HI! I'm Madly . Today just seemed like a great day to stop stalling and start doing something about gaining control over my weight.
I'm not sure what to say in one of these posts but i'm 20 years young, live in Northern Virginia, and heard about this website through a friend .
At 16 i hit my first rock bottom with my weight and started to work at it. I'd start off with running every single day for 20-40 minutes and that obviously did wonders for my first few months.. then i started watching what i ate and joined a gym to take some classes and try new machines. Yet again, i dropped weight at an incredible rate (you know where this is heading right?). So a year later i lost 120lbs. Barely ate much of anything, spat out food i wanted to try but not digest the calories and worked out up to 4-5 hours every single day and even got hired at the gym i went to. I was addicted.
Anyways, life happened and i moved out of my parents at 18 about an hour away.. so with no car, no gym membership, having severe insomnia and being an "in Home nanny" for,at least, twelve hours a day with barely any food provided at the house. Needless to say i hardly had enough energy for my runs outside and even less luck when it was storming outside and i had to workout in a small space inside.
So as time went by (yep you guessed it..) i gained ALL the weight back and more.. I have some support but i have no idea what's keeping me back.. i want to start doing something about it.. but i want to do it RIGHT this time. Any suggestions on how to even start again? 'Cause now i'm at a lost, i use to do Zumba and everything but my feet ache after a period of time now a days. I'll be grateful for ANYTHING at this moment. THAAANK YOU!
What is your life situation nowadays? Can you get to a gym? If not just get walking. Start as small as you need to and just get your body moving.
Can you cook? Do you need more information on what is good to eat? Try looking at some healthy cookbooks. Buy them, borrow from a library, and try there.
Let us know and there are so many knowledgeable people here to give specific answers.
I have no car at the moment so i'm mostly stuck at home, i just moved into the area about a week ago and i haven't had the chance to look for a gym close by but i suppose a bus ride is not out of the question. I walk everyday with my German Shepherd dog about 20 minutes or more but it never feels like enough to me and i'm not sure what to do to make up for that feeling.
I can cook with instructions haha. I do need information on whats good to eat because i have no idea what can harm my diet or what to eat lots of.. any advice there? I do love to cook when i have a chance though, i just never know what i can do and what is affordable to make since i am only 20 years old.. i don't have much money sadly ;P. Thanks Amanda
Welcome! You've discovered that the tough part of weight loss isn't just LOSING the weight, it's KEEPING it off. Which means you have to find ways that are sustainable long-term. Working out 4-5 hours a day probably isn't the way for most of us.
I think the key is controlling the calories. Weight loss is achieved when you eat less than you need to maintain your weight. So, finding ways to cut back on food is very important. But I don't think you need to eat nothing to do it. As you've found, it's just not sustainable.
When I started, I simply began by controlling my portions and bringing lunches and snacks to work. After a few weeks of that, I started calorie counting, and then I started working on the quality of the food I was eating. In other words, a baby-step approach. You don't have to have everything figured out to have good progress early on!! You also don't have to eat nothing. Everyone's different, but I lost weight steadily at first eating 2000 calories a day. I had to drop that as I lost, as the less you weigh, the less you need.
There's a lot of good tips on this board, so I hope we'll see you around for a while!
On your walks with your dog you could try going a little further or a little faster. Push a bit to get your heart rate up. If a gym isn't an option a pair of weights and a fitness DVD can do wonders if you have a place to do it. But if you can get to a gym you've had experience there.
For foods the most common sense thing is eat less processed junk and eat more fruits and veggies. Whole grains (brown instead of white rice) and low fat dairy instead of whole fat.
For cooking and food I'd try going to the library or the book store and checking some things out. If you can't afford them at the book store take a notebook and jot down some recipes. I'd say find the library and get a card. They probably will have fitness DVDs too.
Last edited by AmandaMamma; 10-31-2010 at 10:30 PM.
There's a lot of good tips on this board, so I hope we'll see you around for a while!
as heather said....just spend days looking around the forum. i have never even done a forum before this one, so it was a bit daunting for me to find my way around, but i have found lots and lots of amazing information, recipes, ideas...and most importantly GREAT FRIENDS!!
WELCOME....one thing you need to remind yourself .... if you did it before you can do it again and what an amazing testimony you have for doing it....you can do it again...just never give up!!
Oh, hi there.
. Today just seemed like a great day to stop stalling and start doing something about gaining control over my weight. 
. 
