Hello all!

I am "Charli" and I am a 40 yr old female living in East London and currently fed up with my rubbish eating habits.

I know I can do better, but complacency, lack of funds and a social group in which to do outdoorsy things with, plus laziness most days and just plain being tired at the end of my work day... has allowed me to become the person I am today. Overweight and not loving it.

I am 5ft 6.5 and I fluctuate between 192lbs and 200lbs yearly. I used to be 85 lbs and thought I was huge then (boy do I wish I could slap me from back then) but now I know I am huge.

I hate looking at myself in the mirror and my self esteem is slowly doing a death stroke lol.

I need support, help and I guess just encouragement and good safe advice on how to maintain and lose weight.

I look forward to chatting and hopefully befriending most if not all of you soon.

Cheers!!

Hey Charli and welcome to the forum

The main thing about losing weight is having FUN!! Lol,
Is there any kind of activity you've thought of doing that can just get you
on the move? PS we all understand laziness we've all had our fair share.

This is probably terrible advice/idea and i'm sorry about that haha,
attempting to welcome you with caring support in my own way!

Hullo CovLad,

Thank you for the quick and warm welcome.

I like power walking, but I finish work late and get home around 8pm most nights and I just want to go curl up in the couch. Plus I have no one near me to do it with.

I own a bicycle and I have never ridden it. I don't even know how to cycle even after one lesson. I am utter rubbish lol. But I think I am mostly ashamed of trying to ride in public more than anything.

I like tennis, but I am no good at it as a serious sport. I learned to swim and stopped because I felt sooo awkward at the gym and silly because one of my biggest fears is the water, which I overcame somewhat. Still cannot do the entire length of the pool but I can swim half way down (12m?) and do laps sideways lol lol.

Ummm not much else really as I am on a serious budget.

Hi Charli! I do Leslie Sansone indoor walking videos (free on youtube) during the winter months. Maybe something like that would work for you. She has videos as short as 15 minutes, and some exercise is better than none! But it doesn't take exercise to lose weight. It's great for fitness, but weight loss is really about controlling what you eat. Have you come up with a diet plan? If not, there are all kinds of plans to check out under the Diet Central section. I wish you the best! Good luck!

Haha I myself also have the same issue with Public riding and also owning a bike i've never actually used!! seems to be the norm Perhaps watching some stretching videos and just join along with them in the morning before work would give you some benefits ? even firing up the muscles with a stretch can give you that little boost towards burning the calories, as you become more active your mind will adapt and you wont have this tired feeling as much after work it takes awhile but once it kicks in you'll make it part of your lifestyle and wanna do it.

There's a website i use and really only buy the chicken from there but there's plenty of other useful meats you can buy and it's delivered to your door in a freezer pack fresh not sure if you'd want that but it's 5kg of chicken for £25 i normally just get a tub of that and Buy as much fresh veg as possible in bulk from local markets if you head to Google and type in "MuscleFood" you'll find the link easily enough

There seems to be a lot of people located in London joining the forums lately maybe one of them will show up sooner or later and get more involved maybe set up something local.

One thing i have to say and get out there is you shouldn't feel ashamed or awkward about anything you do that involves making yourself stronger and more active, when i first started i decided i wasn't gonna go to the gym until i lost a little more weight.... Kinda kills me now as i have realized the gym is a place to get fitter and more healthy and no one is there to look or judge me.. we're all in the same boat.. and i'm sort of going into a random rant and i'm sorry xD


*Rant over...

Either way if you need support or you're looking for more info you know where we are

*Rant over...

Hi Charli!

Welcome to 3FC.

Good luck with your weight loss journey. I understand how difficult it can be. I work 3--11, so the last thing I want to do when I get home is exercise. I think the key to exercising is doing something fun, like playing Dance Dance Revolution or Just Dance on the Wii. You'd be surprised how many calories and what not you burn doing that! It's a lot of fun as well, so if you happen to have a Wii, I recommend that.

Or just blare your music before work and dance around without a care. :P

Is there some one in your household that you could walk, ride or exercise with?
I bought a punching bag and some bag gloves and I go out and do 1 minute rounds with 1 minute breaks. It gets rid of stress. I understand what you are going through I let myself stop working out 3 months ago and have done very little since then till I got the punching bag now I get out there with my kids and just punch and kick away. Good Luck.

Thank you everyone for the welcome and the advice.

I do live alone so there is no one here to kick when I sit down. I also go all day without eating and then get in at night and eat like it's day time (yes I know I am wrong for that).

I just went out walking and the fresh air was soooo good, didn't feel tired either.

I have no diet plan per se but I am going to have to do more research starting with my GP and then changing the way I eat.

I was thinking of finding some affordable classes after work like pilates or female boxing, but looking at the prices (I am also studying and paying all my bills on a limited budget) has me re-considering classes.

I live near a park and a tennis court and a massive hill lol. I have no excuses really. But I am going to take it one day at a time and come up with some sort of plan that's not temporary but ongoing.