Hello


So I am 24 years old and my struggle with weight started about 10 years ago. I am getting worse and worse these days as I am just depressed and turn to food for some comfort and I know this is wrong but I just can't stop it alone at the moment. I hope I can get some support here on this site as I really need to lose some weight to be happy again. I even hide at home as I don't want people to notice that I gained weight and this is really bad for my social life as my friends don't understand what I am going through.

Therefore as for today I am starting all over again and this time I really want to get it right. I am about 138lbs at the moment at 5"1 and my goal is to lose around 20-25lbs.

I hope that I can do it this time and I am really encouraged as I read through all your posts and took a look at the pictures. I can do it... I just have to. I should take control of my body and food should not control my life anymore.

I hope this is not to confusing... thanks for reading

Hi there

Keep your chin up. I was in the exact same situation you're in now before. I know how hard it is. Just try your best everyday to make positive choices. Try to eat more fruit and vegetables, to keep all of the nutrition needs balanced. Then take one step at a time to eliminate foods that trigger you. Just take baby steps, one at a time.

Don't deprive yourself! Have a little sweet something everyday, then go on from there.

Thanks


I will try... today I told myself that as long as I don't give up on myself I can reach my goal...

Of course you can!

Have you thought about what exactly you're going to do? I mean, have you thought about a diet plan and exercise regimen yet?

I've found that planning ahead always helps a lot, so you don't get into unanticipated problems that'll throw you off the path so to speak ;-)

Anyway, good luck!!

No I don't have a plan yet... I am so bad with plans and always break them and then I feel even worse but maybe that is because I am just too hard on myself...

Any ideas how a plan could look like?

There are really 2 things you can do...

1. Copy an existing plan (i.e. South Beach, WW, etc)
Pros - Easy to get going, just buy the book or look up stuff online or whatever. Also since others do it, there are usually good resources, recipes, support available.

Cons - Unlikely to find a plan that is perfectly customized to your strengths and weaknesses. Many plans are pretty specific which can be hard to follow.

2. Build a personal plan
Pros - Builds on your strengths and plans around yoru weaknesses, able to pick/use many of the strengths of various concepts/plans.

Cons - More thinking/planning up front, since it's personal nobody's done the exact same thing before.


I think both of these have huge successes here. I personally am a huge advocate of #2. I've always failed trying to do someone's else's thing. I have too many quirks and just peronal traits that making a specific plan was best for me.

So I sat down and just tackleded the calories in < calories out equation. For each I looked at personal strengths and weaknesses and then built behaviors to address...

Calories In
Weakness - I have a terrible idea of which foods are calorie dense and what a true portion size is.... Behavior - Calorie counting to expand my nutritional konwledge base and learn where I was wasting calories.

Strength - I am very good at making healthy choices before food hits my plate and terrible in not completely eating what is on my plate.... Behavior - completely skip many non-healthy side dishes, and limit portion size on my plate since I know I will finish whatever is there.

Calories Out
Weakness - Through the years I have really found only one time that I can effectively and consistently do hard gym workouts...late morning/lunch --- Behavior --- plan work schedule as much as possible to start early and block 11-1 or 10-12 for gym time.

Strength - I love playing with my toddler ---- Behavior - Include much more exercise in playtime. Running around playgrounds, doing pushups with her on my back, doing laps around the house playing "chase", etc.


You might look at those and think that none of that makes sense to you, and that's the entire point. Everything that I've done has been specifically targeted to ME and I've been really happy with that "plan"