i'm new and ready to rock!
 

hey there everybody! my name is Erin and i am turning *gasp* 30 on April 12. Lol srsly i am not too worried about my age. What i AM worried about is my health. I have some health issues which makes it kinda hard to loose the weight but i am determined that i can solder on. Looking back, when i have gained weight it was from impulsive eating and lack of exercise, not my illness, that has held me back. I have a new mind set and a new a mini goal and i am really excited! i totally understand that there isnt any "diets" per se but changing from a non healthy lifestyle to a healthy one. Well, that is my personal understanding of it ;P . I am starting out at 202 atm but i did want to say that i have lost 15 pounds in the last two months. I really , really cant wait to hit 195.0 ... then i will no for sure it isnt some random fluctuation of numbers but i am truly, truly under 200 :D i am not married and i do not have any children but i hope it works out that way some day. i do have two cats, if that counts. So i will stop now because i am a rambaler! Great to meet you all and LETS DO THIS THING!!!! :carrot:

Hi Erin! I'm right there with you on wanting a healthy lifestyle, not just a diet.

Congrats on the recent weight loss! What have you been doing?

girl 15 lbs is not a fluctuation. dont doubt yourself! you seem to be doing well and sticking to plan if you've lost that much in 2 months. seems like we probably started out around the same weight. just stick to it and power through, i know its tough!

congrats on the losses already! Can't wait to see what we can all do together!

lol no , no when i say fluctuations i mean like when it gets to 199.9 ..i am not gonna get too excited until it goes to 195..then i am gonna scream and stomp and frikn shout! lets see, what have i been doing?... well, really everything you hear about doing :P i uptook my intake of water to a minimum on 76oz a day. I live in Colorado, USA so it is dry here and 76 oz is barley making the grade. I noticed a HUGE difference once i started incorporating the water. I also changed my biggest ( "main") meal to my lunch time and when i get home i eat only steamed veggies and dont eat past 7pm.(i had a gigantic problem with night snaking and bored eating at home :/) In the morning i take a Visalus shake ( a nutrition shake full of minerals, vitamins and herbs) I sopped drinking dairy although i still eat cheese on occasion to keep my calcium levels balanced and i switched to organic foods. I also dont eat anything white.i keep my cal count to to about 1200 . The other thing i been doing is message therapy. Apparently, my muscles were not getting the oxygen they needed which means they couldnt burn the biochemical fuel nor were they getting enough blood so basically it means they were not able to work probably and couldnt get healthy. So that has helped. and then i been taking cayenne pepper and red clover mix twice a day. The cayenne pepper helps the heart to pump easier which means less work on the body as a whole. this also allows for a nice pick me up and helps boost my circulation. lol ok and then i been working out. Slowly intensifying my work outs, doing the modifications until i can move onto the full move. i work full time and go to school full time so my exercise time is limited but i seem to be doing ok at only doing a 30 min workout a day 5-6 times a week. i really try to keep my workouts changed up but every other day i do the Jillian Micheals No More Trouble Zones and then something different on the days i dont do that. lol so i think that is all i have been doing...what are all YOUR secrets???

i personally dont have any secrets, lol. i just keep counting my calories and trying not to quit.

i might just suggest that you maybe bump your calories up a bit? 1200 is the absolute minimum you're supposed to have and at 202 that seems like very little. if you plateau, or when you're getting closer to goal you're going to need to be able to lower your calories and it doesnt seem like you should go below 1200. i know its tempting because you think you'll lose more weight (i started out at 220 and was eating 1000 calories a day before i learned more about calories), but in the long run you have to have something you can live with and somewhere to go if you get stuck.

maybe try 1500-1800? just my own personal humble opinion. after these gals talked me out of thinking that less calories = more weight loss my diet became a lot more bearable. i eat about 1400 now and when i was 180ish i was eating about 1500.