Any help that you guys would give me to point me in the right direction would be really helpful. I'll tell you a bit about me so you have an idea of what I will stick to. I am 29, married, with four kiddos (4,5,6&7th graders). I was recently laid off from my job and planning on going back to school full-time in the fall so I am home now and have much more flexibility these days. I am at close to my heaviest these days and need to lose some weight to be healthier. I am 5'4 and 170lbs. I have high cholesterol and am hypothyroid. Like a lot of people, I've tried every single diet that there is and have never lost big on any and never been able to stick to any. My big thing now is that I do not want to start anything that I can't/won't do for the rest of my life. I won't count calories/fat grams/ carb grams for the rest of my life. I won't weigh and measure my food for the rest of my life. I won't write down everything I eat every day for the rest of my life. I am willing to work out almost every day for the rest of my life (although now all I've been doing is cardio). I love to lift weights. Does anyone have any suggested reading for someone in my situation? Would I be better off just eating healthier and wandering around the gym a few times a week or trying to follow a plan? Is there any plan that doesn't expect you to weigh, count and measure your food? I'm very willing to eat better foods and to eat less or more often, but I will not break out those measuring cups, LOL... I would really appreciate any comments :-)

Take Care,
Katy D.

You might want to get a copy of the book Body for Life by Bill Phillips and see if his plan works for you. Pretty much everything you've said seems to fit into his philosophy.

Hi KatyDes,

This is my 0.02 cents

1.... Go to the library get some books read up....at the top of our forum there are some "Stickies" for suggestions on reading, articles and books.

2.... The best "no measurements" plan I've encountered IS by far Body for Life, BUT you still have to PLAN.... For example do you ever NOT plan to go on a holiday and just WANDER around the city you are visiting and not get a map to look things over, and make an itinerary of things to do?.... I'm sure with 4 kids you must do some planning?! Well this is planning JUST FOR "YOU" because you deserve it and your family deserves it too for you to be a healthier mom... You won't be planning for the rest of your life either, but you MUST have GOALS.... and that IMO take PLANNING...

3.... Wandering around the gym is the worse thing you can do .... This is only a personal opinion now and please don't get offended... you need a PROGRAM or a again the dreaded word PLAN!! Because just wandering around the gym will make your workouts boring and will not make you work your muscles and body at your maximum "10" , which is what you need for optimum health.... and Body for Life is a great place to start....

Ok 'nuf said....

Later....

Yup, I agree with Ilene. Although I have seen some wandering zombies at my gym from time to time...they're usually the ones who end up dropping a plate on their foot fortunately that doesn't happen very often.

Ya gotta have a PLAN to accomplish anything. Especially if you're like me - jeez, I can't even put together Tinkertoys or Lincoln Logs without directions

However...I am much like you...I really, really, really REALLY hate weighing and measuring out portions (kind of reminds me of the porridge scene in "Oliver"), counting calories, etc. The neat-o thing about BFL is that, by using palm/fist as a measurement, you don't NEED to do that. I DO suggest - at least until you get the hang of things - planning your meals in advance. When you have something in writing, it's easier to stick to it than going totally free-form.

(I would suggest NOT tossing your measuring cups and spoons though...they come in handy for cooking...you don't want to end up like Lucy and Ethel when they overestimated the yeast in their loaf of bread...

Sorry - that was the only image I could find!!)

Ilene - gotta tell you that Jim and I DID drive up to Ashland, OR, some years back with NO PLAN whatsoever...gad...just total rain...we ended up driving aimlessly up the coast! Yes, plans are GOOD!

Gosh Karen, Dave and I have take many vacations with no plans... But after a couple of trips which were ALL planned, and we saw sooooooo many things, we ALWAYS do the tourist thang now.... Oh we do sometimes wander and that can be fun too.... But planning is good....

Later all....

Thanks so much all of you for taking the time to reply. I am certainly not offended and really appreciate your thoughts. I got the BFL book from the library and paged through it but will take the time to read it more thoroughly tonight. The hand/fist thing certainly looks do-able and it seems that dinner with my family will fit right in as well. (I almost always make a lean meat, a whole grain or whole potato, and a couple of vegetables). No, Ms. Jim, I still plan on measuring for cooking, LOL - just the whole measuring everything I put on my plate sends me straight back to my starved-yet-fat weight watchers days. Off I go! Thanks again!

-Katy D.

Welcome Katy!

Good point on fitting it into your family dinners; I have 4 kids and never had a problem with making separate dinners. If they had bread I would just skip it, but I also found that it helped with getting all of us to eat veggies.

Laura

Hi Katy! Considering your thyroid issues, I suggest that you take a look at The Schwarzbein Principle and The Schwarzbein Principle II, the Transition. Dr. Schwarzbein is an endocrinologist and has developed effective plans that incorporation nutrition, metabolism healing (very benefiical for thyroid problems) and exercise. She's a fan of weight training and not too much cardio for those who suffer from thyroid/metabolism issues.

Thanks again for the warm welcome! Mindy, when I first found out about the hypothtyroidism and was trying to figure out what the H*LL was wrong with me, I read everything I could get my hands on. I tried everything there was to try at that time. It took five years and lots of different doctors to finally get myself on the right medicine (armour for me!) so that now I actually feel like a normal person. I have felt really great thyroid-wise for about a year now. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for the suggestion and let you know that I read Dr. S's book back then. It just seems to me that she had lots of calculations, etc. in her eating plan. Am I remembering wrong? I'll have to look up her exercise info. again. That limiting cardio and going strong on the weights thing is very interesting indeed (anything to get out of cardio, right??) :-) Thanks again. I really appreciate it. Do you have thyroid issues as well?

Take Care,
Katy D.

Try book II, Katy, its MUCH easier to read and understand and makes her program more doable.

I've suffered from low body temp for a LONG time so yes I'd say I have thyroid issues, even tho I tested in the normal range, and because of life and stress, my metabolism is damaged. Thanks to SP nutrition, I'm now temping normal! Hooray!

Katy

Not to confuse you even more, but you may also want to check out Body Rx by Dr. Scott Connelly. I looked at both BFL and BRx and preferred the latter. I say it is a matter of preference....they are both good programs. I may even switch at some point down the line, as many have.

I personally love this way of life.....no counting, measuring, I love lifting weights, and it is easy to do. I came from WW, which is the complete opposite, and I also never lost weight.

Good luck!!


Robin