[Jenibabe]

Hi everyone. I've been reading these forums for a while now and I figured I've been a quiet observer for too long. My name is Jen and I'm a 21 year old student. This is my 2nd time on WW (the first time I lost 8 lbs in 1 1/2 mos. but had to stop going when school ended and I went home.) That was a year ago. Since then I gained the 8 lbs back and a little bit more. I've been struggling with my weight since I was 13 and since then the scale just keeps going up and up. It's so depressing. I hate how I look and feel. I need to lose at least 25 lbs. My problem is that I can't stop snacking. And it's the crappy stuff too... I don't like most fruits and veggies, but I still try to eat them. My weakness is ice cream. I eat it twice a day sometimes. I live on campus so I have to eat in the dining hall which is basically an all-you-can-eat buffet. I try to eat cereal in my room in the morning but it's so hard at dinner when I know I can eat as much as I want. I've been on WW for almost a week now and I just don't feel like I'm eating enough. My stomach is always growling and I feel like I'm starving myself. So when it's 10 PM and I'm starving I end up pigging out and eating cereal and granola bars and whatever is in my room.

I really need to start exercising but I have no motivation. The gym is too expensive, it's always raining and gloomy here and depressing, and I just want to stay in my room and eat and sleep all day. I feel so lazy and I can't get out of it. I really need a kick in the butt. What have you done to motivate yourselves to exercise? I try to think of my weight to motivate me but that doesn't even work. I feel like I have no will power. Please help me!!

[Sweater Girl]

Hi Jen!

First of all welcome and feel free to post! I know what it's like to be on a University's eating plan, I was lucky though my school offered some healthy stuff and I would usually ask for smaller servings of whatever.

Perhaps start with the eating, are you getting enough of the right things at meals. I love my carbs (are we still allowed to say that), but to keep myself satiated I need to make sure I get enough protien and sometimes a little bit of fat at my meals. I am also trying to eat whole grained carbs instead of refined. If your cereal (I can be a cereal addict too) is made from lots of white or refined flower you'll probably feel less satiated and want to load up more . ALso learning to love your veggies can help to. At lunch and dinner I always try and load up with a salad or stir-fried veggies or roasted veggies. Veggies add bulk and make ya feel full. Some dieticians recommend 6 meals a day, I think of eat as three meals and three snacks (sometimes only 2, my meals aren't that big and my snacks are fairly small).

Are you allowed any appliances your dorm room (mini-fridge, microwave, toaster?) If you are, try and maybe get some, this saved me tons of times in University and I lost weight.

As for exercise, I used to occasionally use exercise tapes in my room. Do you have a gym at your school that isn't too expensive? If not, maybe see if there is a running or walking club you can join or maybe start one with people in your dorms. For me, exercise is just apart of the formula to lose weight, just like eating less calories, that was my motivation. It's hard to start, but once you do, it gets easier and easier I assure you.

Good Luck and if you have any more questions feel free to ask!

Ali

[Jenibabe]

Ali -

Thank you SO much for your reply. You know what, as I was re-reading what I wrote last night I realized that my true problem is that I just don't try hard enough. I use the "I have no motivation excuse" as a reason to not excercise. So after work today I got off my butt and started walking around campus. I clipped on my handy dandy stepometer from McDonalds and when I got home I realized I walked 3 miles! It didn't even seem that bad... I could've probably gone even further if I wasn't dying of thirst (next time I'll bring a water bottle.) And after I got home I felt so good about myself! I was even debating on going walking again after dinner (but I decided I'd save that energy to walk again tomorrow.)

I took a step back and looked at the cereal I was eating. Fruit loops, corn pops, and lucky charms. Haha, healthy stuff right. That might be a big reason why I'm not satisfied after eating them. I'm going to go to the store tomorrow and get Smart Start... I love that stuff and one bowl is usually all I need to get me going in the morning.

I'm going to start having small snacks in between the 2 or 3 meals I eat each day. Maybe a rice cake or yogurt or something. Then hopefully I won't be so hungry all day.

I'm nervous about weighing in on Tuesday. I used a lot of my flex points this week but today I still have about 5 points left so at least I didn't go over. Ughhh I hate weighing in...

Ok now I'm just blabbing on and on... Thanks again for your reply, Ali. I really appreciate it. It's nice to know someone out there is listening! Maybe I'll jump in some other topics soon and post something. Talk to you soon!

Jen

[Sweater Girl]

Jenibabe: I LOVE Smart Start (called Special K Soy here). I mix it with yogurt in the morning it's a quick breakfast that gets me going! Yeah, I got addicted to snacking on fruit loops at work a while back, and then discovered (okay I knew it) that it was basically just sugar. I love my snacks, I usually have an apple at around 9:30am and a fruit with yogurt at around 3pm, keeps me going until dinner.

I am nervous too about weighing in Tuesday... I accidentally used up all my flexpoints then some yesterday (I wasn't planning too, I can't believe how much food my BF's grandmother serves, I ate a lot and then she stated I hardly ate anything, I am sure at dinner I had at least 30 points too). But the main thing is, even though I over ate, I could have done worse, so I am at least someone happy with myself, and I am sticking to my targets today and tomorrow.

Cheers!

Ali

[MelGibson]

Hi Jen,

Congrats on your first step! I also made my first step this morning. I actually went to the gym that I have been paying to basically just hold my card. I have this amazing ability to be able to totally talk myself out of doing something I know I need to do, and just like you said you just have to tell yourself to get off your lazy butt and do something about it. My mother told me when she first started to lose weight that she had to get busy living or get busy dying. And that is what it all boils down to b/c we are just hurting ourselves.

Can't wait to hear of your next success!! Good Luck!

Mel