Hoping maybe someone here has ideas. My Endocrinologist today said I HAVE to work on my weight - I've ballooned up to right at 300lbs, unfortunately.

But I've already been told I'm not a canidate for weight loss surgery, and my insurance won't cover anything like medifast. I can't afford it out of pocket either - our grocery budget consists of SNAP {Food Stamps}. I tried a mock version of Wonderslim at home, but after a week the thought of more shakes made me want to hurl honestly. I was using the Jillian Michaels shakes doctored up with torani SF flavor syrup & extra stevia added. I know maybe the actual Wonderslim shakes would be better, but even the thought is nauseating.

I've done WW in the past. The first time I did it it worked rather well, but that was almost 10 years ago when I was younger & in better health. The last 3 times I have tried it it did not work. I am one who gains on PointsPlus - the last time I tried I actually gained about 5lbs my 1st week on WWPP, and I was measuring everything & following the plan 100%. I do love the meeting aspect of WW though, and the little incentives. I need the accountability of a weigh-in with someone else.

I've tried calorie counting, but I always fall off the wagon after a couple of days. I'm busy, I'm a single mom running my own ebay business, and I just don't have a lot of time to energy to devote to logging everything constantly. I get bogged down in measuring & trying to log everything on sparkpeople, and then other things get neglected.

I honestly don't know what else to try. I need something easy that works with grab & go meals at least part of the time. I need something I can carry with me at times as well. it needs to be flexible to deal with multiple food allergies. I need outside accountability & incentives. And most important of all it needs to be possible to do with items I can buy at any grocery store with SNAP {food Stamps}. I've considered Nutrisystem, using the boxes they have at Walmart now. But honestly I am not sure that would work either.

Any ideas?

When you tried calorie counting did you use a calorie app like my fitness pal? Having friends on MFP helps me stay on track, I know other people can look and see what im eating and friends area always telling me how great of a job im doing it keeps it new and fresh. Its free which is a great perk for me. Between calorie counting and telling myself I will get off my butt in some way 30 minutes a day 3 days a week has worked so far for me. I'm on day 54! 20lbs now.

You've got your priorities wrong i'd say. If you are running an ebay business, then you've got enough control over your time to decide how you want to spend it. What you haven't got by the sounds of it, is a lot of money.

You should make time to prepare healthy foods and give up the idea that there are foods already made out there that you can live on and lose weight on. They are there but they are probably not likely to work for you in the long run. And if its not diet food, then its not healthy enough for you.

Processed foods cost more money. If you start preparing three decent meals a day for you and your kids from whole unprocessed foods you will have time, money and be healthier. It doesn't actually take a lot of time to cook a decent meal. Your kids can help with the dishes and probably some aspects of the cooking.

you don't have to cook elaborate meals. You just need to have lots of healthy nutritious whole foods in the house so its easy to whip something up that won't ruin your diet.

Consider:
Breakfast for you and the kids:
porridge made from rolled oats and cold milk
a boiled egg for some extra protein.

or
stewed fruit and natural yoghurt
piece of toast with butter and grilled tomato

or fried eggs and tomatoes on toast


Morning tea:
some fruit


Lunch:
You are at home so if you take an hour lunch break, you've got time to prepare something and eat it. You can have a big healthy salad sandwich on wholegrain bread and put in some cold meat if you like that or cheese but you don't need both.

Or you can make a big salad with lentils or beans and tons of salad vegies and a simple dressing of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and add some a little cheese to make it tasty or a few nuts or seeds. That's been a big staple lunch for me on my diet.

If the kids are at school so they should have sandwiches which they can make themselves the night before. If they are home, they can eat what you eat.

Afternoon tea:
more fruit

Dinner:
well it could be anything:
a vegie pasta bake
meat and 3 veg
fish and veg
a curry and rice with lots of vegies in it or on the side
anything. STuff does not take long to cook. Its just a question of being organised and being willing.
vegetable soup and roast vegies.
lentil soup and stir fry vegetables.

so why do you fall off the wagon? Is it that you are starved yourself too much, chose bad foods or didn't really care enough. Sometimes you can not be quite ready to start a diet and it doesn't really take off. I've done that numerous times but often enough i pick the right time and i go forward and don't look back til i reach goal. The trick now for me is not stopping once i reach goal. Never giving up and going back to what i used to do.

I quit sweets. That helps me a lot. Junk food gets in the way of changing your eating style. I find. If i' get hungry or bingy, i now try to resolve the problem with healthy food and psychological solutions or just sleep if that's what needed.

There is an eating plan called, No-S. If you google No-S Diet, you'll find their website which will explain the plan and you can read testimonials. The gist of it is you eat regular food. Mon. thru Fri. you eat 3 meals a day, what can easily fit on a small plate, like a salad plate and no seconds. No food is banned, except for snacks or sweets. On the weekends or special occasions you are allowed snacks & sweets or seconds.

I have heard that WW PP doesn't work for everyone. Do you still have the older WW plan that you had success with? If you do, you could try that.

There is another plan, One One One diet where you eat 1 carb, 1 protein, and 1 fat at each meal. You're allowed 2 snacks where you eat a 1/2 portion of carb, protein, & fat. You decide what you want to eat. You would have to buy the book to get the food list that breaks everything down, as to what is considered protein, fat, & carb, plus the serving size.

Good luck. I hope you find something that suits your lifestyle.

Hi, ready made food cost some time 3 times more than home cooked meal and beside difficult to control what goes in them.

many years ago I was working full time and going university at night and raising 2 small children and helping my husband build a company, I was a little busy :0)

I would cook for the whole week on Sunday and put everything in containers ready to warm up. I would chop a bag of onion, carrot, celery, peppers etc and start building meals. once the prep work was done it was easy. 1 pot of chili. 2 roasted chicken etc. I would grill huge trays of vegetables. Whatever veg leftover would go in the soup pot. I would waste nothing. If for some reason there was more food than was needed for the week it would go in the freezer. I would also only buy what was on special and compose the menu according to what I had purchase. The only thing I had to do at night was fix a salad.

In regard to reducing your calories if you do not wish to count calories, track calories, etc for one reason or another you can reduce your portions by using a smaller plate making sure than half of it are vegetable, a quarter protein and the rest starch (if you think you need it). potatoes are not veg they are starch.

Oatmeal or oat bran for breakfast instead of commercial cereal packed with sugar. Switch to skim milk. Avoid fat free yogourt and put your own fruit in plain 2% greek yogourt. Avoid salad dressing as much as possible. Eat fruits or veg instead of snacks. drink plenty of water. Dont drink your calories such as diet soda and fruit juice. Walk as much as possible.

None of this will cost you more money on the contrary it is a frugal way of living, cookies, crackers, diet bar etc cost a lot of money go for fruits and vegetables.

Good luck and wishing you success.

Michou while a lot of what you say is excellent and well done you for being so organised when you were studying, i just have to disagree with a couple of things you say.

Yes avoid bottled salad dressings but make your own. Its healthy. We need some good fats and if you want your diet to be sustainable your food must taste good. So a little salad dressing is almost essential. i make my own dressing in the french style with olive oil and red wine or balsamic vinegar 50/50 ratio. Its delicious. Better than any bought dressing you'll find and has no sugar which is completely unnecessary in a salad dressing anyway.

Also there is no need to drink skim milk unless you like it. Full cream milk is fine. Its only if you are consuming it in bulk that you've got a problem. Full cream milk will make your food taste better and the amount of fat you will get from it will not undermine your weight loss efforts.

We need fats in our diet. The whole low fat dairy trend is sacrilege in my view. It has ruined so much of our food. The solution is to eat less. Give up the milk shakes and ice creams and minimise milk puddings you've made yourself. But we still need about 2-3 cups of milk/yoghurt a day for sufficient calcium. I do it and i have had no trouble losing weight this way. You can get your calcium from other sources but you have to think more about it.

I agree 100%. I posted my details before (I'm also a single mother, work full time, and have a LOT of things on my plate). This is how I feed us healthy, delicious foods on a budget.