Need some help.
 

Hello everyone,

I am in need of some help. I am a 44 y/o woman and I work from my home office. I have gained 30 1bs in the last 2 years. I want to lose weight but my mind is not cooperating. Any encouragement would be appreciated. I am hoping that I can get motivation from this board. I haven't been on here in several years. Also, where do I get one of the weight loss meters?

Good luck! I'm new here, but I believe you need 20 posts to have a ticker (and be here 20 days, but you've got that covered). Congrats on starting your diet!

Well, I'll work on the tracker. But what I really need is the motivation to stay on course.

jump on the weekly chatter thread...check in there daily...be accountable, and pull motivation from others who are in the zone :) we all go in and out of cycles...draw strength where others have it, and get excited and motivated to make the changes you need to make

Start small and work your way up. I find that setting activity goals that I can achieve really help me stay motivated. Try to find an activity that you enjoy so you'll be more likely to do it. There's definitely a lot of chicks here who are happy to support your efforts!

Barb

Thanks for the support. I am going to set a goal of walking on my treadmill once a day for at least 30 minutes. I also have a problem with grazing and portion control. So, I went to the grocery and bought some frozen dinners for lunch and for dinner because I have tried it without using them and I just overeat. I think that this will at least help some.

Oh, I almost forgot to ask. How often do you weigh yourselves? I am thinking weekly.

Yo-yo-ing
 

I will say that be in my mid-40s has definitely affected my dieting success. Ten years ago, I could lose 10 pounds a couple of weeks. Now it seems like it takes much longer and -- for me at least -- the longer it takes, the more likely I am to cheat.

I have just stocked by freezer with boxed, frozen diet foods in the hopes of trying to keep on track.

I do forget about my successes, however, and we should NEVER do that. I quit smoking about 6 months ago and that may have affected my weight loss, too. From 175 to 160...then quit smoking....then back up to 165....then down to 155....then later after a break down to 148....now back up to 157.

During all of this yo-yo-ing, I kept forgetting about my no-smoking success.

While you're doing try to think about something that you are doing where you feel you've really made a long-term change...and hold on to that!

Dontweighmedown, your weight loss is really great even if you are doing some yo-yoing and good for you and your loved ones on having stopped smoking. You will add years onto your life for that.

some of us do it weekly (recommended) - so you don't worry about the daily fluctuations

some of us do it daily so you understand small fluctuations are okay and normal (me)

some of us avoid scales totally - so they don't obsess

i'm a daily weigher, not sure if that's good or bad. I need to check daily to be sure I am on track and I've also learned more about how my body reacts to certain things that way. You have to figure out what works for you. Wishing you much success!

Hi, lyv33, welcome back. In terms of getting your weight loss journey going, here's my advice: First, pick a plan that you can live with for the long haul. In my opinion, anything that is too restrictive is difficult to do for any extended period of time and you are setting yourself up for failure. In the beginning, just focus on the week ahead of you and tell yourself that you will stick with your plan for one week. Once you do that, you will see results and the momentum will build each day you are successful. At some point, you won't want to stop because you are making progress. If you slip up along the say (which almost everyone does at some point), don't beat yourself up and don't let that slip up be an excuse for a backslide. Get back on your plan immediately and keep going. As some here like to say, it is persistence, not perfection, that will get you to your goal.

In terms of weighing, I generally weigh once a week. In the past, when I weighed myself every day, it was easy to get discouraged by the normal, daily fluctuations of weight loss and I got derailed. But, that being said, there are a lot of people here who weigh daily without any issues at all. You have to do what works for you.

I wish you the best of luck on your wieght loss journey and I am glad you are joining us!

Cheers,

J

Hi Ivy!
 

Hi Ivy!

I am new to the site but I do want to encourage you. I started my journey last week so I don't have a tickler yet...but i have been very encouraged by the posts I have been reading.

I am looking forward to sharing the journey with you. :)

I must say that the last time I finally lost weight was when I said "forget it" and stopped weighing myself. I became a personal trainer after and that was one of the things I would tell my clients. I would drive myself crazy with the scale... to the point of weighing before and after bathroom trips and when I saw that I would weigh more AFTER (and that made no sense to me) I said ENOUGH.

Here is the thing..."that which you think about you bring about" and the more we think about our weight the more we get weight. I started meditating and focusing on other things and before I knew it the weight was dropping. I have fallen of the wagon sort of speak, and gotten back to old bad habits so I need to start with loving me more and any way or shape that I am now... and the rest just falls into place.

Get healthy more and focus on weight less...if that makes sense.

Dontweightmedown, I feel your pain on the age thing...hormones SUCK! hahaha, that's what did it to me this time...stress did a number on me and I became estrogen Dominant (and fixing it now) When women start their change that is what happens.

I've been working with a Naturopath and have learned about some things too... so, be careful with the frozen dinners and preservatives they may contain. Just monitor all of that.

Another big AHA for me was discovering that SOY is not necessarily my friend ans it PROMOTES more estrogen and up goes the weight.

Look up the anti-estrogenic diet and/or estrogen dominance and see if you fall into that category (saying that because you mentioned your age) and watch for the hidden traps we are constantly exposed to. Keep u p the good work ...and as a personal trainer I say to all of you... it's a lifestyle change... The reason Diets fail is because we all think that once we reach our goals we can go back to eating poorly again... so chose a plan you can stick to for life

In a similar situation!
 

Hi, Lyv, I'm in a similar boat! Am 47 y.o. and founded and manage a parent network for education in my area (volunteer), so with that and running kids all over town for school and their activities I find it tough to stick to any plan. The home computer work is like an octopus and keeps taking over my free time, and I get such great pleasure from Haagen Dazs Dulce de Leche ice cream when I'm stressed that it's very tough to give up.

Have a nagging achilles injury so I can't set a goal of power walking a marathon like I did 4 years ago, and shorter goals just haven't kept my interest this year. Am at my personal max weight-wise, though, and really want to get the weight back under control. 30 pounds off would make a huge difference in my comfort and appearance.

I'll link to this thread to see what the wise women on this forum suggest, and maybe we both can climb out of this rut one day or even one hour at a time! Good luck to you!

I have had achilles tendonitis for a couple of years now and it makes it very difficult to do a tremendous amount of working out. You know, now that I am thinking about it, that is about the time that I started gaining this weight. I was just in misery and couldn't hardly walk. It even hurt when I was off of it. I stopped going shopping, stopped doing anything active that I had to be up on my feet for. Now, it doesn't hurt all the time, just when I've walked a lot. Well, I can't wait for the weather to stay hot enough to open the pool up and do some exercising in there. I have been walking some on my treadmill, but it still makes my heel hurt.

Weekend goal...
 

Lyv,

Yes, my weight is definitely tied to the achilles problems, too. I get going toward a goal and then screw up and push it too much, hurt it and have to rest it for a few months. Very frustrating, and the less I exercise the more I graze... ahem, more like binge... ;) on those high fat/salty/delicious foods. Am trying to turn it around one day at a time though, and this time I'm going to do it! Support from this forum may help to climb out of this rut.

Am at the beach with family for the weekend so I'm going to walk in the deep sand daily and hit the gym with my 15 y.o. son at least once. I do much better when I'm away from home and those daily responsibilities!

Is there a favorite tv show you can watch while you walk on the treadmill? That'd help with keeping it up. Hope it warms up soon for you wherever you are!

I'm weighing daily, but it's turning me into a nut case!!! I'm going to switch to weekly...any day now... :joker:

Well, I have been weighing daily. Which is not a good thing because it has been that TOM for me this week. I weighed myself this morning and I am down to 170.5. I thought to myself this just can't be right because I was 174 yesterday, but I guess it's because I'm done with the TOM and I have been trying to watch what I have been eating this week. I think that paid off even though I was discouraged because of the daily weighing.