How do I start?
 

I just, like 5 min ago, posted a thread telling a little bit about myself, now my question is....where do i start? How do i start? Do i start today? Start fresh tomorrow? Should I count calories? calories and fat? I so don't mind doing that, but how many calories should I start at? 2000? As you can tell from my last post, if you read it.... I've always had help...guidence on what i can eat and how much. Points with weight watchers, and how much of what with LA weight loss....so to start on my own is kinda scary, but I'm ready for the challenge. It's time for me to take charge of my life and not settle for "just getting by with me" If i keep going on this path, I will die. I have two young children, I'm still young. I have a lot of goals I want to do. My bucket list consists of things that I would not feel comfortable doing being overweight. I'm doing this for me. NOt my husband, but for me. Although I will have to say that WHEN I get to my goal weight of 150, I will proudly go into victoria Secret and pick out the skimpiest outfit I can find JUST to see that look on my husbands face that I so want to see. So, please, anyone out there, please help me get started on my new life. On my new goal. On my new track to me. Thanks.

When I decided to get real with myself, I started by writing down everything I could remember eating in the last week. That was an eye opener! I continued writing down everything, including my water consumption, and exercise. I engrossed myself with low-fat recipes, and looking around this website. I have a bit of OCD so it actually took over every thought process! I made a chart so I could SEE the changes being made.

You made a great step by comming here! There are lot of supportive people here. Good Luck!

Anyone in LA Weightloss?
 

I am new and as lost as lost can be in here. But I love it and will keep at it till I figure it out. I to have been to WW and am currently in LA Weightloss. I am not doing well there. My counselor is young and is so into her own world she does a lousy job. She is always talking to the other people that work there while I am there to talk to her. I asked her why I was having to eat so much and why it wasn't working. She just said "It's your weightloss babe, you must be doing something wrong". YA HELLO!!:mad: She just wants to get you in and out of there asap so she can go back to her goppip sessions. I paid 700.00 to go there because they promised to help me and talk to me and help me through it. Till you pay them. I mean they should at least take 10 min. to see if you are having a good or bad week. I am in and out in about 3 minutes. She is mean and snotty and I feel so ripped off. But what can you do.:?: Did you like it there. Maybe I just got a bad worker.

Start today with at least one change. A good one would be to drink at least 64 oz of water a day, starting today. Also start today keeping track of everything you eat. There are many free websites that are easy to use for logging your daily calories. After trying several, I settled on The Daily Plate but I know a lot of people also use FitDay. Also make sure you weigh and/or measure everything, this helps tremendously toward portion control. I found when I started measuring and weighing I don't estimate nearly as accurately as I thought I did.

Good luck on your journey and jump into the weekly thread. You will find lots of support and ideas from the ladies there.

Also the sites like The Daily Plate and FitDay have a formula to easily calculate the number of calories you should be eating to achieve weight loss.

Welcome and good luck.
you have already started by posting to us!!
for me I had to pick a day and start..I chose jan 27th 08. I felt fat and miserable and knew I had to do something about it.Make a list of healthy foods to eat...do some research on here and figure out how many calories and how much fat or carbs if you want to go that route. Go to the grocery store and buy those foods. I count calories and use calorie-count.com dailly.
You have to have the right foods to make the right choices..for me its all about planning out what i am going to eat ahead of time..if i wait till time to eat i will make bad choices.
We are all here to help you in any way we can
debi

I feel like the queen in yo-yo dieting, I swear. Over the past 10 years I have ranged from 165 pounds to 306 pounds. Each time I start, it seems to be from a little higher weight.

For me, my appetite is very cyclical. Right before I get my period, I am RAVENOUS. Afterwards? Not so much. So I tend to start when I'm at the 'not as hungry' time of the month.

I have tried Weight Watchers and calorie counting, primarily, in the past. The biggest success I had was when I went vegetarian for a few years, and that was because I changed my diet completely which broke all of my old bad habits. Plus I had a nutritionist helping.

So this time around, about my billionth 'fresh start', I am trying something different. I've decided to not count calories, and not use Weight Watchers, and just record what I eat and try to eat sensibly. You'd think this would be easy, ha! But anyway, that's my attempt. I started a blog to record what I'm eating, too. And visiting my doctor every 3 months, because I've found that when I go a year between visits bad things happen to my health.

Actually, I was thinking the other day: "Gosh, if I just lost all the weight in the snap of my fingers, and was down at my ideal weight magically, I know it would be easy and I could just eat normal and keep it off." This is obviously not a very realistic thought, but it got me thinking, "How WOULD I eat at that point?" Then, imagining that, I started eating that way now.

It's a little scary, eating without guidance. I have no idea how many calories I'm consuming. I don't measure and weigh. My general guidelines are:

• 3 meals a day, when I happen to be hungry
• 2-3 snacks a day
• Something small and sweet (and not fruit) almost every day -- I know, not the most healthy, but it's the most realistic for me right now
• Something with dairy in it at least once a day
• At least one piece of fruit a day
• At least one vegetable a day
• When I am in binge mode (and it does happen, I have a real hard time with binge eating) try to eat no more than one serving of any one thing
• Pick low fat most of the time
• Before going to a restaurant, try to research it online so I at least know what the more healthy choices are

I think you have already started. The best thing to do is to analyze your faults and cravings and see what diet will fit you and your life style. Just believe in yourself!

First: Brava for coming here, and welcome! :)

Second, what helped me to start was to take inventory of how I eat, when and how much. I realized that I eat WAY too many carbs and that I had(have) a sugar addiction, so it helped me to eliminate sugar from my diet as much as possible (no sweets, bread, rice, cereals, etc. for a few weeks). Once I was over that addiction, I was able to control my eating without much of a problem.

As for when to start -- I made the committment to myself and then started that same day. There was no "Ok, tomorrow, clean slate" thing bc I knew "tomorrow" would turn into never. BUT if it helps you emotionally to think of a clean slate, a new day, etc. then definitely start tomorrow (but really start!). Start by eating normally and keeping track of what you eat (not calories, just what and how much and when in a notebook). At the end of the day, go to fitday or dailyplate and see how many calories/fats/carbs/protein you ate. This knowledge is powerful. I would also spend tonight doing some research -- into different diet approaches, different science findings about weight loss. There's a lot of competing info out there but knowing the different ideas is also powerful. This is a big committment and you'll want to know and be aware of everything possible beforehand.

Good luck!

Plushmama:

My changes began with the commitment to exercise four days a week for at least 25 minutes. Eventually I upped the exercise, and eventually I started watching what I eat.

Smaller changes implemented consistently have been far more effective than crash dieting or doing it all at one time.

Know that you're doing it for yourself; know that it's going to take a long time, and even then, when you've reached your goals, you'll have to maintain those changes you made to maintain your new lifestyle.

I have a bucket list too, and that list is stuff that I can't do now, for the most part. They're activities, and I use those activities as a reward rather than food as I used to. They're crazy things, like skydiving and mountain climbing.

I truly believe that anything is possible if you want it bad enough.

Do you want it bad enough?

Answering this question might very well be your first step.