Hi,

I am new to these forums and would love to give and receive support as I make my journey towards a healthier me. I have tried various diets and one well-known weight-loss group over the years, but I still battle with my weight.

I have finally realised that keeping a food diary does not work for me! I go along OK for a few weeks, then the diet mentality kicks in and I start to feel deprived and just plain tired of recording every morsel that passes my lips!

So, 2004 has seen me making changes in my approach to weight loss, and they are working . I have become more focused on exercise (weights, yoga, pilates and walking) and learning to trust myself in making healthy food choices. Like most others who go along this path, I find it helps to have someone to talk things over with, someone who understands.
Hope to hear from 'somebuddy' soon!

Lucia.

SW: 180
CW: 172
GW: 115

Hi Lucia you sound alot like me. I have tried everything. And for me when I have to keep track of anything I get obsessive about it and then I binge. This is what I am doing. Eating and exercise. Thats it. This is the way it starts:
9:00 am breakfast I eat every 2 hours and at 11:30 to 12:30 I exercise. This may
11:00 am lunch not work for everyone but I know it will work for me. Just adjust
1:00pm snack it to what is right for YOU. YOU know your body better than any
4:00pm snack one else. I am also eating healthy and drinking water. NO soda.
6:00pm supper that one item alone should help alot. Does that mean I am not
8:00pm snack going to drink soda at all NO that means if I want one I will have one but not a whole six pack. And after I have drank my 8 8oz of water. Hope this helps. I am looking forward to helping you and me lose this weight of ours. My new motta is we can be Sisters in Sweat. I am doing the Walk Away the Pounds series its easy enough and I don't have to exercise in public. Bad enough I have to see the fat don't want to hurt anyone outside. LOL

I am so happy you replied to my post Tammy, and would love to become your Sister in Sweat! It's great that you understand about the food diary/binge feeling! It was such a huge step out of my comfort zone to ditch the recording of every thing I ate in a day and begin to trust myself with food. Now I am a couple of months down the track and starting to see results and I am feeling good about my new plan of attack.

I bought the 3 mile Walk Away The Pounds videos last week! Tried it for the first time on the weekend and absolutely love it. I am slowly collecting a good variety of exercise tapes as I don't enjoy exercising in public! That could change once I get to goal and feel more confidant about my appearance! For a long time walking was the only exercise I did, but this becomes boring, so that is when I started looking at other exercises.

I have recently started weights, as I read where building muscle means your body burns more calories. Muscle is active tissue and requires so many calories per day just for maintenance, whereas fat just sits there!

Do you have far to go to reach your goal? Are you weighing or measuring? I measure myself once a month, and weigh once a fortnight, I found weekly weighing didn't work.

That's it for now, hope to hear from you soon,

Lucia.

Wow we could be the same people. You sound very much like me I am a scaleaholic.
Want to weigh myself all the time and get discouraged when I don't lose. Sound familar? This time around I am not measuring or doing the scale. I am going to wait until I see a difference then I will use a scale and see what I weigh. I am going to do that probably the first couple of months. Then I will work on 5 pounds at a time. I find that its easier for me to think of them 5 at a time instead of 20 30 40 etc. I want to lose 87 pounds. And right now that might as well be a million because that is what it feels like. I know that some of my weight gain is from stress and depression. I have a appt today to see someone. I think that will help alot to get my mind and then my body into the game. I walked a total of 2 miles yesterday haven't done that in a while. Was sore last night but this morning other than being really tired feel good.
Lucia I am glad I found you here. Its going to make this alot easier knowing someone understands my weirdness. LOL Hope to hear from you soon.

Sister in Sweat
Tammy9

Tammy, you are doing the right thing by exercising, it is the best thing to beat the blues. I know during difficult times in my life I wondered how I would cope and I found just getting out for a walk around the block or into the garden to weed made me feel good, and able to put whatever was troubling me into perspective. When life is difficult, it is easy to put others needs first, but it is very important to make time just for you and be kind to yourself.

I understand how you feel about scales. I weighed myself at the start of the year, then I did not step on the scales for all of January, which was not an easy thing to do, but I managed it and when I stepped back on them in early February, I saw results and did the dance of joy around the bathroom! It was proof to me that I did not have to record everyting I ate, that I know how to eat well. I have just started to record my exercise, type, duration, if I'm using weights, how heavy. I thought this could come in handy should I plateau, then I could review my workouts and give them a shake up.

I like your idea of breaking your weight loss down into 5lb lots, it is as my signature says, to achieve a major goal, you have to achieve lots of little goals along the way.

How many Walk Away The Pounds videos do you have? I was a little unsure of what to buy and thought buying the 3 mile would be best, but I have since seen a post on these messageboards by someone who has been using the tapes for sometime and she uses the 1, 2 & 3 mile ones according to how she is feeling on that particular day or how much time she has to exercise. I thought this was a great idea.

That's it for now. Hope your appointment and day went well. Hear from you soon.

Sister in Sweat
Lucia

I just wanted to let you all know that my wife has been using the walk away the pounds tapes for some time now and SHE LOVES them.....when we re-decorated our home a few months back, we replaced our vcr's with DVD's thus rendering the watp tapes useless....Last week I purchased the 3 DVD watp series on dvd and have began doing the walks with my wife!!! I imagined "how tough could these be?!" I didn't plan on getting much of a workout...but the walks KICKED MY BUTT!! they were GREAT! actually the series that I got has a super 5 mile walk on it that we have yet to get to....but we are going to try it next week (after we do the 1-3 mile tapes for a little longer.....

Anyways, (sorry for my ramble!) The purpose of my messege here is that since we have the 3 useless vcr watp tapes....I have mentioned to a few people that I would consider sending them to someone in need (no need to have someone buy them if I've got them here collecting dust!) I love the fact that my wife and I have this to share.....since we both work so much...this is a great opportunity to share something other than a plate of dinner at 8pm! LOL.....

Anyway, the tapes are awsome! so if someone could provide a nice home for them....I'd sure love to get them to ya.....just let me know. They're useless in my house now!

Take care all,

Scott

Thank you Lucia what you said made me feel really good.

The WATP series I bought had 2 dvd in it. But on the 1 cd it has the 1 and 2 mile on it. Then there is a seperate cd for the 3 mile. These 2 dvd came packaged together in a box with the strechy band. Got mine at wal-mart for $32 I think. And they also had a 4 mile cd seperate for 14. I am just working my way up. Now that I know i like it I am going back to get the 4 mile. Something else I have started doing is when we are out we park as far away from the building as possible. That makes a good walk. And I am starting to wear a pedometer to measure how many steps I actually take in a day. 10,000 step roughy 4.5 miles will take of 1 pound. My goal is to be able to do this everyday. Just a little something to now. Well gotta go take care and God Bless

SIS
Tammy

I guess that I have learned with dieting over and over and over again is that I shouldn't diet. I have learned that by reading Dr.Phil's book and ALOT from him. Simple steps like living instead of dieting and making my eating habits something more than a "plan for three weeks" I am making this to be a lifetime plan. I know that if I turn back to pop tarts and Little Debbie (evil witch! lol) they will TURN ON ME! I can't go back to hurting myself like that anymore. No time like the present!

And besides with 90 days til summer...this "CHICK" isn't going to have cottage cheese thighs this year...no thanks! I am going to be lean and strong!
I would love to buddie up!
My email address is accessible to anyone would is interested!!
MQ

Hi MQ,

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for replying to my post. As you've probably read, I have found the food diary is not for me and I've decided on a whole new plan of attack for 2004.

I am Dr. Phil fan, and just yesterday, I bought his book "The Ultimate Weight Solution". I gather you've read the book? Did it help? I agree that to be successful in weight loss, you must look at a lifestyle change which you can live with for the rest of your life, not, as you mentioned, a three week plan. I love Dr. Phil's line to emotional eaters "Having a party in your mouth." I know at times when I have felt tired, unloved, or whatever else, I would fix something (comfort food) for dinner, that was my way of getting what I needed at that time, but it's something I am slowly changing

Hope to hear from you soon,

Lucia.

Hi! I have tried several diets and hate keeping a food diary. It seems like I stress out about planning what to eat, writing everything down, and cheating (if you don;t write it down it doesn't count mentality)! I also can't do scales. I joined a gym a few months ago and am learning a lot about exercising - especially using weights. I am hoping to see some positive changes as I develop and stick to a consistent routine.

best of luck to you!

Firefli, I hear what you're saying, I'd like a dollar for everytime I've nibbled here and there and not written it down. In the past, when I've kept a food diary, I've found I get stuck in a rut of rotating the same few recipes as the thought of making time to plan and see if a new meal fits into my daily allowance seems too much effort!

Now, instead of recording everything, I use different low fat, healthy recipes, and if it is 4 serves, then I have just one serve , I have finally realised it is not about food diaries, it is about moving my body more and portion control, and three months into this new plan, I am seeing results!

Hope to hear from you again,

Lucia

Lucia - That is great, and motivating, news! I think I need to focus on learning how to prepare healthier meals, too. It seems like I am always making the same old meals for the family. Boring!
Best wishes!
Cindy