate yourself on how to choose, cook, and prepare healthy food. Cooking healthy food is easy since you typically aren't making any complicated sauces, etc. I keep tripping over my fingers, trying to type out some good advice, but I'm afraid I've always eaten a lot of healthy food so I don't know what the right starting point would be for you, just starting out.

But I'm sure many other people have lots of good ideas. Oh, here's one I just came up with. If you don't know what raw fruits and vegetables you like, if you have a supermarket near you with a salad bar, make a salad, choosing small amounts of lots of different things. Maybe that's a place to start? That way you could *taste* something without having to commit to buying the whole thing and preparing it.

Anyway, I'm babbling. Good luck and stick around!

Stick as much as possible to the outside of the supermarket aisles. that stuff tends to be healthier and more natural. The stuff on the inside is more processed and junkier.

read up on different diets and choose one that you can stick with for the long haul. I personally recommend low carb after reading a couple books and a few studies on insulin and fat. but if you decide something else is for you stick to healthier foods over low calories worth of junk.

Find an exercise you enjoy because it is way easier to stick with something you like than something you don't.

hi amallison. i'm new too. i'm on optifast and it's working for me but you have to be committed. i have good advice for you. fresh is best. the closer foods are to the ground, the better they are. do only a little bit of cooking. food is best close to how it grew or was produced. don't add things or change things or coat things or fry things. grill. stay away from salt, sugar, carbohydrates in general. small portions. you really don't need much. eat to live, don't live to eat.
anyway that's my philosophy. also remember why you started in the first place (dieting to lose weight)
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hi pnkrckr, tell me how do you put more trhan one ticker on your post? please? cheers, saraphin

Just my opinion:

I don't recommend avoiding sodium right out of the gate. If you're used to eating southern-fried-smothered-gravied food (my grandma's cooking too!), going low sodium is going to be a real flavor-punch to your mouth.

Sodium and lots of spices and rubs will help keep your much simpler and healthy fare interesting tasting and satisfying.

You've got your whole life to perfect your new healthy way of eating. You can worry about dropping your sodium later after you've gotten a little used to your new pattern of eating. Try not to completely overwhelm yourself with changes right at the beginning.

Good luck to you! You can do it!

( Just FYI, I still don't worry much about sodium, it never affected my weight loss and my doc says all my numbers are good. I don't go crazy with the salt shaker or anything, it just isn't something I worry about. )

I lost ten pounds in my 30's just by ditching the soda. Have it on Special Occasions (a birthday, 4th/ of July) so you won't feel like you're in jail. Planning the bad foods gives you something to look forward to so you won't cheat.

Good morning amallison, you've gotten some great advice, trying new things using the salad bar, incorporating whole foods, easing into making changes so you don't go into withdrawal, giving yourself a treat once in awhile to keep from feeling deprived.

Don't be afraid to experiment and adjust until you find what works for you.

sarahpin once you have been a member for 25 days and have at least 25 posts you can create a signature in the user profile area. go to a tracker generator and paste in the codes they generate to the signature area.

Wow, thanks guy!!! Glad to see some others on here have had to deal with changes to their "southern-fried-smothered-gravied food" eating ways!!!

I'm doing my best so far, the first day was okay, I was surprised I wasn't dying for some soft drinks but I wasn't. I drank my water, ate my healthier snacks, and felt great. Tuesday & yesterday was a bit more of a struggle. Tuesday I wanted a coke soooo bad but instead I walked to one of my coworkers office who happened to have bring some fruit in so she shared with me. Yesterday was an extremely stressful day at work but I managed to eat heatlhy and stay quite a bit under my calorie goal for the day, I also did a 3 mile walk with one of my coworkers. It felt awesome, my lower legs are sore today but it'll be worth it.

My real struggle is going to be today through the weekend, I had to handle a fairly stressful situation at work this morning that had me so nervous I couldn't eat because I felt like I was going to throw up. Once it was taken care of, I had a banana. I'm going to have chinese for lunch with some of my coworkers because one of them is going to be away for the next 3-4 months. I know it'll be a struggle to find healthy stuff there but I'm going to do my best.

Unfortunately I won't get to walk this afternoon because my DD has dance class and we won't get home until late and there's no place for me to do any kind of exercise around the studio. However, I'm going to try to do one of my workout dvd's before I leave work so that I can at least get something in for the day.

Can someone tell me how to get a ticker? Since I just recently joined I thought I saw somewhere that you couldn't have a ticker immediately, but I could be mistaken.

I appreciate all of the advice I've been given so far, y'all are great!!! I have a feeling I'll have an awesome support group to help me get through this weight loss process and I look forward to going through it with y'all.

Does anyone have any book suggestions about weight loss or nutrition/healthy eating/etc that might help me educate myself about this stuff?

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It by Gary Taubes was a real eye opener for me, and he refers to all sort of studies over the years that back up what he is talking about. His previous book is also supposed to be really good in terms of content but also a lot more complicated since he wrote it more for the medical community

thank you pnkrckkat (sorry if i didn't get all your name right) i'm actually wreiting this post from memory, as you do.

anyway, thank you again for that. i will wait until the 24th, xmas eve it will be, for my day requirement; then i will have a signature. i wrote a few fluff pieces to get my required number of posts but they might have been removed…i just read that you have to post real posts for your number of posts to be counted. here i was thinking ha! i'm clever…i'll just make anything up,….no….not happening saraphin. hehe. lol. i'll be lurking and reading and posting and waiting! cheers. saraphin

oh by the way, here is my ticker so far. i am about ⅓ of the way to my goal. looks like youv are all doing ok. has anyone else used optifast? i think the american one is a lot different to our australian one. in any case, let me know if you have tried it at all , i would like to know what you think. i have found it to be wonderful forme. actually the answer to all my prayers! can you believe? i have tried everything until optifast. it is brilliant. it works.

hello newleaf! nice to meet you! i love your tickers….well done on your achievements so far!

hello kelijpa and hello inkrid! it is very nice to chat and to be able to say hello. i live in australia. where are you two? my weight loss is going ok but i have many plateaus. i'm on one now, where my weight loss just stalls and stays at one numbver for ages regardless of my strict dieting. i am using optifast and it has helped me lose 14 kilo's this time. last time i tried i lost 20 kilo's but i put 10 back on because i am obsessive with food. ice cream, biscuits, chocolate, fruit, pasta, all carbohydrates actually, oh…lollies! aaaaarrrgghh! now i'm doing ok though but i am worried about xmas. you?