Looking for ideas and prayers....
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| Mon, 01-03-2005 - 3:31pm |
Hi everyone,
This is my first time to IVillage and was so excited to see this discussion board!! I am 37 years old and am ready, once again, to try to lose the 150+ pounds that are ahead of me. I've been obese since college and have slowly gotten heavier through my marriage and birth of my children. I am now at the heaviest I've ever been and have begun fearing for my health. This past year, my gallbladder failed and I had to have emergency surgery, which I know is a huge indicator that it was time for me to make some changes.
But, here I face 150+ pounds... and I'm struggling with how to start and how to keep focused, energized and dedicated to this. God only knows how many weight loss programs that I've done in the past, only to fall back on the bandwagon and gain it all back.
I feel as though my heart and brain are at a different place than before... possibly because I know of the increased risk I have of my health. And, I have made the vow to be healthier at age 40 than I have been in the past 20 years... this gives me about 2 and 1/2 years to lose the weight.
I guess I'm looking for encouragement and any "tried and true" tips on starting on this journey. I'm also considering joining Weight Watchers, as we have a group that meets right where I work and it would be easiest for me to do. Thoughts on the Weight Watchers program?
Any prayers, thoughts, or ideas would be wonderful!!!

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Hi and welcome here, Bluz! Love the name, btw (:
You asked for tried and true tips, and here they are: water and exercise!
Not knowing your current weight and the shape of your body right now, exercise can just mean taking the stairs instead of elevators/escalators or parking further away from stores so you get some extra walking in. If you can do more than that, great!
Water of course you've heard before, but it really is better than sodas (even diet sodas.)
So those are the tried and trues. You also asked about WW. WW is a terrific program, especially now that they have so many different plans to choose from - Winning Points (not officially supported anymore but still works very well), Core, and Flex Points. With WW WP and Flex, you can pretty much eat whatever you want as long as you have the points for it. Of course, the suggestion is to go low-fat, get your veggies and fruits, calcium and water in... at the end of that if you have the points for some ice cream or a cappuccino or whatever, then go ahead! The new Core plan is more restrictive - it's sort of like a combo of low-fat and low-carb, kinda. You eat what's on the core list of foods, and if you eat something not on the list you use some points (which are basically flex points, you get 35 per week just like on the Flex plan.)
As for your goal of losing 150-ish pounds in 2 1/2 years, it's a very reasonable goal. That's 5 pounds per month or 1.25 lbs per week (: I don't know about you, but
- cl-Yavie, sig in still in progress :D
I am just a young girl in need of some
Hi and welcome to the board! You've made the right start by coming here and by making the decision to lose weight. I don't know that I have any "tried and true" tips right now, I haven't been doing so hot lately. But I did want to welcome you, this is a great place for support and ideas.
ETA: I have done WW in the past and it worked well for me as long as I stuck to it! I gave it up when I started cheating on my points and couldn't justify paying for something I wasn't really doing. I tried doing on my own for a long time but that isn't working for me anymore. I'm now considering going back to do the WW new core program.
Amanda
285/246/230(for now)
Edited 1/3/2005 5:00 pm ET ET by ilythia2b
Amanda
mom to Ethan (7), Ryen (6), and Katelyn (2)
Hello there and welcome to the boards!
Hi and welcome to our board.....
While water intake and exercise are the top two things to do to lose weight...the third thing to do is portion control.
I am a carboholic...I am addicted to carbs...before I realized that and in efforts to lose weight...I started cutting down the amount of food intake. I did it really slow...
Went down from a two truckes plate to one plat. And then to 1/2 a plat and so on and so on. And that really helped....I am now trying to divide my current servings into half. After all, I haven't exercised that much so I don't need that much food to sustain me. But we do need food.
Sounds easy but you know it is not. But we all do what we can, and try to find out what the best diet is for us. For me it was like trying on a pair of new shoes until I found the right ones. Which is Low Carb and Low (somewhat) fat.
I am confident that I will lose weight now,,,since I know that I am a carb addict and how many it takes before I start gaining weight.
Well GOOD LUCK!! Hope to see you posting alot.
Sussie_Q
312/303/280 (for now)
Thank you so much for your reply!!! And, you're right... seeing it broken down at 5 pounds a month really makes it seem reachable!
The hard thing for me is this... I'm already an avid water drinker (averaging 10 glasses a day), so I don't know how much more I can increase that without floating away :-) But,I can definitely work exercise in. I guess any activity is better than no activity, right?
My WW session starts on Jan 20th, and I"m looking forward to joining. My husband is too... he does it along with me and that really helps at home. I don't have to make separate meals and he also loses the weight... although he loses it WAYYYYY faster and that gets a little discouraging!! :-)
Question... what is the 3 numbers that everyone posts? Is that their start weight/current/goal? let me know.... I suppose I should come clean and actually start posting it :-) Usually, my WW rep is the only person that knows my weight besides my doctor!!! So, here goes...
311/311/150
whew... that didn't feel too bad!!! It's actually a little freeing telling someone my weight. Thank you for that!
Well, off to work...
As far as the water goes, it's been said you should drink half your weight in ounces of water a day. So yours would be about 150 oz a day, but there is also such a thing as water toxicity - being water drunk. I'd think 10 glasses a day should be plenty, but that's for you to decide in any case (:
It's so nice to hear that your husband will be doing WW with you (and not just eating it because you're making it.) That he's actually going to the meetings with you is amazing!
You got it
- cl-Yavie, sig in still in progress :D
I am just a young girl in need of some
<<
I felt the same way when I starting telling people.
Yeah it's like standing up in an AA meeting and saying, "Hi my name is Sussie and I am a carboholic!" But it feel dang good doesn't it....in any case most of us will never meet so who cares?
Sussie_Q
312/301/280 (for now)
It is a totally freeing thing!! You know what else is freeing?? Knowing that I can come out here and share my hopes and fears and not be judged, cuz there are people here that empathize. It is wonderful!!
In the meantime, I have begun to feel much more "warrior" about this whole thing! Last night, I made tacos... a weekly family favorite. Not only did I eat only 2 of them, but I even made them with soyburger and lots of veggies. My kids never even noticed!!! My husband did, cuz he knows I use the soyburger, but it was further proof that I can do this.
Yay for you! Keep up the good work.
304.5/301/120 (296 by 1/30)
Andrea
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