[BarbaraJDale]

Hi. A little about me, I guess...
I just hit 35 years old and live in Northwest Wisconsin where there's nothing to do besides work and drink ourselves into a stupor. I'm more than quite a bit overweight but I never saw it as a problem until recently...and I have absolutely no clue where to start.
I looked into local gyms but with no idea what to do in a gym it seems pointless. A personal trainer is way out of my budget at this point.
Watching what I eat doesn't seem to be helping because a lot of times I skip breakfast ( I have a 6 am shift and am often up at 5:15, out the door by 5:30) , have a moderate lunch and a regular dinner. I don't eat after 8pm but am quite fond of beer and wine.

Any guidance of where to start would be great.
Barb

[mjf]

Start with diet. Losing weight is about 80% diet, 20% exercise.

Saying that you skip breakfast doesn't tell me anything about how good your diet is. What you eat is more important than how much you eat or when you eat it. Avoid sweets, refined carbs, and deep fried foods. Drinking a lot of alcohol can also make it harder to lose weight, so I'd suggest limiting it to a small amount each day. Eat a lot of vegetables. Get enough protein and healthy fats.

I'd recommend doing both strength training and cardio. For strength training, focus on exercises that work large muscle groups like squat, bench press, bent over row, lat pulldown, overhead press. If you want to start with just one, I suggest squat. For cardio you can do walking, running, swimming, or bicycle riding, whatever you like best.

You can watch Youtube videos to learn how to do any exercise.

[BarbaraJDale]

Yeah, I was being completely up front. I know how important breakfast is but seem to savor every wink of sleep over taking the time to get up and make breakfast (I sleep 4-6 hours a night because of work). I don't go out to eat and I work at a group home, so I eat what they eat, which is a lot of vegs and protein.
I'll also be honest in saying that I have no idea what a healthy fat is...or a good carb/bad carb/refined carb. Thinking about what I eat seems that it would take up a lot of head space.
And when it warms up here by the North Pole (Not really...), I do have 4 dogs that need regular walking.

Thanks for answering.

[Wannabehealthy]

Hi Barbara J Dale. Welcome to 3FatChicks. It's really debatable whether breakfast is important or not. I am a compulsive over eater. As soon as the first food of the day enters my mouth my appetite goes into overdrive and I'm eating the rest of the day. For me, it works better if I only eat when I'm truly hungry, which isn't usually the first thing in the morning. I eat my first meal somewhere between 9 and 11 am. It is usually breakfast food because I like breakfast food. I rarely eat again until supper. I have also found that if I eat what I'm hungry for I am more satisfied until the next meal. If I eat what I think I should be eating, it sometimes leave me continuing to eat, looking to be satisfied. I do eat protein and veggies, and avoid sweets and snack food, but have to control portions rather than worrying about what it is and if it's the right thing to eat.

So now I've given you a different perspective, and it's up to you to figure out what changes will work for you.

Look around the forum at the different threads. If you see one that interests you, jump right on in. Everyone here has a story, and eventually you will find your nitch.

Good luck to you.

[mjf]

Originally Posted by BarbaraJDale

I'll also be honest in saying that I have no idea what a healthy fat is...or a good carb/bad carb/refined carb. Thinking about what I eat seems that it would take up a lot of head space.

Some healthy sources of fat are olive oil, avocado, nuts (e.g. almonds, pecans), some types of fish (e.g. salmon), and chia seeds.

Fat from dairy and meat is ok as long as you don't eat too much of it.

Avoid deep fried foods and trans fat.

Some healthy sources of carbs are whole grains (e.g. brown rice, quinoa, freekeh, oats, barley), beans, sweet potato, squash, and fruit.

Refined carbs are carbs with most of the nutrients removed. Anything made from white flour (e.g. white bread) is a refined carb. White rice is also a refined carb. If you eat bread, look for "whole wheat" in the ingredients. If it just says "wheat flour" then it's refined.

[ange82much]

hi Barbara - great to hear you're starting out with trying a healthier diet.
How about starting with not changing much initially, but just trying to measure the calories in everything that you normally eat? Perhaps buy a little calorie pocket book or something so that you can look things up when you're out and about. I'm leading you this direction because it's the way I approach it, and is probably the most common way to go.
If you start to understand which foods have more calories than which others (some are ridiculous!!! i.e. you can have huge amounts of some things for hardly any calories and tiny amounts of other things have loads of calories) but if you start to get a feel for this then you can make better decisions on which ones will have most impact to cut down on. Alcohol too. And other drinks. Basically everything that you consume.
It takes quite a long time initially to get a handle on this whilst you're looking everything up, but it can be interesting too (I hesitate to say fun....!!)
Trying to take on everything about different types of components (carbs, sugars, fats etc) might be a bit too much to tackle all at once, so my advice is don't worry about all that for a while.
As you're probably already finding out, lots of people have different approaches though, and the trick is to find one that suits you individually - one that you're most likely to stick with.
Good luck. Keep us posted with your thoughts