You are not too old. You are not too sick. You do not have "fat genes" or "big bones." You do have time to work out. You can buy healthful food instead of junk for you and your kids. You are not special when it comes to weight loss. There is no magic pill. Hoping and praying are not enough. Will power does run out, and you have to work past it. You ARE strong enough.
2. Stop comparing yourself to others.
There will always be someone losing faster than you. Who cares? The goal is to lose the weight forever, so concern yourself with you, not someone else.
Just because South Beach (or Atkins or WW or whatever) worked for your best friend/co-worker/mother-in-law doesn't mean it will work for YOU. If you can't imagine living your life without potatoes or mac & cheese, then going low-carb is probably not your thing. If you hate counting every morsel you eat, then calorie counting or WW points just might not be your thing. You can try any diet - & tweak it! - to work FOR YOU.
And one of my favorite quotes: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
Think of it as a Lifestyle change, not a quick fix.
Drink water!
Don't cut out anything, just limit yourself.
Eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full. (not overfull)
Get off your butt
1) Patience! Changing your life is not going to be quick or easy. It is a marathon, not a sprint.
2) Eat plenty of healthy fat. Nothing else keeps me as full and allows me to eat less without feeling hungry or deprived. Plus, the right fats (avocado, nuts, salmon, olives, flax) are incredibly good for overall health and encourage your body to drop excess body fat.
3) Don't believe everything you read in magazines or on the internet. Every few years we find out that the weight loss advice of the past may not have been the best. And what works for one person will not work for everyone. Plus, so much of what is written about weight loss is a collection of fictions and exaggerated half truths.
4) Don't touch fad diets with a ten foot pole. Seriously. I firmly believe that we shouldn't be doing anything to lose weight that we wouldn't be able to live with forever. How else do would we be able to maintain our losses?
5) Aim for healthy not skinny. When making moment to moment choices analyze whether what you are doing will benefit your overall health or just help you lose weight. I always lose the fastest when I am eating as many densely nutritious foods as I possibly can and keeping processed "food" to an absolute minimum.
6) Do what is right for YOU! Our bodies all react to things differently. Experiment patiently and listen to what your body is telling you. If something makes you feel out of control hungry or is too hard for your life or causes major GI distress or causes mood swings then don't do it. There is no one way to lose weight. There is no one way to be healthy. Find what works for you.
7) Lift heavy weights. And don't wait to lift until you get closer to goal. Start NOW if you haven't already! It helps in so many ways. Lifting preserves muscle mass as you lose weight, improves balance, helps prevent injury, makes you stronger, increases calorie burn for several hours afterwards, and makes your body look way better long before you've hit goal. I am still about 30 pound from my approximate goal, but I don't remember the last time my shoulders or calves looked as good as they do now! Even the last few times I've been this weight or even less my body wasn't nearly as shapely as it is now. Plus my stomach is much flatter that I ever remember it being and I don't have love handles/ muffin top anymore.
There's lots of good tips here. One thing that's helped me is the discovery that I love oatmeal. It's my new comfort food, so my tip is to find something relatively healthy, that you love and that won't trigger a binge--something you won't feel guilty about eating when you need that extra something for comfort.
If you want something done, you better do it yourself.
Okay, this sounds kind of vague, so let me explain: when it comes down to weight loss, stop waiting for a miracle. You will not just wake up one day and be thin, that's not how it works. If you won't do anything to lose the weight, then it just won't happen. It's up to YOU to do it. So make it happen.
1. Practice Eating in moderation - counting calories, measuring portions, learning about your nutritional needs and planning healthy meals
2. Choose the right exercise/workout - choose an exercise that connects with who you are so that you will have some fun and not to think of it as a chore
3. Be kind to yourself and make yourself a priority!
