I think I'm going to go CRAZY
 

I've weighed 250-260 for a whole year now. I actually just cancelled my gym membership because I'm going to school full time and babysitting, and I'll need all the extra cash I can get while I don't have permenant residency here in Canada...yeah, all the gyms are at 60$ a month here.

So I don't have a gym option. HOWEVER I do not own a car, so I walk almost everyday. I do take the bus but only if I'm going somewhere far.

The reason why I'm going crazy is because it's insane how I just cannot diet. I can't even stand the word. I have tried for MONTHS to do something I can do, but I just can't bring myself to restrict or calorie-count. It's so daunting. I know, you might tell me to 'suck it up, c'mon you just got to do it', and I want to so bad I really do. I just don't know what to do!

I'm in such an intense time in my life, even though I'm in a good enviroment where I live right now with my fiance. But things back in the states are terrible for my family. I am doing a full online course-load and I'm so stressed about my family, and also my job, and between all of those my body is screaming to not take anything away from it. To just give it what it wants.

I have continued to weigh in the same ballpark (I weighed myself 2 weeks ago) and I was at 260lbs. I got down to 250 last November.

But the strange thing is, I know that my body has changed a lot because the clothes are a tiny bit tighter than what they were last year. But maybe it's all in my head, or at least part of it, because I can still wear the clothes just fine. There's just a new layer of small fat I've noticed and I just can't stand it, it brings me to tears.

tl;dr: I need some major words of encouragement and help for somebody who is overstressed and needs a simple plan to lose weight without a gym membership. Money is tight especially with paying for school, so I need a plan that doesn't cost so much money.

I don't live with someone who would diet with me or is interested in eating the food that I would eat.

Some words of advice would be so good to hear!

Have you tried intuitive eating?

Skip a meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner). And eat what you want the rest of the time. That should get you started.

It will save you money and you won't need a gym.

Does your school have a gym that you can use? I'm in N.S. and I haven't seen a college or university around the province that doesn't offer one, even if its just the basic equipment, and if you're a student that goes there, it usually built in to your tuition costs.

I actually am super bad at dieting too. What is really working for me this go is Weight Watchers. The reason this works for me is I find counting points easier than counting calories (which doesn't make a ton of sense, I know), and nothing is really restricted. Yes, you're steered towards eating more healthy, but you're not really told you can't have anything. I have ice cream bars that are on plan and all if I want something sweet... I dunno, it just works. Been doing it for going on five weeks now, which is the longest I've been on a diet with out "cheating" (which in this case would mean going over my daily/weekly point allotment).

For me, my big failures in dieting always came when I tried to restrict. When I told myself I couldn't have something I would crave it and crave it, and eventually I'd binge/overeat. With weight watchers it's more of a lifetime change, and since nothing is off limits that feeling of "can't have so I want" isn't there. I'm choosing to eat healthier and slowly reshaping my eating patterns for a healthy lifestyle change that I can actually keep on. There are tons of recipes too. My boyfriend isn't dieting with me, but has to eat the food I make because.. well I cook. We've been able to find stuff that both of us like through online recipes. Aside from consciously counting points, it doesn't feel like a diet at all to me. Their desserts are AMAZING too.

As someone else said, intuitive eating is another one. I see it mentioned on here a lot, never in a bad way. From what I gather it's all about readjusting your attitude towards food and learning to listen to your body to feed it what it needs without over-eating.

As for exercise. Daily Burn is what I do. It's $10 a month, they ask you some questions and set you up with a 30 day workout plan that is suppose to fit you. You can also just watch the videos you want to. I also have Zumba DVDs with some small weights (for 7 different DVDs and the weights it was around $70 on amazon, one time payment), and I do Just Dance (it's a video game where you dance) in sweat mode on occasion.

You can shoot me a PM for more information if any of that sounds interesting and you need help getting started :)

All good suggestions, another one is just commit to one change. It can be adding something like eat at least 1 fruit a day, or removing something like no coke and just commit to doing that. I record every day of success and congratulate myself regardless of whatever else happened. I have identified 4 major triggers for me and so am making one change every two weeks then after those 4 I will just stabilize for a while. When I feel comfortable I have them under control I will then add in some more like no eating at my desk.

I find it helpful as I don't feel deprived, don't count calories and feel successful each day. I'm hoping over time I will have slow and steady weight loss. 3 changes into it and so far so good.

For exercise there are lots of good ideas here already.

Good luck and just remember persistence pays off in the end, just do what you can do to keep going in the tough times and soon enough you'll be feeling good and more motivated. Good luck!

It sounds like you're going through some tough family times, but to add something positive: you said you live with your fiance, you are so lucky to have someone who loves you.

Start slow, try healthy options instead of junk food, no counting or restricting. A major diet change won't happen if you're not ready and committed to it anyways.

If you want to lose weight, you have to make a commitment. If you're too stressed to make that commitment, then you're not going to lose weight.

My advice to you would be to start exercising. You don't need a gym membership to work out, so don't worry about that. You can start jogging, if you don't mind downloading then you can download a home workout. You don't have to throw yourself into the deep end and run a 5k, there are Couch-2-5K programs that really help exercise beginners. Basically get your heart rate up for 20 minutes 3 times a week to begin with and you will see a difference. It's just 20 minutes of your whole day, you can do it.

As well as exercise you need to start making substitutions and cut down on snacking. Eat 3 times a day, if you need to snack grab fruit/healthy nuts rather than junk food. Start limiting soda intake and drink more water. Some people can deal with cold turkey, but I would suggest setting a limit on your bad habits and work on them week by week. By making substitutions I mean start switching out unhealthy options with healthy ones, such as white bread for brown bread, a chocolate bar to a granola bar etc. It takes time to get used to it, so just take your time but focus on at least making 1 change to your lifestyle per week.

Something I think you'd find useful and easy is MyFitnessPal. It has a huge database of food so you don't have to add up calories yourself, but it really helps you to see how much you're eating in a day/how much the bad food can take up your calorie limit!

Ultimately this is a lifestyle change. There's no magic solution it's just about educating yourself and making those changes week by week. If you need more help and need to ask some more questions then shoot!

Yeah what I usually do is eat Breakfast and lunch with a few snacks in between, but I am trying not to eat after 7. It works for me okay.

I've been looking at some really great food sites and most of them use the point system along with calories! I might not do the whole meeting thing, but I did do WW before so I know how it works. i might take that into consideration! Thanks for your help.

What it boils down to is that I have to not be lazy and I need to pre-cook and really think about what I eat. It's probably easier than I think, I think I was just over-thinking and getting worried, but it's not that hard to stuff some veggies and better snack food around, it's really not.

Thanks for your feedback. :smug:

yeah I think if I ease into it, really commiting but taking it slow, that will work for me. Because that seems less intense, but I am still making real changes. So 20 minutes at 3 times week of having my heart rate up...yeah okay that seems a lot less daunting.

I did LoseIt, and I always had to put the food in myself haha, maybe I'll try fitnesspal if it has a bit better of a database.

I have the water thing down, but sometimes I mix my water with a half cup of cranberry juice. I should just keep track of how often I do that and the serving, but otherwise I take water wherever I go!

Thank you for your advice, and yes I really want to make changes in my life !

Yup! They have an online part you can pay for to get their resources. I'm strapped for cash, and can't afford $60 a month just to access some online tools, so I found some calculators and all online for free. WW has been around for forever, so there are also tons of frozen meals out there if time is a factor. I typically do a mixture of home cooking/frozen.

But yeah, I can give you links to the tools and all that I use, and the recipes I have lined up if you decide to go that route!

Start small and focus on changing one habit at a time. Really, ONE, pick one habit a month and just focus on that.

also, make the calorie reduction as small as you can get away with. I'm talking a 300-500 calorie reduction and no less. For example, my maintenance calorie goal a day (counting for my activity level) is around 1,990 calories a day. So for dieting, I try to have a net goal of 1,650...

Other tips. Don't be restrictive. Eat what you want. Exercise often.

Use a calorie counter app like MyFitnessPal is awesome.

Whenever I try and throw myself into a strict routine/diet plan I fail within the first few days. I don't deal well with pressure, so I used the 3x a week for 20 mins when I first started out and it really worked for me. I was just walking/jogging at first (1 min jog, 4 mins walk x 4) then the next week I would increase the jogging time (2 min jog, 3 min walk x 4) and that's how I became a runner! Once I knew I wanted to take running a little more seriously (enter a race) I started to want to eat better to improve my performance. So weight loss was a result of me wanting to run more.

I find most everything on myfitnesspal, if I don't see something I use the next best thing (like the same food but different brand). As long as you get an approximation then there's no point in being too strict with it.

Great that you drink lots of water! That's the thing I struggled with at first - cutting out soda.

Try once every 2 weeks to change something really small. First thing could be to cut out dairy. Then prepare one healthy meal to eat every day of the week. Then cut out gluten... you get the idea. Gradual changes make for long lasting changes and form habits. Changing everything all at once is too much. Conquer small goals and they will add up to big goals.